Reading Vlog - Battling A Reading Slump + 3 Amazing Books!

**A New Vampire Novel: First Impressions**

As I sat down to write about this new vampire novel, I couldn't help but think of two books that might have inspired its creation: Twilight and The Cruel Prince. Someone on Goodreads described it as if those two books had met and become a book itself - for me, that's a huge selling point.

I must confess that I devoured Twilight like it was going out of style when I first read it in middle school. I couldn't put it down, and the feeling I got from reading it still lingers today. So, when I saw this new novel, I just had to give it a try. As I started reading, I found myself drawn into the world of New Orleans, where our protagonist has traveled from France to start a new life.

The main character is a clothing person maker and dressmaker in France, but now she's at a convent with a bunch of other girls trying to settle into their new life. I was intrigued by this setup, and I'm enjoying the atmosphere that the author has created so far. We're mostly following our protagonist's journey, but we're also jumping to other vignettes of mischievous happenings in the city.

I have to say that I appreciate the historical setting of this novel - it feels like a vampire story set in New Orleans is inherently fun and engaging. And while 50 pages in might not seem like a lot, I found myself reading those pages quickly enough. The font size was huge, which might be part of why I devoured them so fast!

**Initial Thoughts**

As I looked over at Clay playing Sudoku on his iPad, I couldn't help but think of my 85-year-old boyfriend who doesn't like Sudoku (but does like to keep his mind sharp in retirement). Anyway, back to the novel. By the time I reached page 50, I felt like I had enough context to start giving you some initial thoughts about the book.

So far, the story is a YA vampire-centered tale with plenty of drama and angst - but what really draws me in is the setting. It's set in New Orleans, probably in the late 19th or early 20th century, and I'm loving the atmosphere that the author has created. We're mostly following our protagonist as she navigates her new life, but we also get glimpses into other characters' lives and misadventures.

**Reading Update**

Just a quick update from my end - I've just passed the 50-page mark, and I feel like I have enough context to start giving you some thoughts about the book. The main character is intriguing, with lots of secrets that are slowly revealed throughout the story. I'm really enjoying the writing style so far, and while nothing has happened yet to make me fall in love with the book, I'm excited to see how it develops.

I have to admit, though - being a fan of Vampire Diaries means that I'm already rooting for our protagonist. She's got all the feels of Elena Gilbert, minus the complicated love life (although, who knows? Maybe there will be some drama to come). Anyway, I think this novel is off to a great start, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

**Weekend Reading Update**

Just wanted to check in with you all after a weekend of reading. I managed to finish three books, which was a great way to get out of my current reading slump. First up was The Merciful Crow - I really loved this book, and I thought its unique world-building was one of the highlights.

Next, I read 50 pages of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on my commute. This is another historical fantasy novel that's been piquing my interest - I'm loving the magical battles and the complex characters so far.

