June - Help me! I'm in a funk . . .

This blog is going to be short and sweet, because I've come to realize I'm just not enjoying reading at the moment.

I started out the month on a tear. I finished Thief in the Night on 6/2 before my plane for Europe even took off! I then proceeded to read three more books that week.

Then I started The Summer We Fell on the flight home. It took me nearly two weeks to read. I wanted to love it, but like Waking Olivia this was a rough, angsty read.

Reckless also has taken me a long time to get through. Despite being totally different theme-wise, these two books have one major thing in common for me - they're both by favorite authors, and they're both the last books in their author's catalog that I have to read. I guess a part of me wants to take my time and savor these since it will be months before I get anything new.

Melanie Harlow still remains a strong favorite. I'm considering her my current palatte cleanser. She's a good go-to after a deeply angsty read.

Speaking of angst, Avery Maxwell is my favorite new author discovery of the month. While there's a bit of emotion to her writing, I absolutely love the 'he falls first' trope.

That being said, in writing news I've begun the second draft of Avery's story. The first line of the book comes from Zeke - "I fell in love with Avery Ashton long before I ever met her . . ." So, yeah, I'm trying my hand at another 'he falls first' story myself. If you want to see how that went the first time around, check out Max and Frankie in Standing on the Precipice. His insta-love for her is still one of my favorites.

After a flurry of travel the last several months, my family has decided never to board a plane again, so it looks like the rest of the summer will be spent avoiding the heat, writing, and trying to rediscover my love of reading. As I said at the beginning, I'm just not loving it right now. I go through these funks from time to time . . . I think one of the core reasons behind this one is I've been relying on the same handful of book vloggers for recommendations lately. In order to get away from that, I'm issuing a challenge - What's been your favorite read of the year so far?

Now that we've hit the midpoint of the year, I'll be compiling my top 10 list and blogging about it in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I want to switch gears and get some (hopefully) fresh recommendations. The polls are open! Comment on your favorites and I'll add them to my list.

Cheers,

C.J.