**A Bittersweet Experience: Rereading "Give the Dark My Love"**

As I sit down to write this article, I must confess that I'm still undecided about my experience with "Give the Dark My Love" by Nicola Cornick. The book's writing style and the main character, Nedra, left a lasting impression on me, but unfortunately, the audio version didn't quite resonate with me. However, I've decided to postpone finishing the book for now and restart it from the beginning at my earliest convenience.

**A Commitment to Revisiting a Beloved Story**

I'm convinced that "Give the Dark My Love" has immense potential, and I want to give it another chance to shine in my reading experience. As someone who appreciates stories and values giving the best possible reviews, I believe that re-reading this book will allow me to appreciate its nuances more deeply. By postponing finishing the book, I'm allowing myself to approach it with a fresh perspective and a renewed enthusiasm.

**The Fall into Fantasy Read-a-Thon: A Mixed Bag**

I recently participated in the Fall into Fantasy Read-a-Thon, which presented an unexpected challenge for me. While I didn't complete as many books as I had hoped, I was able to squeeze in some great reads, including "Give the Dark My Love". The experience was mixed, with some titles not quite hitting my expectations. However, the stories that did capture my attention left a lasting impression, and I'm eager to explore more fantasy novels.

**Character Development and World-Building**

One of the aspects of "Give the Dark My Love" that truly resonated with me is Nedra's character development. Her stubbornness, determination, and growth throughout the story are incredibly compelling, making her a standout protagonist. The way Cornick explores necromancy in this book also felt unique and satisfying, as it deviated from the typical fantasy trope of necromancers being one-dimensional villains.

**A Plea for Balance: Perspectives and Character Development**

While I enjoyed "Give the Dark My Love", there were moments where I felt frustrated with the multiple perspectives. The story began with a balance between Nedra's and Grey's narrative, but by the midway point, Nedra's story became overwhelmingly dominant. I would have preferred to see more development of Grey's character and his perspective, as well as a more balanced approach to presenting both narratives.

**Lessons Learned: Expansion and Development**

In general, my experience with "Give the Dark My Love" left me wanting more from various aspects of the story. I yearned for deeper exploration of alchemy, necromancy, and character relations. While this wasn't necessarily a negative experience, it did make me realize that sometimes, I appreciate more substance in a story. Nevertheless, I'm excited to dive back into "Give the Dark My Love" and discover what other secrets it holds.

**The Fall into Fantasy Read-a-Thon Wrap-Up**

Although my experience with the Fall into Fantasy Read-a-Thon wasn't entirely successful, I did manage to find some great reads, including "Shadowhunters". The list was a great reminder that there's always something new to discover in the world of fantasy literature. As I look ahead to future reading adventures, I'd love to hear about any fantastic fantasy novels you've recently enjoyed.

**Conclusion**

As I conclude this article, I must say that my experience with "Give the Dark My Love" was bittersweet. While it had its flaws and areas where I felt underwhelmed, I couldn't deny the allure of the story and its protagonist. By re-reading the book from the beginning, I hope to appreciate its nuances more deeply and give Cornick's work the recognition it deserves. If you've participated in the Fall into Fantasy Read-a-Thon or have any recommendations for great fantasy novels, please share them with me – I'm always eager to explore new worlds and stories!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up hello my name is Emma and today is the start of the fall into fantasy a read-a-thon the fall into fantasy at read-a-thon is just a week of reading fantasy books that is hosted by a penguin teen and a few book tubers here on YouTube thank you to Penguin teen for sponsoring this reading vlog so it can take you guys along with me all throughout this week as I try to complete some new fantasy books I figured I would start off by reading blog by sharing with you my TBR for the week now this is my first readathon that I am attempting to complete during at grad school so I am setting my bar very very low for this week I really don't expect to get a lot of reading done because I have so much reading for school so I'm just keeping it easy not putting too much pressure on myself I'm just gonna try and read as much as I can and more importantly enjoy the books that I'm reading so the fall independency read-a-thon it comes along with seven different reading challenges and I've tried my very best to accommodate my books to the challenges in whatever way I can ready challenge I've read a new series as well as a fantasy novel with multiple points of views I'm going to be reading give the dark my love by a Beth Revis our main character's name is nedra and she wants to become an accomplished Alchemist but she is currently at a school on a scholarship where a bunch of really prestigious students go so she feels out of place she meets a boy named gray who ends up helping her as they try to discover a cure for a plague that is sweeping their land but things get a little bit more difficult and nedra gets involved in some really serious practices like necromancy and it might be up to great to help pull her out of the darkness for a sequel I'm going to be reading Lord Of Shadows by Cassandra Clare now I am already mostly through Lord Of Shadows but I don't want to put this book on hold and it also fulfills a challenge so obviously I'm not gonna claim to have read the entirety of Lord Of Shadows during the fall in to view him to see a treatise on but I'm going to try and finish it I started today on page 370 of Lord Shadows which is pretty much in the middle of the book and for in turns out he pages is like literally a book in itself so I'm going to get a ton of shadows reading done this week for an LGBTQ fantasy I'm going through reading the land I lost by Cassandra Clare which is one of the ghosts of the shadow marker novellas this time Ella series from the shadow under Chronicles follow his brother Zachariah as he travels throughout the different Shadowhunter markets throughout his time as a silent brother and this particular story focuses on Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood who are two of our absolute favorite characters from this series and as Alec is gay and Magnus is bisexual and the story really focuses on them I think it totally fits for this challenge for a diverse fantasy I am going to be reading through blood through a fire which is the following ghost of the shadow market Noble as brother Zechariah himself is Chinese it totally fits for the challenge I've read a diverse fantasy I'm hoping to finish those at the shadow market during this roid Athan and I really think I can do that to complete the challenge of booktube recommends I'm going to be picking up the list buy it Patricia Ford the list follows a girl named Letta who lives in a world where people are restricted to only using 500 words to communicate with one another I did start reading the list this morning I'm listening to it on audio and I'm really enjoying it so far this one counts for the booktube recommends challenge because it was recommended to me by Monica from she might be Monica one day we were out book shopping in Barnes Noble and we're in the middle grade section and she said she heard really good things about this book we were both really drawn to it I don't think Monica has necessarily read it yet but I still consider it a recommendation from her because I probably wouldn't have looked twice at it if she didn't point it out to me so I'm excited to continue reading this one so that is currently in my TBR for the week of the fall independency read-a-thon and I'm going to be taking you guys along with me as I read these books in real time this morning I have read 50 pages of Lord Of Shadows and listened to an hour and 45 minutes of the list which honestly is like really good for a morning reading for me I'm very impressed with how much I already got done today right now I'm heading out to go to the movies with my friend that Talia we're gonna watch castle in the sky which I am so so excited for and then hopefully when I come home I can get some homework done and then get back to doing some reading later tonight so it's much later today I've only gone tiny bit of reading done Oh God so I essentially restarted listening to the list I'm really loving the story the writing is gorgeous and flowery but I was just really struggling to stay engaged and it was one of the situations where I felt like I was just forgetting everything as I listened to it and I'm the type of person where like I don't let audiobooks defeat me easily I will keep rewinding until I get clicks of me so it's starting to solidify a little bit more in my head now that I am 50 minutes into it again so I've lost a little bit of time but it's fine because I'm about to start cleaning up my office a little bit while listening to the audiobook I know it looks absolutely perfectly clean behind me but everything that I'm sitting on currently is an absolute and that's so I'm gonna listen to the list and do some cleaning to just de-stress clean my environment and get ready for the week I also did read a tiny bit more of Lord Of Shadows I think I read like maybe two chapters and I'm definitely just going to lay in bed tonight and read more of Lord shadows I need a D stress relaxation night and I'd really like to get some extra reading done today because I don't know how this week is going to go but yes let's clear our minds clear our spaces and listen to some audio books so it's the next day and I've gotten like a little bit more reading done while I was cleaning last night I got to listen to the first hour and 45 minutes of the list by Patricia Ford again so it's almost like I just didn't read anymore from yesterday morning after I decided to backtrack a little bit but I am feeling a lot better going into the book a second time so I'm trying really hard to make sure that I'm really focused and immersed when listening to the audiobook so I can make sure I'm not missing anything but I've been doing better I started listening this morning I don't know how much I've listened to this morning but it hasn't been a time and last night I had said I was just going to lay in bed and read last night after I finished cleaning and I decided not to because it was really not feeling well and when I don't feel well I can't read at all so I skipped reading last night but I woke up this morning and I read more I am currently on page 504 so I am doing really well in the Lord Of Shadows I think when I read a little bit later today I can definitely make a bigger dent in it and I will hopefully finish it by tomorrow so yeah I don't have much to say about the list at the moment I'm still in the very beginning of it and I'm trying to focus more I will say love the writing and atmosphere and I really like the characters I'm just trying to get a better grasp on the plot and Lord Of Shadows you can definitely check out my lord of shadows reading vlog if you want to know my thoughts on it as it's happening but it's large that is it's great I'm loving it right now I have to go to school so I can get some classwork done before at class actually starts and then when I eat my dinner I will be reading more of Lord Of Shadows and I'm gonna try to listen to my audio book on the way to and back from school I say try because I really want to listen to old peep but we'll see so and I can't read anywhere tonight I have a lot of my plate lately and I'm just not able to read as much as I wanted to at this week my week is like expediate it times a million I have double the schoolwork to do double the normal chores and planning to do my a mind and body are just an overdriven I just don't have enough time to do everything I want to that we do during that week and that's okay like other things have to take priority but I'm still trying my best I didn't get to listen to a lot of the list I was just more in the mood for music and sometimes I just need music over audiobooks so I'm gonna try and do better tomorrow or I guess technically today because it's 12:01 I'm gonna try and listen to the list in the shower and while I'm getting ready tomorrow and that should definitely help me knock out a chunk of it but it's a really enjoyable story I think the writing is really beautiful even though I'm still having a little bit of trouble connecting to it I really love the world I think the idea having a society where you could only use 500 words is fascinating to me like watching the the careful choice of language when people are talking list in the book is really fascinating in my opinion I'm really enjoying it with order shadows I haven't made a huge dent in it since I last updated you guys I'm now on page of 530 so I have like 170 pages to finish which I definitely think I can do and at least like the next two days but also earlier I did start my third book of the read-a-thon which is the land I lost by Cassandra Clare I started reading it on eBook like in between my classes today because I figured that would be a really good time for me to focus on my ebook as opposed to trying to make a dent in the giant that is lord of shadows so I think I'm like 10% in probably but I really liked it I loved seeing Alec and Magnus in the place where they are in their relationship it is just so wholesome and beautiful and I'm having a great time also what's happening a lot with these novellas is I am more invested in the stories of characters who are it reflects the Cariah like it's brother Zacharias series like you know he possesses the main plotline but as it goes through shadow into history there are many other characters that have their own significant pot lines throughout the story and so like in this one I'm they invested in Alec and Magnus I mean even think we've really approached brother Zechariah's pot line yet because like they're connected we're starting with Alex point of view or with other ones like for example and a Lightwood loved her story Celine montclair loved her story as well so I definitely just loved the other characters of story