So I somehow, someway, got a little caught up in June, and finished all of these!

Amelia, If Only by Becky Albertalli
We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon
Awakened by Laura Elliott
Vesuvius by Cass Biehn
If We Survive This by Racquel Marie
The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart
The Compound by Aisling Rawle

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Amelia, If Only by Becky Albertalli
Published by HarperCollins on June 10, 2025
Pages: 304
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Amelia Applebaum isn’t in love with Walter Holland. He just happens to be her favorite moderately famous, chaotically bisexual YouTuber. Who she just happened to invite to prom. (But it’s fine. No, for real. If you delete the post, it didn’t happen.)

Okay, maybe her friends are right: She’s slightly parasocially infatuated. But Amelia just knows sparks would fly—if only she could connect with Walter for real.

If only he would host a meet and greet.

If only it were just a short road trip away.

And if only Amelia could talk her best friends into making it the perfect last hurrah before graduation—even her newly single, always-cynical, guitar-toting best friend Natalie.

One thing’s for sure: All roads lead to butterflies.

But what if Amelia’s butterflies aren’t for Walter at all?

There’s something you should know about Becky Albertalli’s books and me: I have never read one where I did not think “holy crap I relate to this/them/etc” at least several dozen times whilst reading. Like- even if I have little in common with a character or situation, there is always some little gem of sheer feeling seen in every one of her books. Obviously, Amelia, If Only, was no different.

Amelia is about to graduate, and she finds out that a YouTuber who she’s had a huge crush on forever is doing an event in her state, so she and her friend group heads out for a road trip! This is legit such a strong, healthy example of a friend group. And frankly, we need more of that, because I think a lot of times, folks don’t realize what healthy, appropriate relationships are supposed to look like. It wasn’t that the friends didn’t have flaws and that there were never problems, on the contrary, the characters are very realistic and their relationships took work and navigation.

Amelia too has plenty of flaws, but she is also willing to learn and grow, which made me love her. She’s also incredibly funny and caring, as were her friends. She’s basically following them to college, which um, may have been something I did too. (Luckily, Amelia does this in a far healthier way than I did, but I digress.) She also has to explore some of her other feelings, including those of a romantic nature. There is also a lot of discussion about mental health, sexuality, and just self-discovery in general as the group moves into the next chapter of their lives. I did think that the romance part felt a little out of left field, but since we are only with the characters for a short period of time, it does kind of make sense that more would occur off the page. Regardless, I loved it, and I will always, always want more books in this world/from Becky’s brain.

Bottom Line: If I could pick any author to time travel back when I was a teen and needed their books, it would be Becky Albertalli.

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We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon
Published by Wednesday Books on June 10, 2025
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Sweet Tooth meets The Raven Boys in this queer young adult contemporary fantasy about what it means to belong from H.E. Edgmon.

You can never go home…

Every day, all across the world, inhuman creatures are waking up with no memory of who they are or where they came from–and the Caravan exists to help them. The traveling community is made up of these very creatures and their families who’ve acclimated to this new existence by finding refuge in each other. That is, until the morning five teenage travelers wake to find their community has disappeared around them overnight.

Those left: a half-human who only just ran back to the Caravan with their tail between their legs, two brothers–one who can’t seem to stay out of trouble and the other who’s never been brave enough to get in it, a venomous girl with blood on her hands and a heart of gold, and the Caravan’s newest addition, a disquieting shadow in the shape of a boy. They’ll have to work together to figure out what happened the night of the disappearance, but each one of the forsaken five is white-knuckling their own secrets. And with each truth forced to light, it becomes clear this isn’t really about what happened to their people–it’s about what happened to them.

I really enjoyed this far more than I thought I would at the start! The start was a little overly descriptive for my liking, and I was worried that the book might be all flowery prose, but that turned out not to be the case! It moved very quickly once the first couple chapters were through, and we got to the source of the problem: our five Sweet Tooth cast members kids with animal features and/or abilities find themselves alone in their caravan. Where did all the adults go? Should they be worried? After some time passes, they realize they need to hit the road and figure out what’s happening.

We get a lot of flashbacks to significant times in each of their pasts that lead them to their present states, and all of the characters are going through it. This book is dark, friends. Some moments shocked the heck out of me, and I am not easily shocked. My heck usually stays put, and yet. Obviously I don’t want to give much away, but there are some twists I did not see coming, and I was absolutely invested in the characters and wanted to know what was happening to them. Also, this feels very much like the first in a series? I really hope so, because otherwise it ended quite rudely? (I mean. It can stand alone but you know I prefer my endings tied up.) Oh, and I have seen some reviews saying they didn’t enjoy the narrator breaking the fourth wall, so to speak, but I kind of loved that part. Made me feel even more connected to the story, and it was a fun little change, which is important in darker fare, IMO.

Bottom Line: I struggled a bit at first, but once I got into it, I was wholly invested. And would absolutely love more of the world and characters! 

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Awakened by Laura Elliott
Published by Angry Robot on June 10, 2025
Pages: 400
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

From an exciting new voice in horror comes the tense and surreal novel Awakened. Exploring the extreme aftermath of induced global sleeplessness and the horrors of love amidst lost sanity, this is a perfect read for fans of The Girl with All the Gifts and 28 Days Later.

Funded by a benevolent but misguided billionaire, a group of scientists developed a neural chip to allow the population to turn off sleep. First used by the military, those fitted with the chip developed strengthen metabolism. In the space of a year, everyone had one. You could turn the chip off at will… until one day, you couldn’t. Deprived of the sanity that sleep brings, people quickly descended into madness, and the world changed – for the worse.

Now, marooned in the Tower of London, the surviving scientists struggle to find a cure in a new world, caged in by the screams of the Sleepless. Consumed by guilt for her part in the initial experiments, Thea Chares longs to know what has happened to her mother, whose illness had been the focal point of her previous life.

When two survivors, a man and a woman, stumble into the Tower, the seed of hope grows in the form of a new start. But all is not as it appears… the survivors display strange, dangerous habits and refuse to tell the scientists their names. As Thea finds herself inexplicably drawn to the man, life begins to spiral into a fever dream of hallucinations, violence and dark attraction, with a startlingly reveal waiting for them at daybreak.

Awakened is a dreamlike and gripping novel that will have readers questioning what’s real and what’s steeped in surreal until the very end.

Awakened is set in the near future, when technology gone wrong causes many folks to be “sleepless”, which is basically when their implants glitch, they never sleep, and they become basically zombies. We follow Thea and her cohorts who are still human, living in the Tower of London, trying to fix the problem they created (and also stay alive). Thea and some of the others are scientists who originally made the tech implants that caused this mess, but some of the others are survivors who have joined them in their quest and/or safe dwelling.

Then someone shows up who is neither “sleepless” nor human. He seems to be some sort of combination of the two, and of course the science-minded are fascinated by this. He brings with him a human woman who is unable to speak, so she can’t shed any light on the situation. The rest of the novel explores how Thea and company got to the point they’re at, and what they’re willing to do to move forward.

The book is, as a whole, very introspective. Thea spends a lot of time mulling the intricacies of sleep, and its effect on the body, as well as what makes humans different than the sleepless. There’s also a lot of commentary on the messiness of the current health system, as Thea’s mom has been dealing with chronic illness without reprieve for quite some time. Because of the level of introspection, the pace can feel a bit slower, but the questions Thea poses are thought provoking and worthwhile. There’s a lot of The 100 Season 4 morally gray questioning, and obviously I loved that.

I did not understand the ending though. Like, at all. I hope some of you read it so we can discuss it, because as much as I enjoyed the rest of the story, the end left me confused and as such, rather unfulfilled. My only negative to this otherwise engaging story, frankly!

Bottom Line:  Thought provoking and relevant, I enjoyed this morally gray novel, but I really need someone to walk me through the end. (And then maybe change it if it ended the way I think it might have?)

