Lots of brain-fog this month, which made reading difficult. It was so hard to concentrate on anything! An author who shall remain nameless went ballistic at my 5yo review of their book, which was a lot funnier than they probably intended; one of my much-younger half-brothers has pulled me in to advise on his Darth Maul cosplay, which I’ve been enjoying immensely; my migraines are back to almost every day, alas, which I am not enjoying; we’ve had some amazing thunderstorms; and I continue to learn awesome new things my Kobo is capable of!
And there was, in fact, some reading done.
ARCs Received
A completely reasonable number of arcs, for once!!! (We probably shouldn’t get used to it.)
A Voice of Wrath – a queer Little Mermaid retelling! Alas, this one didn’t work for me, it was one of this month’s DNFs.
Eclipse and the Wolf – SCREAMING CRYING RUNNING IN CIRCLES! This is urban-epic fantasy from AKWAEKE EMEZI! Excuse me while I hyperventilate!!!
The Seventh Banisher – a magical murder mystery thing from the author of the Serpent Gates duology! It’s been a while since we heard anything from Larkwood, I’m very curious to see what her new book is like!
The Last Room in Haven House – queer cosy fantasy in a sentient house!
The Chosen One Con – gaslamp fantasy with designer enchantments and celebrity-branded potions? Sign me UP!
Read
I guess I’ve gotten some of my mojo back – 20 books this month, to last month’s 12! MUCH better. Though my brain was extremely wonky; I had a lot of trouble concentrating, or sustaining interest in anything I read.
But what I did manage to read was MAGNIFICENT: Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy blew me away with its power and beauty (THANK YOU KARRAKAZ!!!); KV Johansen’s Caravan Road series is majestically epic and I tore through it (reading the final book now); Rachel Neumeier’s Black Dog series had me by the throat (I read eight books of it in six days!); the Anne of Green Gables books continue to be extremely delightful; and my last-minute read, A Mourning Coat by Alex Jeffers, is one of the most exquisite things I have ever read. I finished it less than an hour ago and I’m still humming with it.
Not too many rereads, just Civil Campaign (flawless) and Point of Dreams + Fairs’ Point (which were the bedtime books I read to my partner this month).
- By BIPOC Authors: 0
- 2026 Releases: 0
- Indie: 16
- Rereads: 2
- Books From Authors New-to-Me-This-Year: 2
- 26 Books For 2026: 0
- r/Fantasy Bingo: 1
- Books Going on My Best-of-Year Lists: the entire Caravan Road series by KV Johansen, Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy, Mourning Coat, and quite possibly all the Black Dog books!
DNFed
A handful of these weren’t bad, just not-for-me – The Stars Will Be Our Ocean, Destiny’s Edge, Strange Lights, Run Like Hell – but…yeah that really is a LOT of DNFs for one month. Sigh. I hate it when I DNF as many books as I read (or more, some months, EEK). A bunch of these were among my most-anticipated, too!
Reviewed
My wonky brain did not respond well to attempts at review-writing, though I have picked stubbornly away at some ongoing drafts. But I was very happy with the review for Misery’s Wife and the series-review of the Black Dog series!
Next Up
Now that I FINALLY have my 26 Books For 2026 sorted out, I can work on reading them! But there’s plenty else I want to get to, too: Fire Born of Exile and Loom Tree have both been in this section before (gah!), but Devouring Fortune is new – I backed the Kickstarter for it and haven’t manage to start it yet! (GAH!)
ARCs Outstanding
Unmissable SFF Updates
I had to remove a book from this year’s Unmissable list – but only because it’s been pushed back till next year! So we’ll still get to read it eventually. But with adding a couple of new books to the list, we’re actually now at 83!
I also started putting next year’s list together. Is this too early? Of course it is, but that apparently will not stop me! There are 23 books on the 2027 list so far; I’m sure there’ll be plenty more before January.
How did my predictions/anticipated reads for June go? I declared six books Unmissable for this month, and–
- two were five-star reads (Felicity Complex, Misery’s Wife)
- one I already knew was a five-star read because I read another edition (Yield Under Great Persuasion)
- one was a three-star read (Red Sacrament)
- one I DNFed (Demon Star)
- one I soft-DNFed, meaning I’d like to give it another try (Dragon Has Some Complaints)
Once again, my predictions were not super accurate! (We can’t call it 50% correct when I knew Yield was great ahead of time, that’s not a prediction!) I wonder if the August run-down will be any better?
Misc
I got to post my Mid-Year Freakout Tag at the start of the month, with PLENTY of pie charts!
Not long after, my Every Month Is Pride list went up – queer adult SFF publishing from July-December! THERE ARE SO MANY! It’s genuinely amazing how much longer this list has gotten year by year. I may not be ABLE to do one for 2027, not without killing my hands!
I made a much more reasonably-lengthed list of 10 books I’d really like to read, from authors I’ve never read before. (The way I agonised over this list was truly ridiculous!) I made a rule that they all had to be backlist, indie, and queer!
I spent a LOT of this month redoing my 26 Books For 2026 list, after facing the fact that the reason I was progressing so slowly was…I didn’t want to read most of the books on it! Gah. So I tossed a bunch off the list and replaced them. Whether I get to everything now-on-there before the end of the year…we’ll see!
And belatedly, I made a rec list for Disability Pride! Very late, I know, but better late than never!
Around the Bookish Internet
Goblin Crown was pushed back to next year, due to the imprint getting a new home with another publisher. Sigh!
Mia M Moss did an interview about her upcoming novel debut Heresy of Thieves (which was added to my Unmissable list this month!)
Aaand I’ve not been very active on social media this month, so I probably missed quite a bit!
Looking Forward
August is not the most-packed month on my book calendar, but it has an eminently respectable number of releases I’m excited about! Alison Saft’s new sapphic novel about faeries and chess has caught my eye, and a new Frances Hardinge book is ALWAYS something to pounce on! I’ve already read and adored Halls of the Dead, which is gorgeous and ick and queer af, and I can’t wait to read the finished, published version of it on release day! Tales From Rugosa Coven is a new edition of an old favourite of mine, and Heart and the Hawthorn features a queer love story in a zoo for magical creatures! More queer cosy fantasy in Last Room of Haven House, which promises us a sentient magical house, yes please; while at the other end of the spectrum She Haunts Me Still is queer Gothic horror. I know very little about Natasha Pulley’s new book, Salt King, or Whispers of Shadows and Gold, which is coming from a(n I think) debut author, but I’m grabby-hands for both anyway. Last but not least is Aliens in New Florida, which sounds like an extremely fun time!
That’s July done – may we all have an amazing August!
Glad to hear Kid Wolf Kraken Boy is good! I have no idea if I heard about it from you, but it’s on my priority list to get to by the end of the year. 1920s boxing fantasy is one helluva pitch
It’s SO INCREDIBLY EXCELLENT, Cosmic!!! I can’t believe something that short can be so perfect! I’ve been trying to review it, but I keep just keyboard-smashing because words can’t do it justice!
Glad you enjoyed Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy too!
LOVED IT MORE THAN WORDS CAN EXPRESS!
Where did you find out that Goblin Crown was delayed to next year? Not doubting you! I just don’t want to spend a couple days processing that my 3rd most anticipated book of this year is delayed again.
No worries, I’m not offended! I asked the author on insta – you can see the comments on this post. (Siavahda is me.) I’m sad, but it’s not CANCELLED, which is the important thing – we’ll just be getting it later than we hoped!