The second month of this year’s 20 Books of Summer challenge is over and one of our hosts – Emma of Words and Peace – has compiled another questionnaire to help us recap our July reading. My answers aren’t as imaginative as the questions, but I’ve done my best!

I read eight books for the challenge this month, which means as I read nine in June I only have three more left to read in August (I’m halfway through one of them now). I’m behind with the reviews as usual, but the outstanding ones should be coming soon.

1. Which book surprised you the most this month?
Describe what made it stand out — was it a plot twist, unique character, or something unexpected?

The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson had plenty of plot twists, but what really surprised me was the way it ended! It wasn’t what I expected at all – and not what I would personally have liked, although other readers may disagree.

2. If your July reading experience was a weather forecast, what would it be and why?
Did your reads feel like sunny days, thunderstorms, gentle breezes, or heatwaves?

A real mixture of weather, just like a typical British summer! There were some hot, stormy days (Elizabeth Fremantle’s Sinners), some bleak, rainy ones (The End of the Affair by Graham Greene) and also a few brighter, breezier days (Sophie Irwin’s How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days and Hannah Dolby’s No Life For a Lady).

3. Name a setting from your July books where you’d love (or hate) to take a summer vacation.
What drew you to (or repelled you from) the place?

The Syria of the 1930s, as described by Agatha Christie in Come, Tell Me How You Live, sounds like a fascinating place to visit in many ways – and a glimpse into a world and a way of life now gone forever. However, her first night in the town of Amuda, in a house infested by rats and cockroaches sounded horrific!

4. If you could turn one book into a summer festival, what would the main event be?
Describe the vibe, activities, or the bookish highlight of your imagined festival.

I would turn The Art of a Lie into an 18th century food festival. The highlight would be a sample of Hannah Cole’s delicious homemade ice cream, a delicacy most of the guests will never have seen or tasted before! As additional entertainment, the author Henry Fielding will give readings from his recently published novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.

5. Choose your own adventure — recap July in the style of your choice:
You might write a diary entry, poem, comic panel, or even a simple list. Be as creative as you like!

I’m not feeling very creative at the moment, I’m afraid, so here are some very simple one-word reviews for the books I read this month:

Sinners by Elizabeth Fremantle – Tragic
The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson – Twisty
The Lily and the Lion by Maurice Druon – Informative
Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie – Funny
How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days by Sophie Irwin – Amusing
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene – Sad
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault – Powerful
No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby – Entertaining

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Are you taking part in 20 Books of Summer? How did your July reading go?

Now that the first month of this year’s 20 Books of Summer challenge is over, one of our hosts – Emma of Words and Peace – has compiled a list of five questions to help us recap our June reading. I had fun answering these, although I’m afraid some of my answers aren’t quite as creative as the questions!

I read nine books for the challenge in June and have only reviewed five of them so far. The other four reviews will be coming soon, I promise!

1. If your #20BooksofSummer25 TBR were a beach, what’s the most surprising thing you’ve unearthed so far – a hidden gem, a total shipwreck, or something unexpectedly delightful?
This question gets at whether you’ve discovered a new favorite, encountered a book you didn’t enjoy, or found something pleasantly surprising.

Of the books I’ve read for 20 Books of Summer so far, two were by authors who were new to me – The Rush by Beth Lewis and The Stepdaughter by Caroline Blackwood – and both were surprisingly good! I’m sure I’ll be reading more by both of those authors. Agatha Christie’s 1964 Miss Marple novel, A Caribbean Mystery, is another book I enjoyed more than I was anticipating – it hadn’t appealed to me much as it’s not a setting I associate with Miss Marple.

There were no total shipwrecks on my beach as the other books I read in June were by authors already familiar to me, so I knew what to expect!

2. Imagine your reading progress as a summer road trip. Which book has been the scenic route, which has been the highway, and is there a rest stop book you’re looking forward to?
This question explores reading pace and anticipation. A scenic route book might be slower-paced and atmospheric, while a highway book is a fast-paced read. The rest stop book is one you’re looking forward to for a break or change of pace.

The scenic route would be A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor, a slow-paced historical mystery novel set in and around a girls’ school in the 1940s. Caroline Blackwood’s The Stepdaughter would be the highway book – it’s a novella that I finished in one day.

The rest stop book I’m looking forward to is this month’s Read Christie 2025 selection, Come, Tell Me How You Live? It will be the first non-fiction book I’ve read for 20 Books of Summer, so should be a nice change from all the fiction I’ve been reading.

3. If one of the books you’ve read this month was turned into an ice cream flavor, what ingredients would it have, and what would it be called?
This question encourages your creative thinking and helps you express the essence of a book in a fun, summery way.

My Gold Rush Crunch ice cream, inspired by The Rush, includes a scoop of vanilla to represent the snowy mountains of the White Pass Trail and chunks of honeycomb to represent gold nuggets. As the book is set in Canada, it can be served with optional maple syrup!

4. If you could swap places with a character from one of the books you’ve read this month, purely for the summer, who would it be and what items would you absolutely take with you?
This question taps into escapism and personal connection. It also allows you to highlight a character or book you particularly enjoyed.

It’s actually easier for me to say which ones I wouldn’t want to swap places with! I certainly wouldn’t want to be Helen Capel from Ethel Lina White’s The Spiral Staircase and have to spend the whole summer locked in a creepy house with a murderer on the loose, nor would I want to live in any of the equally unsettling buildings described in Uketsu’s Strange Houses. Turning into a cat like Peter in Paul Gallico’s Jennie doesn’t appeal either, although it might be fun for a little while – and much as I enjoyed The Rush, the Klondike in the 19th century sounds like a harsh and dangerous place for a woman. I wouldn’t like to be a ghost like Annabel in A Schooling in Murder either, or part of the miserable household in The Stepdaughter. If I chose Love & Other Poisons by Lesley McDowell I would have to be either a murderer or a murder victim and These Wicked Devices by Matthew Plampin would give me the options of a nun, a slave or a scheming noblewoman.

Having ruled everybody else out, I’m left with Miss Marple, so it looks like I’m off to the Caribbean for the summer – with my knitting, of course. Maybe I’ll be able to solve a mystery or two while I’m there!

5. “Plot twist!”: If your summer reading challenge were a book, what unexpected event just happened to shake things up? Or did life get in the way of your reading plans?
This question acknowledges the unpredictable nature of life and reading, and allows you to share any challenges or unexpected joys you’ve encountered.

June was a surprisingly uneventful month for me, with nothing in particular that got in the way of my reading. Of course, that could change over the next two months of the challenge – only in a good way, I hope!

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Are you taking part in 20 Books of Summer? How did your June reading go?