June ’18 | To Read

As April and May’s reading didn’t exactly go to plan, I’ve decided to scrap it completely and start afresh this June. My TBR has grown quite a bit since and I’m extremely excited to start some new titles. Most of them aren’t as big as what I’d usually read, but after falling into a bit of slump with the stress of university, it’s probably best to start small before building up to more bigger texts. 

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1. Wild Embers by Nikita Gill
Wild Embers explores the fire that lies within every soul, weaving words around ideas of feeling at home in your own skin, allowing yourself to heal and learning to embrace your uniqueness with love from the universe.
Featuring rewritten fairytale heroines, goddess wisdom and poetry that burns with revolution, this collection is an exploration of femininity, empowerment and personal growth. 

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2. Bookshop Girl by Chloe Coles
Meet sixteen-year-old Paige Turner. Part-time bookseller. Full-time glitter-glue enthusiast.
Paige and her best friend Holly have four weeks to master the art of drawing dangly bits and persuade the people of Greysworth to save their one and only bookshop.
Oh, and then there’s Blaine Henderson. Art-school anarchist heart throb. Could his wild ways make or break Paige’s campaign?

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3. Keep the Home Fires Burning by S. Block
Frances Barden, Chair of the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, it’s her role to lead the community. Bus as her factory is shut down and her husband’s secret child arrives at her door, she finds she’ll need the support of every woman in the WI. Luckily, she has Pat Simms, Erica Campbell and Steph Farrow to turn to.
But as the war escalates, each woman finds herself facing challenges she never expected and threats she couldn’t have managed. When a plane crashes in the heart of their village, every one of their lives will change for ever. 

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4. The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
I am a Belle. I control Beauty.
In the Opulent wold of Orleans, the people are born grey and damned, and only a Belle’s powers can make them beautiful.
Camellia Beauregard wants to be the favourite Belle – the one chosen by the queen to tend to the royal family.
But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favourite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that her powers may be far greater – and far darker – than she ever imagined.
When the queen asks Camellia to break the rules she lives by to save the ailing princess, she faces an impossible decision: protect herself and the way of the Belles, or risk her own life, and change the world forever. 

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5. To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
I have a heart for every year I’ve been alive.
There are seventeen hidden in the sand of my bedroom. Every so often, I claw through the shingle just to check they’re still there. Buried deep and bloody.
Princess Lira is siren royalty and revered across the sea until she is cursed into humanity by the ruthless Sea Queen. Now Lira must deliver the heart of the infamous siren killer or remain a human forever.
Prince Elian is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world, and captain to a deadly crew of siren hunters. When he rescues a drowning woman from the ocean, she promises to help him destroy sirenkind for good. But he has no way of knowing whether he can trust her…

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6. The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green
A shrewd princess whose father is plotting against her.
An idealistic soldier turned traitor.
A radicalized servant on a quest to avenge his family.
A streetwise demon hunter in need of money.
A charming thief with no clue about his true identity.
These five young adults’ live would never intersect were it not for a stolen bottle of demon smoke. As war approaches, they must navigate a tangled web of political intrigue, shifting alliances, and forbidden love in order to uncover the dangerous truth about the strangely powerful smoke that intertwines their fates.  

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7. The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
Two centuries ago, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town.
Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return, stealing the bodies of three troubled girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into Sparrow’s harbor and pulling them under.
Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town, But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives, unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into.
Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople will turn against one another. Penny and Bo will suspect the other of hiding secrets. And death will come swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.
But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo or save herself.