I had a slow start to reading in June, I was travelling around Scandinavia the first week and was reading about a page a day for a week! Usually falling asleep mid-sentence. I didn’t have many high rated reads but I also discovered a new author and she has a backlist!

The total read this month was 12 books, and that brings me to 119 books read in 2025 so far. I said back in my Quarter One Blog Check-in that I’d like to get to 80 books by the end of June so 119 is a big win, I really would have liked for it to be a round number though! 😀

I didn’t manage to read any books in the ✨TwentyOffMyShelf 2025✨challenge I’m participating in, need to look at making some progress in this challenge going forward. I also read the last three prompts for this quarters Romanceopoly 2025 Challenge. That’s Blossom Falls done, and now we move on to Sunset Bay, there are some really fun summer books on my list for quarter three!

Also read book number six in my own Non-fiction reading 2025 challenge. I needed something a little lighter after last month pick.

I read four books from the Goodreads seasonal challenge. This challenge is actually doing a great job of getting me to pick up books outside my usual preferred genres.

Nuts (Hudson Valley #1) by Alice Clayton — 3⭐

Nuts by Alice Clayton was the prompt for Farmers Market — read a book that involves food or a foodie romance in the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge.

The Wrong Bride (The Windsors #1) — 3⭐ & The Temporary Wife (The Windsors #2) — 3⭐ by Catharina Maura

These books are quite frankly ludicrous! They are over the top, the villains are complete and utter caricatures, also, the MCC’s constant questioning of their feelings was ANNOYING AF. 

So both these books were all kind of awful and I also can’t wait to read the rest! 😀 Sometimes you just need to read ridiculous books about ridiculous and unlikable people! I can’t explain to you why, it just is what it is!

Finding Home (Bluestones Lake #1) by Jenn McMahon — 2⭐

Finding Home by Jenn McMahon was the prompt for Sunset Picnic — read a new to you author or debut novel in the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge.

Homegrown Magic (Homegrown Magic #1) by Jamie Pacton & Rebecca Podos — 4⭐

Homegrown Magic (Homegrown Magic #1) by Jamie Pacton & Rebecca Podos was an optional prompt, Spring Fling Pride — read an LGBTQ+ romance or by and LGBTQ+ author in the Romanceopoly 2025 reading challenge. This was also my final prompt for Blossom Falls.

In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad #1) — 4.25⭐, The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) — 4⭐, & Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3) — 5⭐ by Tana French

The end of my reading month took a bit of a turn with the introduction of Tana French. The Goodreads challenge was coming to a close and I was behind, In the Woods was on my radar because of the RTE show, The Dublin Murders. It fit the prompt for the challenge and the author is Irish so it was worth giving a go!

Well I got absolutely hooked, In the Woods and The Likeness were good, they focus very much on the squad itself and the crimes are a bit more intense. Faithful Place though!!

I.

Loved.

This.

Book.

Faithful Place is very different from books one and two. Frank isn’t in murder, he is in undercover. The initial crime is very old and it takes Frank back to his past in 1985 and to the family he has essentially cut off. This book is much more focused on family dynamics and feels much more personal when compared to the other books. The star of the show was Dublin though. Books one and two took place in places in the Dublin mountains. Faithful Place takes place mostly in the heart of Dublin, The Liberties.

We get to see The Liberties in the depths of the 1980’s recession, and The Liberties as gentrification is taking over, and Ireland is on the precipice of the 2008 recession and the death throws of The Celtic Tiger. Tana French couldn’t have picked a better part of Dublin to set her book in. It was perfection!

I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of these books and whatever else Tana French has written, but I also don’t want them to be over so I think I need to space them out. That’s the only reason I didn’t dive right into book four.

I did watch the show after I finished reading Franks book though. It was based on books one and two and was very different from the books but I think they actually did a very good job and I would love a Faithful Place season, not least of all because Frank is played by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, who was a perfect casting in my opinion, but the first season was aired in 2019 so I can’t see it happening at this stage. A real pity!

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida & E. Madison Shimoda (Translator) — 3 ⭐

This was a lovely little read, I do think that some of it got lost in translation but I think that’s to be expected.

Japan’s love of cats really does restore my faith in humanity a little bit. You want a book that really celebrates the joy of cats? Guaranteed you’ll find one that’s written by a Japanese author.

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat is made up of five short stories that share the common theme of a mysterious mental health ‘professional’ helping clients by prescribing them a cat as a companion for a set number of days. Unsurprisingly the cats help the patients. Some return the cats as requested, some adopt said cat, but ultimately all find themselves working through their issues because of their prescription.

I’ll be reading more about the Nakagyō Kokoro Clinic for the Soul in the future!

The Women on Platform Two by Laura Anthony — 3⭐

This was engaging and of course tells a very important story about a time in Irish history that shouldn’t be forgotten. There are so many atrocities that the Church and State have perpetrated against Irish women over the years that there will likely never be enough books to cover all the stories.

This book does a good enough job giving us an overview of the contraception train story. This was a story I knew about thanks to an aunt of mine but, as mentioned, there were so many atrocities committed against women in this country that this one, which in a way is uplifting, gets lost. So it’s great that a story like this gets told.

It is of course a work of fiction based on real events, but there were a few errors that made me feel like this wasn’t as well researched as maybe it could have been. The things I picked up on are very small and won’t make a difference to the majority of readers but they kind of ruined the legitimacy of the story for me personally. Things like there not being a turnstile for the Belfast train in Connolly station, or the fact that The Late Late Show has never been broadcast on a Saturday night, it’s always been a Friday. There a few other issues I had but all in all it’s a good book and tells us an important story about a strange and dark time for women in Ireland.

I could happily go into a rant about all the ways we as a nation traded oppression by the English to oppression by the Catholic Church (thanks to Eamon de Valera), and how women and babies untimely paid the price, but I’d never stop. Just know that this is an important turning point for the women of Ireland.

The Blackout Murders (Homefront Sleuths #1) by Anna Elliott & Charles Veley — 3.75⭐

A lovely cosy WWII mystery to finish up my month. A father/daughter author collab as well. Makes it all much cuter.

I really enjoyed the mystery and the introductions to the Homefront Sleuths. A nice little series to have in the back pocket. Ideal if feeling slumpy I think.

I’m fond of a multiple POV narration, this one might seem like a lot with 5 POV’s but I feel like it will work out well over the entire series, it also pushed the story along at a rapid pace which I was in the mood for.

The Covent Garden Ladies by Hallie Rubenhold — 5⭐

The Covent Garden Ladies was book six in my non-fiction 2025 challenge.