What I Read: July

Pinch, punch first of the month. Welcome back to another What I Read that consists of actual books I've finished and more than just one which is what I've been offering for the last couple of months in these posts.I've been bitten by the reading bug again; also the shopping bug, and I managed to fly through five books in July alone. And whilst they weren't all five star books, there wasn't bad one in this bunch.

The first book I finished in July was Chris Carter's Hunting Evil. This is the tenth novel in his Robert Hunter series and each one just keeps getting better. Hunting Evil followed Hunter and his partner Garcia as they teamed up with the FBI and Homeland Security to capture one of the most dangerous men on the planet. If you've been reading these posts for the last year then you'll know how much I adore this series and how finishing one has me wanting to read what follows. And with how Carter ended this book, I'm dying to know if he's planning an eleventh book to tie up the major plot twists he created in Hunting Evil. Definitely one of my favourite reads this month.

At the beginning of the month I was in quite a murder mystery/thriller mood which is where this next book comes in. Twisted by Steve Cavanagh is singlehandledy one of the hardest book plots to try and describe. I'm not even going to try. All I'm going to say is that whilst I took a while to really get into this book, when I did get into it I was hooked. I literally couldn't put it down, I was dying to see where the next twist was coming. Definitely one for those of you who like you a good thriller that makes you think.

Circe is a book that had popped up a lot during BookTuber videos and everyone who had read it was raving about it. I'd picked it up on a whim thinking that my love for anything to do with the Ancient Greeks would make this right up my street. And I wasn't wrong. I liked Circe, I didn't love it but it was a very enjoyable read and I'll definitely be picking up Madeline Miller's other novel The Song Of Achilles. Circe follows the goddess Circe as she grows up, different from her siblings, peers and father the great Titan Helios. Then after discovering her talent with magic, she's exiled to an island where she's expected to remain for the rest of her years. The majority of the books follows her as she adjusts to life on the island of Aiaia and works on growing her powers. It also plays well into the tale of Odysseus and gives a look into the tales of Greek Gods, Titans and Heroes in a different way to other retellings. I liked this but I sometimes found myself losing interest as it was heavy of describing actions, conversations and scenery in a way that was sometimes unnecessary. I understand that it's written as it would have been written then but for me, I found it to sometimes be too heavy where it didn't need to be.

The fourth book I read this month was one I actually started in June, put down and then picked back up this month. And as I look through GoodReads to see what I rated this, I actually believed I underrated it but was quickly reminded of why it didn't get that top five star rating. Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson is another hyped YA novel that I wanted to desperately read this year. It follows Stevie who attends Ellingham Acadmey, a school that allows students to focus on their passions outside of the normal curriculum. And Stevie's just happens to be crime, murder more precisly, which makes Ellingham Acadmey the perfect school for her as the founders own wife and daughter were kidnapped from the school in the 1930's and no one's ever been able to solve the case. But Stevie thinks she may be able to crack it, if Truly Devious doesn't get to her first. I wanted to love this book, I really did but unfortunately for me it just fell a little flat. The first two thirds of the book were spent painting the picture and creating bonds and friendships that were necessary for the last third of the book. It was really only the last ten chapters of the book I thoroughly enjoyed and the cliffhanger that it left it on. I will definitely be picking up The Vanishing Stair when it's released in paperback later in the year but as a opener for this trilogy, Truly Devious just fell a little flat.

And the last book I read was the first in a long overdue reread that I'm now dying to fly through. City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare is one of my all time favourite books. The Mortal Instruments Series is on of my all time favourite series but alas I've never actually finished it and having recently acquired The Dark Artifices Trilogy, I thought it time I did. City Of Bones is the first of six books that follows Clary Fray as she learns to become a Shadowhunter alongside Jace Wayland and the Lightwood siblings, Alec and Isabelle. Throw in a undead, unknown father who wants nothing more than mass genocide to create his own pure Shadowhunter army and you're in for a wild ride. And that's before the gut punch of twist this book throws this way. I adore this books but found it hard to get into City Of Bones for a good third of the book but I was constantly comparing it to the movie when in fact the movie misses out a lot of what Cassandra Clare built in this book. I may have the slightest book crush on Jace but that's only because everytime I imagine what he would look like in my head, I picture Jamie Campbell Bower who played him the movie but apart from that when I shook of my movie induced daze, I flew threw this book and am dying to crack on with the next five. I know for a fact that each one is going to be even more of a punch to the gut twist wise and whilst I'm not sure if I'm ready for them, I'm also eager to get to them.