Finally, I devoured 125 pages of The Beautiful Last Night Before I Fell Asleep (which isn't even a real book, but I found it online and just had to give it a try). This one is an atmospheric historical fiction vampire story that's got everything I wanted from it - romance, drama, and plenty of angst.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everyone it's regan and welcome to the start of another weekend reading vlog so hi um this weekend i'm so unbelievably looking forward to it's basically a weekend of nothing planned a little bit of context last weekend clay and i were out of town for a wedding which was really fun but obviously tiring and then next weekend i leave for london for a week so this is kind of my weekend to get my life back together i need to do a lot of filming a lot of content generation for when i'm out of town and it's also my weekend to hang out with clay before i'm gone for a week so the weather is actually supposed to be beautiful this weekend but i don't we're gonna be spending a lot of time inside really our only plans for this weekend is we have movie tickets tomorrow to see joker and that is honestly it that being said i have been in a terrible reading slump the last two weeks of october i think i maybe have read one book in that time span which is not the best for me um i don't know why i have been in a reading slump but i am determined this weekend to fix it it's funny because i actually tried to film a work reading vlog this past week like monday through thursday you know going into this friday but i didn't i read only on monday i got no reading content within that vlog so i think i'm just going to scrap it and try again next week i'm rambling now so anyway welcome to the vlog without further ado let's chat about the books i hope to read plan to read all those things so here is my stack first and foremost i have uh the merciful crow which i am 75 pages and this is the book i started on monday and i just didn't read since um this book really intrigues me so far i am really liking it i'll definitely give more of an in-depth overview in that but it's a kind of a really unique fantasy story that has an interesting social structure kind of centered around birds so i'll talk more about that but i am liking that and i'm gonna try to finish it it's not that long so i want to say yeah it's oh well 360 pages so i have under 300 pages left so i definitely feel like i can finish this this weekend from there i'm not sure what i want to read next fate of the fallen is a book i got from my book of the month this month which sounded kind of cool and then obviously the beautiful has been kind of on my radar as well i want something that's just gonna really capture my attention because i've been so slumpy which is so sad to say and i have a lot of books coming out early next week that i want to read so i want to read something that i'll read super quickly so i'm not like in the middle of too many books if that makes sense but yeah these are my reading plans um i'm excited so wish me luck aside from those three books i also am of course reading jonathan strange and mr noral on the train every morning to and from work and i did read 52 pages of that today between my morning and evening commute i am really liking that book it is dry um but kind of in the best way i also like how cheeky it is you know what i mean like it definitely has the appeal of like a british period drama but there's like actual magic every once in a while which i just think makes it a really interesting story um definitely different than really anything i've read before from a fantasy perspective i will say i'm reading it pretty slowly uh but i am making my way through and i did read 52 pages today so that was really great so i did want to document that paid count because i did do that i did do some reading this week in the mornings and on my way home from work but anyway i'm now gonna immediately change to pajamas and make a cup of coffee i am feeling so like like brain dead i feel like i need some caffeine get comfortable and i'm actually going to spend the next little bit of time organizing my plan for content this weekend kind of outline all the videos i want to film and the in like schedule them between what days and kind of just try to get organized in that way so i can like stop thinking about it now and like enjoy the rest of my night um but yeah so i'm gonna do that i feel like i've rambled so much but hi yeah oh man what's wrong with me making some coffee and as i'm sure you can hear watching great british bake off and just having an unwinding friday night before i get into the task of the weekend i need like a few hours after work to just kind of decompress anyone else i'm sure a lot of people can relate to that but uh it's been really really nice and i just love great british pick up so much guess who's home and he brought me home an anthropology candle now if that's not true love i don't know what it is um we're actually about to head to trader joe's to pick up food to cook tonight and then stuff to make breakfast for the weekend because we're having a very stay-at-home kind of weekend so we'll do some cooking and all of that shenanigans oh yeah my sad halloween pumpkin that's falling apart he's mushy friday night shop of all the necessities so here is a quick grocery haul of everything we picked up from trader joe's we decided to do chicken legs which i'm a big fan of chicken legs and chicken like dark meat is so freaking cheap too but also it's delicious i'm gonna make clay occasion one and then i love goat cheese so i'm just gonna stuff it full of goat cheese and eat that with steamed broccoli and i'm gonna make um rosemary garlic mashed potatoes and then we also picked up stuff for breakfast tomorrow including cinnamon rolls which these are the last in the whole of the shop uh but we'll also do like traditional bacon egg situation and we picked up stuff for chips and salsa delish grocery haul chicken is almost done and i'm browning some garlic and some rosemary and some butter to throw in these potatoes make mashed potatoes it's all happening also so easy and that my friends some mashed potatoes and some leftover rosemary delish i forgot to put the broccoli in so i'm doing that now but the chicken is just about done