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Vesuvius by Cass Biehn
Published by Peachtree Teen on June 10, 2025
Pages: 384
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Felix is a cunning thief. Loren is a temple attendant. Thrown together, the boys have to piece together their fates to make it out of a burning city. A stunning queer YA fantasy debut set in ancient Pompeii.Give him your heart. Grasp your destiny. Get out alive.

Clever thief Felix seizes an opportunity to steal a helmet in Pompeii. But as he's chased by a mysterious patrician, Felix discovers the helmet is not only a priceless artefact but a relic of the god Mercury. When Felix touches it, pieces of his forgotten past begin to simmer.

Loren, an aspiring councilman and temple attendant, is plagued by nightmares of Pompeii's destruction. Nightmares that feature Felix, who stumbles into Loren's temple as an earthquake rocks the city.

Loren knows they have mere days to uncover Felix's ties to the relic and to Loren's own dreams if they have any hope of saving Pompeii from the boiling fury of Mount Vesuvius. But the Ancient Roman world is ruled by bloody politics and unstoppable destinies, with dangerous, desperate people lurking in every shadow. Felix and Loren will have to piece together their fates - and their growing feelings for one another - to make it out of a burning city alive.

You guys know I am a completionist, right? Well, not today I guess, but generally speaking. I DNF infrequently, but when I do, it is often out of mercy. For example, Vesuvius. This is a great example of a merciful incompletion, because there is nothing wrong with this book! Nothing! I just simply wasn’t feeling it. Others seemingly love it! I think for me, it was more fantasy feeling than historically/emotionally compelling, and while that is totally fine, I was hoping more for the latter. Add to it that I am so behind, and it just seemed like the right choice to call it. No reason for me to give it a bad rating just because it wasn’t my jam, right? Right. I actually marked this as “Ask Again Later” on Goodreads, but you and I both know I’m just lying to myself.

Bottom Line: This was not bad, I think it was just different than I expected and I wasn’t feeling it.

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If We Survive This by Racquel Marie
Published by Feiwel & Friends on June 17, 2025
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

The Walking Dead meets Yellowjackets in If We Survive This, a tense and emotional young adult horror novel from award-winning author Racquel Marie about a teen girl leading a group of survivors on a perilous journey during the apocalypse.

Flora Braddock Paz is not the girl who survives. A colorful creative who spends as much time fearing death as she does trying to hide that fear from her loved ones, she’s always considered herself weak. But half a year into the global outbreak of a rabies mutation that transforms people into violent, zombielike "rabids," she and her older brother Cain are still alive. With their mom dead, their dad missing, and their LA suburb left desolate, they form a new plan to venture out to the secluded Northern California cabin they vacationed in growing up―their best chance at a safe haven and maybe even seeing their dad again.

The dangers of the world have changed, but so has Flora. Still, their journey up the state is complicated by encounters with familiar faces, new allies, hidden truths, and painful memories of the family’s final time making this trip last year. And for Flora, one thing inevitably remains: No matter how far you run, death is never far behind.

This was such a fun take on the zombie apocalypse! I loved, first and foremost, that the zombies were scientifically based. They came from a transformed rabies virus, which made sense to me. I love when outlandish things have an air of plausibility! So I was already pretty into it. Then, you have siblings Flora and Cain, who are likable too- you can’t help but feel for them. Flora has been trying to keep them alive since their mom died and their dad left to find a better living option, and Flora is dealing with some major OCD which also includes panic and anxiety. Cain has broken his leg, and it all falls to Flora.

I loved that she is dealing with the more “daily” issues we all deal with, while trying to navigate this impossible situation. She knows that she and Cain cannot stay in their current home forever, because human-humans are just as, if not more, deadly than rabid-humans. So it is obviously an exciting story as they travel along the west coast, and there are a ton of twists and action, but it is also a really great story in terms of character growth, relationships, and mental health discussion. There is a lot of good stuff packed into these pages, and it flows well. It is also wonderfully messed up and dark, and the atmosphere was fabulous. My only minor complaint was that the ending did feel a bit rushed and I’d hoped for a little more from it, but overall, this was a very enjoyable, emotive, and exciting story!

Bottom Line: I feel like we all need rabies vaccines, stat.

