Hard to believe, but the year is half over. I’ve read 124 books so far this year, which is the largest half-year total since I started keeping track (in 2003).

I read two new releases this month, both of which I really liked: Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs and The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch. Note that the Ben Aaronovitch is a Rivers of London novella, but NOT a Peter Grant story. Which worked out perfectly fine.

I also read several LGBT supernatural fantasies, all of which I really enjoyed. The Big Bad Wolf series by Charlie Adhara was a nice solid supernatural mystery: a man works for a secret law enforcement agency that polices the (secret) were-wolves. The world building was strong, both characters were complex, and the mysteries were good. The Brandywine Investigations series by Angel Martinez was another supernatural mystery, featuring mythological gods living in the modern world. I LOVED this world building. In fact, I’ve adored everything I’ve read by her, including Uncommonly Tidy Poltergeists, which was ADORABLE.

Here are June’s books.

Supernatural Fantasy

Storm Cursed (2019) Patricia Briggs (Rating: 8.5/10) (Mercy Thompson)
The October Man (2019) Ben Aaronovitch (Rating: 8.5/10) (Rivers of London World)
Jane Madison
Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft (2006/2015) Mindy Klasky (Rating: 7/10)
Sorcery and the Single Girl (2007-2015) Mindy Klasky (Rating: 6/10)
The Leopard King (2016) Ann Aguirre (Rating: 5.5/10)

Supernatural Fantasy, LGBT

Uncommonly Tidy Poltergeists (2017) Angel Martinez (Rating: 8/10)
Big Bad Wolf
The Wolf at the Door (2018) Charlie Adhara (Rating: 8/10)
The Wolf at Bay (2018) Charlie Adhara (Rating: 8/10)
Thrown to the Wolves (2019) Charlie Adhara (Rating: 8/10)
Brandywine Investigations
Open for Business (2016) Angel Martinez (Rating: 7.5/10)
Family Matters (2018) Angel Martinez (Rating: 8.5/10)

Mystery, LGBT

Point Blank: Five Dangerous Ground Novellas (2017) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7.5/10)
Seance on a Summer’s Night (2018) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7/10)

Mystery, Historical

A Dangerous Collaboration (2019) Deanna Raybourn (Rating: 7/10)

And now: THE NUMBERS!

This month was all eBooks, all the time. I’ve been listening to podcasts instead of audio books, so that dropped those off the list.

eBook: 14

Genre-wise things were pretty evenly spread. Lots of multi-category books, which is great since I adore supernatural mysteries.

Fantasy: 11
Mystery: 9
Romance: 10
Boinking: 9

Only a single male author this month (Ben Aaronovitch).

Male: 1
Female: 8
Male Pseudonym: 5

And looming at the character breakdowns, since I read a lot of M/M romance, I had lots of male characters. Lots of white males, although at least some of the books had diversity in their supporting characters (the Brandywine Investigations might have counted as secondary minority, what with Anansi and Coyote showing up, but they didn’t play very large parts). And lots of LGBTQ stories, with lots of LGBTQ secondary characters (although the historical mystery was a little shaky in that category)

Male: 6
Female: 7
Ensemble: 1
White: 13
Minority: 1
Minority 2ndary: 2
Straight: 6
LGBTQ: 8
LGBTQ 2ndary: 5

And that’s what I read in June.

Anything you’d recommend this month?