in there so dinner is about served is that right millie well you've already had dinner but you'll try to get more good good sweetness yep and here's dinner mine has a giant chunk of goat cheese and then there's clays with the creole seasoning pretty good lots of food oh my gosh hi everyone so after quite the great british bake off marathon we have retreated into the bedroom clay's taking matilda out to the bathroom right now but we are about to settle in for a movie we're gonna watch zombieland which is one of clay's favorite movies um obviously the second one just came out so i have to see the first one before we can go see the second one i also have brought in my book merciful crow i'm gonna try to do a bit of reading tonight probably not a lot but i did read 50 pages so far today in general um a different book but i have plans to wake up tomorrow morning and get a nice chunk of reading in before i film tomorrow so that should be great very great indeed um this has been such a nice night dinner was super tasty and i just love the great british making show it's just so relaxing i just feel so calm after watching that show i'm on the final though so it's almost over breaks my heart um but yeah so we're just gonna settle in watch zombieland i'll do a bit of reading i spent a chunk of time tonight trying to teach matilda how to do paw we're getting there you know she's like halfway there she's trying her best um but yeah so i'll keep you posted on that progress but i am going to sign off and get prepped for this movie so good night good morning world i have awoken bright and early and i'm about to put some music on and do some serious reading because i didn't really do any reading yesterday aside from what i read on my commute that being said before i did that i wanted to give kind of more information about the merciful crow so this book is interesting and that before picking it up there's kind of like a mixed review some people love this book and some people think it's super confusing the world building is like all over the place and all of that for me 75 pages in i can definitely see how that perspective exists it does not bother me but the world is very complicated and there's no info dumps necessarily so as a reader you're kind of just like grasping pieces and trying to put things together and i would also say the writing style is different in that it feels very how do i describe this it feels kind of like you're in a fairy tale like it's it's very descriptive and kind of empty and i was gonna say like antiquated but not in a way that makes it like out of date necessarily it's just more like calling back to an older storytelling style so this is a fantasy novel as i have pieced together so far uh that kind of has its society organized by different casts and these casts um are signified by a bird so you kind of are given you know a label of a certain bird and you know which group you fall into based on the magic that you can use so each group in each bird has like a different associated magic so like peasants or pigeons um farmers or sparrows uh they're aristocrats or swans the royal family are phoenixes and then the lowliest class of them all are crows and the reason why they're the lowly's class is because there is something called the sinner's plague that kind of runs rampant across the land kind of think like the black plague and it kills people instantly and the only people immune to this plague and therefore are responsible for removing dead corpses from communities to prevent the spread of plague are the crows and the reason why they seem to be immune is because they were sinners in a past life and now this life they're atoning for that by being a crow and our main character is a crow and she's part of this band of individuals and in the beginning you're kind of following her as she's traveling and like collecting these bodies and you're kind of piecing together the magic and the society through them um some wild things happen and she kind of gets involved with a prince and a high-ranking hawk who's like a guard to this prince and it's very interesting i think the magic and the organization of this world is super unique i think the magic is super cool i don't particularly want to give anything away if you're planning on reading this but i just think it's a very original idea and i appreciate that there's so much thought that goes into each of these different types of people in this fantasy world like it's not just an organization there's also purely all sorts of different types of magic and they all have different associations it's just a really clever and interesting world so i don't know i'm interested to see how this unfurls further i'm about a little under a third of the way through so i think i'm doing pretty good and i think i can read quite a chunk this morning um so that is the plan i'm gonna put some music on and make a cup of coffee and i'm just gonna sit here and enjoy the sunshine through the window it was raining all week last week like seriously monday through thursday so hey at least we have sunny weather on the weekend that's all i can say it's kind of been nice i feel like this year new york we've been very lucky on beautiful weather during the weekends like it just doesn't rain on saturdays for some reason this year but anyway that is what this book is about i'm gonna jump back in and continue to read um and i will keep you posted as i get further along as i said i think i'm like 75 pages in of this book which is about 369 pages so 73 it's 373 pages so i'm a little under 203 i'm a little under 300 pages left so wow making great progress um okay goodbye hi everyone i just wanted to check in because i have been doing quite the chunk of reading i am on page 137 so i've read over 50 pages so far and i'm gonna keep going but i wanted to check in because i'm loving this book i finally have settled into the world and the characters initially the perspectives are a little jarring just because the world is so unique and you're just trying to like get settled in the world and how people communicate but now which which in a way made me feel like the writing style was like more of a fairy tale but i kind of take that back i think it definitely has the the perspective in the writing of like what you would