Another month has come and gone and I’m thinking the theme of 2024 is going to end up being “where did the time go?!” I feel like we’re flying through the summer already, and with so much coming in the fall, I’m doing my best to savour it even while it races relentlessly past me. 

June was a month full of joy over here in our household. We held a small and intimate baby shower for our little girl before everyone headed off on summer holidays and it had me wishing there were more regular occasions that you could bring together all of your loved ones. Big events like this compel everyone to come from afar, which we so appreciated while we savoured being surrounded by so much love. We also finished the nursery and some of our major shopping, so we’re down to the last few critical items before she gets here. It’s hard to believe she’ll be here in just 12 short weeks. We’re both practically vibrating with excitement and anticipation at this point. 

We also snuck in a babymoon that kicked off at the very end of June, which was so soul-fulfilling that I’m still coming down off of it. We spent a few days exploring the valley in Nova Scotia before heading to Halifax for a bit of a luxurious finale. Food is my other passion outside of books, and with a husband who’s a chef, it means our travels always centre around great places to eat. We hit some incredible restaurants on this trip that have me daydreaming about when we can go back again. 

June was also a really solid reading month, with one of my reads ranking among my favourites-ever. We even picked up a new book for baby girl’s little library, which I can’t wait to read to her. 

Here are all the things I either read or added to my TBR throughout June:

Books Read in June 2024

June was a mix of a few different genres and a lot of good reads. Books read include:

• The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black: this is such a great YA fantasy series, it skyrocketed to the top of my YA fantasy recommendations list. I loved the political scheming, the romance, and the magic, and the pacing of the books was spot on. I read the whole series via audiobook and felt like the narrator was fantastic, I continuously struggled to put these books down. This was a real stand-out trilogy for me and I can’t wait to dive into the next two books, both of these were easy 5 star reads for me with full reviews to come. 
• The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon: I’ve wanted to read this series for a couple of years, but when I found out that Shannon was releasing a heavily revised tenth anniversary edition for each book, I decided to wait until then to pick it up. My only regret in that decision is that I didn’t get to read this sooner as a result, because this book blew me away. I loved every single aspect of it from start to finish and felt like it was such a unique, detailed, engaging story and universe. This is easily one of my favourite reads of the year and I can’t wait to dive into book two, an easy 5 stars with a full review to come.
• The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston: I think I set my expectations too high on this one. The Seven Year Slip, another novel by Poston, is my favourite romance of all-time, and as a result I went into this one expecting to be wow’ed in equal measure. It wasn’t a bad read, but I found my attention waning in places. I rated this one 3.5 stars.
• The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo: Bardugo is an auto-buy author for me, so even though this was way outside of how she typically writes, I was invested from the second it was announced. It read far more historical than it did fantasy for much of the book, and it took a good amount of time to ramp up, but once it did, I was hooked. I rated this one 4 stars with a full review to come.
• The One by John Marrs: I had a friend loan me this book and even though I’m not really a thrillers girl (at all, I hate being scared or anxious), I figured I’d give it a go. I liked how original the premise felt and the way that I was really reflecting on what the ramifications of a genetic soulmate would be in the real-world, and while it was a thriller, I’d call it thriller light in exactly the way I needed as a non-thriller reader. This was a 4 star read for me with a full review to come.

TBR Lists

As always, I spent a lot of time screenshotting and writing down books that I saw in passing over the course of June that I’d like to eventually get back to. Here are the ones that caught my eye:

• The Dagger and the Forbidden Heir by Emilia Jae: billed as a character-driven romantic fantasy about an exchange that involved a life saved for a war of revenge, this sounds like a perfect book to get lost in.
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley: this one is marketed as a time-travel romance, spy thriller, workplace comedy, and exploration of the nature of power. I absolutely love the sound of this sci-fi, I can’t wait to get this one off my TBR list.
• Filthy Rich Fae by Geneva Lee: a contemporary fantasy set in New Orleans where the heroine has to contend with a notorious crime family. Sign me up.
• The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman: a twist on the traditional Camelot story that involves exclusively side-characters on a ragtag mission to rebuild after the king dies. This sounds endlessly entertaining.

What I’m Loving Right Now

In case it wasn’t already obvious, most of June was spend surrounded by loved ones, which is easily what I’ve been enjoying the most. That said, there are a lot of other things going on day-to-day that are also bringing me joy, including:

Eating All The Things

Over the past month, we’ve been really focused on eating really good food. Each morning, my husband and I wake up together and intentionally make a hearty and delicious breakfast that we enjoy together before we both start work, and much of our babymoon surrounded stopping at fantastic restaurants around Nova Scotia.

We’ve enjoyed Spanish tapas, high end takes on east coast classics, a TON of seasonal seafood (I’m losing count of the number of lobster rolls we’ve taken in this season), German comfort foods, and, of course, Italian classics. My appetite has never been stronger as baby girl continues to grow, so we’ve just been leaning into it, eating as much healthy and delicious food as we can, particularly the kinds that are so fitting for summer.

Knocking Out House Projects

There is little as satisfying to me as turning our house into our dream home. We bought an older, early 90s house about 5 years ago and have been going room-to-room making upgrades and changes that better reflect who we are and what we need. We’ve made a TON of progress over the past few years and we’re down to the last few rooms, though some are very big jobs that we won’t complete until after baby girl is here.

Speaking of which though, we finished her nursery in June and I can’t believe the difference and how amazing it looks. My husband took all of my random pinterest photos and brought it to life in the most beautiful way, it might be my favourite room in our house right now.

Our Evening Routine

I’ve seen people say before that there’s no better match for a reader than a gamer, and I whole heartedly agree. For the past while, each night my husband and I make dinner together, then I pick up my book and he picks up a video game and we both get lost in our respective worlds. We’re both conscious that this alone time is about to become very scant, so we’re thoroughly enjoying it now while we can. I’m looking forward to getting through some more great books in July while he suffers his way through the latest Elden Ring expansion.

If the rest of the summer is as good as June was, we’re in for a great time. Were there any stand-out books that you’ve read since summer began?