Hello bookish pals, I’ve missed you! After a few weeks away from the blog (which, if you add them all together, and why wouldn’t you because they were consecutive, actually make several months), I am back. Hopefully, this time, it will be for good with no mysterious disappearances on the horizon. We shall see…

Anyhoo, welcome to the abridged version of #CaseClosed. #CaseClosed is my monthly wrap up post where I share the books I’ve read, the content I’ve posted on the blog, the state of my NetGalley shelf (oh, woe is me) and how my 2026 Goodreads Challenge is going.

I read six books in July:

➡️ The Secrets We Hide by Karin Slaughter
➡️ The Death Row Club by V.A. Vazquez
➡️ One of the Family by Mark Edwards
➡️ The Shadow Step by Mark Billingham
➡️ The Quiet Kill by Robert Bryndza
➡️ When You Looked Away by S.M. Govett

July was a fairly solid month for reading but I still felt a little disappointed. I was aiming to read 33% every day but it became clear quite quickly that that was going to be a tough ask. I don’t know how other bloggers do it. All hints and tips welcome!

I revived the blog in July after only posting Top Ten Tuesday posts and WWW Wednesday posts for a few months. So I haven’t posted a great deal. Here’s what I shared during July…

💛 A Killing in November by Simon Mason
💛 Last One Out by Jane Harper
💛 I Did A Bad Thing by Louise Jensen

I posted three Top Ten Tuesday posts during July…

⚪ Books I Want to Read by New-To-Me Authors
⚪ Books That Live in My Head Rent-Free (Part 2)
⚪ Books I HAD to Have Immediately But Still Haven’t Read

I also posted five WWW Wednesday posts where I share my previous read, my current read and what I plan to read next.

🟧 Wednesday 1st July
🟧 Wednesday 8th July
🟧 Wednesday 15th July
🟧 Wednesday 22nd July
🟧 Wednesday 29th July

My review with the most views in July was The Compound by Aisling Rawle.

My most popular non-review post in July was a #R3COMM3ND3D20218 post because, y’know, bots…. 😒

On to my Goodreads Challenge. I’ve decided to go with one book a week (officially my challenge goal is 53 because I started a book in 2025 and finished it in 2026 making it *extra*. In other words, it doesn’t count!). To date I have read THIRTY-EIGHT books this year, which is fine. Just shy of 75% of the way there. That’s fine.

On to my NetGalley update for this month. This is what I currently have to read on my NetGalley shelf (for both of our sakes, please don’t look……🙈)

💟 Under the Cold Bright Lights by Garry Disher (July 2026)
💟 Splasher by Billie Host (July 2026)
💟 Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard (July 2026)
💟 The Woman Who Wasn’t There by William Hussey (July 2026)
💟 Maybe Tomorrow by Michael Wood (July 2026)
💟 The Unknown by Riley Sager (August 2026)
💟 The House that Eats the Dead by Max Doty (August 2026)
💟 Slasher Summer by E.L Chen (August 2026)
💟 The Blackbird Conspiracy by Tariq Ashkanani (August 2026)
💟 They Say a Girl Died Here by Sarah Pinborough (August 2026)
💟 Pictures of You by Josh Malerman (September 2026)
💟 Serenity Falls by C.J. Tudor (September 2026)
💟 This Movie Doesn’t End the Way We Want by Hailey Piper (September 2026)
💟 Do You See What I See? by Peter Swanson (September 2026)
💟 Night of Madness by Ryan Douglass (September 2026)

One of my bookish goals for this year is to keep my NetGalley shelf at five ‘to be read’ books or fewer. Things haven’t quite gone to plan. Clearly! In fact, things have gone quite seriously OFF plan. In a completely different atmosphere to where the original plan currently resides. Oh well, at least I have a lot of fabulous reading ahead of me. My feedback ratio still stands at a steady 91% though so that’s positive.

So in summary…..

July 2025: 3 eARCs to be read 🥂 | 7 to be reviewed 😥
August: 6 eARCs to be read (but one of those isn’t mine) 😅 | 5 to be reviewed 😮‍💨
September: 6 eARCs to be read (7 if you count my guest reviewer’s book) | 7 to be reviewed 😥
October: 9 eARCs to be read 😱 | 0 to be reviewed 😌
November: 9 eARCs to be read 😟 | 1 to be reviewed ☺️
December: 7 eARCs to be read 😳| 4 to be reviewed 🫤
January 2026: 9 eARCs to be read 😰 | 3 to be reviewed 😇
February 2026: 16 eARCs to be read 🤯 | 2 to be reviewed 😮‍💨
July 2026: 15 eARCs to be read 😨 | 9 to be reviewed 🫨 (but one belongs to my guest reviewer so doesn’t really count!)

I decided that in order to make me feel more ‘on top of things’, I needed to have at least 10 reviews written and ready to go before I could return to posting regularly. I’m currently down to six scheduled reviews so I need to get my reviewing butt back in gear. I also have one non-Netgalley review to write. Which makes the situation look even worse than it did before. Ho hum! 🤣

Out of the six books I read in July, my book of the month is…

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The Shadow Step by Mark Billingham

All in all, July was a fairly good month for me. I read enough, wrote a few reviews and sort of, if you squint your eyes a little and tilt your head to the left, kept on top of my NetGalley requests. Sort of….

Goodbye July, with your crazy multiple heatwaves and your overly ambitious reading plans (oh, that was just me. I can’t blame the entire month for my being too confident, haha!). Welcome August, which is the best month because it’s my birthday on Monday 10th (ugh, birthday on a Monday 😬). If you’re still here, thank you for your support. It means a lot to me and I am always grateful. Happy August everyone. Here’s to reading all of the books! 🥂

P.S. If you’re looking for your next read then check out the hashtag #fivestarflashback on Bluesky. I’ve been re-sharing all of my old reviews from the dawn of time itself (or 2016 if you prefer). It’s been so much fun digging in the DP archives! There are roughly five reviews posted a day so lots of lovely book suggestions if you’re in need of inspiration.

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