What We Read in June — Plot Twisted Roundup
Our First Month of Spoilers, Swearing, and Zero Apologies
June was a big month. A huge month, actually — because June is when Plot Twisted launched, which means everything you’re about to read is from our very first weeks of existence. We hit the ground running and we did not slow down.
Here’s everything CJ and LD read and reviewed in June, with full spoilers where we have them and links to the tame versions on Plot Approved for the uninitiated.
CJ’s June Reads
CJ came out swinging with four reviews in our first weeks, covering everything from a morally grey body disposal man to a mermaid who absolutely does not know where the lost kingdom is.
With Fire Series — Tamara Rene
Branded with Fire | ⭐ 3.25/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical/KU | With Fire Book 4
A massage therapist. A firefighter who just transferred into town and posted a viral video trying to find the woman he danced with the night before. And a scheming grandmother named Gran who will break things around the house and bid on her own granddaughter’s love interest at a charity auction if that’s what it takes to make them figure it out already.
CJ loved Wyatt — steady, patient, shows up every single time — and Gran was a very close second. The arson subplot simmers quietly in the background before landing in a genuinely terrifying climax. The self-imposed separation arc ran a little longer than CJ needed it to, and the recovery aftermath felt fast-tracked given what Bryn actually went through. | Spoiler-free on Plot Approved
Whiskey Women Series — Victoria Wilder
Rumors & Whiskey | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical | Whiskey Women Book 1
Dark secrets, wild women, and a body disposal guy who might just steal your heart. CJ went into this one expecting to enjoy it and did not expect to love it as much as she did. Wynona Crowne is rebuilding her life under a fake name after surviving a kidnapping, and Julian is the jeweller/cleaner who makes crime scenes disappear for the Crowne women. The twist that the small town rumors about Wyn’s family have been deliberately manufactured to cover for years of quietly handling the men who hurt women? Genuinely great. The Crowne women as a unit are chaotic, fierce, fiercely loyal, and CJ wants all of their books immediately.
Standalone — Jordan Stephanie Gray
The Wicked Sea | ⭐ 2/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 📖 Physical + 🎧 Audiobook
CJ wanted to love this one. She really did. Floating pirate ships. A mermaid on the run. A warlock with Pegasus wings grafted to his back. A lost Atlantis-style kingdom hiding the heart of a death god. The ambition is genuinely impressive — it’s creative, it’s wild, and CJ respects the commitment.
But it was a lot. Too much. The enemies-to-lovers went from mutual loathing to full physical relationship without the groundwork to earn it, the tonal whiplash between YA-style writing and extremely explicit content was jarring, and Arion spent what felt like the last quarter of the book actively dying. CJ and her friend J turned it into a drinking game on a road trip. They would not have made it to the end.
The New Romantics Series — Brittanee Nicole
Paper Rings | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 📖 Physical | The New Romantics Book 1
CJ read this in one sitting and immediately ordered the physical copy. JJ Hansen is an NHL goalie. Adeline is a voice coach and the first female goalie coach in the league in this fictional world. They have a decade of history — competing together as kids, being each other’s biggest cheerleaders, a friendship that was quietly becoming something more before life intervened.
Now she’s his goalie coach and they’re living in the same chaotic, cramped brownstone full of family members, and all that unresolved history is about to bubble up fast. The moment that got CJ? JJ left his NHL career so Adeline could shine. Happily. Without hesitation. That’s what a man who worships the love of his life actually looks like.
LD’s June Reads
LD read ten books in June. Ten. Including an entire seven-book series plus a novella. She also started two new romance series, had strong opinions about most of them, and managed to get through one book at 87% before tapping out entirely.
Harlot’s Bay Series — Olivia Dade
At First Spite | ⭐ 3.8/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Joy Nash | Harlot’s Bay Book 1
She bought the house next door to her ex out of pure spite. His brother lives on the other side. The baker at her new job listens to monster porn audiobooks at full volume with zero warning. And the grand romantic gesture at the end involves a chicken man porn story written as a love confession.
This book is completely unhinged and LD was hooked from the first chapter. The chaos is the point, the chaos is earned, and the moment when Matthew crawls through a third-story window to clean Hattie’s apartment while she’s in a depressive spiral is one of the most unexpectedly tender things in recent romance memory.
Second Chance Romance | ⭐ 2.8/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Joy Nash, Stephen Dexter | Harlot’s Bay Book 2
After the chaos of At First Spite, LD was ready. Carl the baker gets his own book! The narrator of his monster porn audiobooks shows up! A fake obituary kicks the whole thing off! This had so much potential — and then didn’t deliver. The monster porn energy that made book one so gloriously unhinged is almost entirely absent. Both leads spend most of the book acting like teenagers despite being in their forties. LD finished it. She would not reread it.
Rockton Series — Kelley Armstrong
Complete Series Review | Overall ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥 | 🎧 Therese Plummer | 7 Books + 1 Novella
LD finished the entire Rockton series in June. All seven books. The novella. And then immediately started Haven’s Rock because she wasn’t ready to leave Casey Duncan and Eric Dalton behind. A secret off-grid town hidden in the Yukon wilderness.
