What Verity Did

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Not a Book: Child Star

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Best Books of 2026 so far

We are past the halfway mark in the year, and so it’s time for me to take stock of what my favourite reads of the year so far have been. And as ever, at this point in the year, I’ve mostly been looking at which books I’ve given the highest ratings to on goodreads, and not just which ones were Books of the Week – because sometimes I can read more than one excellent book in a week. And I’m going to…

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Reading Stats: June 2026

Books read this month: 35* New books: 28 Re-reads: 7 (5 audiobooks) Books from the to-read pile: 9 NetGalley books read: 3 Kindle Unlimited read: 4 Ebooks: 12 Audiobooks: 5 Non-fiction books: 3 Favourite book: Dolly All the Time Books bought: lets gloss over Most read author: Rachel Reid – four from the Game Changers series Books read in 2026: 201 Books on the Goodreads to-read shelf…

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Out Today: New Jenny Jackson

Jenny Jackson’s first novel Pineapple Street was one of my favourite new books of 2023 and so it probably shouldn’t be a surprise that her new novel is the new release that I want to highlight this week. Per the Blurb: The Shampoo Effect is about one summer in New England, where writer Caroline arrives in Greenhead and falls for its charms and for one of it’s residents, Van Whittaker. She spends…

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Recommendsday: June 2026 Quick Reviews

It’s the first of July and it’s a Wednesday and normal service is resumed after the chaos in the posting schedule at the start of June and so that means it’s Quick Reviews time! And it’s a very mixed bag of genres this month – but also in how much I liked some of them. But here we go – three more books I read last month that I haven’t already told you about. An Untidy Death by Simon Brett This…

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Book of the Week: Dream on, Ramona Riley

Happy Tuesday, it’s book of the week day again. and I think maybe the Deanna Raybourn was my favourite-favourite last week – but that’s the eighth in the series and the given that i’s nearly the end of June and thus the end of Pride month, it’s maybe fitting that the last BotW of the month is a queer romance. Dream On, Ramona Riley is both a small town romance and a normal person and famous…

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The Week in Books: June 22 - June 28

Well as you can see, I didn’t get any of the long runners ticked off, but also the heat was even worse than I was expecting it to be. Honestly. The office was fine – but getting there was not, and sleeping at night was terrible. I feel like I need to sleep for a couple of days to recover. Apparently this week is going to be better until we get to the weekend. Thoughts and prayers…

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Not A Book: Mel Brooks

Do not be confused by the name of the film – Mel Brooks is 100 today! He’s a comedy genius – and if you’ve missed how much I love the musical version of his movie The Producers, I don’t think you’ve been here much! I really wish I could find a clip that really shows you how genius the show is but I don’t think any of their showcase performances really demonstrates that, possibly because out of…

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Books in the Wild: South Kensington Books

Remember in Books Incoming the other week, where I had a mad week with five books on the Tuesday and a sixth on the Wednesday? This is where the sixth book came from on my way to Rufus Wainwright. And apologies for the sign going right through the middle of the shop front – so inconsiderate of the council to put it there! Here’s the front window – and as befits a bookshop smack bang in London’s…

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Heatwave

It’s hotter than Britain has any right to be and my brain has packed up and gone home to try and get cool somewhere. It’s impossible to capture in a photograph how hot it feels – and I wouldn’t subject you to my shiny red faced sweaty look either. I don’t want that committed to the internet. These were taking just after 7am when the temperature was already nearly 30. I haven’t been this hot since…

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Out This Week: New Beatriz Williams

For the second week in a row, the new release is from an author where I’m a bit behind on their back catalogue. But with Beatriz Williams I have more of an excuse than Ashley Poston because her books can be much harder to get hold of over here. Her 2024 and 2025 releases still aren’t available on Kindle in the UK – which means I suspect that the hard copy versions I can see on Amazon are US…

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Recommendsday: Pride Month 2026

It’s the last Wednesday of Pride month and so it’s time for some pride month reccs before it’s too late. How to Fake It In Society by K J Charles This was one of my purchases while writing the offers post and it was so much fun. Titus Pilcrow is a younger son who’s been making his own way in the world as a shopkeeper, right up until he marries a wealthy woman on her deathbed. Now he’s got more…

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Book of the Week: Dolly All the Time

Happy Tuesday everyone, and possibly not a surprise that I’ve picked the new Annabel Monaghan this week, but it is so fun and I enjoyed reading it so much that I couldn’t help myself. Dolly is a problem solver. When her mum left when she was a preteen, now her family needs her and she’s 39. She’s back in her home town with her son for the summer to try and help save the family home. And that’s…

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The Week in Books: June 15 - June 21

Morning everyone and welcome to the (extreme) heatwave. Houses in Britain aren’t made for this sort of weather and I’ve found myself researching portable air conditioning units more than in the last week! Anyway on the reading front, we’re just over a month out from Book Con and so I’ve started clearing out my shelves for the sale table – which lead to three Lorna Hills in 24 hours rather than…

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Not a Book: Rufus Does Judy!

I said last Sunday that I had two outings to chose from – and after telling you about The Tempest last week (which finished last night at Stratford) this week it’s Rufus Does Judy at the Albert Hall, which was basically the culmination of a near 20 year dream for me. But before we get to the review, the TV version of Scamanda is now on BBC iPlayer (having previously been on Disney+ in the UK). I…

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Books Incoming: Mid-June 2026 edition

It’s was going to be a two photo month this month, because there are a bunch of books that are already read, so I took them in a separate photo early so I could tidy them into their new homes on the “proper” shelves. But then I pushed the post back a week and had another mad Tuesday afternoon and bought another five books and suddenly we needed three photos. Not my finest hour I have to say This…

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Romance Series: Written in the Stars

It’s Friday and it’s Pride month so I’ve got a romance series that fits the brief for you. I was going to say trilogy because there are three of them, but I think trilogy suggests that they have to be read in order or together, but you don’t – they’re linked by a friendship group but you don’t need to have read the previous one to enjoy the next on. In fact I read the first one last and it…

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