There won’t be much of a ‘wrap-up’ this month as I sud­denly realised I haven’t posted any reviews! It’s been a bit of a hec­tic month — on top of my intern­ship, I started a new job up in Lon­don and I’m work­ing long hours, with lots of trav­el­ling. I’ve been read­ing just as much as ever while com­mut­ing but I’ve had lit­tle time to sit down and write. It means reviews are going to be more spread out than when I first started Turn the Page. I’m doing some shake ups with the blog, the aim is to focus more on giv­ing you guys well writ­ten and insight­ful reviews (I hope) and I’m ditch­ing the rat­ings sys­tem. I hope you guys are all still here with me as I get to grips with man­ag­ing this blog on a far more lim­ited time­frame — I know a lot of blogs that I fol­low myself post almost every day and I sim­ply can­not keep up with that level of posting.

Com­ing up this week, I have an author inter­view and give­away with Vic­to­ria Lamb, about her new his­tor­i­cal YA Witch­struck — which I loved.

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Best of the Bunch in June

Easy by Tam­mara Webber

This is a per­fect exam­ple of self-publishing done right. The only rea­son I can think of why this book wouldn’t be picked up for tra­di­tional pub­lish­ing is because it falls under the elu­sive ‘New Adult’ cat­e­gory, a fact about which pub­lish­ers are incred­i­bly mis­guided (in my hum­ble opin­ion) and the very rea­son why I was drawn to Easy in the first place. As a 23 year old — I want to be read­ing about pro­tag­o­nists my own age — expe­ri­enc­ing liv­ing inde­pen­dently for the first time, study­ing, find­ing that first well paid job, nego­ti­at­ing uni­ver­sity instead of high school.

I would urge any­one to pick up Easy — it is very well writ­ten, tack­les the seri­ous issue of sex­ual assault — some­thing that unfor­tu­nately, a lot of women will likely encounter at some point in their lives, and has one hell of a hot, grown-up romance.

VIII by Har­riet Castor

His­tor­i­cal YA doesn’t always seem to be as pop­u­lar as other gen­res with a lot of read­ers, but done well, it’s one of my favourites. VIII by Cas­tor may be writ­ten for 9–12 year olds, but this richly crafted novel is a must-read for any age if you’re a fan of the infa­mous Tudor king, best remem­bered for his self­ish­ness, overindul­gence and cru­elty towards his six wives, but also for break­ing with Rome and estab­lish­ing the Church of England.

Cas­tor brings to life the young prince and the story fol­lows him from a young age through to his death, cre­at­ing a char­ac­ter whose actions and moti­va­tions we come to under­stand, almost empathise with, all the while stay­ing true to his­tory. It does lag a lit­tle in some parts, but VIII is an engag­ing story with just a hint of the para­nor­mal that I think a lot of younger (and older) read­ers will enjoy.

Best of the Bunch is a great end of the month orig­i­nally cre­ated by Lyri­cal Reviews and now hosted by Sally at Always Lost in Stories

Books Read in June

1. Magic Study by Maria V. Sny­der

2. The Gath­er­ing by Kelly Arm­strong

3. The Hun­dred Thou­sand King­doms by N.K. Jemisin

4. VIII by H.M. Cas­tor

5. Sec­ond Chance Sum­mer by Mor­gan Mat­son

6. Heavy Issues by Elle Aycart

7. The Hero’s Guide to Sav­ing Your King­dom by Christo­pher Healy

8. Adork­able by Sarra Manning

9. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

10. Mon­ta­cute House by Lucy Jago

11. The Girl in the Mask by Marie-Louise Jensen

12. Flat-out Love by Jes­sica Park

13. Push­ing the Lim­its by Katie McGarry

14. Easy by Tam­mara Webber

15. For Dark­ness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund