Genre: Young Adult Fiction / Thrillers & Suspense / General

June ’26 Wrap-Up

Posted 06/30/2026 by Charli in Wrap Up / 0 Comments

I finally got back into reading this month after almost a year of not reading. I didn’t review all the books on this list, but I did review several of them. Here’s what I read in June 2026: So there it is – all 13 books I read during the month of June 2026! Clown in a Cornfield, Together We Rot, We Did Nothing Wrong, 1 Peter, 52-Week Prayer Practice for Women, The Courage to Change, Sweet Nightmare, and The Joy of an Uncluttered Life were NetGalley reads. Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives and Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo were just to finish the released books in the series. ‘Salem’s Lot, Hell House, and The Exorcist were part of my Summerween/Scariest Books Ever Written list. What did you read this month?

Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Ch..

Posted 06/10/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve stated before that Clown in a Cornfield gives me Children of the Corn vibes, but with the third installment, that’s changed. The Church of Frendo gives me The Village by M. Night Shyamalan and The Wicker Man vibes. This installment features Quinn Maybrook, but she’s not with Rust or Cole (though they are mentioned and do appear). She’s on her own, and she’s tracking down the people who participated in the previous Halloween’s massacre in Kettle Springs – the one year anniversary of the first Kettle Springs Massacre. She’s not fooling around either. Enter in a new character – Johnny D. I loved this one. He was funny, and he refused to just let Quinn go off on her own and do what she wanted. Nope. Once she picked him up, she was stuck with him. And I loved that. Another character I was somewhat fond of was Tabitha – although at first, I didn’t quite understand what was […]

We Did Nothing Wrong by Hannah..

Posted 06/09/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

We Did Nothing Wrong is another of the books in my infamous NetGalley backlog that I needed to get read and reviewed. This one was another audiobook find from my local library, which gave me a better opportunity to get it read and reviewed. I actually read along with the eARC while listening to the audiobook for this one. I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t enthralled with this book. It wasn’t horrible, it wasn’t great. It was just… a book. I didn’t connect with the characters and honestly, part of that could have been the fact that our main character is referred to as Lia one moment and Delia the next. There’s also the issue of constantly switching between Lia’s parents being referred to as Mom and Dad and Pamela and Eric. The disconnect was jarring at times – with people who should have known to call her Lia calling […]

Together We Rot by Skyla Ardnt

Posted 06/08/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’ve been trying to get through my enormous backlog on NetGalley and the “bottom of the pile” (when looked at without sorting) was Together We Rot – a book I remember being hugely excited for when I was approved for it, then promptly failed to read. As with many of the books I fail to read immediately, I regret not having read it sooner. Or rather, I regret not finishing it sooner, as I did attempt to read it a couple of times. The same as many of the other books I’ve tried to read recently, I ended up listening to this on audiobook to actually finish it. I feel like the town in which the book is set doesn’t lend much to the story, and I think that is by design. The only parts that truly make a difference are Earl’s Diner for a short period, the public library for a […]

Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo..

Posted 06/04/2026 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

As I said in my review for Clown in a Cornfield, I found it much easier to listen to this book than I did to read it. So when I went to start Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives, I went straight for the audiobook. Fortunately, my local public library carries this series, so I was able to snag this one as an audiobook as well. First, I want to shout out to Jesse Vilinsky. She does an amazing job of narrating this series. I mean, AMAZING. The voices she’s created for each of the characters is now ubiquitous with those characters in my mind. I cannot imagine one of them speaking in any other voice. When I first started Frendo Lives, I hadn’t imagined that we’d be combining PTSD with Internet Conspiracy Theories, but here we are, and it is amazing. I should have known that this would be part of […]