Well June was just a confusing month for me – I got half way through thinking I’d read at least half a million books to discover I’d only read about 5. Don’t you just hate that? In any case, I’m finished with uni for the winter now so it’s all free time for me now! I read some amazing books in June so I’m super excited to share them all with you. I want to say that I’ll probably read more in July but as I’m away I think I probably, actually won’t. But who cares! As long as the books are enjoyable that’s all that matters right?

I am participating in several different challenges this year and doing a magnificent job of making very little progress. So please, feel free to click the following links to see my progress for each. Or, if you’re too lazy to do that (I am) I’ll summarise my progress at the bottom of this page.

• Progress for RMTBR challenge
• Progress for Fairy-Tale Retelling challenge
• Progress for the 2016 Pop Sugar Challenge

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 And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie

 

Genre: Mystery, Classic, Thriller
Author: Agatha Christie 
Published: November 1939
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 247 {paperback}

Will I read more books by this author?  YES

This was terrifyingly wonderful and I loved it. I’ve been curious to read Christie’s book ever since that Doctor Who episode with David Tennant that was based off her novels. This is the second book by her that I’ve read and it certainly delivered. This is a lot creepier and scarier than her Poirot series, I can tell you that. There’s oodles of murder, a lot of stress, and plenty of OH DEAR GOD NO moments. So hold onto to your hats, ladles and jellyspoons, this was is awesome.

The Challenge Count:

RMTBR challenge points award: 0
Fairy-Tale Retelling: 0 
Pop Sugar: A Murder Mystery

Review to come

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 Madame Tussaud’s Apprentice
by Kathleen Benner Duble

Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Kathleen Benner Duble
Published: July 2014
Publisher: Merit Press
Pages: 320 {paperback}

Will I read more books by this author? YES

I loved this book. I thought it was such a clever way to represent history and a fantastic perspective to do it from. I knew next to nothing about Madame Tussaud’s before reading this book but now I know a whole heap of stuff that absolutely surprised me. I had no idea how horrible some of the tasks were that she had to do and I found it fascinating how the wax works were actually created. This is spell-binding read set during the French Revolution and I highly recommend it.

The Challenge Count:

RMTBR challenge points award: 0
Fairy-Tale Retelling: 0
Pop Sugar: N/A

My review

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 Pawn
by Aimée Carter

Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Author: Aimée Carter
Published: November 2013
Publisher: Harlequin Teen Australia
Pages: 343 {paperback}

Will I continue the series? YES

Ooh, yes. I liked this book. I picked this up on a bit of a whim having borrowed it from a friend and coveted it for over year. I was finally about to return it unread and I thought, oh you know what, let’s just have a see what it was about. And I finished it the next morning. I will definitely be continuing this series because I really enjoyed this book – if you liked Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard then you will love this (and if you didn’t like that book, and I know quite a few of you didn’t, then mayhap this is a better alternative?).

The Challenge Count:

RMTBR challenge points award: 2
Fairy-Tale Retelling: 0
Pop Sugar: N/A

Review to come

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 The Neverland Wars
by Audrey Greathouse

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling (Peter Pan)
Author: Audrey Greenhouse
Published: May 2016
Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing
Pages: 302 {paperback}

Will I continue the series? YES

This was absolutely fabulous and you should all definitely stop what you’re doing right now to read it. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and I would go as far to say this is one of my favourite takes on both Neverland and the Peter Pan story. I can’t wait for the next book to find out what happens!

The Challenge Count:

RMTBR challenge points award: 0
Fairy-Tale Retelling: 1
Pop Sugar: A Book Set on an Island

Review to come

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A Court of Mist and Fury
by Sarah J. Maas

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling (Beauty and the Beast)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Published: May 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Pages: 624 {paperback}

Will I continue the series? YES

I really don’t think I need to say anything about this. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. Maas is such an amazing author and I will never not read anything that she publishes. This book was an explosion of everything – it practically leaps out of the YA genre with some of that content. I love Rhysand and I am always amazed at how she widens the scope of her worlds book by book. I think the wait for the next book may actually kill me, *melts into a puddle*.

The Challenge Count:

RMTBR challenge points award: 0
Fairy-Tale Retelling: 1
Pop Sugar: A Book That’s More than 600 Pages

Review to come

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 What else did I blog about this month?

