Pretentious Reader

June has been an incredible month of reading for me. I had the pleasure of devouring eight books, with four of them earning a solid four-star rating, and one capturing a perfect five stars. This month, I felt a renewed sense of motivation to immerse myself in both physical and audio books, realizing that we're already halfway through the year and eager to make progress on my reading goals. I'm particularly thrilled with my book choices, as I intentionally sought out mysteries infused with paranormal elements like The House Across the Lake , The Vanishing and A House with Good Bones . Additionally, I indulged in the immensely popular novel of the moment, Wrong Place Wrong Time, which captivated me with its unique plot and intriguing timeline. If your curiosity is piqued check out below for all the books I've read this June. Happy reading 😊. ❁ The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager ✰✰✰✰ Casey Fletcher seeks solace in her family's lakeside retreat while dealing

In the oversaturated market of thriller books, I constantly find myself grappling with the lack of truly gripping reads. I can't help but question whether the issue lies with my own preferences. Am I the one to blame? To borrow from a popular meme, am I the drama? My Goodreads read list seems to be filled with mediocre ratings, leaving me increasingly fatigued by hastily written books driven solely by commercial motives. The last time I came across a four-star book was back in January, when I read Vanishing Falls by Poppy Gee . While it doesn't strictly fall under the thriller genre, it had intriguing mystery elements. Sadie by Courtney Summers , on the other hand, counts as a phenomenal five-star thriller, but again it's been quite some time since I delved into its pages. Unfortunately, good thrillers seem to be few and far between. In an attempt to explore more popular thriller releases, I've recently encountered three books that ended up as DNFs for me this year.

Around ten years ago, when I began delving into reading more seriously and keeping track of the books I read, I came across most of the books on this list. It's worth noting that my ratings may seem a bit skewed, as not all of them are rated with the highest five-star rating. This is because I have specific criteria for my ratings. Even if a book deeply moved me and evoked strong emotions, if I didn't find the writing style or storyline compelling enough, it could still receive a four-star rating. On the other hand, there are books I've given five stars to that I can't recall what initially appealed to me. Ratings, in my opinion, are subjective, and I acknowledge that I can't always be completely logical or critical when assigning them. Naturally, I have my biases towards certain genres or tropes.  Out of the 343 books on my shelf, I have selected 15 that have earned either a five-star or four-star rating. These books represent the cream of the crop, so to speak, an

I was able to complete three of the challenges. I wanted to complete the 7 challenges and obviously to read more but the other books that I picked up did not really did it for me, I wasn't enjoying them as much as I thought I will. So even though I got thru half of the other books I decided to not finish them and maybe pick them again if I'm in a better mood. On a positive note, I gave 4 stars to the three books that I have finished. Challenge 1. Purple Cover The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman Finished in 3 days. I'm really happy to finish Devouring Gray. Honestly I would not have read it if not for this readathon because I rarely enjoy Fantasy and YA nowadays. This reminded me of the kind of books that I read when I was younger and was really into YA Paranormal books, I would even say that this has similar elements to The Diviners by Libba Bray, however the latter has better character development and writing style. The phasing got better as you read on

Melissa Albert The Hazel Wood (The Hazel Wood, #1) 2018 Rating, I love the premise, Alice's mother was kidnapped and she thinks her grandmother who lives in the Hazel Wood has the answer but what she is about to find out will turn her life around. It's definitely not what I expect the story will be however I did like it and reminds me a bit of the Wayward children series and the Magic or madness series. The middle part was a bit dragging and Alice is not a likeable character but the plot was interesting and the ending would be worth your while. Maureen Johnson Truly Devious (Truly Devious, #1) 2018 Rating, I love Maureen Johnson when I was younger, Devilish is still one of my favourite books so I was excited to read Truly Devious unfortunately this did not satisfy me. So there two storylines and mystery one from the past and another in the present. The plot for the past or the flashbacks are much more interesting than the present, I almost wish for this to be a histor