even though it's like somewhat being told through the lens of brother Zacharias history but I'm loving it I can't wait to read more hopefully you can read like a tiny bit more at work tomorrow but we'll see my big focus is finishing Lord Of Shadows so that's like my got to do this week and then hopefully I will be starting give the dark my love in the next few days which is my next physical book of the read-a-thon but I'm signing off for tonight and I will probably update you guys after work tomorrow because I have a full day of work tomorrow and I have a feeling I'm not gonna be able to fly quit work so today has not gone as planned I woke up this money incredibly sick to the point where I had to call out of work and I just laid in bed and napped and rested all day cuz I really wasn't feeling well I listened to like a tiny bit of the list in the morning LA was trying to get ready for work I liked what I listened to but I definitely think that I need to listen to the list for like at least like an hour at a time to really get more solidified into the story I really like the point where we're at I feel like a little bit I did listen to was very engaging and it contributed a lot to the story like the pot really forwarded in what I've listened to today but I always prefer listening to audiobooks for a longer period of time so I'm not sure if I will get to any audiobook listening tonight but hopefully tomorrow I can listen to it for a longer period of time on the bright side I am killing it waste Lord Of Shadows I have like less than 90 pages left I'm so close to finishing and I'm so excited I definitely could have finished it already if I started reading earlier today but when I get sick I can't read I am one of you unlucky ones where you think most people are like yes home all day I can just lay in bed even if I don't feel good no I don't want to do anything that I don't know good but I have made some more progress in Lord Of Shadows and I am going to be reading more of it tonight I am like intent on finishing it tonight because I'm so close and I really really want to get it done my mom brought me home a nice which I have been dying for I don't know why I was craving a nice so badly but now that I'm feeling a little bit better this is just really hitting a spot I'm gonna eat my tally nice and read more of Laura shadows then I have my lady midnight live show and I'm getting some progress I'm making some progress with this read-a-thon so I finished Lord Of Shadows I finished my first book of the fall in Japan to see a read-a-thon and I'm so excited about it I love Lord Of Shadows like are you kidding me did anyone expect anything different I will loved it yes so I finished Lord Of Shadows and it was great I actually felt like so much reading done today you know maybe it like did turn into like a productive sick day for me cuz I read like a huge chunk full of shadows and I enjoyed every second of it so tomorrow I will be starting it give the dark my love by about three vus which I am really really excited for it's very different from a lot of what I've been reading lately so I'm intrigued give it a try so I didn't vlog at all yesterday because I'm still sick I also have a zit on my chin let's not talk about it as an update I didn't read a ton yesterday I got like no listening of the list I listen to like that much of it but I did start give the dark my love by Beth Revis and I'm really liking it so far I'm on page 58 and last night when I was laying in bed reading I was just like really invigorated to keep going and it was an awesome feeling high fantasy it can be tough for me which if you are freaking watching on my channel you would know it's like very hard for me to commit to reading like a new high fantasy novel cuz it's just not my genre but I'm really interested in this one it's very political which I like like I really really like fantasy novels and have a lot of politics with people it about the nature of this book comes like a little bit of an excess of exposition in my opinion there's just like a lot of like spoon-feeding information because it has to all be developed before the book starts so 58 pages in is where I'm at now there's definitely been like a lot of information that's just being told to me so I'm hoping it that like it changes as the story goes on and be like actually get to meet the politicians they're talking about and get a better understanding of the tensions I do really like the main character nedra I love how determined she is and stubborn I just I love reading books not women interested in science I mean who want to help people and I can see that there's like a lot of an intro to like I'm excited to get to know her more I'm not totally sold on Gregory or gray as he's called in the book he's just like a little like bland at the moment so although like this book is like both of their perspectives so he's not like just 11 she's also like a main protagonist narrator so I am excited to get to know him more but I do really like their dynamic at the start of the story like I wouldn't say it's insta-love but they definitely have like an expediate 'add connection I feel but I like them like it's nice to see two characters who mean like clearly going to fall in love but they were just like really nice and polite which is the beginning because I'm so used to ye where the main characters just fight all the time so it's really nice to see two characters that are just like I think the other person's cute and enjoy spending time with them and wants to get to know them so I'm really liking it so far it's surprising me with how much I'm enjoying it and I will hopefully get a little bit more reading done today so I've gotten just a little bit more reading done today yeah I just got back from Thanksgiving dinner which I wasn't gonna vlog because that would be but earlier today I did read more of the land I lost and I am loving it I think I'm about halfway through and out so I think I will maybe treat myself to finishing that novella before I go to bed tonight hopefully but yet the line I lost is just so good I'm loving the blend of Alex story line and brother Zechariah story line and how they mesh together I think it's balanced really well I really love how we get to know a little Rafael more in this story not like Rafael Santiago but a different Rafael we get to know his personality more in the land I lost and I love him so much what we've seen I'm Rafael so far and the dark artifice is we don't really get to know him but it's so funny watching him and I like interact when they're like first meeting I love their dynamic and I just cannot wait to read more about them I'm also loving what I assumed to be inferences for the read scrolls of magic which is book 1 and the eldest Christmas series which we don't know follows Alec and Magnus because there are just unlike some references to Alec around the time when the first book is taking place so I'm really interested to make some connections once that comes out this March I love Lily Lily is so funny and I'm really really excited to continue on with this novella I think there is a very strong individual plot and also this subplot that's going on so I'm greatly preferring this to a lot of the other shadow Margit novellas that I I have also listened to a decent amount of the list by Patricia Ford today I think I am about four and a half hours of the way through I have three hours and 51 minutes to go so I'm more than halfway done which is really exciting all my issues of not being engaged and not being able to follow a story are completely gone I am really really focused out and I love the direction the story is going in yeah I really like the list so far I didn't realize that a lot of it is based in global warming which I find really interesting it basically takes place after like global warming has happened and arcus like the results of people are you like nodding pretending to know what I'm talking about okay um I really like you are distracting me I find it to be a very sophisticated middle grade novel not that middle grade doesn't really have the potential to be sophisticated but compared to a lot of the other middle grade that I've read it's like very mature and definitely a middle grade novel that people of like all ages could enjoy it doesn't feel very young it almost has a why a feel to it while still retaining like the core parts that make it middle grade I really like them in character Letta she actually reminds me a lot of a nedra from give the dark mile of where she's also like very passionate and determined she's about to embark on like a really dangerous mission at this point in the story so I'm excited to see more so tomorrow hopefully if I get up early enough I will be able to listen to more of the list while I'm getting ready and I definitely think I can finish it by the end of the week I'm not sure if I will get to ash Princess and finish as Princess Anne Akiko but I definitely think I can finish the list at the end of the week and I'm really happy I picked it up so now I have to do homework and write a paper and Doug's gonna sit here and play video games and then hopefully later I will get more reading done I hear my tea going off now has to go so I don't I should have and could have updated you guys last night I'm lazy last night I was hosting some Sprint's on Twitter which was really nice because not only did I enjoy interacting with you guys and talking about while we're currently reading and just reading together at the same time but I also got a chunk of reading done I was planning on reading give the dark my love but I was so close to finishing the land I lost that I was like I have to keep reading I want to finish this tonight and I did I loved the land I lost I give five out of five stars it was really really enchanting and I loved Raphael so much oh my god what a sassy little baby he's just the sweetest thing and I want so many more stories about him I will say I definitely was more interested in the scenes between like Alec Lily and Raphael for some reason I just like haven't been caught by all the Jessa or wesa or a heron gray stares moments and these novellas for some reason I definitely had the opportunity to read more of give the dress my love last night but like I decided to watch YouTube for two hours and then I went to bed it happens I don't like that happened I especially don't like what it happens during readathons but nonetheless it is a new day and I'm going to be reading more of it gave the dark my love I picked up some gyoza and rice for lunch today and I'm really accepted to eat it because I finally have an appetite after being sick so I go for days at this point and I'm gonna make some more progress on give the dark pill of just since I last vlog I did make some progress on it give the dark my love I am currently on page 131 and I've developed this really great system which i think is not only helping motivate me to do my homework but also helping me get reading done where every like article I read or for instance I'm reading my textbook now so like for every like 10 pages of the chapter I'm going to read two chapters of the book because the book chapters are only like seven pages 14 pages I can do that in like seven minutes really I