June 2011 Recap

Here is the list of books I read & or reviewed in June: (The links will take you to my reviews)

1. Lover Unbound - J.R. Ward (read in May, reviewed in June)
2. Blue Bloods - Melissa de la Cruz (read in May, reviewed in June)
3. The Guardian Angel's Journal - Carolyn Jess-Cooke (read in May, reviewed in June)
4. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher (read in May, reviewed in June)
5. Tiger's Curse - Colleen Houck (read in May, reviewed in June)
6. Divergent - Veronica Roth (Originally reviewed as a guest post at Book Chick City here)
7. Shadowmagic - John Lenahan (read in May, reviewed in June)
8. Stormchild - Vivian Arend (Novella) (read in May, reviewed in June)
9. Murder Game - Christine Feehan (read in May, reviewed in June)
10. Stormy Seduction - Vivian Arend (Novella) (read in May, reviewed in June)
11. Empire of Night - Justin Somper (read in May, reviewed in June)
12. The Mockingbirds - Daisy Whitney
13. Silent Storm - Vivian Arend (Novella)
14. Immortal War - Justin Somper
15. Deeper than Midnight - Lara Adrian
16. Dark Desires After Dusk - Kresley Cole
17. Darkness Becomes Her - Kelly Heaton
18. Just Like Heaven - Julia Quinn
19. Boom - Mark Haddon
20. Hell's Belles - Jackie Kessler
21. Bitten to Death - Jennifer Rardin
22. Dark Ride - Caroline Green
23. One More Bite - Jennifer Rardin
24. Life: An Exploded Diagram - Mal Peet (Guest review from Kisty at The Overflowing Library)
25. Tiger's Quest - Colleen Houck (review coming soon)
26. Long Lankin - Lindsey Barraclough (review coming soon)
27. Dead Deep - Justin Somper (Novella) (review coming soon)
28. Kindling the Moon - Jenn Bennett
29. Sister - Rosamund Lupton (review coming soon)
30. The Case of the Deadly Desperados - Caroline Lawrence (review coming soon)
31. Deadly Desire - Keri Arthur (review coming soon)
32. Shadows on the Moon - Zoe Marriott (review coming soon)

June Books of the Month:
(Choices are made from books reviewed this month)

I read so many fantastic books in June that it was impossible to narrow it down to just 2 favourites.  In fact I ended up with 6 that I just couldn't pick between so they're all going to be included as my books of the month!

My top YA reads in June:

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher (read my review here)

Divergent by Veronica Roth (read my review here)

Immortal War by Justin Somper (read my review here)

My top adult reads in June:

Deeper than Midnight by Lara Adrian (read my review here)

Just Like Heaven - Julia Quinn (read my review here)

Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett (read my review here)

Event Reports:

• I finally got around to posting my write up for the London blogger meet up that I went to back in May, if you missed it you can read all about it here.
• On Monday I was really excited to attend the Puffin Summer Party, I had a lot of fun with the other bloggers and got to meet some fantastic authors including Curtis Jobling, Julia Golding, Helen Grant, Sarwat Chadda, Jane Clark, Phil Earle, Simon & Alex Scarrow, and Michelle Paver.  Watch out for my write up coming soon.

Author's Animal Antics:

The Author's Animal Antics feature is kind of on hold at the moment, I am planning on bringing it back as a more regular feature soon but I just don't have as much time to organise it right now.  If you are an author who is interested in taking part though please get in contact (you can find out more about the feature here).  

• We did have a great post from Justin Somper this month as part of his tour to celebrate the release of the final book in the Vampirates series Immortal War.  The post has some fantastic pictures of Justin's dogs Bella and Bailey (I love the ones where they're all wearing reindeer antlers!) so if you missed the post you can find it here.

Challenge Updates:

So these are the challenges I've decided to sign up for in 2011 (I may well end up adding others as the year goes on but we'll see what happens)

2011 100+ Reading Challenge - Read 91/100

2011 Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge - Read 24/24 COMPLETE 

2011 Support Your Local Library Challenge - Read 11/25

2011 Debut Author Challenge - Read 12/12 COMPLETE

2011 British Books Challenge - Read 29/50

2011 New Author Challenge - Read 50/50 COMPLETE

NAC Mini Challenge - Steampunk (Feb 2011) - Read 2/5 COMPLETE (This challenge was to read up to 5 steampunk books in February, I knew I wouldn't have time to read 5 so I'm happy with my total of 2)

NAC Mini Challenge - TBR Newbies (April & May 2011) - READ 6/6 COMPLETE (I actually managed to read 8 books for this challenge but only the first 6 count)