June Recap 2026
Some of the books I read this month were listed on the post, June Reading, where I gave a brief synopsis of what the book was about/ what I knew about the book before reading it. However, some of the books, I’ve included on this list I decided to read/ listen to during the month and have listed them below.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt- I really enjoyed this unique story and can see why it was a bestseller! Before I read this book, something about it just intrigued me and now I know why. In this book, the octopus talks in certain chapters and it is interesting to see what surprises he brings at the end of the story. I left this book feeling a little sad, but it was also a good resolution to the plot. There is a movie, however, I watched it after reading the book and I felt like they changed a few things from the book so I didn’t like the movie as much as I hoped. I would recommend reading the book first. I gave this book 5 stars because the creativity in the dialogue between characters was awesome!
Misfits by Jen Calonita- This one I remembered I had read last year I believe at some point so I skipped to reading the second book, Outlaws, listed below.
Outlaws by Jen Calonita- Outlaws was pretty interesting for a middle grade novel. I found myself getting into different parts of the book and not so much the whole thing. I felt like there was a lot of fluff and not much action or plot to the story. I would probably recommend reading if you are at that age level, but not as much if you’re an adult. Basically, what happens is Princess Devin and her friends become outlaws because they were expelled from school. They got expelled because they accused the headmistress, Olivina, of working with villains. I won’t give the story away if you want to read it but basically, their journey consists of looking for Red Riding Hood and trying to expose Olivina to the kingdom in hopes that they will be saved.
Heroes by Jen Calonita- Now in Heroes, the main plot of the story is that Princess Devin would rather be a “Magical Creature Caretaker” than wear a crown. She has to fight a villain over a dark curse that came to Enchantasia, in hopes to protect her kingdom and the fellow students at the Fairy Tale Reform School. I personally thought that this book was more engaging that the other two books in the series.
The Party Crasher by Sophie Kinsella- I gave this book 3 stars because it didn’t really sink in with me and leave something to remember. I was excepting more of a story like Confessions of a Shopaholic by Kinsella, but it felt completely different to me. I won’t say this was a favorite of mine, but would have to reread it to see what the main point of the story was. However, I can’t guarantee that I would read this again either. This one I decided to listen to during the middle of the month and I honestly wished I would have picked up a different story of Sophie Kinsella. This one wasn’t a favorite of hers.
A Mindful Year by Aria Campbell-Danesh- I listened to this one on audio and it was actually kind of relaxing. A lot of this book is focused around meditations. There are 365 readings so ideally you would read one a day, however, I have it on audiobook so I just ran through the whole thing at once. The main point of the book is to help you feel more satisfied in life by grounding yourself. Overall, this book was pretty easy to get through even though the audiobook is about 12 ½ hours long.
Reverie by Drew Taylor- I absolutely enjoyed reading through this christian romance story; a story written within a story. I was a little confusing a first who they were talking about when, however, about midway through the book, you find out who they really are talking about and the rest of the story makes sense. This book was clean and had a tragic experience turn out for the better. The main girl writes this “story” that she doesn’t know if it’s true or not and she can’t remember why. Later she finds that some of the story was real and she deciphers what is fiction and what it real after a long recovery.
I’m still getting to the last book, Saving Zoë by Alyson Noël, so I don’t have any details about the story yet. I’ll let you know next month what my thoughts were on this one. Overall, I’d say this month was pretty successful in my reading goals, however, I’m still a little behind on my number of pages read for the year. How are your goals for the year going? Now is a good time to evaluate where you’re at since it is the middle of the year! Did you set any reading goals? If so, what are they and what can you still do to accomplish them?!