read really fast so I've been going back and forth and it's been helping me make progress on my book and make progress on my homework and paper so like I'm loving this system and I think I'm gonna use it for tomorrow do so I'm really enjoying get the dark my love one thing I particularly am struck by is of classism in this book as the main character nedra comes from an impoverished farming village and she's going to this super elitist school so she faces a lot of scrutiny from her peers about where she comes from what that implies about her and especially because the plague that is like a central antagonist of the story is very prominent in the lower socioeconomic status communities and so she has to deal with a lot of stigma and I think it's just addressed really well throughout the story there's a great scene about a teacher changing their preferences about a student challenging the beliefs that they've grown up with and so I just really like the exploration of that throughout the story as for the character it's like I said I really like nedra I like how she just like does not take any negativity from other people she doesn't care about the judgment she like knows why she's at the school she knows her purpose and she's gonna do everything in her power to make that happen and I find that really inspiring and wonderful I'm really not sold on grey at the moment I feel like I just haven't gotten a good grasp of his personality yet he's he's polite he's nice but there isn't anything about him that's like really standing out to me yet so I'm hopeful that like as the story develops and maybe ask the romance develops by getting to know him a little better I like him more so yeah I'm really enjoying it I feel like it's sort of restoring my faith in high fantasy definitely over the last few months and I would probably even say the last year I was like really really toned down the amount of high fantasy I read it takes a lot for me to be interested enough to try a new one especially if it's like not a book or series or author that I really love and give the dark my love is like helping me realize that like I don't need all of those conditions in order to enjoy a high fantasy novel I just need a good book so I'm really happy with where I'm at with give the dark my love and I'm excited to read more the main reason I wanted to film a quick little clip here is because I my counseling textbook so don't think that I'm just like sitting on my butt all week and not getting a lot of reading done I'm reading it's just not fantasy but I'm reading about narrative therapy and there's this one lion we're talking about how the founder of narrative therapy it was really interested in a certain french philosopher and the quote they included from the philosopher is like so perfect for the whole theme of the list and I really wanted to share it so the French philosopher is Michel Foucault who spoke of how language is suddenly created and used by the privileged to support their understanding of what is the truth and that such truth maintains the roles of the privileged and often results in the oppression of others and I'm like that is exactly what the list is all about and I just thought that was really cool and I wanted to share it back to reading my textbook and then hopefully I can get like another two chapters of give the dark my love done and before I go home for the day and then have to just go back to doing exactly what I'm doing right now oh it is a Black Friday and after work today I did a little bit of Black Friday shopping I went to Barnes & Noble to do some school work and try and knock out some of the articles that I had to read and then decided to throw them all so I settled on this shimmery patterned kind of sheer ish long sleeve address from Charlotte Russe what I like most about it is the lines are outlined in this silver and blue glitter so I don't know if you can see it in here but in the light it glints blue which I really like only current problem is it sheds everywhere like I am covered in glitter just from showing you that also at Charlotte Russe I got this green sweater that has balloon sleeves because I am just obsessed with buying sweaters and I really really like it it's super comfy it fits really nicely and I'm super excited to wear it I have been looking everywhere for a pair of high waisted comfortable nice feeling fake leather leggings and I finally found a pair they're really nice they have this fleece inner lining so they're super warm too and they fit really great so I'm so excited to wear a t-shirt in the sweater were 35 dollars the pants for 18 and then for 8 dollars not this cute shirt from Tilly's does not a winter shirt it's basically a crop top it like just hits the top of my waistband and it is long-sleeve but it's very very lightweight the main reason I wanted it is because I love the color combination for some strange reason it really reminds me of like my favorite outfit I used to dress up my Polly Pockets in it had like this dark blue purpley and teal color scheme and so I looked at it it was eight dollars it was like I have to get it ah the one dumb moment of today is I was standing on these Black Friday shopping lines and I was like oh you know I should pull out my phone and start my other novella which is through blood through fire and like that's the perfect time to get ebook reading death is when you're online places but my idiotic self forgot to buy through blood through fire and for some reason you can't buy the Shadowhunter novellas on Amazon like on your phone for some reason it doesn't let you do it on mobile or at least I've tried in the past and it doesn't let me so I definitely could have gotten some extra reading done today and it just couldn't because I forgot to provide myself with a copy of the book it is midnight and I am tired this is how every night should end getting some reading done and like getting to a nice sleepy point where I know I'm going to fall asleep see it was so excited to be over bed I am currently on page 174 so I am like just about halfway done it is technically the last day of the read-a-thon and I have this as well as the list and through blood through fire to finish like my main TBR I don't know about your blood to fire I really want to read it like I know it's gonna be the next book I read anyways um but I think I'm more focused on finishing give the dark my lab first and if I happen to read a lot tomorrow I can start through blood through fire and that would be cool so yeah I don't have any new thoughts what I will say is that I can tell if this book is about to get very very dark I was reading some reviews earlier today and a lot of people were talking about just like how gruesome and gritty the book is going to get and I personally love books like that so I'm really excited that things just started happening that are a little dark and I can tell that maybe we're gonna delve in some moral ambiguity territory in a bit with nedra so I'm really really excited for it I'm just I'm enjoying my time reading this new high fantasy novel that I might not normally picked up and so it's been really cool to be reading this and enjoying it and I'm excited to see more so it's the next day I haven't done a ton of reading done I feel like that's how I literally started every single clip for this vlog I did listen to a tiny bit more of the list I didn't get to listen while I was getting ready this morning because still not feeling well and the mornings are always the hardest for me and I just like lay in bed until I have to crawl out and go to work I am feeling better now though but I didn't listen to the list this morning so I ended up listening to a little bit more of it at work today it because my planner basically like fell apart and so I had to reap it all of the paper through the wire spiral binding and I was like this is a great time to last my audiobook and it was so I'm about five hours in and I still have probably like three hours left but I am getting my nails done today and it takes me forever to get my nails done so I'm actually really confident that I can get a big chunk of listening done and I might even be able to finish it right now I'm eating lunch I picked up Chinese food again because I love the place next door so I got a sweet potato roll I got some chicken gyoza some rice and I am reading it through blood through fire on my phone you know I feel like I always underestimate how convenient it is to read an e-book on your phone when you're eating because you don't have to touch the book and flip all the pages while you're eating so it's a really really convenient and that's how I'm going to finish my lunch today so I just finished through blood through fire and I really loved it I think I actually said earlier in this vlog how like I wasn't feeling a lot of the novellas that focused mostly on Gemma Tessa but like Katzie Claire proved me wrong this story was really compelling it was another one that focused on like a present storyline and a past storyline as you have a sort of flashback that provided a lot of insight to a different character that we've been getting to know through these novellas and I really really enjoyed it it was a very emotional novella - there were just like a lot of difficult scenes to get through and it made for just a really well-rounded story now that I finished all eight of the ghosts with the shadow market novellas though I do believe there is one more that's being published after Queen of Aran darkness I would say I'm probably gonna give it like a 4 / 4 point 5 star rating overall I would say all together as a novella bind up it's probably my lowest rated out of the bane Chronicles and tells from the Shadowhunter Academy but that being said I think that some of the ghosts of shadow market novellas like certain ones are the best that Cassie Clair has ever written and they're super crucial to the Shadowhunter Chronicles so like there's positives and negatives to everything right now I need to do more school work what a surprise but I'm gonna go back and forth a little bit between reading and give the dark my love as well so it is the day after the Fallen to fantasy at readathon and the array devon has ended and i have not finished my TBR so this is a first for me in like 5 years of doing readathons on booktube i have always finished my TBR up until this point I am a little over 200 pages into it give the dark my love so I have 150 pages left and I have a little under three hours left of the list by Patricia Ford so I'm definitely a little bummed that I did not get to complete my entire TBR before the end of the week but I'm not gonna apologize for it I'm a grad student now and school is my number one priority it has to come before everything else in my life so I really had to put writing my paper and reading my sources for my paper over pleasure reading this week so in the pond of fantasy read-a-thon I finished half of Lord Of Shadows I read two novellas and I finished the majority of both give the dark my love and the list and I will be finishing them I'm going to insert a clip after this to discuss my final thoughts on those two books so yeah maybe use this just as a little reminder it's okay if you don't finish your TBR's life gets in the way