Books read and reviewed in June 2024

I’ve read some really interesting books this month, and no duds (as far as I can recall). You can’t beat a fast crime or thriller read, and I’ve also been back on the Regency style romances too as an interlude.

Books read:

• in June: 17 (! I’ve not been blogging so lots of time to read instead)
• this year to date: 87

Even reading that fast, I’m still struggling to work my way through all my crime collection on my Kindle. I’m only on page 19 (of 48) so I’ve a lot to get through before I’m going to start buying books again. Hence why many are older books. You can find my reads over at Goodreads.

Here’s a selection of the books I’ve read and reviewed in June.

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The Perfect Neighbour by Susannah Beard

This book’s cleverly written from a couple of angles. The mysterious teenager, enslaved in the beautiful house seeking to find a way out, to get her voice heard. And from Beth, the mother of 2 teens who moves in next door to glamourous Oksana, wanting to find neighbourly connections despite the houses in the street all hiding behind high walls, hedges and fences.

When Beth’s dog keeps escaping into next door’s garden, will she spot the mysterious girl, and more than that, will she be able to make anyone believe what she’s noticed.

This book doesn’t hide away from some hard themes of trafficking, drugs, and human slavery, alongside the wish of a normal everyday mum wanting to make a new life with new friends without putting her neighbours backs up.

The Passenger by Daniel Hurst

After years of drudgery and habitual commuting into London, Amanda’s raised enough money to give up work to finally write her novel and get it published. But her selfish layabout daughter’s secret older boyfriend may have some secrets of his own.

Amanda gets the train for her last commute home, only to find a good looking passenger opposite her who strikes up conversation. He’s not looking to take Amanda out, but looking to get his hands on her money.

How will Amanda save her daughter and her money, and what secrets has she herself got to get herself out of the situation?

I quite enjoyed this book. It’s nice to see a strong woman (although hasn’t managed to sort out her obnoxious daughter) fight back. There were some interesting secrets spilled, and not all of them were obvious. Worth a read.

A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil

A sliding doors style book. Annie’s lovely house in the country with loving husband Graham, and 5 year old daughter Hannah appears idyllic. But when Hannah falls ill and Annie’s car is in an accident on the way to the doctors, Annie wakes to find life is different.

The rest of the book is Annie trying to find out the truth, why she can’t remember this current life, and where’s her past life gone. Has she inherited her late mum’s mental illnesses?

I really enjoyed this book. It was awful to think how life could change like that, and I felt Annie’s confusion and pain of changes to her life that she knew nothing about, and noone knows anything about her old life she remembers. I could imagine this made into a film.

A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball by TE Kinsey

Old fashioned mystery, think Agatha Christie gentle detective solving. Set in the 1920s, a jazz band the Dizzy Heights head to a manor house to play for the Midsummer Ball. After getting stranded there due to flooding, the next day the head of the family is found dead. But the band don’t agree with the family that it’s suicide, but murder. with numerous family members with motive, they decide to try and work out who the murderer is before anyone else dies, with the help of one of the family.

If you’re after a slower paced mystery without all the modern day blood and gore, set in the English countryside, then this could be a good book for you. I did find it quite slow compared to my other reads, but it was still quite enjoyable.

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

56 Days is set during Covid 19 times as the lockdown hits, with 2 people who’ve just moved to the area and met, moving in to get through the lockdown together to see how their relationship works. But then 56 days after they met, a decomposing body is found in the flat, and detectives are sent in to find out what went on.

I really enjoyed this book. I think it takes you back to what lockdown behaviours and rules were, and makes you think how people in their situation coped. I liked the 2 detective characters, and the book kept me hooked.

Lies by TM Logan

Joe’s life is comfortable and nice. A lovely wife and toddler son, a job he enjoys and all is good until his son spots his mum’s car across the road going into a hotel where she shouldn’t be. When Joe sees her arguing with family friend Ben, Joe can’t understand what’s going on, and then the chain sets in motion with an unfortunate episode in the car park.

Joe chooses to help his son’s asthma attack rather than Ben, who then disappears, leaving a confused wife behind and a lot of lies and trouble. While Joe’s wife’s lies start appearing.

Despite being an innocent in all the goings on, Joe ends up getting caught up and blamed. But who’s been setting him up, and how will he get out of it and back to his son and wife.

I enjoy books by this author. There’s lots of twists and turns to keep you on your toes.

Into the Sound by Cara Reinard

An incoming storm and Holly gets a message from her sister to come and help her out by the sound. Against her controlling husband’s wishes, she leaves but only finds her sister’s car, while she’s nowhere to be seen. Reporting her missing, the story is Holly trying to find her sister, while the police seem to do nothing.

Holly’s gets into trouble with her search, while her sister’s husband seems to carry on his legal work with dodgy clients seemingly unconcerned about his missing wife.

With domestic abuse themes, plus the sisters’ childhood of psychological damage from unloving parents there’s plenty to get your head round and feel for the hardship they’ve ended up having to go through.

Lots of interesting characters and tangents of stories in Holly’s search. I didn’t guess the ending which is unusual. Worth a read.

When I was Ten by Fiona Cummins

When a true crime documentary telling of the story of the Angel of Death who killed her parents as a young child is released, it sets off a chain of events and worry for the now woman who served her sentence and is now living protected under a new name with her own family.

Journalist (and friend of the family from those years) is chasing the exclusive with her partner, causing the 3 of them involved to re-live those days and hours. With the media furore, how will they cope as adults, and what will the outcome be of the truth getting out.

With themes of child abuse this could be triggering to some. Although the interspersed story of dodgy politicians is weaved throughout too, which didn’t make much sense at the start.

I found this book kept me thinking, and testing what I thought at the start all through the book.

We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz

2 best friends of 10 years go off travelling, when things go wrong and Kristen is there again to help friend Emily. Kristen is always there for Emily, but when she meets a new man, she hopes to keep them apart. After all Kristen was persuaded her to finish both of her previous relationships.

But when the same horror happens again on another girls holiday to Chile, Emily begins to wonder why people around Kristen seem to keep dying. She needs to find a way to get away from Kristen’s hold on her, find out what’s in her past, and hold onto her new good relationship. But Kristen’s just always there.

An unnerving story but it makes you wonder how people can get so reliant on friends, that they can’t see the relationship is unhealthy. There’s some psychological confusion later on in finding out the reasons, and the sign off makes you wonder what might happen next.

A good, pacy story, worth a read.

You can find all of these books on Kindle or paperback on Amazon*

What have you been reading the last month?