It’s time for my first half of June 2026 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. 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: The Girls Before
Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Flatiron: Pine and Cedar, 2/24/26
Source: Swap
Why I Read It: Like her books
My Rating: 4 Stars
Having enjoyed Kate Alice Marshall’s books in the past, I swapped for a copy of The Girls Before, her newest release. This book is about Audrey, who is on the search and rescue team who has never stopped looking for a missing girl she knew in high school. Another viewpoint is provided by Stranger, a girl who is kept in a basement.
“Stranger is trapped in the dark, with only her imagination and the scribbles on the wall left by long-dead girls to keep her company. Nearly out of food and water, she makes one last attempt to escape. But if the door opens at last, will it mean salvation, or only the beginning of her fight to survive? Audrey is a search and rescue expert who never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there’s always another one lost. When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town’s most prominent family, she will have to dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of all: what happened to the girls before.”
This was atmospheric and creepy, complete with the legend of “Jenny Red Hands” and the ghosts of the girls before. I found one of the twists to be slightly predictable, but this was a solid thriller overall.
Title: Lies Between Us
Author: Jessica Goodman
Genre: YA Thriller
Publisher: GP Putnam’s Sons Books For Young Readers, 6/2/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
Lies Between Us by Jessica Goodman is about sisters Millie, Lucy, and Frankie who are best friends with the boys next door and who each have secrets. When a local is murdered, everyone is a suspect.
“For the Gold sisters and Silver brothers, life has been idyllic, growing up in side-by-side waterfront mansions in a town where doors are never locked and the police do little more than issue speeding tickets. The Golds and Silvers have known each other their entire lives, as neighbors, as friends, as family. But one carefree summer takes a dark turn when a beach party ends in tragedy and their perfect world cracks wide open. Suddenly, the bonds that tie these families together are strained by suspicion and fear. Painful secrets surface, revealing the fragile truths they’ve all been hiding. Lucy, the oldest Gold girl, harbors a crushing secret from her boyfriend, one of the Silver boys. Millie, the middle sister, quietly yearns for the one person she can’t have. And the youngest, Frankie, uncovers something that could blow their island apart.”
This was a fun thriller about rich teens with Jewish representation and a good deal of twists. I enjoyed reading this one!
Title: Someone Else’s Husband
Author: Kimberly McCreight
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Knopf, 6/16/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 3 Stars
Someone Else’s Husband is by Kimberly McCreight, whose books I’ve enjoyed in the past. This one featured two women, Gretchen, who is married to Richard, and Frankie, who met Richard and his friends on a trip to Kilimanjaro. Now Richard is arrested for Frankie’s murder and Gretchen wants to find out what really happened in order to clear him.
“Gretchen Falk, a Park Avenue sophisticate born into great wealth and blessed with a storybook marriage, knows she lives a charmed life, and she’s not about to risk losing any part of it. That’s why she tried to convince Richard, her devoted husband and the father to their three children, not to join his old college friends on an expedition to the imposing peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. Little did she know that the beautiful artist climbing alongside him might prove the far greater danger. Frankie Callahan’s dream of artistic success is within reach, with her career-making exhibition at a celebrated New York gallery only weeks away. If all goes well, the show will leave her financially independent, free of the tainted money that ties her to a past—and a man—she’s desperate to escape. To mark this new beginning, she is going to climb Kilimanjaro. But when she learns she’s the sole female accompanying a group of male friends, Frankie realizes that nothing about the trip will be as she expected. She certainly hasn’t counted on meeting anyone like the very charismatic, very rich, very married Richard Falk. By the time they descend—with one fewer in their group than when they began—they have lost more than they ever could have imagined. Now, less than two weeks after their return to New York, Frankie’s East Village loft is a blood-soaked crime scene, and Richard has been charged with her murder. It falls to Gretchen to figure how the life she so carefully constructed could have imploded so completely. There are only two things she knows for sure: she’s the only woman Richard has ever loved, and he would never hurt anyone.”
For some reason as I was reading, I thought there were two characters named Brooks. But then I realized one of them was actually Becks. I was able to predict what happened pretty easily and found the slowness of the story a bit difficult. The times go back and forth between past and present and the included police interviews were a nice touch. Overall this wasn’t my favorite by the author.
Title: While Justice Sleeps
Author: Stacey Abrams
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Random House Audio, 5/11/21
Source: Publisher – Print, Library – Audio
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 3 Stars
From my 26 in ’26 list, I listened to While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams. This political thriller is about Avery, a law clerk for a Supreme Court Justice who is assigned as his legal guardian when he goes into a coma.
“Avery Keene, a brilliant young law clerk for the legendary Justice Howard Wynn, is doing her best to hold her life together–excelling in an arduous job with the court while also dealing with a troubled family. When the shocking news breaks that Justice Wynn–the cantankerous swing vote on many current high-profile cases–has slipped into a coma, Avery’s life turns upside down. She is immediately notified that Justice Wynn has left instructions for her to serve as his legal guardian and power of attorney. Plunged into an explosive role she never anticipated, Avery finds that Justice Wynn had been secretly researching one of the most controversial cases before the court–a proposed merger between an American biotech company and an Indian genetics firm, which promises to unleash breathtaking results in the medical field. She also discovers that Wynn suspected a dangerously related conspiracy that infiltrates the highest power corridors of Washington. As political wrangling ensues in Washington to potentially replace the ailing judge whose life and survival Avery controls, she begins to unravel a carefully constructed, chesslike sequence of clues left behind by Wynn. She comes to see that Wynn had a much more personal stake in the controversial case and realizes his complex puzzle will lead her directly into harm’s way in order to find the truth.”
I found this to be long and complicated and I wasn’t really able to follow how Avery solved the puzzle that the justice left for her. I thought the narrator did a good job with the various voices and accents, but overall I thought this might be better served as a TV show.
Title: Pillar of Salt
Author: Anna Salton Eisen
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Tantor Media, 5/10/22
Source: Gift – Print, Library – Audio
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 4 Stars
From my 26 in ’26 bonus list for memoir, I listened to Pillar of Salt by Anna Salton Eisen. This is a short memoir about growing up as a second generation survivor of the Holocaust. The author’s father wrote his own memoir and this is about his daughter’s experience of finding out what happened to her father, taking a family trip to Poland, and helping her father write is memoir.
“As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Anna Salton Eisen’s memoir, Pillar of Salt: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust, breaks down the barrier of silence that was intended as a protective shield for her parents and their children. From early childhood, Anna, as a second-hand witness to the Holocaust, felt overwhelmed by the unspoken but ever-present trauma of her parents’ past. Her father, born as Lucjan Salzman, survivor of ten different concentration camps, is enveloped in impenetrable grief and his history encased in secrecy. But Anna is determined to look backwards, breaking through her father’s reticence to confront the unspoken terrors of the past. The entire Salton family embarks on a journey through Poland unlocking a history sealed in silence and buried by time. The Salton family’s quest takes them to the towns where Anna’s parents lived as children under Nazi occupation. The family returns to the ghetto where a 15-year-old Lucjan experienced his first selection and bid farewell to his parents before they were herded into a boxcar and sent to their deaths at the Belzec concentration camp. They continue their travels through the picturesque Polish countryside, still pockmarked by the remnants of former concentration camps and a spattering of Holocaust memorials. By the end of her odyssey, Anna acquires a new understanding of her legacy as a child of Holocaust survivors and how trauma is revisited upon subsequent generations. By revisiting those places of trauma with her father as her guide, Anna Salton Eisen’s tour of terrors provide her with a new understanding of how her identity has been shaped under the shadow of the Holocaust. Anna confides that by looking back like Lot’s wife, and by taking in the whole story, ‘I could carry the pain of the Holocaust and find there is more to me than a pillar of salt.'”
This was a quick read, which makes one interested in the author’s father’s story. I liked the connections that the author found with others who had similar stories to her father’s.
Title: The Jellyfish Problem
Author: Tessa Yang
Genre: Literary
Publisher: Berkley, 6/2/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang was a unique story about jellyfish obsessed Jo, whose old friend Nadia asks her to come to an island off the coast of Maine where a strange jellyfish creature is causing problems for the island’s residents.
“Dr. Jo Ness prefers jellyfish to people. Her best friend, Aldo, was the exception, but he died seven months ago. So she spends her days hidden away at an underfunded aquarium with her specimens and a draft of the jellyfish guide she and Aldo had been working on together. His voice is alive in the notes in the margins, and it’s enough. Almost. Until she receives a call from Nadia, one of the few other humans she’s loved but whom she hasn’t heard from in years, asking for her help. Nadia tells her a grand tale of a giant jellyfish terrorizing her tiny island off the coast of Maine and sends a grainy video of the creature. Frankly, the footage looks fake, but Jo drops everything to fly across the country to see Nadia again, and to find this supposed sea beast. She couldn’t save Aldo, but perhaps she can help Nadia. But when Jo arrives on Shattering Point, Nadia is nowhere to be found, and the islanders she meets each have something different to say about the creature they’ve dubbed Clementine . . . a jellyfish who changes all who see it.”
This seemed a bit sci fi and I’ve classified it as literary. Jo is dealing with the loss of her best friend Aldo and the crux of the story is about the connections people form. The characters were described as quirky and I’d agree with that! I found the ties to Japanese folklore to be interesting and this book kept me reading even though it was out of my normal reading range with the sci fi elements.
Title: It Happened One Murder
Author: Liz Lawson
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark, 5/26/26
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review
My Rating: 4 Stars
It Happened One Murder by Liz Lawson is about Harriet, whose step father is murdered at her birthday party, and Nic, whose sister is accused of the murder. Harriet and Nic have a past, but teaming up to find out what really happened leads to even more between them.
“Harriet Baker thought that when she left Logan Island, she was leaving for good. But after getting fired from her dream magazine job, she finds herself stuck back in the sleepy New Jersey beach town living with her eccentric mother and desperate to escape. And her ticket out might be…murder When Harriet’s extravagant birthday party ends with a dead body, all fingers point to Sara Allbright, the troublesome sister of none other than Nic, Harriet’s short-lived fling from years ago that she’s been eager to forget. And the feeling is entirely mutual. But murder makes for a good story, and when Harriet is told that she can get her old job back if she writes an article uncovering what really happened the night of her party, she readily agrees. To write her piece, Harriet will need Nic’s full cooperation, and if Nic wants to clear his sister’s name, he’ll need Harriet’s investigative skills. But working together? That’s less than ideal. As the two team up to find the real killer, they’ll discover the dark underbelly of their seemingly perfect hometown, uncover long buried feelings, and maybe, just maybe, realize that they might work well together after all.”
This was a fast paced read with a conclusion I didn’t predict. Having a rom com mixed with mystery was a fun combination. I did find that I was getting confused over which character was narrating each chapter, but overall I enjoyed this one.
Title: On A Night Like This
Author: Lindsey Kelk
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: HarperCollins, 1/18/22
Source: Swap – Print, Library – Audio
Why I Read It: Backlist
My Rating: 4 Stars
From my 26 in ’26 list I listened to On a Night Like This by Lindsey Kelk, which is about Fran, who is engaged to an obnoxious man. She takes a job as a celebrity assistant on a yacht to an event called the Crystal Ball. There she meets Evan, who she spends an enchanted evening with.
“Within days of wishing she could change her life, Fran Cooper is acting assistant to a celebrity, on a yacht in the Mediterranean, and en route to a tiny Italian island and the glittering Crystal Ball, along with the world’s rich and famous. When she – quite literally – bumps into a handsome American called Evan, a man able to keep his cool in the face of chaos, the magic really begins. Evan makes her a promise: no last names, no life stories, just one unforgettable night. Yet Evan belongs at the Crystal Ball and Fran is a gatecrasher. They may be soulmates, but their homes are an ocean apart, and their lives a world apart. They’ll never meet again – unless, on a night like this, everything can change forever…”
I’m not sure why this is referred to as a rom com, as the main couple is not together during the book. Apart from that, I found this one funny and I enjoyed Fran finding herself and the friend relationships she formed along the way.
This post includes eight of the books I read this month. Five were all print books and three were audio. Seven were adult books and one was YA. Genres included thriller, memoir, literary, contemporary, and mystery.
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?