expect in a y novel it's just the the strappings of the world they're just a little more complicated but like again once you get settled in it gets really interesting and there's just so many cool dynamics particularly our main character is a female and she's part of the crow cast and she as i mentioned is like agreeing to help this prince who is trying to be assassinated by his mother and also his guard their dynamic is really really interesting um because basically she's like protecting them but also in so many ways they're learning so much about the lower castes in the world and kind of how the world works because they're obviously incredibly privileged and then also just kind of like maneuvering through this world is super interesting just like going from town to town and just seeing i just feel like it's really creative and i'm liking it a lot so i'm gonna keep reading but i wanted to check in and say that i am a huge fan of this book so far so i feel like i'll have no trouble finishing it this weekend look who has graced us with their presence first matilda who's now basking in the sun and clayton who's playing his madden football good reading news is that i have passed the 200 page mark of wicked crows and i am now going to venture into filming two of the four videos i want to film this weekend so i'm gonna get this out of the way and then clay and i are gonna make a tasty breakfast and then start the rest of our day we're also going to shoot some fun photos today too which we're both excited about so check out my instagram because they will be up but anyway time to get to filming i have officially finished filming and we're about to start breakfast which i'm so thrilled for because i am starving uh and we're also going to watch the finale of the great british bake off which incredibles incredible stuff truly an incredible saturday it's it is unfolding in front of us i made a delicious breakfast and we're watching bake off obsessed to find out more go to my instagram hi everyone a bit of time has passed since i have checked in but i promise it's because clay and i have just been like busy um being super productive full honesty first off and most importantly we got our flu shots so i'm really proud of us we just kind of walk into a pharmacy it was so easy anyone hasn't got their flu shot yet go get your swing shot my mom keeps telling me it's gonna be a really bad flu season she's not a doctor so i can't confirm or deny but that's what she says two i picked up some fall flowers i thought these were kind of interesting there's like a cabbage in there so that's cool three clay and i took our halloween post preview with the scoops ahoy scoops ahoy outfit it's all my instagram now so you haven't seen it go check it out and now we have about an hour until we have to leave for the movie i haven't read since i read this morning but i'm now going to sit down and read some more i read to page 200 this morning so 125 pages which means i've read 175 pages so far this weekend which i'm pleased with and i'm gonna read more prior to the movie i'm so excited to go to alamo drafthouse tonight oh gosh chicken fingers are gonna be consumed ranch and popcorn like my favorite things the whole white world it's gonna be great i'm actually gonna change out of the skirt i put on to take a photo and put my jeans back on and get all comfy and ready for the movie and we are about to depart we are going to see joker and uh i'm really excited about it actually i'm a little nervous i'm worried it's gonna be too scary but i'm excited for the chicken fingers just wearing my favorite j.crew coat that i now own in two colors and a sweater and my sneakers we're going just like and we're back at alamo who's surprised hi everyone we're back home from the movie i loved my chicken fingers and popcorn honestly the movie i don't think was for me to be honest um did not love it and i love comic book movies but that one just like particularly wasn't for me you're a single bookshelf now but now that we're home i definitely feel like i need a palette cleanser so i'm going to do a bit of reading tonight and then clay and i are going to start a new tv show i think we're going to start dairy girls just kind of watch something funny which i think it'll be really fun so that is our plan for it tonight but yeah i did want to check in post movie and basically say no thank you good morning everyone and happy sunday and welcome to one of my most favorite sundays of the whole year and that is daylight savings sunday um daylight savings is a bit of a mixed bag with me but i love it when i gain an hour and uh i hate it when i lose an hour but this sunday i gained an hour it's so early i've gotten a full night's sleep and yet it's so early so i have so much of my day to accomplish everything i could possibly dream generally speaking for some reason well not for some reason obvious reasons i just get so productive on these days and i just feel accomplished and amazing so i'm looking forward to this sunday um last night clay and i stayed up and watched probably seven episodes of dairy girls it was so funny and charming i could not stop watching until honestly i fell asleep so that being said i did not read anything but because it's so early in the morning i'm gonna start reading now and i foresee no issue getting a good chunk of the way through and then i'll jump over to a new book which i still haven't decided what i want to read next but regardless i'm gonna actually try to like sit here this morning and finish this book before i do anything else i do need to film today and shoot a few more um instagrams i want to film at least two more videos and i need to edit but there's plenty of time for that so i'm gonna dedicate the next like two hours to finish the last 160 pages of this book and i should be able to do that so all right i'm gonna get to reading and i will check in with you guys as i get further along in the story got lots of good reading in i've read 60 pages so far but i needed to do a quick break to show you matilda this morning she's kind of backlit so it's hard to see but she's just so snuggling and queen i am going to take a quick break from reading and take a shower and then make a coffee and then i'm going to get right back to finishing it it's so good i'll do