June Wrap-Up 2016

I’ve had another good reading month in June due to doing absolutely nothing else! I’m in a limbo stage of between uni and work currently, so i’ve had plenty of time to read and luckily there are loads of good books i wanted to get to! Here is what i read in the month of June…

The first book that i read in June was You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina LaCour. I managed to get a copy of this slightly before the release date so it meant that i started it as soon as possible. I knew absolutely nothing about it going in, as i do with the majority of David Levithan’s novels, but i can never pass one up because he is one of my favourite authors. I have a full review of You Know Me Well HERE if you want to check it out. It is based around two people, who happen to sit next to each other in a class at school, however how they meet and become friends is most peculiar. I really did enjoy this LGBTQ+ novel and wold definitely recommend giving it a try!

The second book that i got around to (finally) was Skyscraping by Cordelia Jenson. I also have a full review HERE and an interview with Cordelia HERE if you’re interested in those! I bought Skyscraping purely because i found out it was written in prose. I fell in love with that particular writing style last year and wanted to read more fiction like it. Skyscraping is the story of Mira, a student who is struggling to come to terms with leaving school. She also has an avid interest in the world around her and loves to find out about space and time. This is what really interested me about the character. However i didn’t think it would have some serious topics discussed such as unconventional relationships and illness. I really enjoyed Skyscraping as well and if you’re a fan of YA novels that are slightly unconventional, i would try it!

After Skyscraping, i picked up Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. If you would like to read my full thoughts on the novel, i have a review up HERE you can check out! This story is of Lina, a young Lithuanian painter who was taken by Soviet guards in the second World War, along with her brother, Jonas and mother. They were forced to work and live in unbearable conditions, and truly gave an insight in to the innocent lives that were destroyed by the war. I fell completely head over heels in love with this novel, and it’s the first book i’ve read in a long time that i found flawless. I cannot express how much i enjoyed this read and to get back in to historical fiction.

The next book i read was Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. I have a review of this going up very soon on the blog so keep your eye out! However i will say now that after a rocky start, i ended up absolutely adoring this novel! The story is about Simon, a high school student who comes out as gay after being blackmailed by his peer because he fancies Simons best friend, complicated right? It’s made that much worse because Simon is emailing a random student from the school who he thinks he’s falling in love with, but he doesn’t know the identity of. I feel like i’ll be raving about this book for a long time now.

 

I’ve been lucky in June in the sense that i truly have loved every book that i’ve read. Thats generally a very rare occurrence. I also am half way through The Girl in 6E so keep a look out for a review and my thoughts on that in next months wrap-up! Happy reading!