things are more important than reading sometimes and that's just the way it is and there's no shame in that there is nothing negative about it it's just a thing that happened this week and that's cool so I am promptly going to go to bed because it is very very late and I should 100% because we've already but that's technically it for the volunter fantasy word font so I will switch over to probably who knows how many days later when I've finished both the lists and give the dark my love so I can give you my final thoughts so it has and a very tumultuous week I don't want to get into it but I'm only just getting back to work and just starting to feel better and just getting around to a little bit more reading so I can finally update this blog in a very surprising update I have decided to DNF the list by Patricia for it it's not just shocking for you watching it's shocking for me too because I did not plan on dn effing this book I have been thinking long and hard about this book over the last week and I feel it is just the best decision for myself to put down the audio format what I have retained of this book and what I have read of it I really really liked it it explores a lot of themes I really enjoyed like the way it approaches language and art and environmentalism it's all stunning and I really like the writing style and I like the main character and it was just that the audio version did not work for me therefore I'm not totally giving up on this book and I've decided that at the first opportunity for me to pick up any book I want to read I am going to be rereading it and starting from the beginning hilly physical format I just really believe in this book and I think I have so much potential to get so much more out of it so I think the best thing for me to do number one as a reader as someone who likes viewing stories and also as a reviewer as someone who likes to give the best possible reviews that I can I am going to be postponing finishing this book for now and restarting it at a later date that is hopefully very very soon definitely an unexpected update but on the plus side I am loving it give the dark my love I can't actually check what page I'm on because I'm using it to hold up my camera at the moment but a really close to being done I probably have less than a hundred pages left so I will be finishing it soon but luckily I'm like really really like and give the dark my love and I can't wait to share my final thoughts of you guys I finally finally finally got the chance to film my final clip for the fall into fantasy read-a-thon and share my final thoughts on give the dark my love I've said over and over and over again I really liked them in character nedra I think very unique and I appreciate her stubbornness and her determination and her character development is especially interesting I loved the plotline of the plague like for some reason it really really reminded me of scape as embarrassing as that is to say if you were like an OG runescape player like myself you would know that there was this member's quest called plague City and as this book takes place where there is a plague in this really poor impoverished area like it just really really reminded me of runescape and like I still ever enscape to this day even though I haven't played in years so like very very satisfying and I really liked the way necromancy was explored in this book I feel like whenever it comes to a fantasy necromancy is always as like this deep dark evil thing that only the villains touch but in this book it's the main character's path and it was just really interesting four things I didn't like I wasn't a big fan of grey like throughout the entire story I was just really underwhelmed by him there was just nothing that made him stand out he was like nice like that was it I wanted more substance from his character and another thing I was a little frustrated with the book was that the multiple perspectives were so unbalanced this book is literally like 90% nedra's perspective and 10% Grey's and it's just a personal pet peeve of mine when we have two perspectives and they are completely not balanced I just start to lose sight of why that other protagonists perspective is important and it's interesting because the book started off very very equal it was like every chapter was alternating between the two of them and I was really pleased right in the beginning but by the midway point nedra story becomes so much more important that grey like wasn't even mentioned and so I actually think I would have preferred this story to have just been address perspective and the only other thing I'd say is that like I just wanted more from every aspect of the story I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way like it did feel a little lacking at points but it was all interesting enough that like I wanted more expansion on how alchemy works how necromancy works how it is related to the plague and like the character relations I feel like I just like would have wanted more of everything because I really enjoyed what I read of it and what I got of it so yeah fall into fantasy readathon not exactly my most successful a read-a-thon ever but it was still a lot of fun I definitely did not read as much as I would have liked to but I read a lot of Shadowhunters which really pleased me I read give the dark my love which I really enjoyed and unfortunately I didn't love my experience of the list but I do know that it's the story I am 100% planning on visiting if you participated in the fall into fantasy rebus on I would love to hear your thoughts but otherwise I'm really interested if any of you guys have read some really great fantasy novels lately because now I am definitely in a fantasy mood after all of these amazing fantasy books that I just read and I would love to know what to pick up next but that is it for this video thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you soon for a new video byehey what's up hello my name is Emma and today is the start of the fall into fantasy a read-a-thon the fall into fantasy at read-a-thon is just a week of reading fantasy books that is hosted by a penguin teen and a few book tubers here on YouTube thank you to Penguin teen for sponsoring this reading vlog so it can take you guys along with me all throughout this week as I try to complete some new fantasy books I figured I would start off by reading blog by sharing with you my TBR for the week now this is my first readathon that I am attempting to complete during at grad school so I am setting my bar very very low for this week I really don't expect to get a lot of reading done because I have so much reading for school so I'm just keeping it easy not putting too much pressure on myself I'm just gonna try and read as much as I can and more importantly enjoy the books that I'm reading so the fall independency read-a-thon it comes along with seven different reading challenges and I've tried my very best to accommodate my books to the challenges in whatever way I can ready challenge I've read a new series as well as a fantasy novel with multiple points of views I'm going to be reading give the dark my love by a Beth Revis our main character's name is nedra and she wants to become an accomplished Alchemist but she is currently at a school on a scholarship where a bunch of really prestigious students go so she feels out of place she meets a boy named gray who ends up helping her as they try to discover a cure for a plague that is sweeping their land but things get a little bit more difficult and nedra gets involved in some really serious practices like necromancy and it might be up to great to help pull her out of the darkness for a sequel I'm going to be reading Lord Of Shadows by Cassandra Clare now I am already mostly through Lord Of Shadows but I don't want to put this book on hold and it also fulfills a challenge so obviously I'm not gonna claim to have read the entirety of Lord Of Shadows during the fall in to view him to see a treatise on but I'm going to try and finish it I started today on page 370 of Lord Shadows which is pretty much in the middle of the book and for in turns out he pages is like literally a book in itself so I'm going to get a ton of shadows reading done this week for an LGBTQ fantasy I'm going through reading the land I lost by Cassandra Clare which is one of the ghosts of the shadow marker novellas this time Ella series from the shadow under Chronicles follow his brother Zachariah as he travels throughout the different Shadowhunter markets throughout his time as a silent brother and this particular story focuses on Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood who are two of our absolute favorite characters from this series and as Alec is gay and Magnus is bisexual and the story really focuses on them I think it totally fits for this challenge for a diverse fantasy I am going to be reading through blood through a fire which is the following ghost of the shadow market Noble as brother Zechariah himself is Chinese it totally fits for the challenge I've read a diverse fantasy I'm hoping to finish those at the shadow market during this roid Athan and I really think I can do that to complete the challenge of booktube recommends I'm going to be picking up the list buy it Patricia Ford the list follows a girl named Letta who lives in a world where people are restricted to only using 500 words to communicate with one another I did start reading the list this morning I'm listening to it on audio and I'm really enjoying it so far this one counts for the booktube recommends challenge because it was recommended to me by Monica from she might be Monica one day we were out book shopping in Barnes Noble and we're in the middle grade section and she said she heard really good things about this book we were both really drawn to it I don't think Monica has necessarily read it yet but I still consider it a recommendation from her because I probably wouldn't have looked twice at it if she didn't point it out to me so I'm excited to continue reading this one so that is currently in my TBR for the week of the fall independency read-a-thon and I'm going to be taking you guys along with me as I read these books in real time this morning I have read 50 pages of Lord Of Shadows and listened to an hour and 45 minutes of the list which honestly is like really good for a morning reading for me I'm very impressed with how much I already got done today right now I'm heading out to go to the movies with my friend that Talia we're gonna watch castle in the sky which I am so so excited for and then hopefully when I come home I can get some homework done and then get back to doing some reading later tonight so it's much later today I've only gone tiny bit of reading done Oh God so I essentially restarted listening to the list I'm really loving the story the writing is gorgeous and flowery but I was just really struggling to stay engaged and it was one of the situations where I felt like I was just forgetting everything as I listened to it and I'm the type of person where like I don't let audiobooks defeat me easily I will keep rewinding until I get clicks of me so it's starting to solidify a little bit more in my head now that I am 50 minutes into it again so I've lost a