Reader Rayna

Welcome to summer and the half way mark of 2026!
Can you believe we’re already here!?

This year has flown by, which I’m honestly glad for for a number of reasons, but I’m excited to talk about the books I hope to get to this month because I’m bringing back the TBR jar prompts! I kind of fell off the wagon with reading for a bit there, focusing on video games a lot and then dealing with a lot of health related things, but I want to hop back on board with reading and blogging because they’re both things I enjoy a lot, you know?

For this month, I have two reads that I already had planned in mind, and then I’ll be pulling my standard four prompts! I don’t always intend to read every single book I choose for the months I make these TBR selections, by the way, hence why they’re called “hopefuls!” (This is more a reminder to myself than anything lol)

Let’s get into to the picks now!

Click a cover to go to its Goodreads page!

The Pre-Chosen Books

• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo – I read Six of Crows a couple of months ago, but felt it wasn’t the right time to jump straight into the sequel, but felt for some reason that June would be the perfect month for it, so here we are! I know a lot of people were emotionally damaged by this one, so I can’t wait to join the ranks of them. (546 pages)
• Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas – I unfortunately didn’t get to this in May, so it’ll be read in June. I switched up how I’m doing this read-a-long and am only doing one book a month rather than multiple now that they’re getting longer, so I’m hoping that I’ll finish this one before the end of June. (565 pages)

The Prompt Choices

Like I said, I’ll be choosing four prompts from my jar like usual! I won’t necessarily put pressure on myself to finish all of these books, but I do hope that I will be able to do so!

Prompt One
Read a male author

• Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah – This was a really tough prompt to choose for, I’m not gonna lie. Not that I don’t have choices, mind you, but so many of them are grimdark, I swear. However, even though the contents of Chain-Gang All-Stars is also pretty bleak, I’ve heard such amazing things about this book that I definitely want to read this one. I had originally picked a different book, too, then remembered I had this on a shelf in a different room. I hope I love it and that it makes me think and question a lot of things. (411 pages)

Prompt Two
A book whose cover matches your shirt color

• Starside by Alex Aster – The shirt I was wearing at the time was my pajama shirt which was purple with a white cat on it, and so I grabbed five books and had my wife help me choose which book to pick and she picked this one. I haven’t read Aster’s YA series, though my wife owns them, but I picked up this one because it sounded good, so I hope I enjoy it! (512 pages)

Prompt Three
A paperback book

• When Among Crows by Veronica Roth – This novella is under 200 pages long and is in paperback, so it’s a win win for me! I also haven’t read anything by her since her Divergent days, so this’ll be interesting, to say the least, though I’ve heard good things about this novella duology? Series? (192 pages)

Prompt Four
Read a book under 350 pages

• Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker – I wanted to get this book on the list so bad, and when I picked this prompt I was so disappointed thinking that there was no way that Japanese Gothic was going to be under 350 pages, but at 344 pages it just makes the cut!! I’ve heard really good reviews about this book so far and the premise sounds really incredible, plus I already have a theory based on what I’ve read from the synopsis so I want to see if I’m correct, so I’m very excited to read it!

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Hopeful Page Count Total for June: 2,570 pages

Not intimidating at all, nope. Honestly, it’s really not that bad, it’s just a matter of prioritizing reading during my days and all of that. And if I don’t get to everything, that’s okay, too! But I really want to get to at least four of these, so I’m hoping to reach that goal at least!

What are you planning on reading in June? Do you use prompts to help make your selections? Let me know in the comments!