This month I dedicated myself to making a dent in my Owlcrate books as well as the haul from the Book Barn.  It was a busy month, and I didn’t get as much reading done as I would have liked.

First up was The Upside of Unrequited, which as you can see I unboxed back in April.  I’ve been wanting to read this since it came out, because I really loved Simon vs. the Homosapien Agenda.  This was more of a typical teen romance – the main couple was straight, but almost all of the minor characters were not.  There was a lot more sister drama and the pain of losing best friends to boyfriends/girlfriends.  Overall it was enjoyable and fun, perfect for summer.  (Plus it takes place in the summer, so there’s that!).

Eliza and Her Monsters was, apparently, the one OwlCrate I haven’t Instagrammed, but I really enjoyed it.  I think, partially, because it reminded me so much of Fangirl, which I loved – and because I’m in a bit of a fanfiction-writing phase again (*sigh*) I totally understood where Eliza was at.

I’m amazed that I’ve read 5 of the 9 pictured in this stack!  A Curious Tale of the In-Between was one I put on my Goodreads TBR list a while back and ended up buying on Thriftbooks.  I wanted to read it to give away this summer as a prize (I had some swag from BEA given to me that ties in) but that didn’t happen… The book was a bit darker than I expected but still managed to stay fairly light.

Well, I read The Lie and the Forbidden Game trilogy last month.  This month I continued to pare down this stack by reading Season of Ponies and Saving Max.  Saving Max was a decent, if slightly implausible, thriller.  But Season of Ponies!  Let me tell you, I have been looking for this book since fifth grade.  It’s out of print, and I’ve never been a member of a library that owned it, and used copies online are usually unavailable or cost far too much.  I suppose I could have requested it through interlibrary loan but what a hassle, when I found it at the Book Barn for $1!  This book brought me straight back to my childhood.  It’s such a simple story, but I loved it.  I was such a Zilpha Keatley Snyder fangirl back in the day (and clearly, a little bit now).

I couldn’t believe it when I saw this in my library’s Wowbrary newletter.  A new book by Michael Crichton?  Hasn’t he been dead for ten years?  And it looks just like Jurassic Park??  Dragon Teeth was much different, sort of a Wild West dino hunter vibe (Jurassic Park meets Westworld?), and it felt a bit like a bare bones first draft, but hey, it’s summer and fun, fast reads are what I like!

• Best Overall: Eliza and Her Monsters
• Worst Overall: Saving Max
• Fastest Read: Season of Ponies (1 day)
• Slowest Read: The Wood (25 days)
• Best Audio: You

The full list:

1. The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
2. A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren DeStefano
3. The Last Star (5th Wave #3) by Rick Yancey (audiobook)
4. Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton
5. Season of Ponies by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
6. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
7. Saving Max by Antoinette van Heugten
8. You by Caroline Kepnes (audiobook)
9. Crystal Storm (Falling Kingdoms #5) by Morgan Rhodes
10. The Wood by Chelsea Bobulski
11. The Road Out of Hell: Sanford Clark and the True Story of the Wineville Murders by Anthony Flacco with Jerry Clark