little bit of time but it's fine because I'm about to start cleaning up my office a little bit while listening to the audiobook I know it looks absolutely perfectly clean behind me but everything that I'm sitting on currently is an absolute and that's so I'm gonna listen to the list and do some cleaning to just de-stress clean my environment and get ready for the week I also did read a tiny bit more of Lord Of Shadows I think I read like maybe two chapters and I'm definitely just going to lay in bed tonight and read more of Lord shadows I need a D stress relaxation night and I'd really like to get some extra reading done today because I don't know how this week is going to go but yes let's clear our minds clear our spaces and listen to some audio books so it's the next day and I've gotten like a little bit more reading done while I was cleaning last night I got to listen to the first hour and 45 minutes of the list by Patricia Ford again so it's almost like I just didn't read anymore from yesterday morning after I decided to backtrack a little bit but I am feeling a lot better going into the book a second time so I'm trying really hard to make sure that I'm really focused and immersed when listening to the audiobook so I can make sure I'm not missing anything but I've been doing better I started listening this morning I don't know how much I've listened to this morning but it hasn't been a time and last night I had said I was just going to lay in bed and read last night after I finished cleaning and I decided not to because it was really not feeling well and when I don't feel well I can't read at all so I skipped reading last night but I woke up this morning and I read more I am currently on page 504 so I am doing really well in the Lord Of Shadows I think when I read a little bit later today I can definitely make a bigger dent in it and I will hopefully finish it by tomorrow so yeah I don't have much to say about the list at the moment I'm still in the very beginning of it and I'm trying to focus more I will say love the writing and atmosphere and I really like the characters I'm just trying to get a better grasp on the plot and Lord Of Shadows you can definitely check out my lord of shadows reading vlog if you want to know my thoughts on it as it's happening but it's large that is it's great I'm loving it right now I have to go to school so I can get some classwork done before at class actually starts and then when I eat my dinner I will be reading more of Lord Of Shadows and I'm gonna try to listen to my audio book on the way to and back from school I say try because I really want to listen to old peep but we'll see so and I can't read anywhere tonight I have a lot of my plate lately and I'm just not able to read as much as I wanted to at this week my week is like expediate it times a million I have double the schoolwork to do double the normal chores and planning to do my a mind and body are just an overdriven I just don't have enough time to do everything I want to that we do during that week and that's okay like other things have to take priority but I'm still trying my best I didn't get to listen to a lot of the list I was just more in the mood for music and sometimes I just need music over audiobooks so I'm gonna try and do better tomorrow or I guess technically today because it's 12:01 I'm gonna try and listen to the list in the shower and while I'm getting ready tomorrow and that should definitely help me knock out a chunk of it but it's a really enjoyable story I think the writing is really beautiful even though I'm still having a little bit of trouble connecting to it I really love the world I think the idea having a society where you could only use 500 words is fascinating to me like watching the the careful choice of language when people are talking list in the book is really fascinating in my opinion I'm really enjoying it with order shadows I haven't made a huge dent in it since I last updated you guys I'm now on page of 530 so I have like 170 pages to finish which I definitely think I can do and at least like the next two days but also earlier I did start my third book of the read-a-thon which is the land I lost by Cassandra Clare I started reading it on eBook like in between my classes today because I figured that would be a really good time for me to focus on my ebook as opposed to trying to make a dent in the giant that is lord of shadows so I think I'm like 10% in probably but I really liked it I loved seeing Alec and Magnus in the place where they are in their relationship it is just so wholesome and beautiful and I'm having a great time also what's happening a lot with these novellas is I am more invested in the stories of characters who are it reflects the Cariah like it's brother Zacharias series like you know he possesses the main plotline but as it goes through shadow into history there are many other characters that have their own significant pot lines throughout the story and so like in this one I'm they invested in Alec and Magnus I mean even think we've really approached brother Zechariah's pot line yet because like they're connected we're starting with Alex point of view or with other ones like for example and a Lightwood loved her story Celine montclair loved her story as well so I definitely just loved the other characters of story even though it's like somewhat being told through the lens of brother Zacharias history but I'm loving it I can't wait to read more hopefully you can read like a tiny bit more at work tomorrow but we'll see my big focus is finishing Lord Of Shadows so that's like my got to do this week and then hopefully I will be starting give the dark my love in the next few days which is my next physical book of the read-a-thon but I'm signing off for tonight and I will probably update you guys after work tomorrow because I have a full day of work tomorrow and I have a feeling I'm not gonna be able to fly quit work so today has not gone as planned I woke up this money incredibly sick to the point where I had to call out of work and I just laid in bed and napped and rested all day cuz I really wasn't feeling well I listened to like a tiny bit of the list in the morning LA was trying to get ready for work I liked what I listened to but I definitely think that I need to listen to the list for like at least like an hour at a time to really get more solidified into the story I really like the point where we're at I feel like a little bit I did listen to was very engaging and it contributed a lot to the story like the pot really forwarded in what I've listened to today but I always prefer listening to audiobooks for a longer period of time so I'm not sure if I will get to any audiobook listening tonight but hopefully tomorrow I can listen to it for a longer period of time on the bright side I am killing it waste Lord Of Shadows I have like less than 90 pages left I'm so close to finishing and I'm so excited I definitely could have finished it already if I started reading earlier today but when I get sick I can't read I am one of you unlucky ones where you think most people are like yes home all day I can just lay in bed even if I don't feel good no I don't want to do anything that I don't know good but I have made some more progress in Lord Of Shadows and I am going to be reading more of it tonight I am like intent on finishing it tonight because I'm so close and I really really want to get it done my mom brought me home a nice which I have been dying for I don't know why I was craving a nice so badly but now that I'm feeling a little bit better this is just really hitting a spot I'm gonna eat my tally nice and read more of Laura shadows then I have my lady midnight live show and I'm getting some progress I'm making some progress with this read-a-thon so I finished Lord Of Shadows I finished my first book of the fall in Japan to see a read-a-thon and I'm so excited about it I love Lord Of Shadows like are you kidding me did anyone expect anything different I will loved it yes so I finished Lord Of Shadows and it was great I actually felt like so much reading done today you know maybe it like did turn into like a productive sick day for me cuz I read like a huge chunk full of shadows and I enjoyed every second of it so tomorrow I will be starting it give the dark my love by about three vus which I am really really excited for it's very different from a lot of what I've been reading lately so I'm intrigued give it a try so I didn't vlog at all yesterday because I'm still sick I also have a zit on my chin let's not talk about it as an update I didn't read a ton yesterday I got like no listening of the list I listen to like that much of it but I did start give the dark my love by Beth Revis and I'm really liking it so far I'm on page 58 and last night when I was laying in bed reading I was just like really invigorated to keep going and it was an awesome feeling high fantasy it can be tough for me which if you are freaking watching on my channel you would know it's like very hard for me to commit to reading like a new high fantasy novel cuz it's just not my genre but I'm really interested in this one it's very political which I like like I really really like fantasy novels and have a lot of politics with people it about the nature of this book comes like a little bit of an excess of exposition in my opinion there's just like a lot of like spoon-feeding information because it has to all be developed before the book starts so 58 pages in is where I'm at now there's definitely been like a lot of information that's just being told to me so I'm hoping it that like it changes as the story goes on and be like actually get to meet the politicians they're talking about and get a better understanding of the tensions I do really like the main character nedra I love how determined she is and stubborn I just I love reading books not women interested in science I mean who want to help people and I can see that there's like a lot of an intro to like I'm excited to get to know her more I'm not totally sold on Gregory or gray as he's called in the book he's just like a little like bland at the moment so although like this book is like both of their perspectives so he's not like just 11 she's also like a main protagonist narrator so I am excited to get to know him more but I do really like their dynamic at the start of the story like I wouldn't say it's insta-love but they definitely have like an expediate 'add connection I feel but I like them like it's nice to see two characters who mean like clearly going to fall in love but they were just like really nice and polite which is the beginning because I'm so used to ye where the main characters just fight all the time so it's really nice to see two characters that are just like I think the other person's cute and enjoy spending time with them and wants to get to know them so I'm really liking it so far it's surprising me with how much I'm enjoying it and I will hopefully get a little bit more reading done today so I've gotten just a little bit more reading done today yeah I just got back from Thanksgiving dinner which I wasn't gonna vlog because that would be but earlier today I did read more of the land I lost and I am loving it I think I'm about halfway through