a kind of an overview of my thoughts in a minute but i just want to shower first mandy you're so cute we have tragically run out of espresso but i found these that i forgot we have which are like limited edition madeline coffee pods so i'm making that i'm gonna put some milk in it because i made milk so delicious it's also still not even playing yet thriving as promised i am back with an update so i have 100 pages of this book left so i'm definitely making my way through it and i and plan to finish it right now after i give this update but i'm really liking this book i really enjoy the setting and the world and all of this different magic associated to these different birds and essentially like the magic is directly associated often with like what these different people do um and the crow magic is just so cool and interesting and gruesome just kind of like um their jobs which is to you know deal with dead bodies um and our main character is kind of being torn between worlds right now and her duty to her you know the people she grew up with and her like adopted father and then also this mission um to help this prince because if she helps his prince overall it could improve the lives of all crows across the land because they are just treated so poorly and throughout this entire journey it's just like a meeting of worlds and that everyone is kind of gaining perspective and kind of overcoming stereotypes in some ways but also it's mostly just a lesson for the prince to be like oh like people have told me i'm good but like i guess i'm not as good as i thought i was kind of thing which i think is a really interesting perspective the combat's really cool the angst is there definitely some inks definitely some romance and i don't know i'm just really enjoying it and i'm flying through it i would say like the first 50 or 60 pages were a little disorienting because there's no like info dump if you will which ultimately i feel like has served this book well because kind of once you get oriented in the story like everything begins to flow the characters really grow on you the writing style grows on you the magic begins to make sense and everything kind of clicks into place and i'm just loving it i'm flying through it melisha is staring at me like why are you talking but yeah so it's still not even 10 a.m i'm gonna drink my cup of coffee and i'm gonna work my way through the final part of this book and finish it up and then i'm gonna plan my videos for the day and figure out what i want to read next because i have nothing on the docket but reading and watching tv probably some more dairy girls because that show is freaking hilarious okay but i'm gonna get to it so goodbye i have finished my book and i will talk to you guys in a minute but first i'm getting the football game on and i'm gonna help clay make brick feast we're doing cinnamon rolls today love it and breakfast is served this morning with a scramble and i made the cinnamon rolls delish delish matilda pilda is streaming really hard and softly barking chasing something good in those dreams of hers bears game not going so hot but i am about to film my two videos i need to film today and then i'm gonna figure out what i'm gonna read next and then we are gonna spend the rest of the day doing just this sitting on the couch hey matilda are you comfortable you you were driving i mean honestly i don't even know what to say right now well enjoy your sunday milly we ran a very vital errand so i could pick up some cheetos and we got coffee and now clay and i are actually gonna play some video games um we got the new call of duty games so we're gonna play together and bond and such so that's what we're gonna do we have barely bonded this weekend so we figured it was time to play some xbox hi everyone it is already pitch black outside and it's like just after five winter is here um we are done playing call of duty and we ordered some food and i think we're actually gonna sit down and watch a movie but i wanted to sorry i'm getting comfortable i wanted to take a second to chat through what i plan to read next because i have decided on my next book and my initial well my final thoughts on the merciful crow and they basically are that i really liked this i was super slumpy for the past week and a half and i was just like nothing was really clicking and then i picked up this book and first what captured me was a really unique world and the magic and just kind of it's it's also very grim like it's kind of a dark world as well which i like and then as you get further along and settled you realize how much you grow attached to the characters and all of their story arcs and the and also the drama of the plot was just really compelling and propelled me through the story i would say like some of my like minor complaints would be like it's kind of short i think it could have benefited from more i never used world buildings i feel like that was pretty distinct but just like more time and places if that makes sense um but i don't you know like i think that would only add like additional layers of richness to the story but i felt like everything about this book was solidly completed i actually don't know if there's going to be another one um i would like for there to be more books in this series but i really have no idea but yeah i just got really attached to everyone i really liked that everyone was like flawed and i also feel like the decisions that people had to make were kind of rock and a hard place in a lot of ways and just like kind of going through the decision process and the their adventure i would call it more of a journey than an adventure but didn't look that fun um it was just great and i don't know i just thought i'd really recommend this i thought it was a really clever and interesting world and ultimately kept me super entertained and i finished it this morning so that is awesome which means i've read about 350 pages so far this weekend which is super solid it's still like pretty early on in the evening but tilda is on my legs but i'm going to grab my book i want to read next i feel bad to disturb her but uh millie i need to get up need to get up i need to get up she's like no come on that's not the way come on don't go off on the table milly come on there we go all to say that the book