Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge 2025 - June Update: Bianca Torre Is Afraid Of Everything & In Deeper Waters

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope everyone's been doing well this month.  I've now completed 13 total tasks for Book Riot's 2025 Read Harder Challenge.  I completed two tasks in June which required me to read a queer mystery and a queernorm book.  I selected Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything by Justine Pucella Winans and In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens respectively.  Read on to see my mini reviews and my plans for next month:

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Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything by Justine Pucella Winans turned out to be a pleasant surprise of a YA mystery.  I didn't quite know what expect from it, but I really ended up enjoying it. I'll have to read more from this author soon because I really liked their style.  My favorite aspect of this book are the characters and Bianca's own nerdiness and internal narration.  The darker sense of humor also really worked for me as well as.  I'll have to try One Killer Problem asap.

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

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I really enjoyed In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens, a YA fantasy adventure romance. It's fun and I wouldn't mind seeing the characters again even if I did think the story was just a little bit too long overall. It's the characters that kept me coming back.  The cover made me think this was going to be more of a pirate, or sailing story, than it was though I was pleased the sea does still play a major part of this story. It's been compared to Pirates of the Caribbean and The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, and I'd say that comparison mostly works out especially with the comparison to Mackenzi Lee's story.  I'm really looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

My review is also on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

Next Up For July:

Read a standalone fantasy book.

My choice: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern - This has been on my tbr for way too long given how much I loved Night Circus.

Are you taking part in this challenge?  Have you read any of these books?  As always, thanks for visiting my blog and perhaps even commenting down below!