June wasn’t a great reading month, as far as productivity is concerned. I’m really not sure why I didn’t read as much as usual. Maybe it was too much time socializing in the pool?
My Favorite Books of June 2025
I read 14 books in June. Of those, I gave four perfect grades. Here are my reviews.
Broken Country
I say I’m a thriller reader, but Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall isn’t a thriller, and I’m almost certain it will be one of my favorite books of the year.
Beth is a farmer’s wife. She’s living a routine but seemingly happy life, working the family farm with her husband, Frank.
When Beth’s brother-in-law, who also works the farm, shoots a neighbor’s dog that was attacking their sheep, it’s revealed that the dog belongs to Gabriel Wolfe.
Gabriel is Beth’s first love (You know, the one who got away.), who has returned to town to live in his family’s abandoned estate with his young son, Leo. Gabriel and his wife divorced. Now he’s raising Leo alone.
Beth begins forming a relationship with Leo, which fills a hole she has because of the accidental death of her own son, Bobby. But their relationship also means she spends increasingly more time with Gabriel.
In the end, Beth has to decide. Does she stay with reliable Frank, whom she loves and who has always loved her, or does she try to rekindle the love she lost?
Did I mention that you spend almost the entire book knowing that someone is on trial for killing someone else, but you don’t know who, how, or why?
Night Watcher
I loved Night Watcher by Daphne Woolsoncroft. I read this book as a NetGalley ARC, and it did not disappoint.
The book is about Nola Strate. She’s the host of a late-night, call-in radio show where listeners share haunted sightings and true crime stories. She inherited the show from her father when he stopped recording.
It’s an interesting job for Nola because, as a child, Nola barely escaped a masked serial killer known as “the Hiding Man” after he murdered her babysitter. Now, she thinks he’s back.
The book was giving Scream vibes at times, which I loved.
It wasn’t totally unpredictable, but it was still really good.
If you decide to read it, you also may want to know a little bit about the author. She is real-life host of a popular true crime podcast, Going West. Her aunt went missing in 1984 and has never been found. This lived experience absolutely shaped the Night Watcher book.
The Familiar Dark
How far will a mother go to get revenge for the murder of her child? Will she turn into the very thing she’s tried her entire life not to be and repeat cycles of generational trauma?
Those are the overwhelming questions that drive the plot of The Familiar Dark by Amy Engel.
When 12‑year‑old Junie Taggert and her friend Izzy are found murdered at playground, June’s mother Eve Taggert sinks parts of their Missouri Ozark town that she thought she’d left far in the past.
Eve’s willingness to embrace the darkest parts and people in her life comes to the surface as she searches for her daughter’s killer.
To me, this book was really about what a mother can and will do to protect their daughter, even when the daughter is no longer there to protect. It was sad and difficult to read, but so worth it.
The Poppy Fields
If you could sleep for a month and overcome your grief, would you?
That’s exactly what people do at The Poppy Fields, a research-based treatment center in California.
But here’s the hang-up. Most patients wake up ‘healed,’ but a small number lose all emotional connection to their loved one who passed. They’re basically just another person in their memory.
When we meet the three main characters, Ava, Ray, and Sasha, they’re at an airport in Missouri. There’s a tornado, and all the flights are canceled, so they decided to rent a car. But everyone else had the same idea, so there is only one car left.
Then, they realize that they’re all going to the same place — The Poppy Fields.
The bulk of the book is about the trip and each of them learning why they’re headed to the fields, and that it’s for drastically different reasons.
Nikki Erlick wrote The Poppy Fields. She’s also the author of The Measure, which I loved. She’s quickly becoming one of my must-read authors because of the way she seamlessly connects characters in an unexpected way.
Happy Reading!
I didn’t read a lot (for me) in June, but I did read some great books. I hope you find something on the list to read and love. As always, Happy Reading!
