The first half of the year is over and unfortunately, I’m not ending with too much of a bang reading-wise.

On a more positive note, I am at least making real, visible progress on my master’s thesis, so I’m counting the month as a win overall.

I’m also attempting a slightly more in-depth wrap up this month to give you some more insight into my thoughts about the books (not quite mini reviews, but definitely more than I’ve given in previous wrap ups), so let me know what you think of the new approach!

Disclaimer: Clicking on any of the book covers will take you to their Bookshop.org UK page (if the book is available there). These are affiliate links and I earn a small commission if you buy through them – this doesn’t affect the price you pay. If you can’t purchase via Bookshop.org UK, I encourage you to use the US equivalent or purchase directly from an independent bookshop (or use your library!) Let’s keep our bookshops and libraries in business!

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Overview from the Storygraph

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Books Read

This month’s reads can be split into books by Ilona Andrews and books not by Ilona Andrews.

Let’s start with the ones not by Ilona Andrews.

At the beginning of the month I went to London for a concert and to visit family. On the Sunday, I was waiting around Tottenham Court Road for a friend who was running slightly late for lunch and decided to pop into the Forbidden Planet shop nearby and see if they had Guardian by priest, since I had been thinking of reading it. Unfortunately, they only had volume 3, but they were doing for 3 for 2 on a lot of Chinese light novels/danmei, so I picked up a couple and then read two before coming back up to Scotland. They were both mostly just okay and I’m not sure whether or not I’ll continue the stories or gift them on to a friend, but they were definitely fun reads and since I got a good deal on them I’m pretty happy. I also have high expectations for the one that I haven’t read yet.

The other book that I read whilst down south (this was basically when most of my reading happened this month) was Shaun Tan’s Tales from the Inner City, which was one of the books that I bought last year but didn’t get around to. It’s a collection of short stories paired with stunning illustrations and although some of them were a little harder to understand if you just went with the vibe it was a very thought-provoking if slightly slower read. It’s definitely made the list of some of my favourite books of the year at 4.5 stars, although it was a bit slower to read and I would have liked to spread it out a bit more (alas, I was only down south for a week and was determined to finish it before coming back up to Scotland).

The last of the non-Ilona Andrews books are both science fiction books by authors I have read and loved before, although you can probably tell by my rating that I didn’t enjoy these ones quite as much.

Green City Wars was my priority ARC for the month, as it came out on the 25th (check out my full review) and I did really enjoy it, especially in the second half, but not as much as Tchaikovsky’s The Final Architecture series, which I loved last year.

They Sink and And Are Vanished Away was the only short story in the Imperial Radch readalong that I actually got along to reading, and the general consensus among everyone who reads it seems to be one of confusion. Apparently, this has been true ever since Leckie wrote the story and presented it to students of the creative writing class she was taking at the time, which is why the story is not typically included in her bibliography and is sort of a hidden page on her website unless you have the link. Personally, I would skip it. It’s not offensive or anything but it definitely didn’t add to my enjoyment of an otherwise excellent series. I have slightly more hope for the stories in her Lake of Souls collection, which I will definitely be getting to before the readalong of Provenance starts in September.

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Now let’s take a look at the books I read by Ilona Andrews.

• Beast Business by Ilona Andrews (Hidden Legacy #7/Short Stories) | ⭐⭐⭐
• Kate Daniels Series Books 3-5 by Ilona Andrews | Reread | ⭐⭐⭐.5

After coming back from London, I found myself buried to the ears in dissertation, job applications, work and all that fun stuff with no time or energy for ‘actual’ reading (and by this I mean, all I could bring myself to do was reread comfort reads rather than dedicate energy to starting or trying something new). This resulted in me rereading part of the Kate Daniels series – I tried starting with book 3, as Ilona Andrews have suggested this as an option since books 1 and 2 are weaker… I would not suggest. It was nice to do on a reread, but there is so much development in the character relationships (especially with the side characters) that you miss if you do this and I think it’ll lessen your enjoyment of later books. So at least I did kind of answer that question for myself.

I also read Beast Business, which is a collection of short stories and bonus content from the world of the Hidden Legacy series that came out earlier this year. I did really enjoy the titular short story, but I wish they would have made that into a novella-length story with a bit more pay-off and left the other bonus content as stuff you can check on the website if interested, since the story was what I was enjoying and it felt like there was so much more story to tell. (I did enjoy the Arabella POV short stories as well, but the interviews could have studied as blog post material in my mind.)

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Books Progressed or DNF’d

I may not have finished that many books this month (especially if we don’t include rereads) and it felt like the books I did read were very clumped up with lots of days of not reading very much, but I did actually make progress in quite a lot of books that I just haven’t finished yet.

A lot of the books I’ve been working through this month are related to my degree, so they’re mostly all about writing women in premodern China and Korea

• The Red Brush by Wilt Idema and Beata Grant | 14% -> 24% (98pg) – PAUSED
• Herself an Author by Grace S. Fong | 10% -> 16% (17pg)
• 조선조 후기 여성 지성사 [Intellectual History of Women in the Late Joseon Period] by Lee Hyesun | 10% (40pg)
• 여성, 오래전 여행을 꿈꾸다 [Women Have Been Dreaming of Travel for a Long Time], edited by Kim Kyeongmi | 24% (54pg)

Apart from my degree-related reading, there are also two other books that I have started and not yet completed. The first is 검을 든 꽃 2 [The Flower Holding the Sword 2], which is the sequel to a book I read in May and really enjoyed. I started it but I’ve put it on hold for now because I don’t have the time to read it and I want to be able to properly enjoy it.

The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance is my current active read (that isn’t for my dissertation) since it’s an ARC and the book comes out in a week. I started it on the 25th so it’s been a bit slow going, but I’m interested to see how it goes and hopefully I’ll be finished with it soon.

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On the Blog

I didn’t post as much this month as last month (again, SO busy) and I don’t think it’ll be any better in July, but I’m happy that I at least managed to hit my bare minimum goals of having a wrap up/TBR post, getting out my anticipated releases post for the next quarter, reviewing any ARCs that came out in the month, and getting to any seasonal posts (such as Six in Six or Pride-related posts).

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Song of the Month

To finish off the wrap up, here is what I’ve been listening to this month:

I was trying to figure out why Spring Day was my number one song of the month (I do like it a lot, but I didn’t feel like I listened to it that much). Then I remembered that I was teaching a friend Korean using the lyrics of both Spring Day and Young K’s “Nothing But”, and it seems like that one teaching session where we listened to the songs on repeat really launched them up my list for the month. Apart from that, I was definitely listening to JayB’s new album on repeat for quite a lot of the month, so I’m not surprised he’s dominating my top 10. Highly recommend if you like a slightly pop-adjacent R&B vibe (K-R&B is great for that).

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What was your favourite book of the month?

And how did you like my new wrap up style? Please let me know what you think.

If you did a wrap up post of your feel free to link it in the comments and I’ll check it out!

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Keira x