It’s time for my first half of June 2025 book review post! I am sharing what I read in June so far, although I am skipping my 5 star reads to share later in the month (and this month I have already had a good amount!). The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Title: Before Dorothy
Author: Hazel Gaynor
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Berkley, 6/17/25
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
This Great Depression era historical fiction explores the lives of Emily and Henry before and including when Dorothy comes to live with them in Kansas. The couple moves from Chicago to a farm and much goes well for them until the Dust Bowl and a horrible drought effects their home.
“Chicago, 1924: Emily and her new husband, Henry, yearn to leave the bustle of Chicago for the promise of their own American dream among the harsh beauty of the prairie. But leaving the city means leaving Emily’s beloved sister, Annie, who was once closer to her than anyone in the world. Kansas, 1932: Emily and Henry have established their new home among the warmth of the farming community in Kansas. Aligned to the fickle fortunes of nature, their lives hold a precarious and hopeful purpose, until tragedy strikes and their orphaned niece, Dorothy, lands on their doorstep. The wide-eyed child isn’t the only thing to disrupt Emily’s world. Drought and devastating dust storms threaten to destroy everything, and her much-loved home becomes a place of uncertainty and danger. When the past catches up with the present and old secrets are exposed, Emily fears she will lose the most cherished thing of all: Dorothy.”
While the title is Before Dorothy, much of the book is actually with Dorothy as well, and there are many hints to the Wizard of Oz, showing us how Dorothy incorporated things from her life on the farm into her imagined Land of Oz. Like the original story, this book reminds us that home is with those you love.
Title: Welcome to Murder Week
Author: Karen Dukess
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Gallery / Scout Press, 6/10/25
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Cath’s mother passes away and she finds tickets her mother reserved to attend a murder mystery vacation in the UK. Cath can’t imagine why her mother wanted to go on this trip, especially together, so she decides to take the trip herself in order to find out.
“When thirty-four-year-old Cath loses her mostly absentee mother, she is ambivalent. With days of quiet, unassuming routine in Buffalo, New York, Cath consciously avoids the impulsive, thrill-seeking lifestyle that her mother once led. But when she’s forced to go through her mother’s things one afternoon, Cath is perplexed to find tickets for an upcoming ‘murder week’ in England’s Peak District: a whole town has come together to stage a fake murder mystery to attract tourism to their quaint hamlet. Baffled but helplessly intrigued by her mother’s secret purchase, Cath decides to go on the trip herself—and begins a journey she never could have anticipated. Teaming up with her two cottage-mates, both ardent mystery lovers—Wyatt Green, forty, who works unhappily in his husband’s birding store, and Amity Clark, fifty, a divorced romance writer struggling with her novels—Cath sets about solving the ‘crime’ and begins to unravel shocking truths about her mother along the way. Amidst a fling—or something more—with the handsome local maker of artisanal gin, Cath and her irresistibly charming fellow sleuths will find this week of fake murder may help them face up to a very real crossroads in their own lives.”
This was somewhat of a genre mashup as Cath and her fellow sleuths are trying to solve a staged mystery, there is the mystery of Cath’s mother and why she wanted to visit the town, and there is a little bit of romance as well. The background story about Cath’s mother was interesting and overall this was a pretty fun read.
Title: All’s Fair in Love and Pickleball
Author: Kate Spencer
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Hachette Audio, 6/3/25
Source: Audio Publisher
Why I Read It: Liked a previous book by the author
My Rating: 4 Stars
Bex inherits her parents’ racquet club and is trying to keep it going. She meets Niko, the nephew of one of her clients, a former tennis star who doesn’t really want to play pickleball. They agree to a fake dating / pickleball doubles partner scheme to try to win money to help fix up the racquet club and to save his reputation.
“Bex Martin’s racquet club is her entire world. But the business she inherited from her mother has started to feel more like a sinking ship. That is, until Nikolaus Karras—a former tennis bad-boy with an ego as big as his serve—makes himself at home on her courts. Niko has something to prove, and a high-stakes pickleball tournament is just what he needs to get back in the game after a career-ending injury. When he is finally able to set his ego aside to ask for Bex’s help, everyone assumes that they are a couple—on and off the court. But she needs the prize money to save the club, and he needs a win to restore his reputation. So now they have a fake relationship as well as a doubles partner that they can’t seem to resist. Game on!”
This was a relatively fun rom com with some cheesy and some spicy parts. Bex and Niko went from dislike to lust pretty quickly!
Title: The Missing Half
Author: Ashley Flowers
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Bantam, 5/6/25
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Nic’s sister went missing in the past and Jenna, whose sister also went missing around the same time, approaches Nic to team up and find out what happened.
“Nicole ‘Nic’ Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace. On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home. The driver’s door was open and her purse was untouched in the seat next to it. The only real clue in her disappearance was Jules Connor, another young woman from the same area who disappeared in the same way, two weeks earlier. But with so little for the police to go on, both cases eventually went cold. Nic wants nothing more than to move on from her sister’s disappearance and the state it’s left her in. But then one day, Jules’s sister, Jenna Connor, walks into Nic’s life and offers her something she hasn’t felt in a long time: hope. What follows is a gripping tale of two sisters who will do anything to find their missing halves, even if it means destroying everything they’ve ever known.”
I was impressed that my initial guess as to what happened to Kasey was incorrect and that I didn’t predict what did happen at all. I thought this book ended abruptly, and at only 257 pages it could have used more of a conclusion!
This post includes 4 of the books I read this month. 3 were print books and 1 was on audio. All 4 were adult books. Genres included historical fiction, contemporary, rom com, and thriller.
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?
