Reading This Month: July

The Great Harry Potter re-read continued this month!

I'm about halfway through The Deathly Hallows now, having finished my favourite - The Half Blood Prince - in a little under a week.

I have to say that it took me a long time to get through The Order of the Phoenix. It's the longest of the series, but it's also, in my opinion, the least easy to read. I feel like I think Ron and Hermione must have felt in that fifth year at Hogwarts - that Harry was not the best person to be around, but that he was their friend so they had to stick by him.

It's the most teenage of the books and it seems unfair to say - given the circumstances and what is revealed to have been happening to Harry that year - to say that it gets tiresome to have Harry constantly snapping and being surly and snarly.

But I do much prefer The Half Blood Prince, which has the previous books' humour, peppered with little mysteries and then there is that final, devastating conclusion. Such a fantastic lead in to The Deathly Hallows. Prince and The Prisoner of Azkaban are probably my joint favourites in the series - Azkaban's twist still gets me every time, it's just so well played! - followed by Hallows.

I've really enjoyed this re-read immensely, but I am looking forward to diving into some new books. I've already got Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown downloaded. I'm told that if you enjoy the Outlander series, you'll like this too.

I'd also really like to read Jurassic Park but, frustratingly, it's not available on Kindle and I'm trying to buy fewer books. I'm hoping to pick it up in a charity shop or find ten minutes to pop into the local library to see if they have it.

I've discovered a few series I'm intrigued to try. With the end of the most recent series of Game of Thrones - and no publication date for the next book in sight, sadly - and after re-reading Harry Potter, I'm in the mood to throw myself into a new series.

First up is Firelight by Kristen Callihan which is part one of the Dark London series and is a Victorian fantasy, highly recommended by Katie of the Inside Number 23 podcast. Then there's A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, which I stumbled across people raving about on Instagram. Another Instagram find was Sweep by Caitlin Tiernan, in which a teenager discovers she's a witch - right up my alley!

Not to mention the all of the historical fiction that makes up my Kindle wishlist... If only I could take a week of just to read!