April was a weird month for me and May was good but I didn’t do as great with the theme as I had hoped. Again, I have learnt nothing from the previous month so here is my overly ambitious June TBR. This month’s theme is Middle Grade.

- Title: Onyeka and the Rise of the Rebels
- Author: Tola Okogwu
- Series: Onyeka #2
- Format: Paperback
- Age Rating: Middle Grade
- Genre: Sci-fi
Plot for Book 1: Onyeka has a lot of hair—the kind that makes strangers stop in the street and her peers whisper behind her back. At least she has Cheyenne, her best friend, who couldn’t care less what other people think. Still, Onyeka has always felt insecure about her vibrant curls…until the day Cheyenne almost drowns and Onyeka’s hair takes on a life of its own, inexplicably pulling Cheyenne from the water. At home, Onyeka’s mother tells her the shocking Onyeka’s psychokinetic powers make her a Solari, one of a secret group of people with superpowers unique to Nigeria. Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where Solari are trained. But Onyeka and her new friends at the academy soon have to put their powers to the test as they find themselves embroiled in a momentous battle between truth and lies…

- Title: Howl’s Moving Castle
- Author: Diana Wynne Jones
- Series: Howl’s Moving Castle #1
- Format: Paperback
- Age Rating: Middle Grade
- Genre: Fantasy
Plot: In the land of Ingary, where seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, Sophie Hatter attracts the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste, who puts a curse on her. Determined to make the best of things, Sophie travels to the one place where she might get help – the moving castle which hovers on the nearby hills. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the hearts of young girls…

- Title: Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor
- Author: Xiran Jay Zhao
- Series: Zachary Ying #1
- Format: Paperback
- Age Rating: Middle Grade
- Genre: Fantasy
Plot: Zachary Ying never had many opportunities to learn about his Chinese heritage. His single mom was busy enough making sure they got by, and his schools never taught anything except Western history and myths. So Zack is woefully unprepared when he discovers he was born to host the spirit of the First Emperor of China for a vital mission: sealing the leaking portal to the Chinese underworld before the upcoming Ghost Month blows it wide open. The mission takes an immediate wrong turn when the First Emperor botches his attempt to possess Zack’s body and binds to Zack’s AR gaming headset instead, leading to a battle where Zack’s mom’s soul gets taken by demons. Now, with one of history’s most infamous tyrants yapping in his headset, Zack must journey across China to heist magical artefacts and defeat figures from history and myth, all while learning to wield the emperor’s incredible water dragon powers. And if Zack can’t finish the mission in time, the spirits of the underworld will flood into the mortal realm, and he could lose his mom forever.

- Title: The School for Good and Evil
- Author: Soman Chainani
- Series: The School for Good and Evil #1
- Format: Paperback
- Age Rating: Middle Grade
- Genre: Fantasy
Plot: This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil. But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?

- Title: Hooky
- Author: Miriam Bonastre Tur
- Series: Hooky #1
- Format: Paperback
- Age Rating: Middle Grade
- Genre: Fantasy
Plot: When Dani and Dorian missed the bus to magic school, they never thought they’d wind up declared traitors to their own kind! Now, thanks to a series of mishaps, they are being chased by powerful magic families seeking the prophesied King of Witches and royals searching for missing princes. But they aren’t alone. With a local troublemaker, a princess, and a teacher who can see the future on their side, they might just be able to clear their names…but can they heal their torn kingdom?

- Title: Hilda: The Wilderness Stories
- Author: Luke Pearson
- Series: Hilda #1-2
- Format: Hardback
- Age Rating: Middle Grade
- Genre: Fantasy
Plot: Explore the magic, folklore, and mystery of Hilda’s world as she rides fluffy woffs through the sky, dodges trolls through the forests, and catches up with giants the size of mountains. With the help of her lovable deerfox friend Twig, the grumpy (but no less loveable) Wood Man, and with a backpack full of cucumber sandwiches, there’s nothing to stop Hilda from exploring the wilds and getting into sticky situations…

- Title: Hilda: The Trolberg Stories
- Author: Luke Pearson
- Series: Hilda #3-4
- Format: Hardback
- Age Rating: Middle Grade
- Genre: Fantasy
Plot (Spoilers): Leaving their home in the wilderness, Hilda, Twig and her mother have moved to the big bustling city of Trolberg. Hilda must find a way to fit into this new and very different way of life by building new friendships with humans – and creatures. Soon, she discovers the city is just as mysterious and filled with adventures as the wilderness. There is no shortage of unexpected twists, turns and new friends in this bind-up edition. A perfect gift for Hilda fans and any young adventurer in your life!
Now the 3 books are not on theme.

- Title: The Gilded Wolves
- Author: Roshani Chokshi
- Series: Gilded Wolves #1
- Format: Paperback
- Age Rating: YA
- Genre: Historical Fantasy
Plot: It’s 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood. Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history–but only if they can stay alive.

- Title: Cards on the Table
- Author: Agatha Christie
- Series: Hercule Poirot #15
- Format: Paperback
- Age Rating: Adult
- Genre: Murder Mystery
Plot: Mr. Shaitana was famous, as were his parties. He was also a man of whom everybody was a little afraid. So, when he boasted to Poirot that he considered murder an art form, the detective had some reservations about accepting a party invitation of cards and viewing Shaitana’s private art collection. Indeed, what began as an absorbing evening of bridge was to turn into a more dangerous game altogether…

- Title: Murder Before Evensong
- Author: Reverend Richard Coles
- Series: Canon Clement #1
- Format: Paperback
- Age Rating: Adult
- Genre: Murder Mystery
Plot: Canon Daniel Clement is Rector of Champton. He has been there for eight years, living at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother – opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey – and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda. When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in the church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village. And then Anthony Bowness – cousin to Bernard de Floures, patron of Champton – is found dead at the back of the church, stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs. As the police move in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his fractured community together… and catch a killer.
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