and out so I think I will maybe treat myself to finishing that novella before I go to bed tonight hopefully but yet the line I lost is just so good I'm loving the blend of Alex story line and brother Zechariah story line and how they mesh together I think it's balanced really well I really love how we get to know a little Rafael more in this story not like Rafael Santiago but a different Rafael we get to know his personality more in the land I lost and I love him so much what we've seen I'm Rafael so far and the dark artifice is we don't really get to know him but it's so funny watching him and I like interact when they're like first meeting I love their dynamic and I just cannot wait to read more about them I'm also loving what I assumed to be inferences for the read scrolls of magic which is book 1 and the eldest Christmas series which we don't know follows Alec and Magnus because there are just unlike some references to Alec around the time when the first book is taking place so I'm really interested to make some connections once that comes out this March I love Lily Lily is so funny and I'm really really excited to continue on with this novella I think there is a very strong individual plot and also this subplot that's going on so I'm greatly preferring this to a lot of the other shadow Margit novellas that I I have also listened to a decent amount of the list by Patricia Ford today I think I am about four and a half hours of the way through I have three hours and 51 minutes to go so I'm more than halfway done which is really exciting all my issues of not being engaged and not being able to follow a story are completely gone I am really really focused out and I love the direction the story is going in yeah I really like the list so far I didn't realize that a lot of it is based in global warming which I find really interesting it basically takes place after like global warming has happened and arcus like the results of people are you like nodding pretending to know what I'm talking about okay um I really like you are distracting me I find it to be a very sophisticated middle grade novel not that middle grade doesn't really have the potential to be sophisticated but compared to a lot of the other middle grade that I've read it's like very mature and definitely a middle grade novel that people of like all ages could enjoy it doesn't feel very young it almost has a why a feel to it while still retaining like the core parts that make it middle grade I really like them in character Letta she actually reminds me a lot of a nedra from give the dark mile of where she's also like very passionate and determined she's about to embark on like a really dangerous mission at this point in the story so I'm excited to see more so tomorrow hopefully if I get up early enough I will be able to listen to more of the list while I'm getting ready and I definitely think I can finish it by the end of the week I'm not sure if I will get to ash Princess and finish as Princess Anne Akiko but I definitely think I can finish the list at the end of the week and I'm really happy I picked it up so now I have to do homework and write a paper and Doug's gonna sit here and play video games and then hopefully later I will get more reading done I hear my tea going off now has to go so I don't I should have and could have updated you guys last night I'm lazy last night I was hosting some Sprint's on Twitter which was really nice because not only did I enjoy interacting with you guys and talking about while we're currently reading and just reading together at the same time but I also got a chunk of reading done I was planning on reading give the dark my love but I was so close to finishing the land I lost that I was like I have to keep reading I want to finish this tonight and I did I loved the land I lost I give five out of five stars it was really really enchanting and I loved Raphael so much oh my god what a sassy little baby he's just the sweetest thing and I want so many more stories about him I will say I definitely was more interested in the scenes between like Alec Lily and Raphael for some reason I just like haven't been caught by all the Jessa or wesa or a heron gray stares moments and these novellas for some reason I definitely had the opportunity to read more of give the dress my love last night but like I decided to watch YouTube for two hours and then I went to bed it happens I don't like that happened I especially don't like what it happens during readathons but nonetheless it is a new day and I'm going to be reading more of it gave the dark my love I picked up some gyoza and rice for lunch today and I'm really accepted to eat it because I finally have an appetite after being sick so I go for days at this point and I'm gonna make some more progress on give the dark pill of just since I last vlog I did make some progress on it give the dark my love I am currently on page 131 and I've developed this really great system which i think is not only helping motivate me to do my homework but also helping me get reading done where every like article I read or for instance I'm reading my textbook now so like for every like 10 pages of the chapter I'm going to read two chapters of the book because the book chapters are only like seven pages 14 pages I can do that in like seven minutes really I read really fast so I've been going back and forth and it's been helping me make progress on my book and make progress on my homework and paper so like I'm loving this system and I think I'm gonna use it for tomorrow do so I'm really enjoying get the dark my love one thing I particularly am struck by is of classism in this book as the main character nedra comes from an impoverished farming village and she's going to this super elitist school so she faces a lot of scrutiny from her peers about where she comes from what that implies about her and especially because the plague that is like a central antagonist of the story is very prominent in the lower socioeconomic status communities and so she has to deal with a lot of stigma and I think it's just addressed really well throughout the story there's a great scene about a teacher changing their preferences about a student challenging the beliefs that they've grown up with and so I just really like the exploration of that throughout the story as for the character it's like I said I really like nedra I like how she just like does not take any negativity from other people she doesn't care about the judgment she like knows why she's at the school she knows her purpose and she's gonna do everything in her power to make that happen and I find that really inspiring and wonderful I'm really not sold on grey at the moment I feel like I just haven't gotten a good grasp of his personality yet he's he's polite he's nice but there isn't anything about him that's like really standing out to me yet so I'm hopeful that like as the story develops and maybe ask the romance develops by getting to know him a little better I like him more so yeah I'm really enjoying it I feel like it's sort of restoring my faith in high fantasy definitely over the last few months and I would probably even say the last year I was like really really toned down the amount of high fantasy I read it takes a lot for me to be interested enough to try a new one especially if it's like not a book or series or author that I really love and give the dark my love is like helping me realize that like I don't need all of those conditions in order to enjoy a high fantasy novel I just need a good book so I'm really happy with where I'm at with give the dark my love and I'm excited to read more the main reason I wanted to film a quick little clip here is because I my counseling textbook so don't think that I'm just like sitting on my butt all week and not getting a lot of reading done I'm reading it's just not fantasy but I'm reading about narrative therapy and there's this one lion we're talking about how the founder of narrative therapy it was really interested in a certain french philosopher and the quote they included from the philosopher is like so perfect for the whole theme of the list and I really wanted to share it so the French philosopher is Michel Foucault who spoke of how language is suddenly created and used by the privileged to support their understanding of what is the truth and that such truth maintains the roles of the privileged and often results in the oppression of others and I'm like that is exactly what the list is all about and I just thought that was really cool and I wanted to share it back to reading my textbook and then hopefully I can get like another two chapters of give the dark my love done and before I go home for the day and then have to just go back to doing exactly what I'm doing right now oh it is a Black Friday and after work today I did a little bit of Black Friday shopping I went to Barnes & Noble to do some school work and try and knock out some of the articles that I had to read and then decided to throw them all so I settled on this shimmery patterned kind of sheer ish long sleeve address from Charlotte Russe what I like most about it is the lines are outlined in this silver and blue glitter so I don't know if you can see it in here but in the light it glints blue which I really like only current problem is it sheds everywhere like I am covered in glitter just from showing you that also at Charlotte Russe I got this green sweater that has balloon sleeves because I am just obsessed with buying sweaters and I really really like it it's super comfy it fits really nicely and I'm super excited to wear it I have been looking everywhere for a pair of high waisted comfortable nice feeling fake leather leggings and I finally found a pair they're really nice they have this fleece inner lining so they're super warm too and they fit really great so I'm so excited to wear a t-shirt in the sweater were 35 dollars the pants for 18 and then for 8 dollars not this cute shirt from Tilly's does not a winter shirt it's basically a crop top it like just hits the top of my waistband and it is long-sleeve but it's very very lightweight the main reason I wanted it is because I love the color combination for some strange reason it really reminds me of like my favorite outfit I used to dress up my Polly Pockets in it had like this dark blue purpley and teal color scheme and so I looked at it it was eight dollars it was like I have to get it ah the one dumb moment of today is I was standing on these Black Friday shopping lines and I was like oh you know I should pull out my phone and start my other novella which is through blood through fire and like that's the perfect time to get ebook reading death is when you're online places but my idiotic self forgot to buy through blood through fire and for some reason you can't buy the Shadowhunter novellas on Amazon like on your phone for some reason it doesn't let you do it on mobile or at least I've tried in the past and it doesn't let me so I definitely could have gotten some extra reading done today and it just couldn't because I forgot to provide myself with a copy of the book it is midnight and I am tired this is how every night should end getting some reading done and like getting to a nice sleepy point where I know