A homicide detective with secrets of her own. A gruff sheriff who only shows his soft side for one person. A bear dog named Storm who will chase a cougar into the woods and make you feel things you weren’t prepared for. The truth about Dalton’s origins is one of the most devastating reveals LD has read in years. Individual reviews for every book are live — and the full series spoiler wrap-up is here. | Spoiler-free on Plot Approved
Love and Hockey Series — Lauren Blakely
The Proposal Play | ⭐ 3.2/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Audiobook | Love and Hockey Book 3
Best friends for a decade. A spontaneous Vegas wedding. A marriage of convenience that needs convincing everyone around them it’s the real deal. The setup is solid. The execution didn’t quite land for LD — the inconsistencies in a ten-year friendship started to add up, Mave felt flatter here than she did as a side character in book one, and the mental health thread moved faster than felt realistic. The ending is genuinely sweet. The road to get there was bumpier than it needed to be. | Spoiler-free on Plot Approved
Life on Stage Series — Vi Keeland
Throb | ⭐ 4.2/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Sebastian York, Molly Glenmore | Life on Stage Book 1
A bachelor-style reality show that’s part Survivor, part Bachelor, and a contestant who ends up falling for the brother of the man running the network behind it. The poker games are the heart of this book in a way that snuck up on LD — both leads have family connections to poker, they meet at one, make a bet at one, and get engaged at one. The villain of this book is also not invited to the wedding. As he should not be.
Beat | ⭐ 2.8/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Sebastian York, Molly Glenmore | Life on Stage Book 2
LD was rooting for Flynn going into this one. He earned that goodwill in Throb. And then this book made it almost impossible to keep rooting for anyone. Lucky is in a relationship. Flynn knows this. They sleep together on the tour bus anyway. LD has zero patience for this trope and the book never fully won her back after that moment. Flynn’s niece is the best character in the whole book and single-handedly kept the rating from going lower.
Standalone — Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward
Diamonds and Denim | ⭐ 4.7/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Andi Arndt, Teddy Hamilton
February ends up at a wellness retreat because she had hate sex with her industry rival at a fashion event, forgot her mic was on, and triggered the morality clause in her own business contract. Brock owns the bar she sneaks out to. He drives half an hour out of town to find her blue cheese olives and orange bitters. He crawls through a hospital visitor system by claiming to be her stepbrother just to get to her. And then says “oh, I should tell you ma’am, I’m actually her stepbrother” when he gets caught kissing her. LD has already reread this one. That should tell you everything.
Standalone — Kylie Scott
Text Appeal | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Andi Arndt
LD has listened to this book three times. Three. And she still laughs out loud every single time. A wrong number text. A small town that notices everything including who is and isn’t sleeping at whose place. A grandmother named Martha who hands out weed cookies at coffee and owns needlepoint pillows that say “Live Laugh and F*** Off” and “Don’t Be a C***.” A child named Mac with a stuffed animal named Chewy Charles who she occasionally announces is “drinking the blood.” This book is pure, chaotic, small town joy and Andi Arndt’s narration makes it even better.
Standalone — Laura Dave
Hello Sunshine | ⭐ 3.6/5 | Steam: 🔥 | 🎧 Joy Osmanski
Sunshine MacKenzie has millions of followers, a cooking show, bestselling cookbooks, and one significant problem: she cannot actually cook. On her 35th birthday, an anonymous hacker blows the whole empire up. She loses everything and retreats to her childhood home in Montauk to rebuild from scratch. The twist? It was her husband all along — he orchestrated the whole thing so she could see the monster she’d become. LD appreciated the open ending, but she’s still not sure she could forgive Danny regardless of his reasoning.
Standalone — Meghan Quinn
The Way I Hate Him | ⭐ 1/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 | 🎧 Vanessa Edwin, Teddy Hamilton | DNF at 87%
LD made it to 87% and tapped out. She regrets not quitting sooner. This one started genuinely cute — and then Hayes spent the next several hours systematically chipping away at Hattie’s self-esteem in a push-pull cycle that read less like romantic tension and more like textbook negging. The book reached its natural conclusion around chapter 16. There were ten chapters left. Six hours of audio. LD did not make it.
That’s a Wrap on June
Fourteen reviews between the two of us in our very first month. Not bad for a site that didn’t exist until mid-June.
Some absolute standouts — Text Appeal, Diamonds and Denim, the entire Rockton series. Some genuine disappointments. One DNF. And one mermaid who had absolutely no idea where the lost kingdom was but committed to the bit anyway.
We’re just getting started.
Want the spoiler-free versions of everything above?
Head to Plot Approved for the tame takes → plotapproved.com/book-reviews-from-june-spoiler-free
Browse all LD reviews on Plot Twisted → plottwisted.ca/category/reviewed-by-ld
Browse all CJ reviews on Plot Twisted → plottwisted.ca/category/reviewed-by-cj
Plot Twisted. 🔥