My Review's for the 20 Books of Summer Reading Event - Part 1
A BONUS blog post for you all! My mini review's for all of the 10 Books I read for this amazing reading event run by Cathy from 746 Books.
I have had an amazing summer full of reading my favourite books, books I haven’t read in ages and new favourite books I have discovered!
In the end I was able to finish the 10 books I picked out for this challenge, plus another 8 others… I still can’t believe how many I have been able to read in three months!?
I have linked all of the books I read to Goodreads so you can read more about what they are like, what happens, etc…😊
I have also broken up my book reviews into two blog posts (Part 2 will be with you soon!), one for the original 10 I read and another for all of the extras! 😊
Feel free to comment below if you have read any of these books or if one of my reviews has made you want to pick up a copy to read for yourself! 📚
Book 1: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
1st June - 7th June 2024 - a charming read
The Enchanted April was an enjoyable read and is now a new favourite classic for me! I loved the setting of the book—sunshine-filled Italy—and the lovely story about four women coming together and renting a medieval castle for the month of April in the 1920s to have a break from their everyday lives. Elizabeth von Arnim’s way of writing reminded me of the way Jane Austen writes… the characters way of talking to each other, their silent thoughts and how the characters are described. I would highly recommend this book to people who enjoy simple classic books to read under a tree in the summer sun!
Book 2 : Winterling by Sarah Prineas
7th June to 8th June 2024 - an exciting read
Winterling is the first book of a trilogy series which I used to LOVE and be obsessed with when I was about eight years old! But even though they are for tweens/early teens, Sarah Prineas’s way of writing is just so magical and still perfect for any adults who love fantasy! I enjoyed it so much that I speeded through it in 24 hrs 😂 I had to find out what was going to happen to Fer and her friends!
Book 3: Summerkin by Sarah Pineas
9th - 11th June 2024 - an exciting read
Summerkin is the second book from the Winterling trilogy series and again, I had just forgotten how good these books are. I couldn’t put this book down for I had to know what was going to happen to the Summerlands, Fer and her people! Will she be crowned Queen of the Summerlands? Or will she be forced back to the human world and never return??
Book 4 : Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
11th to 25th June 2024 - an enjoyable read
I didn’t bring the final book of the Winterling series with me on holiday, so I read Mansfield Park next (which I found in a local bus stop/book swap!) until I returned home.
Mansfield Park was an enjoyable read, I just love Jane Austen’s way of writing and how she writes conversations between her characters. She can fill pages of conversation and yet it never gets boring—it’s always interesting and witty! However, I was a little disappointed towards the end of this book because I felt like Jane Austen wrapped it up very quickly, so you didn’t find out much about what the characters were thinking and feeling… I am looking forward to reading Northanger Abbey and Persuasion soon. 💕
Book 5: Moonkind by Sarah Pineas
26th to 28th June 2024 - an exciting read
Moonkind is the third and final book from the Winterling trilogy series and again, it was just AMAZING! This one is definitely my favourite book out of the three in the series as so much goes on and Sarah Pineas doesn’t speed the ending up like I expected she would to finish off the series. It all flowed really well and I stayed up so late so I could finish it and find out how it ends! Can Fer really trust Rook and his Puck brothers? Will the lords and ladies accept her way of guiding her people??
Book 6: Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters
29th of June - 2nd of July 2024 - a magical read
Enchanted Tales & Happily Ever Afters is a collection of our most beloved fairytale stories in their original form by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and many others. I found it really interesting to read the original stories without them being changed around for children, though I found some of them quite dark in places. For instance, I never knew that Sleeping Beauty had such a dark side to it!?? 😱 My favourite of them all is definitely “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Anderson. It is such a sweet, sad story. Do you have a favourite? 🥰
Book 7: Adventures of a Young Naturalist by David Attenborough
3rd to 15th July 2024 - an interesting read
Adventures of a Young Naturalist took me longer to read as it is a non-fiction book and I do find them hard to read sometimes. It was interesting and I enjoyed learning about David Attenborough’s travels to South America and Indonesia in search for wild and exotic animals. I did feel a bit sad that he took all of the animals away from their natural habitats and brought them back to England, but I understand thats how they did it back in the 1950s. I learned some things about animals, but I just found it slow to read and to finish!
Book 8: Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
15th to 18th July 2024 - an exciting and charming read
Journey to the River Sea has been a childhood favourite of mine since I was eight years old! It is such a delightful tale with lovely characters and interesting stories. I love the way Eva Ibbotson writes, her words are full of amazing adventures and it is certainly a children’s classic, though I would recommend it to all ages! I love the details about the exotic Amazon wildlife. 🦋
Book 9: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
19th to 23rd July 2024 - a happy read
This was my first time reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland surprisingly, even though I have always watched the movies and listened to the audiobooks ever since I was little. Lewis Caroll has an interesting and imaginative way of writing making anything seem possible! I found his “sometimes mad way of writing” really lighthearted and I had a smile on my face throughout the book. I also just loved the little illustrations throughout my copy of the book as it really brought the story to life! 🐰🌹
Book 10: The Spell of the Horse by Pam Billinge
23rd to 27th July 2024 - not for me
The Spell of the Horse was interesting and I enjoyed reading some chapters about Pam’s adventures riding horseback through Southern Spain because I have spent a lot of time in this area. However, I found it hard to read as I normally read fiction books… though I did enjoy trying out something outside my comfort zone! For me it was a little heavy on the subjects of self-help, therapy and people with turmoil, and less about horses, but I can understand that some people would enjoy this and that it was perhaps the main goal for this book. 😊
Well, that is all of my thoughts on the 10 Books I picked out for the reading event. I hope you found some new books that you might be inspired to get and read for yourself.
Please share your thoughts below in the comments! 💕
Part 2 will be sent out to your inbox next week! 😊
Well done for reading so many books this summer! I really enjoyed The Enchanted April and loved the Italian setting. Journey to the River Sea sounds great - I've read other Eva Ibbotson books but not that one yet.
I love Enchanted April. Elizabeth and her German Garden is also wonderful. 💜