I'm going to fall asleep see it was so excited to be over bed I am currently on page 174 so I am like just about halfway done it is technically the last day of the read-a-thon and I have this as well as the list and through blood through fire to finish like my main TBR I don't know about your blood to fire I really want to read it like I know it's gonna be the next book I read anyways um but I think I'm more focused on finishing give the dark my lab first and if I happen to read a lot tomorrow I can start through blood through fire and that would be cool so yeah I don't have any new thoughts what I will say is that I can tell if this book is about to get very very dark I was reading some reviews earlier today and a lot of people were talking about just like how gruesome and gritty the book is going to get and I personally love books like that so I'm really excited that things just started happening that are a little dark and I can tell that maybe we're gonna delve in some moral ambiguity territory in a bit with nedra so I'm really really excited for it I'm just I'm enjoying my time reading this new high fantasy novel that I might not normally picked up and so it's been really cool to be reading this and enjoying it and I'm excited to see more so it's the next day I haven't done a ton of reading done I feel like that's how I literally started every single clip for this vlog I did listen to a tiny bit more of the list I didn't get to listen while I was getting ready this morning because still not feeling well and the mornings are always the hardest for me and I just like lay in bed until I have to crawl out and go to work I am feeling better now though but I didn't listen to the list this morning so I ended up listening to a little bit more of it at work today it because my planner basically like fell apart and so I had to reap it all of the paper through the wire spiral binding and I was like this is a great time to last my audiobook and it was so I'm about five hours in and I still have probably like three hours left but I am getting my nails done today and it takes me forever to get my nails done so I'm actually really confident that I can get a big chunk of listening done and I might even be able to finish it right now I'm eating lunch I picked up Chinese food again because I love the place next door so I got a sweet potato roll I got some chicken gyoza some rice and I am reading it through blood through fire on my phone you know I feel like I always underestimate how convenient it is to read an e-book on your phone when you're eating because you don't have to touch the book and flip all the pages while you're eating so it's a really really convenient and that's how I'm going to finish my lunch today so I just finished through blood through fire and I really loved it I think I actually said earlier in this vlog how like I wasn't feeling a lot of the novellas that focused mostly on Gemma Tessa but like Katzie Claire proved me wrong this story was really compelling it was another one that focused on like a present storyline and a past storyline as you have a sort of flashback that provided a lot of insight to a different character that we've been getting to know through these novellas and I really really enjoyed it it was a very emotional novella - there were just like a lot of difficult scenes to get through and it made for just a really well-rounded story now that I finished all eight of the ghosts with the shadow market novellas though I do believe there is one more that's being published after Queen of Aran darkness I would say I'm probably gonna give it like a 4 / 4 point 5 star rating overall I would say all together as a novella bind up it's probably my lowest rated out of the bane Chronicles and tells from the Shadowhunter Academy but that being said I think that some of the ghosts of shadow market novellas like certain ones are the best that Cassie Clair has ever written and they're super crucial to the Shadowhunter Chronicles so like there's positives and negatives to everything right now I need to do more school work what a surprise but I'm gonna go back and forth a little bit between reading and give the dark my love as well so it is the day after the Fallen to fantasy at readathon and the array devon has ended and i have not finished my TBR so this is a first for me in like 5 years of doing readathons on booktube i have always finished my TBR up until this point I am a little over 200 pages into it give the dark my love so I have 150 pages left and I have a little under three hours left of the list by Patricia Ford so I'm definitely a little bummed that I did not get to complete my entire TBR before the end of the week but I'm not gonna apologize for it I'm a grad student now and school is my number one priority it has to come before everything else in my life so I really had to put writing my paper and reading my sources for my paper over pleasure reading this week so in the pond of fantasy read-a-thon I finished half of Lord Of Shadows I read two novellas and I finished the majority of both give the dark my love and the list and I will be finishing them I'm going to insert a clip after this to discuss my final thoughts on those two books so yeah maybe use this just as a little reminder it's okay if you don't finish your TBR's life gets in the way things are more important than reading sometimes and that's just the way it is and there's no shame in that there is nothing negative about it it's just a thing that happened this week and that's cool so I am promptly going to go to bed because it is very very late and I should 100% because we've already but that's technically it for the volunter fantasy word font so I will switch over to probably who knows how many days later when I've finished both the lists and give the dark my love so I can give you my final thoughts so it has and a very tumultuous week I don't want to get into it but I'm only just getting back to work and just starting to feel better and just getting around to a little bit more reading so I can finally update this blog in a very surprising update I have decided to DNF the list by Patricia for it it's not just shocking for you watching it's shocking for me too because I did not plan on dn effing this book I have been thinking long and hard about this book over the last week and I feel it is just the best decision for myself to put down the audio format what I have retained of this book and what I have read of it I really really liked it it explores a lot of themes I really enjoyed like the way it approaches language and art and environmentalism it's all stunning and I really like the writing style and I like the main character and it was just that the audio version did not work for me therefore I'm not totally giving up on this book and I've decided that at the first opportunity for me to pick up any book I want to read I am going to be rereading it and starting from the beginning hilly physical format I just really believe in this book and I think I have so much potential to get so much more out of it so I think the best thing for me to do number one as a reader as someone who likes viewing stories and also as a reviewer as someone who likes to give the best possible reviews that I can I am going to be postponing finishing this book for now and restarting it at a later date that is hopefully very very soon definitely an unexpected update but on the plus side I am loving it give the dark my love I can't actually check what page I'm on because I'm using it to hold up my camera at the moment but a really close to being done I probably have less than a hundred pages left so I will be finishing it soon but luckily I'm like really really like and give the dark my love and I can't wait to share my final thoughts of you guys I finally finally finally got the chance to film my final clip for the fall into fantasy read-a-thon and share my final thoughts on give the dark my love I've said over and over and over again I really liked them in character nedra I think very unique and I appreciate her stubbornness and her determination and her character development is especially interesting I loved the plotline of the plague like for some reason it really really reminded me of scape as embarrassing as that is to say if you were like an OG runescape player like myself you would know that there was this member's quest called plague City and as this book takes place where there is a plague in this really poor impoverished area like it just really really reminded me of runescape and like I still ever enscape to this day even though I haven't played in years so like very very satisfying and I really liked the way necromancy was explored in this book I feel like whenever it comes to a fantasy necromancy is always as like this deep dark evil thing that only the villains touch but in this book it's the main character's path and it was just really interesting four things I didn't like I wasn't a big fan of grey like throughout the entire story I was just really underwhelmed by him there was just nothing that made him stand out he was like nice like that was it I wanted more substance from his character and another thing I was a little frustrated with the book was that the multiple perspectives were so unbalanced this book is literally like 90% nedra's perspective and 10% Grey's and it's just a personal pet peeve of mine when we have two perspectives and they are completely not balanced I just start to lose sight of why that other protagonists perspective is important and it's interesting because the book started off very very equal it was like every chapter was alternating between the two of them and I was really pleased right in the beginning but by the midway point nedra story becomes so much more important that grey like wasn't even mentioned and so I actually think I would have preferred this story to have just been address perspective and the only other thing I'd say is that like I just wanted more from every aspect of the story I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way like it did feel a little lacking at points but it was all interesting enough that like I wanted more expansion on how alchemy works how necromancy works how it is related to the plague and like the character relations I feel like I just like would have wanted more of everything because I really enjoyed what I read of it and what I got of it so yeah fall into fantasy readathon not exactly my most successful a read-a-thon ever but it was still a lot of fun I definitely did not read as much as I would have liked to but I read a lot of Shadowhunters which really pleased me I read give the dark my love which I really enjoyed and unfortunately I didn't love my experience of the list but I do know that it's the story I am 100% planning on visiting if you participated in the fall into fantasy rebus on I would love to hear your thoughts but otherwise I'm really interested if any of you guys have read some really great fantasy novels lately because now I am definitely in a fantasy mood after all of these amazing fantasy books that I just read and I would love to know what to pick up next but that is it for this video thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you soon for a new video bye\n"