My June 2025 Round Up

- what I did this month -

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another Round Up! The days here have become steadily warmer, and I’m enjoying every moment that I can of summer break. There’s a lot to get into, so let’s get started!

What I’ve Been Reading Recently:

The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

Quick Book Summary: Natasha has always found her solace in facts, numbers, and science. Definitely not love. Never love. Especially when she’s 24 hours away from being deported to Jamaica with her family.

Daniel is the good son in his family. He writes poems in his free time, but he knows he’s going to become a doctor. Live a “respectable” life. Play by the rules. Until he meets Natasha.

When Natasha and Daniel’s lives intertwine, they find they can’t live without each other. But how do you spend forever together if your time together is about to end?

This book was a lot of fun and was a wonderful YA philosophical book! I enjoyed all of the characters and the diversity they brought to the story.

The Otherfolk by Zoë Cottrell

Quick Book Summary: Anna has never fit into her rich royal family, no matter how hard she tries. She decides to run away with her best friend Peter to the east side of the island. The problem? It’s forbidden to live there and off-limits — which is quickly explained when Anna and Peter find a hidden world of other plants, animals, and people forced to live in the Outcast Region. Can Anna and Peter survive the Outcast Region, or will they be doomed in a land they don’t know and don’t trust?

This is a wonderful debut novel from Ms. Cottrell! I enjoyed this YA fantasy book and would recommend it to anyone in search of their next read.

(Have you seen my interview with Zoë? Check it out here!)

What I’ve Been Listening To Lately:

One of my favorite Beatles songs is “Eleanor Rigby”. I learned how to play it on the ukulele a few years ago, and I always love coming across covers of it! Cody Fry’s version has to be my favorite: his orchestra renditions of popular songs are always so cool!

If you’re a Hamilton fan, you might have noticed the new album Lin-Manuel Miranda released called Hamildrops with some of his Hamilton cut songs or remakes! I really loved this version of “Helpless” by The Regrettes: it gives more of a rock and roll feel to the musical ballad number.

A Writing Update:

I have some news!

I successfully world built an entire culture of my book series in less than a month – which, for me, is pretty fast! I have all of my buzzing questions about the culture answered, and now I can focus on finishing my reverse outline and start on my second draft during the month of July.

I’ve also started a new short story class, where I’ve started to write the beginning of my fifth short story, also tying into the culture I just world built! I’m so excited to work on a short piece of writing this summer along with big picture edits for my book – it’s nice having multiple projects to work on.

A Life Update:

Life has been wild this month! At the beginning of June, I met up with a bunch of friends for a three-day writing retreat. It was amazing and just what I needed for the beginning of summer. I got to chat with a ton of great people, make so many deeper connections, AND write a fun scene from a new POV!

My favorite part of the retreat was either the two-hour writing session with all of my friends around me, getting to read the beginning of one of my short stories out loud to the group one evening, or playing Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza with fifteen people. (It’s so much fun, but your hands WILL get bruised.)

I’ve been enjoying summer vacation as well, working through lots of writing projects and reading a ton too! I recently reread this wonderful middle grade historical fiction called Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, which is a beautiful coming-of-age story about a young woman named Hanna.

I’d love to know about your adventures in June down below!

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