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The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart
Series: Assassins Anonymous #2
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on June 24, 2025
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley

Welcome back to Assassins Anonymous, the only twelve-step group where joining can be deadly.

When Astrid, known in her assassin days as Azrael, stopped showing up to Assassins Anonymous, the group assumed her past had caught up with her. Only her sponsor Mark, formerly the deadliest killer in the world, holds out hope that she’s okay. Then, during a meeting, the group gets a sign, or rather, a pizza delivery. Is there another psychopath out there who actually likes olives on their pizza, or is Astrid trying to send Mark a message?

Meanwhile, Astrid wakes up in the cell of a black site prison, on a remote island. A doctor subjects her to mysterious experiments, plumbing the depths of her memory and looking for a vital clue from her past. She’ll do anything to escape, except…killing anyone. Hmm. Turns out it’s not easy to blow this joint without blowing anything, or anyone up.

I originally did not plan to bother posting this review here, because I am wildly overwhelmed. But you know what? This book was that good that I had to. Because what if I didn’t, and one of you missed out on this delightfully messed up series!? You’re welcome, friends.

Without giving too much away about the first book, I am going to tell you what I love about this series. First, it is a recovery group for assassins. What a wonderfully unique and entertaining concept! But really, the bread and butter of this series is the characters, and their found family relationships. In this second installment, the characters are even more developed, as are their relationships. I could not help but feel completely invested in their lives and their fates. Add to it, there is a lot of action and a lot of messed up stuff, but the humor and heartfelt relationships balance the violence out perfectly. I don’t have any actual complaints about this book, I loved it from start to finish.

Bottom Line: Even better than the first book, I love this series and you should read it immediately.

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The Compound by Aisling Rawle
Published by Random House on June 24, 2025
Pages: 320
Format:eARC
Source:Copy provided by author for review

You wake up in a compound in the middle of the desert, along with nine other women.

All of you are young, all beautiful, all keen to escape the grinding poverty, political unrest and environmental catastrophe of the outside world.

You realise that cameras are tracking your every move, broadcasting to millions of reality TV fans.

Soon, ten men will arrive on foot – if they all survive the journey.

What will you have to do to win?

And what happens to the losers?

LORD OF THE FLIES meets LOVE ISLAND in this explosive, addictive debut novel, as bingeable as the best reality TV, with dark undercurrents of literary dystopia and consumerist satire.

Look, most of us can understand the draw of some trashy reality shows. My personal “guilty pleasure” show is The Challenge, and I will never stop watching. The show in The Compound is a little less athletically driven than The Challenge, but has the drama nailed down. Our main character Lily wakes up at the titular compound where she finds herself with nine other young, attractive women. The setting seems to be the near future, the world seemingly just as dystopian, if not more, than our own. I do wish we’d gotten a bit more worldbuilding in that sense, as I wanted to know what world Lily was escaping from, but alas.

Anyway, the girls expect ten men to show up, but nine do. The compound has several rules: if you do not have a bedmate of the opposite sex, you are eliminated. The contestants also must earn all the elements that make a home- from furniture and doors to food and water, and then more luxury, non-necessity items. The tasks are often messy (think rating the looks of their housemates, breaking people’s things, etc.) and are designed for maximum drama. This is truly like watching a very unhinged reality show unfold before your eyes. Lily is not fully likable, but neither is she unlikable. I felt some sort of sympathy for her, but I also was not always a fan of her. This seems intentional, because we are supposed to see the bad and the good sides of these characters.

There is definitely drama, and there are certainly twists and excitement. Obviously, there is a lot of interaction between characters, both positive and negative. We see Lily form bonds (and feuds) with nearly every cast member, to some extent. And we are also able to see how these bonds impact the house dynamic, whether the relationships are friendships, enemies, or lovers. I did hope for a little more from the ending, and a bit more world-building (especially to understand Lily a bit more as a person outside the compound) but it was still compulsively readable and I could not put the book down.

Bottom Line: If you’ve ever been captivated by a reality show, you’ll be captivated by this book!

Have you read any of these books? Plan to? Let us chat about them!