Hello, everyone!

I mentioned that I wanted to take a moment to ‘just breathe’ in June..? Yeah, didn’t realize that included staying home all month and being so tired and weak that I wasn’t able to do much of anything half of that time. While I might not sound like a good thing, this is a somewhat normal occurrence for me. My mom and I both struggle with autoimmune disorders, and this is part of that for us. We’ve had a very difficult year (few years, really, but the last twelve months have been difficult in a different way) and now that we’ve been able to slow down and rest, our bodies just insisted that we needed more than ‘rest’ but to actually stop and heal for a time. God has been with us and so good to us through it all, and I’ve enjoyed this extra time of ‘being still and knowing’ Him. Time to reflect and to evaluate. And honestly, time to just well…breathe.

I also too a break from beta reading… Which was admittedly hard, since I’ve gotten so used to doing them, but I needed the break, and am thankful to have some time to rest this summer. I’ve still slowly been working on things, but not as much, and am hoping to do some of the same this month. I needed the time, and I still really need to catch up on a few things, if possible, before getting busy on anything again…God willing, that is.

What I Read in June:

June Reads:

I read five books in June. Not quite as many as I’ve read in previous months, but again, I spend part of the month feeling unwell, and one day I even took 3-4 naps. So, not a lot of reading got done that week, but my body did manage to get the rest and peace I needed. My health came first, and that’s as it should be.

Posts also didn’t happen much, but I did manage to get a few up recently and scheduled a few others, both here and on IG. Nothing overly important, but still some fun news and updates, which I enjoyed sharing with you all. I also shared some blog tours, so you had some exciting giveaway opportunities recently too! There are a few more planned for the coming weeks, so be on the lookout for those!

Wildflower on the Prairie by Tasha Hackett (Audiobook) –

I was offered a copy of this audiobook a few months ago by the author. She knew I was wanting to read these for a while, so I was excited for this chance, but per usual it took me being home for a while to actually get around to sitting still long enough to really listen, and it didn’t take long for the story to completely capture my attention! I loved the story, and the narrator’s were both wonderful! If you’re a historical fiction reader I recommend both in this series!

(I recently finished the first book on audio too, and it was also really good! Both have potential triggers dealing with death, and loss. Wildflower also deals with child loss, and Bluebird briefly mentioned a character’s suicide that happened before the story began, and both feature a young(er) widower and his son.)

One Venture, Ten MBAs by Ksenia Yudina (Ebook/Review Copy) –

I’ve been working on growing some marketable skills, or at least learning how to better use those I already have. In that endeavor, I’ve found some interesting reads. This is one of those, and my what a book! I felt like I should have an MBA after reading this one, but alas it was an insightful and interesting read, and definitely gave me a little bit of a better picture of how business ventures work, and why I’m not the least bit interested in taking part in one! lol. This was far outside of my comfort zone where potential jobs are concerned, but the crash course in fintech and business ventures did offer quite a bit of useful info along the way that can be applied to several different areas of life, work and otherwise.

Turning the Giant by John Berra (Ebook/Review Copy) –

This was another, and in some ways the advice was similar, but in others I felt like the authors took very different approaches, which I enjoyed seeing. Where the one book was largely focused on pushing through this one focused more on a change in perspective, and ‘turning’ the situation to work for both parties, at least in a way. Both have their benifits and place, and I enjoyed learning from these authors who have directly lived the events and examples they share in their book.

Hope in the Darkness by Amanda Tero –

This is a quick read that is only around ten pages. It is such a good story, and I highly recommend it!
This one is actually available for free: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/kl1grrpwgz
But if you plan to review on Amazon, it’s best to purchase it for $0.99 and have a verified review to avoid the possibility of having your review flagged with their new policies…

Out of Deep Tides (Tides #1) by A. Jones –

I actually received an eARC of this one in April, but life was so busy I didn’t get to read it at the time. I also had the ebook preordered, so ended up reading the one I bought anyway. This one is currently only available in ebook and from Amazon, but I admit I adore these characters! There is some mild cussing, most if which is the offhanded use of a burning place… I can’t remember if there are any others, and I can’t remember any, but might have missed it since I don’t always remember to mark those. This one also deals with an abusive marriage that happened in the past, and it talks about the lingering effects and difficult healing journey that follow. It also mentioned a friend’s suicide and overcoming the guilt and remorse there, too.

(Each title listed is directly linked to the corresponding review post for that book, except I haven’t posted those yet, so it will lead to the Goodreads page for now.)

Wildflower on the Prairie was offered free via a code on Audible. Out of Deep Tides was an eARC that I ended up pre-ordering. One Venture and Turning the Giant were both review copies from a site I work with/for. Hope in the Darkness was also from the author, but might also be a newsletter freebie? The author encouraged that we share the link, so you can find that above. I also read several review copies for work this time, a few of which are shown, some that aren’t, and a couple that I’m currently still reading.

June Alpha/Beta Reads:

June Book Mail:

June Book Mail:

  • None

Audiobooks:

  • Bluebird on the Prairie by Tasha Hackett is available free on Youtube, so that’s when I ended up listening to it.

I officially finished this one today, but as it’s no longer June, well… It should be on next months wrap-up, God willing and if we’re still here. If not, then that’s perfectly fine too.

BUT in the meantime, if you wanted to check this one out, and give the author’s channel some love, you can do that here: https://youtu.be/KWx4HFQRxvI?si=teWn2x3ZCcgykOIX

Have you read any of the books listed this month?
Are any of them on your TBR?
Or, tell me what your favorite book was in June?

Feel free to comment about them below!

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