Quick June 2026 – Wrap-up

Okay it was a slow reading month BUT I feel like I’m doing well with my Romanceopoly — 2026 Reading Challenge.

So I read 11 books in June, three of those were Game Changers — Heated Rivalry rereads because I’m weak, and I’ve been reading so much fanfiction that I’m starting to forget what is canon. Four were part of the Romanceopoly — 2026 Reading Challenge, and those four had me finishing up the starting and finishing the Bloom & Brawl Games (Spring Event) I’ve now read 13 books in the TwentyOffMyShelf 2026 challenge I’m taking part in, and nine in the Twenty Genres in 2026 challenge. I also completed book six and seven in my own Non-fiction reading 2026 challenge.

So by my calculations I’ve read about 48% of my books for the Romanceopoly — 2026 Reading Challenge,. So that’s a little less than halfway at the halfway point of the year, it’s not perfect, but I’m still technically not behind.

The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid – 4.5⭐

The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid was a prompt for Romanceopoly 2026 – Bloom & Brawl Games (Spring Event)

Liar City (Sugar & Vice #1) by Allie Therin – 4⭐

As recommended by Rachel Reid…

Oh this was very entertaining! I really enjoyed the world building, and the fact that people are afraid of empaths. I mean humans have a tendency to be awful, of course everyone would freak out if someone was able to read our emotions so easily! Reece was absolutely TERRIBLE at following any direction, or listening to common sense, but he was also lovely and I enjoyed that he was incapable of lying because it actually made him funny AF.

Grayson is an enigma, and well I’m sad to say that I could of loved him. Is he the villain? Is he the good guy? Who knows, but what I do like is that he knows a lot more about what is going on, and that’s fun! Looking forward to the continuing the series.

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley – 5⭐

When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley was a prompt for Romanceopoly 2026 – Bloom & Brawl Games (Spring Event)

Broken Harbour (Dublin Murder Squad #4) by Tana French – 3.75⭐

None of the books in this series so far have been sunshine and roses but oh boy, this was BLEAK!!

There are lots of reasons for this being as bleak as it was, chief among them the crash of the Celtic Tiger! In the Woods, The Likeness, and Faithful Place (my favourite) gave us hints as to what was on the horizon for Ireland in 2028 — Broken Harbor gives us the aftermath, and that aftermath was far from pretty.

During the recession I was lucky enough to have been too young to have invested in any property, and had a job that was safe. That wasn’t the case for an awful lot of people. There were people caught up in negative equity, losing their jobs, stuck on ghost estates in homes that NAMA eventually took from them because they could no longer afford to pay off the loans. Things were very dark, and the case in this book wasn’t a far cry from some of the things that happened in the aftermath of 2008.

I personally felt like Tana French did an excellent job at conveying the feelings of hopelessness that were in the air in Ireland at that time. The isolation of the Spain family, and the events that led to Scorcher’s case, made this book atmospheric, and really freaking creepy!

The ending of this did feel very unsatisfactory but you know what, I get it. I don’t think there was a way to wrap the awful things that happened into a neat bow. Some lives were lost, others ruined, careers ended, all pretty on par with what was happening at that time I think. I think psychologically, Ireland as a nation, still hasn’t recovered from the damage the banks did, I felt like this book did a fairly thorough job at conveying that.

CMAT’s song Euro-Country came to mind a lot while reading this, I think it’s telling that a woman who was 12 at the time of the crash, was impacted enough by what happened during that time, that she is writing songs about it 17 years later! Worth a listen!!

Heated Rivalry (Game Changers #2) – 5⭐, Role Model (Game Changers #5) – 5⭐, The Long Game (Game Changers #6) – 5⭐ by Rachel Reid

Yeah, this is not going to be the last time this year I read these three books, with the amount of fanfic I’m reading it means I’m starting to confuse what’s canon and what’s fanfic. It’s hella confusing but I can’t see myself changing things anytime soon so here we are! 🙈