Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge June Statistics (and for the first 6 months of the year!)

Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

In terms of the books read in June, there were 70 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 20 participants. There were 69 individual titles reviewed, written by 66 different authors. There were 5 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 11 or just 1.

So which book was reviewed more than once in June? 

Last year The Women by Kristin Hannah was the most reviewed book for the whole year. This month, it was reviewed by both Bree from All the Books I Can Read and by myself. This book certainly made both of us feel a lot! 

There were also two other authors who had more than one book reviewed. 

I reviewed The Diamond Eye and Margaret from Books Please reviewed Signal Moon which is a short story. Both are by Kate Quinn.

Bev from My Reader's Block has been working her way through the Redmond and Haze mystery series by Irina Shapiro and reviewed the first three books. They were Murder in the Crypt,  Murder at the Abbey and Murder at the Mill.

I wonder what books will be featured next month!

It is hard to believe but we are half way through the challenge already for 2025, so I thought it would be interesting to look at the stats for the first 6 months and see what stands out. 

So far this year there have been 366 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 32 participants. There have been 335 individual titles reviewed, written by 292 different authors. There are 3 reviewers who have reviewed 25 or more books each with Laura from Laura's Reviews having contributed an astonishing 53 reviews so far! Thank you to everyone who has shared their links with the challenge.

There are 3 books that have all been reviewed 3 times for the challenge. They are The Lost Passenger by Frances Quinn, The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry and The Versailles Formula by Nancy Bilyeau.

Agatha Christie tops the list of authors who have been reviewed most with 10 reviews, followed by Kerry Greenwood who has been reviewed 6 times, and Kate Quinn and Patrice McDonough who have both been reviewed 4 times. 

And so far there have been 29 books reviewed that have the words death or murder in the title! What a bloodthirsty bunch of readers we are!

It will be interesting to see what changes over the next 6 months when I do the statistics for the whole year!

If you love historical fiction and reading challenges, it isn't too late to join us! All the details can be found in the sign up post.

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - April stats

 Every month I share some of the statistics related to the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. I try very hard to visit every post which has been linked (time permitting) and I find it interesting to see what are the books that people are reading and reviewing! I often end up adding a couple of books to my never ending TBR list.

In terms of the books read in March , there were 61 reviews linked up for the challenge, shared by 19 participants. There were 54 individual titles reviewed, written by 52 different authors. There were 6 reviewers who reviewed 5 or more books each. Thank you to everyone who shared their links whether it be 6 or just 1.

So which books were reviewed more than once in April ? There were actually two books that were reviewed three times each, and then a further 3 books that were reviewed twice!

The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry was reviewed by Jenia at Story for Dessert, Barbara at Stray Thoughts and at Laura's Reviews. Interestingly, there was also a short audio story called which was also written by this author, although this time the name it was published under was just Patti Callahan which Barbara also posted about!

The other book reviewed three times was Nancy Bilyeau's new book The Versailles Formula which was reviewed three times by Laura at Reading Books Again, Helen at She Reads Novels and by Davida at The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews.

The books that were reviewed twice were A Slash of Emerald by Patrice McDonough reviewed by Kim and Bev at My Reader's Block, Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall which was reviewed by Cathy from What Cathy Read Next and at Laura's Reviews. The third book was The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie which was reviewed by Shellie from Shellie Loves Books and Laura from Laura's Reviews.

There was also another Patrice McDonough book reviewed by Kim which was Murder by Lamplight.

Kerry Greenwood was the other author who was reviewed more than once this month with Bev at My Reader's Block reading both Blood and Circuses and The Castlemaine Murders. I also read a Kerry Greenwood book this month, but the review won't be up until next week...probably!

In other news, the shortlist for the Sir Walter Fiction Prize for Historical Fiction was announced in April, and they shared a cool video announcement

The shortlisted books are:


The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
The Mare by Angharad Hampshire
The Book of Days by Francesca Kay
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

I know that we have a couple of participants in the challenge who are reading the nominated books. Have you read any of these?

I wonder what books will be featured next month!

If you love historical fiction and reading challenges, it isn't too late to join us! All the details can be found in the sign up post.

I am sharing this with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz