Hello fellow readers. June was a little more productive in terms of reading. There was only one book I didn’t get to read from my June TBR. I completely read one book, DNF one book (for now), and started another book. Let’s get to it.

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Pages: 398

Published by Ember in April 2018

Genre(s): novel, fiction

star rating: ★★★☆☆ (3.5 stars)

I do want to point out to anyone interested in reading this book, there are mentions of suicide, depression, alcoholism, rape, self-harm, and more. While I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, I felt the beginning was slow and all over the place. Maybe Kathleen Glasgow wrote it this way to signify how your thoughts can race when you’re mentally in a bad place (I would know I have been there). I wish the chapters had a heading giving the day it takes place or even how many days she has been at Creeley Center in the beginning. I did find that the book picked up pace, or maybe it just piqued my interest, about halfway through the book. And then it felt jumbled again. I felt like I was experiencing whiplash at times and going, “Wait what just happened? Who did that?” It also felt rushed in one section toward the end. (small spoiler) I am glad that Charlie found herself despite everything she experienced. I will say that I have a tough time marking a book as DNF. As I have mentioned before, I want to at least give the book a chance. As a result, I am rating this 3.5 stars as the writing style just wasn’t for me and it made it hard for me to get into the book. Let me know in the comments if you’ve read the book and what your thoughts were.

we speak in storms by Natalie Lund

Pages: 448

Published by Philomel Books in September 2019

Genre(s): YA, fiction, ghosts, paranormal

star rating: soft DNF - I will come back eventually

I came across this book through an ad on Instagram several years ago. I was intrigued by this town experience a deadly tornado and years later experiencing another tornado that took the same path as the previous one on its anniversary. Fair warning, there are talks of ghosts and ghost whispers, which I did not know when I asked for this for Christmas. I have been reading more at night lately, so I was a little spooked at times. In this respect, Natalie Lund’s writing style makes you feel like you are a part of the book. I did choose to DNF the book as I was not in the mood for ghost talk. This has happened to me before with Carolyn B. Cooney’s Code Orange, which eventually became my favorite; I was not in the mood to know what small pox can do to a person and it made me nauseous. I do plan to read we speak in storms again at a later time. Haas anyone else read this book?

Winter Town by Stephen Emond

Pages: 315

Published by Little Brown and Company in December 2012

Genre(s): YA, fiction, novel

star rating: rating coming in July

I started reading Winter Town by Stephen Emond on June 23rd and I have been reading at least 10 minutes everyday. By the end of June, I was about 20% through the book. It is very interesting to see how Evan handles the change in appearance of his friend, Lucy, after a year. Every chapter has an illustration done by the author, which I believe is meant to depict the setting of the chapter. At the end of each chapter, there is also a comic that Evan has been working on. I am curious to see how this ends as I am pretty sure Lucy and Evan like each other but neither of them realizes the other one likes them. I also want to know why Lucy made such a drastic change when she has never had this look before. I anticipate the rating to be around 4 stars. Stay tuned to see if my rating changes.

July TBR

As per usual, feel free to send me book recs, ideas for reading challenges, and ideas for future reading blogs at blueoceans.sanddollar@gmail.com or comment down below.

See you next blog.