Dear friends, life has been a bit much of late! Both work and home life have been so busy I can scarcely get a thought in edgewise, let alone find time to write. Even as my June reads are piling up on my desk waiting to be reviewed, it’s taken me until now to finish putting together the round-up I started at the beginning of the month. There are still lots of excellent books, and I hope you find some to enjoy as much as I did!

Middle Grade

• Field Guide to Broken Promises by Leah Stecher. Bloomsbury, 2025.
• Split Second by Janae Marks. Quill Tree Books, 2024.
• Afia in the Land of Wonders by Mia Araujo. Scholastic, 2025 – This is a re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland set in medieval West Africa with beautiful full-page paintings throughout and a new focus on sibling relationships as Afia thinks of the beloved twin she left behind to have her adventure. I have, alas, never been a fan of Alice. This did not convert me, but I did find it more interesting and I very much enjoyed the art.
• A Song for You and I by K. O’Neill. Random House Graphic, 2025 – I was excited for a new graphic novel by K. O’Neill of The Tea Dragon Society! Rowan has been waiting through years of training for a real assignment as a ranger, saving people and nature and riding a flying horse. But her first small solo assignment, taking care of a young shepherd who only wants to play violin, ends in her beautiful horse, Kes, being unable to fly. Rowan is stuck escorting Leone across the country on foot – a journey that leads to self-discovery and an unexpected friendship. I wanted more of the story, but the sentiment is genuine and the art beautiful, cozy, and magical all at the same time.
• The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin. Little, Brown, 2025 – Another eagerly anticipated book! I preordered this instead of borrowing it from the libary, as Grace Lin is one of my favorite authors. (See Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Starry River of the Sky, When the Sea Turned to Silver, Year of the Dog and Mulan: Before the Sword.) Jin is a young stone lion who is a living lion in the world of the Gongshi, the guardian spirits who live in special statues, and normally a statue in the human world. He and the other Gongshi are supposed to cross over to our world to help humans – but Jin finds this too boring. It will take a string of things going wrong, trapping him in our world and putting both his world and his new friends in the human world in great danger, for Jin to find the motivation and courage to do something for others. As usual, the larger narrative contains a lot of shorter stories woven into it, as well as Grace’s gorgeous full-color paintings. It would be an excellent choice for a read-aloud.

Teen

• Oathbound by Tracy Deonn. Read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Andrew Elen Hillary Huber, Tim Paige, and Adenrele Ojo. Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025 – I had just started this at the end of April, and wound up with such strong narrative withdrawal that I had to start it over again immediately as soon as I was done, even though my son was waiting for me to finish the audiobook. I won’t say much about the plot except that, as happened to me before with Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle, I went in expecting a trilogy, and there is definitely more story coming. I’m addicted, y’all.
• Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger. Read by Kinsale Drake.Levine Querido/Recorded Books, 2024 – I’m glad I circled back to this from last year! Somehow, I’d been expecting a story set in the distant past – but I am old enough that the 70s seems not so far away. Regardless, a lovely and satisfying story.
• The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught. Feiwel & Friends, 2024 – A sweet and cozy fantasy graphic novel in which a baker and her nonbinary bard friend travel to find special mushrooms and need to help the village near the forest where they grow. I wanted a more involved story, but it is good for the short story-amount of content it has. Our teen librarian reports that it was the most popular teen graphic novel of 2024 at our library. I’d add that while there is a little bit of romance, there’s nothing inappropriate for middle schoolers.

Adult

• That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemmon. Orbit, 2024 – I saw this on display when I went to a long-awaited branch reopening in my home town and had to check it out. It is very silly fun, with lots of drinking and some very spicy scenes. I really appreciated that the world has lots of people of different skin colors and body shapes, while fighting against prejudice is prejudice against non-humans.
• Glorious Day by Skye Kilaen. 2022 – A sweet F/F sci-fi romance novella that I bought on Stephanie Burgis’s recommendation. This one is high on longing and low on spice and worked perfectly.
• Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson. Crimson Fox Publishing, 2024 – I got this one on sale, as the author is a member of the Lamplighter’s Guild, but this and the sequel are available on Libby in my library system, at least. Ellie studied to be an anthropologist, but being a woman in Victorian England, she’s instead working in archives. But when she’s fired from even that job, she finds herself with a pre-Columbian map and sets out to find the hidden city it portrays – with the help of a very annoying, very handsome American, and chased by villains who want the magical power this hidden city is supposed to contain. Lots of adventure, sparkling dialogue, and sizzling (but only slightly improper) romance. The sequel is in my line-up to read soon!

• See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur. One World, 2020 – this memoir of a Sikh social justice lawyer and activist came strongly recommended by the Muslim chaplain who was preaching at my UU church. It starts out with 9/11, as Sikh men around America were suddenly under attack for wearing turbans like Osama bin Laden, and follows her search for understanding and healing, looking for how we can love those who show hate to us. Deeply moving and powerfull.
• Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill. Read by Catrin Walker-Booth. Orbit, 2025 – In a sleepy pond in a forgotten village lives Jenny Greenteeth – one of the last of the Jenny Greenteeth that used to live in ponds around England. She’s lived there for centuries, collecting odd treasures and mostly not eating villagers anymore. But when a strange preacher tries to drown the village’s previously-loved witch, Jenny saves her. This leads both of them down a path of adventure, as Jenny decides it’s worth leaving her pond to help the witch drive out the preacher and regain her family. This is cozy with an edge and some unexpected twists.
• Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater. Orbit, 2022 – Dora Ettings has been unable to feel or express emotions properly ever since a fairy lord stole half her soul when she was a child. Naturally, this means that her marriage prospects are very low indeed. She travels to London for the Season with her cousin mostly to keep her lovely cousin company – but instead of staying in the background as she prefers, finds herself pulled into the circle of the Lord Sorcier, who is too upset by the injustices he sees in the world to worry about following the proper rules of society. There is a lot of focus on the horror of the workhouses of the period, a compelling, low heat romance, and the very interesting potential of reading the half of Dora in the real world as on the spectrum, learning to love herself as she is without longing for the half of her soul stuck in fairy.

• A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall. Read by Claire Morgan, Joshua Riley, Justin Avoth, and Kit Griffiths.Orbit, 2024 – This epistalatory novel is set in a probably-future world where there are no longer continents and everyone lives in something either floating or submerged. A year ago, the reclusive E. and her friend, Scholar Henery Clel, disappeared at the same time that the legendary underwater house that E.’s architect mother designed exploded. Now E.’s sister Sophy is exchanging letters with Henery’s brother Vyerin, both getting to know each other and exploring the development of the deep relationship that developed between E. and Henery, also mostly by letters. This is a world where academia is extremely important. I’ll note that while it’s blurbed by Freya Marske and there is romance, both straight and gay, it is all low heat. I found the story beautifully absorbing, and got on hold for the sequel, A Letter from the Lonesome Shore, immediately, though it’s popular enough that I expect I’ll still have to wait a while. I also recommend the audiobook, with each of the main characters read by a different narrator.