It feels like I blinked and suddenly, I hadn’t written a blog post in months. I knew that returning to work after parental leave would be a significant shift, particularly as we adjusted as a family to this new normal, but I (very naively) thought it would have little impact on my reading life. Wow, was I ever wrong.

I finished my parental leave at the beginning of June, and it has been the hardest parenting shift I’ve experienced to date. Going from having your little one attached to your hip all day to the chaos of corporate life was one thing, but what actually surprised me the most was how little time I really feel like I have with her now. For context, I work from home, so while this is very obvious for most people, I somehow thought I might get to beat the system, what with her still being upstairs all day while my husband wraps up the last three months of leave, but reality has proved to be very different. For the most part, my days are as swamped with work as they ever were, and while I do value that I get to see her adorable little face at lunch time, my husband and she are as busy as I am, and we’re mostly just passing each other throughout the day until I sign off for the evening. 

Because of this, I try to spend the little time that she’s awake with me fully present. While I was on leave, I squeezed in a lot of reading time in during naps and the evenings, but I’ve had a hard time balancing all the regular demands of life and work, and parenthood. I generally have a couple of hours in the evening free, but whether I have the mental capacity to actually pick up a book during that time is a whole other story. 

And so, this brings us to why I haven’t posted in 2.5 months, and why you’ll notice I also have very few updates. This season of life is an extremely busy one. I’m squeezing in reading when I can and truly prioritizing books that I know I’ll love, but even then, a lot of the time, there just simply isn’t a lot of space to get to it. I’m committed to getting better at this over the next month though, particularly as we prepare for our next big transition as parental leave comes to a full stop in September. 

Books Read in June and July 2025

Over June and July, I read a total of six books, which, honestly, I’m actually kind of impressed with. There were times where I felt I was so truly drowning in the business that occupies our day to day that it felt like I hadn’t read in months, so to look back and see that I snuck in a full six books in that time is really satisfying. 

Here’s what I covered:

• Every Summer After by Carley Fortune: I cannot emphasize enough how incredibly good this summer romance was, particularly as a Canadian who was extremely familiar with Fortune’s choice of setting. This story was sunshine in book form, and I couldn’t stop turning pages. Easily one of my new all-time favourite romances and a raving 5-star rating.
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: probably one of the most unique premises (a weird drowning maze of statues that’s partially sunken with a MC who seems to have no recollection of how they themselves or the statues came into existence), with genuinely lovely lyrical writing. It was a weird, enjoyable little book with some significant intrigue, and it’s a story I think will stick with me for some time. I rated this one 4 stars.
• The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young: another lyrical, atmospheric book that had a lovely undercurrent of suspense and a uniquely sinister type of magic. I found so many of the characters fascinating that I wish we could have spent more time (and multiple POVs) with them, but the book was executed beautifully as-is. I really enjoyed this one and rated it 4 stars.
• Fireborne by Rosaria Munda: I felt like this was a masterfully crafted book, but maybe not for me. It had detailed and intricate world building, a complex society, a lot of political machinations, and excellent character work. That said, I felt like it took an exceptionally long time to come to any action, and as a reader who likes her books plot-heavy, it nearly lost my attention. Because this book was so structurally sound, I rated it 4 stars, but I’m not sure I’ll continue the series.
• A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden: While I think this book held some promising elements as the beginning of a series, on its own, it wasn’t my favourite read of the year. It has a cast of loveable characters and a delightful slow burn enemies-to-lovers, but it was a little light and vague on the world-building for me. I rated this one 3 stars and likely won’t continue the series from here.
• The Foxglove King by Hannah F. Whitten: Oh my goodness, I LOVED this book. I picked it up on a bit of a whim, and I’m so glad I did. It combined so many of my favourite fantasy elements, including a court system, a range of gods, an intricate religious system, and maybe one of my favourite love triangles ever. Truly, I can’t say enough good things about this one, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. An easy 5 stars for me.

Over the next month or so, my goal is to finally get out of my review backlog and start posting my long-form reviews again, so stay tuned for the longer versions of some of these thoughts!

TBR Lists

This is probably my saddest TBR list update ever because I truly have had zero time to pour over new book releases. That said, I’m always keeping my eyes open when I can, and a few promising new books still snuck their way onto my list, including:

•  The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow: described as “a reluctant lady knight and a not-so-heroic-historian fight through time and space to rewrite their tragic fates”, this one sounds like a genre-bending blast. I loved Harrow’s Starling House, so I’m quite hopeful this one is just as good for me.
• Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang: a standalone dark academia full of magic that I’ve seen a few people describe as stunningly good. I love a good standalone, so definitely hoping to pick this one up soon.
• The Compound by Aisling Rawle: a beautiful twentysomething wakes up on a reality show/competition that starts out like you’d expect before taking sinister turns. This is a little outside of what I typically reach for, but it has a plot so intriguing that I’m planning on picking it up anyway.

What I’m Loving Right Now

Life is busy, but in the best possible way. Here are some of the things that have kept me smiling lately:

As always, baby girl!

Despite how little time I’ve had to read, life is generally still very full of joy. The root of much of that is my baby girl, who is growing and changing and getting this wild personality every day. It’s such a privilege to be her mom, and I don’t take it for granted.

Getting to be a bit of a kid again

This is also our first-ever summer where my husband is fully available, so we’ve really taken advantage. Every weekend has been packed with trips to see family, mini-vacations, and uniquely-summer fun, like beaches and waterparks. Having a kid is just an excuse to do all of the ridiculously fun things from your childhood all over again, and we’re loving every second of it. 

More home renos!

Also, we are continuing on the house renos! I have been talking about these for literally years because we’ve been chipping away at them so slowly, but we’re now moving onto the guest bath and our rec room, both of which are large, exciting projects for us. These will be the last of our DIYs before we start looking at contractors for the work that is too big for us, but we’re enjoying these last stages of our own customization before we bring in some professionals. 

So that was June and July (and a little bit of August). I’m hopeful it won’t be two more months before I get around to posting again, but at this point, I’m also going with the flow as best as I can. Here’s to more great books on the horizon, even if there are fewer of them than usual consumed!