Every summer, I sign up to 20 Books of Summer hosted by Cathy of 746 Books. This is a casual challenge to read and review your backlog, with flexible TBRs and a range of targets, which suits me perfectly as summer tends to be when I hit a slump. So how am I getting on at the midway mark?

I came into June with a magnificent and exciting TBR, a manageable blogging schedule and a holiday on the horizon. Halfway into my holiday, I’m starting to relax at last, but I’m not really reading and I’m writing this post after an unplanned two-week hiatus, so it’s fair to say this summer is looking a lot like most so far. As of today, I’m sat on 4 Books of Summer read, with 2 reviewed; 10 is looking more likely than my original goal of 15.

I’ve devoured 2 of the 8 ARCs on my summer-long TBR, and am labouring through a third (sadly it is feeling like work, which is one reason I’m not reading much). I sang my praises to the skies as soon as I finished The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Siri; Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became The Sun will be the topic of my next blog post, as I’m still not entirely recovered from reading it (so good, folks. So very, very good).

I also read 2 (rather than the intended 3-4) books from my June pick’n’mix list. KB Wagers rocketed onto my list of must-read entertaining space opera with feel-good found family search and rescue conspiracy thriller A Pale Light In The Black (my Books of Summer may be deferred when the loose sequel comes out in a couple of weeks). Much to my surprise, I didn’t enjoy Seven Devils by Elizabeth May and Laura Lam anywhere near as much as I expected to – it delivers more or less exactly what it promises, but I was underwhelmed by characters and worldbuilding.

My only other read has been Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey, a delightful – and delightfully queer – challenge to both Wild West and post-apocalyptic tropes, which doesn’t count towards my 15 Books Of Summer as it wasn’t on my shelf at summer’s start.

What next? Well, I still have 4 ARCs and 3 Subjective Chaos nominees to read by the end of August – which based on progress to date may be all I get read! However, there’s nothing so optimistic as a book blogger in the face of her TBR, so I live hopeful of squeezing in a couple of free range reads too. No theme for the second half of the summer, but here’s some of the temptations on my shelves:

I’ll be back with some reviews across the coming weeks (honestly) and a final tally (with micro-reviews for anything outstanding) at the end of August.

What are you reading this summer?