• I wrote some reviews: 
  • Me Before You by Jojo Moyes 
  • Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
  • The Rose and the Dagger by Renée Ahdieh
  • Madame Tussaud’s Apprentice by Kathleen Benner Duble
  • Is It Just Me? by Miranda Hart
  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  • Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell
• I drooled over some books for Wishlist Wednesday:
  • Russka by Edward Rutherfurd
  • After Eden by Helen Douglas
  • Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan
  • Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee
• I bounced about for Waiting on Wednesday:
  • It’s All Fun and Games by Dave Barrett
  • Leave Me by Gayle Forman
  • Scythe by Neal Shusterman
  • Blood For Blood by Ryan Graudin
• I made some lists for Top Ten Tuesday:
  • Reasons to Love Doctor Who
  • 2016 Releases Part 2!
  • 2016’s Darlings
  • Shelf Sitters
• I gleefully hauled some books.
• I wrote down my marvellous thoughts in some discussion posts:
  • Classic Clowns: The Funny Sidekicks
  • Geronimo Stilton!
  • Timeless Maidens
• I did a couple of unboxings:
  • Owlcrate Unboxing May 2016

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The Statistics

Genres Read:

Pages Read:

Total: 1,836

Progress Towards Goodreads’ Challenge:

70%, or, 49/70 books

I’m still making solid progress here which I’m really happy about. I feel like my pace has slowed a little over the last couple of months but I’m fighting strong!

Overall progress of RMTBR challenge:

Points accrued in June: 2
Number of books read in June that counted: 1
Total points: 21
Mini challenges completed: 2/10

The Fairy-Tale Retelling Challenge:

Retellings Read: 6
Level Achieved: Goose Girl

Overall progress for Pop Sugar Reading Challenge:

25/40

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What about me?

June was a bit of a weird month all up for me. I’m officially on my winter break for uni now, so I spent the first half of June wrapping up the last of assignments and exams and now it’s FREEEDDOMM time. In fact, as this post goes up, I’ll be in England! How exciting. And by exciting I mean both the fact I’m in England and that I was organised enough to have this post ready, *gives self a pat on the back*

This month I read way less then I expect to. I thought I was on a roll but then I looked back and gasped because I really hadn’t read all that much. Which was a confusing moment. But I really enjoyed all the books that I did read and I’m excited to go through more great books in July!

A couple of landmarks happened in June, too. I hit 300 followers on Twitter, 100 on Instagram, and 200 here on my blog! Which is all terribly exciting. So thank you to all you wonderful people who seem to enjoy my mumbles, bumbles, and jabberings about all things bookish.

So now that I’m officially in the land of tea you can expect to see some exciting things, probably, on my Instagram. As I said last month, I will continue to blog whilst I’m away and I will continue to read. My goal for July is to reread the Harry Potter books via audiobook and make even demolish a couple of new releases and I can, fingers crossed, pick up on my travels. Let’s hope I get to all of that!

TV series that I watched:

• Masterchef Australia, series 8
  I’m still thoroughly enjoying Masterchef – it’s getting to the pointy end now!
• Call the Midwife, series 3
  I watched a couple more episodes of this, this month and it was, as always, amazing and emotional.
• Penny Dreadful, series 1
  I finally, at the bequest of my Dad, started watching this series. I’ve just watched the first episode so far and it’s wonderfully creepy.
• The Darling Buds of May, series 1
  This is an older series and I’ve just watched a couple of episodes at the moment – it’s super funny.

Films that I watched:

• Finding Dory, 2016: 9/10
  I don’t think I need to explain more than the fact that this was brilliant?
• Me Before You, 2016: 8/10
  I really enjoyed this one but the book is hands down 100 times better than the movie. Although the casting was on point for this.
• The Natural, 1984: 6/10
  I did enjoy this one although I struggled to get completely immersed in the story. It’s about baseball and is a cute little story.
• Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, 2004 [rewatch]: 8/10
  Of course, this was a rewatch for me and it was brilliant and hilarious.
• The Invisible Woman, 2013: 7/10
  This wasn’t quite what I was expecting but I nonetheless really enjoyed it as a piece of drama.
• Gnomeo & Juliet, 2011 [rewatch]: 8/10
  I got this one on DVD finally! I absolutely adore this story and cackled the whole way through.
• Kung Fu Panda 3, 2016: 7/10
  This was a lot better than what I thought it would be. It was just as entertaining and funny as the previous movies have been.
• The Lady in the Van, 2015: 5/10
  This one was, unfortunately, disappointing a little bit. It’s not quite as funny as the trailer made it out to be and overall just sort of lacked a bit of something.
• Hail, Caesar!, 2016: 4/10
  This was reasonably terrible. I recommend not wasting your time watching it. I’m still trying to work out what exactly the plot was.

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Tick! June done! 

What was your favourite book that you read in May? 

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~~ Kirstie ~~

Follow @ozbooksnail