Holly Hearts Books is hosting such a fun readathon throughout July and I just couldn’t resist taking part! I love a month-long readathon, and I feel like I need something to tide me over until the return of the N.E.W.Ts in August.

The goal of the Medieval-A-Thon is simply to work your way up the social ladder to wherever you want to be in medieval society. You could read one book in July and be a peasant, staying far away from all the machinations of court and tending to your farm, or you could read six books and become the monarch – it’s up to you!

My plan is to prioritise as many of the books from My Summer TBR as possible – it’d be nice to look back on that TBR come autumn and find that I’ve actually read the books on it! Naturally I’d like to read six books and become the queen I was born to be, but I’ll settle for Princess…

Now you could just leave it like this, but there are also some prompts for you to build some armour and attain a weapon or two – after all, the medieval era isn’t a particularly safe place to be!

Crown

Read a book where a character fights for the throne

Gods of Jade and Shadow features a Mayan god who wants to take his throne back from his brother, and it also just happens to be one of my most anticipated releases of the year. It’s not out until near the end of the month so I wasn’t sure if I’d get to this one, but the book’s publicist got in touch with me yesterday and asked if I’d be interested in an ARC – to which my answer was YES PLEASE – so I’m hopeful I’ll receive a copy in the next week or so.

Helmet

Read a book with a dragon on the cover

Go big or go home, right? I might as well try and cross The Priory of the Orange Tree off my TBR!

Breastplate

Read a shiny book

Technically my copy of The City of Brass is on my kindle, but that cover just looks shiny, doesn’t it?

Leggings

Read a thick paperback

The Lies of Locke Lamora has been on my TBR for yonks and it’s a pretty squat little book, so now’s a good time to give it a try!

Boots

Read a book that has yellowed over time

My copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns isn’t the shiny new book it once was, but I quite like that the pages match the cover more now! This is another one that’s been on my TBR for years.

Cloak

Read a book with red on the dust jacket/cover

I feel like books with red on the cover pop up really frequently in readathons and, I have to be honest, I’m not that big of a fan of red books? I think I tend to be drawn towards more cool-toned colours, and if I do like a warm-toned colour it’s usually a yellow or an orange. Anyway, for this challenge I’m going to go with Her Kind because the red on the cover just happens to be a cloak! Also the publisher very kindly sent a copy of this to me for review, so I want to get to it asap. My aim is to wrap up my Booktube SFF Awards reading this week so I can start prioritising other books.

I’m not going to aim for all of these, but I wanted to give myself options so I at least have one weapon!

Sword

Read a book with something pointy on the cover

Somehow I still haven’t finished the original His Fair Assassin trilogy even though I loved Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph, and as Annith is holding a nice pointy arrow on this cover of Mortal Heart I’m going to try and cross it off my TBR at last.

Daggers

Read a book with assassins

I’ll want an audiobook on the go during my commute to work, so I think I’m going to pick up the audiobook of Holy Sister. Despite not loving Red Sister I do like a lot of the characters in this series and I want to know what happens to them.

Bow and arrow

Read a book with elves

I’d want to be an archer, I think, because I’d be useless up close and personal in a fight – I’d much rather shoot from a distance! That being said I don’t really own many books with elves until I remembered, duh, that my favourite novel, The Goblin Emperor, is brimming with elves and I’m due for a re-read! Despite its wintery setting I always get a craving for this book in the summer because that was when I first read it.

Axe

Read a book with mercenaries

Another tricky one! The only one I could think of off the top of my head is Black Leopard, Red Wolf which was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but I’ve been putting it off because I’ve seen a lot of reviews that make me think this book, sadly, isn’t going to be for me. I need to try it first, though!

There we have it – my Medieval-A-Thon TBR! I could very well just end up reading six completely different books during the month, I don’t want to wear myself out before the N.E.W.Ts, but this readathon was too fun not to create a potential TBR for.

Are you taking part in the Medieval-A-Thon?