i've decided to read next is the beautiful by renee addie it's a little longer than i was anticipating only in that like i really want to read the toll right when it comes out so i'm just hoping this is super entertaining and something i fly through um but we shall see but this is what i'm gonna pick up next a nice vampire novel to keep me entertained can't wait we have started watchmen um because that started premiering and we have a pizza that arrived it's sunday night everyone yeah yeah okay i don't know what i'm doing but so far watchman is incredibly confusing but good so i'm curious to see how it's gonna unfold hi everyone so we watched the two episodes of watchmen that are out so far i'd say clay and i are enjoying it we're both incredibly disoriented and have no idea what's going on and it's definitely hooked us enough to keep watching there's definitely been some wild end of episode moments that have kind of left our mouths a gap if you will we're definitely intrigued and we're gonna you know keep watching week every week uh but i have now come into the bedroom to do some more reading i'm going to start the beautiful by renee addie which is that vampire inspired story that inspired it has vampires in it so i'm really excited to see how i like this book i'm really hoping it just completely captures all my attention and i just read 200 pages tonight that's my goal for the evening is to read about 200 pages of this um so we shall see but i'm gonna get started now and i'll check in as i you know uncover more of what this book is about and how i feel about it also hi millie someone described this book on goodreads as if twilight and the cruel prince met and became a book and for me that is a huge selling point also like i devoured twilight like if something could give me the same feeling as twilight that's a win in my book because i could not put twilight down when i read it for the first time in middle school so anyway i'm gonna start reading this now i looked over and clay was just playing sudoku on his ipad i'm dating an 85 year old man who doesn't like sudoku you got to keep your minds sharp in retirement boom hey everyone quick reading update i've just passed the 50 page mark and i feel like i have enough context now to kind of give you initial thoughts and also describe what this book is about so as i said this is a y a vampire centered uh story which i'm hoping is full of all sorts of drama uh more so though it's set in new orleans and i want to say like probably turn of the century we follow our main character who basically has traveled to new orleans to start a new life from france so um she was a like clothing person maker dressmaker in france um but right now she's at a convent with a bunch of other girls as they try to like get settled in their new life um i'm very intrigued so far i'm really enjoying the atmosphere quite a bit um you're mostly obviously following our main character but we kind of are jumping to some other vignettes of some mischievous happenings in the city i do think like a vampire story set in new orleans just inherently is really fun and i also appreciate the historical setting of it all 50 pages in so far so good um it's also a fast read i feel like i read those fifty pages super quickly i mean the font is huge i won't lie to you so that might be part of it but regardless um just wanted to check and let you know i've read three pages and then i'm going gonna keep going tonight and try to read as much as i can hi everyone and welcome to the end of the vlog the next day i just wanted to check in chat through all the books i was able to read this weekend first and foremost i read the last 300 pages of this i want to say i was on page 75 oh i guess just slightly under the last 300 pages of the merciful crow um which i really ended up liking this book really kind of totally captured my attention from page one i thought it just had one of the most unique worlds and i just loved every second of it so i was really happy i was able to honestly just fly through this book this past weekend so this is the first book i completed and then of course i also read 50 pages of 52 pages of jonathan strange and mr norrell um on my commute on friday which i'm really really liking i also read another 50 pages today which doesn't count because it's monday but it was great i'm really liking it things are not even gonna heat up a little bit heat up there's just more magic and characters are kind of colliding in ways i wasn't expecting and i'm just really here for it and then from there speaking of magic i was able to read 125 pages of the beautiful last night before i fell asleep so far this book really is intriguing me it's kind of giving me everything i wanted from it it's a atmospheric historical fiction vampire story it's pretty angsty it has good atmosphere it's cheesy but not too cheesy which i feel like is a tricky line to walk sometimes so far i like the main character uh she's very intriguing has lots of secrets which you know one would expect but honestly just giving me all the vampire diary vibes like because remember klaus you know he was in new orleans for a little bit so like give this a bit more of a historical time period than you know that spin-off show so for that reason i kind of have like a very big soft spot for it in my heart nothing has happened to make me like fall in love with it yet but i just really want to love it so i think that's kind of what's really making me so excited to be fair though it is engaging and i i like the writing style so far um and i'm intrigued so definitely pumped to continue to read this and it's also making me want to re re-watch vampire diaries because i actually never finished the series that is a tangent but true so all in all i think i read just under 500 pages which i'm honestly really really pleased with i was battling a reading slump so being able to read this much this weekend felt great because i'm trying to get out of that reading stuff but anyway i hope you guys enjoyed this video and i will see you soon with another one soon goodbyehi everyone it's regan and welcome to the start of another weekend reading vlog so hi um this weekend i'm so unbelievably looking forward to it's basically a weekend of nothing planned a little bit of context last weekend clay and i were out of town for a wedding which was really fun but obviously tiring and then next weekend i leave for london for a week so this is kind of my weekend to get my life back together i need to do a lot of filming a lot of content generation for when i'm out of town and it's also my weekend to hang out with clay before i'm gone for a week so the weather is actually supposed to be beautiful this weekend but i don't we're gonna be spending a lot of time inside really our only plans for this weekend is we have movie tickets tomorrow to see joker and that is honestly it that being said i have been in a terrible reading slump the last two weeks of october i think i maybe have read one book in that time span which is not the best for me um i don't know why i have been in a reading slump but i am determined this weekend to fix it it's funny because i actually tried to film a work reading vlog this past week like monday through thursday you know going into this friday but i didn't i read only on monday i got no reading content within that vlog so i think i'm just going to scrap it and try again next week i'm rambling now so anyway welcome to the vlog without further ado let's chat about the books i hope to read plan to read all those things so here is my stack first and foremost i have uh the merciful crow which i am 75 pages and this is the book i started on monday and i just didn't read since um this book really intrigues me so far i am really liking it i'll definitely give more of an in-depth overview in that but it's a kind of a really unique fantasy story that has an interesting social structure kind of centered around birds so i'll talk more about that but i am liking that and i'm gonna try to finish it it's not that long so i want to say yeah it's oh well 360 pages so i have under 300 pages left so i definitely feel like i can finish this this weekend from there i'm not sure what i want to read next fate of the fallen is a book i got from my book of the month this month which sounded kind of cool and then obviously the beautiful has been kind of on my radar as well i want something that's just gonna really capture my attention because i've been so slumpy which is so sad to say and i have a lot of books coming out early next week that i want to read so i want to read something that i'll read super quickly so i'm not like in the middle of too many books if that makes sense but yeah these are my reading plans um i'm excited so wish me luck aside from those three books i also am of course reading jonathan strange and mr noral on the train every morning to and from work and i did read 52 pages of that today between my morning and evening commute i am really liking that book it is dry um but kind of in the best way i also like how cheeky it is you know what i mean like it definitely has the appeal of like a british period drama but there's like actual magic every once in a while which i just think makes it a really interesting story um definitely different than really anything i've read before from a fantasy perspective i will say i'm reading it pretty slowly uh but i am making my way through and i did read 52 pages today so that was really great so i did want to document that paid count because i did do that i did do some reading this week in the mornings and on my way home from work but anyway i'm now gonna immediately change to pajamas and make a cup of coffee i am feeling so like like brain dead i feel like i need some caffeine get comfortable and i'm actually going to spend the next little bit of time organizing my plan for content this weekend kind of outline all the videos i want to film and the in like schedule them between what days and kind of just try to get organized in that way so i can like stop thinking about it now and like enjoy the rest of my night um but yeah so i'm gonna do that i feel like i've rambled so much but hi yeah oh man what's wrong with me making some coffee and as i'm sure you can hear watching great british bake off and just having an unwinding friday night before i get into the task of the weekend i need like a few hours after work to just kind of decompress anyone else i'm sure a lot of people can relate to that but uh it's been really really nice and i just love great british pick up so much guess who's home and he brought me home an anthropology candle now if that's not true love i don't know what it is um we're actually about to head to trader joe's to pick up food to cook tonight and then stuff to make breakfast for the weekend because we're having a very stay-at-home kind of weekend so we'll do some cooking and all of that shenanigans oh yeah my sad halloween pumpkin that's falling apart he's mushy friday night shop of all the necessities so here is a quick grocery haul of everything we picked up from trader joe's we decided to do chicken legs which i'm a big fan of chicken legs and chicken like dark meat is so freaking cheap too but also it's delicious i'm gonna make clay occasion one and then i love goat cheese so i'm just gonna stuff it full of goat cheese and eat that with steamed broccoli and i'm gonna make um rosemary garlic mashed potatoes and then we also picked up stuff for breakfast tomorrow including cinnamon rolls which these are the last in the whole of the shop uh but we'll also do like traditional bacon egg situation and we picked up stuff for chips and salsa delish grocery haul chicken is almost done and i'm browning some garlic and some rosemary and some butter to throw in these potatoes make mashed potatoes it's all happening also so easy and that my friends some mashed potatoes and some leftover rosemary delish i forgot to put the broccoli in so i'm doing that now but the chicken is just about done in there so dinner is about served is that right millie well you've already had dinner but you'll try to get more good good sweetness yep and here's dinner mine has a giant chunk of goat cheese and then there's clays with the creole seasoning pretty good lots of food oh my gosh hi everyone so after quite the great british bake off marathon we have retreated into the bedroom clay's taking matilda out to the bathroom right now but we are about to settle in for a movie we're gonna watch zombieland which is one of clay's favorite movies um obviously the second one just came out so i have to see the first one before we can go see the second one i also have brought in my book merciful crow i'm gonna try to do a bit of reading tonight probably not a lot but i did read 50 pages so far today in general um a different book but i have plans to wake up tomorrow morning and get a nice chunk of reading in before i film tomorrow so that should be great very great indeed um this has been such a nice night dinner was super tasty and i just love the great british making show it's just so relaxing i just feel so calm after watching that show i'm on the final though so it's almost over breaks my heart um but yeah so we're just gonna settle in watch zombieland i'll do a bit of reading i spent a chunk of time tonight trying to teach matilda how to do paw we're getting there you know she's like halfway there she's trying her best um but yeah so i'll keep you posted on that progress but i am going to sign off and get prepped for this movie so good night good morning world i have awoken bright and early and i'm about to put some music on and do some serious reading because i didn't really do any reading yesterday aside from what i read on my commute that being said before i did that i wanted to give kind of more information about the merciful crow so this book is interesting and that before picking it up there's kind of like a mixed review some people love this book and some people think it's super confusing the world building is like all over the place and all of that for me 75 pages in i can definitely see how that perspective exists it does not bother me but the world is very complicated and there's no info dumps necessarily so as a reader you're kind of just like grasping pieces and trying to put things together and i would also say the writing style is different in that it feels very how do i describe this it feels kind of like you're in a fairy tale like it's it's very descriptive and kind of empty and i was gonna say like antiquated but not in a way that makes it like out of date necessarily it's just more like calling back to an older storytelling style so this is a fantasy novel as i have pieced together so far uh that kind of has its society organized by different casts and these casts um are signified by a bird so you kind of are given you know a label of a certain bird and you know which group you fall into based on the magic that you can use so each group in each bird has like a different associated magic so like peasants or pigeons um farmers or sparrows uh they're aristocrats or swans the royal family are phoenixes and then the lowliest class of them all are crows and the reason why they're the lowly's class is because there is something called the sinner's plague that kind of runs rampant across the land kind of think like the black plague and it kills people instantly and the only people immune to this plague and therefore are responsible for removing dead corpses from communities to prevent the spread of plague are the crows and the reason why they seem to be immune is because they were sinners in a past life and now this life they're atoning for that by being a crow and our main character is a crow and she's part of this band of individuals and in the beginning you're kind of following her as she's traveling and like collecting these bodies and you're kind of piecing together the magic and the society through them um some wild things happen and she kind of gets involved with a prince and a high-ranking hawk who's like a guard to this prince and it's very interesting i think the magic and the organization of this world is super unique i think the magic is super cool i don't particularly want to give anything away if you're planning on reading this but i just think it's a very original idea and i appreciate that there's so much thought that goes into each of these different types of people in this fantasy world like it's not just an organization there's also purely all sorts of different types of magic and they all have different associations it's just a really clever and interesting world so i don't know i'm interested to see how this unfurls further i'm about a little under a third of the way through so i think i'm doing pretty good and i think i can read quite a chunk this morning um so that is the plan i'm gonna put some music on and make a cup of coffee and i'm just gonna sit here and enjoy the sunshine through the window it was raining all week last week like seriously monday through thursday so hey at least we have sunny weather on the weekend that's all i can say it's kind of been nice i feel like this year new york we've been very lucky on beautiful weather during the weekends like it just doesn't rain on saturdays for some reason this year but anyway that is what this book is about i'm gonna jump back in and continue to read um and i will keep you posted as i get further along as i said i think i'm like 75 pages in of this book which is about 369 pages so 73 it's 373 pages so i'm a little under 203 i'm a little under 300 pages left so wow making great progress um okay goodbye hi everyone i just wanted to check in because i have been doing quite the chunk of reading i am on page 137 so i've read over 50 pages so far and i'm gonna keep going but i wanted to check in because i'm loving this book i finally have settled into the world and the characters initially the perspectives are a little jarring just because the world is so unique and you're just trying to like get settled in the world and how people communicate but now which which in a way made me feel like the writing style was like more of a fairy tale but i kind of take that back i think it definitely has the the perspective in the writing of like what you would expect in a y novel it's just the the strappings of the world they're just a little more complicated but like again once you get settled in it gets really interesting and there's just so many cool dynamics particularly our main character is a female and she's part of the crow cast and she as i mentioned is like agreeing to help this prince who is trying to be assassinated by his mother and also his guard their dynamic is really really interesting um because basically she's like protecting them but also in so many ways they're learning so much about the lower castes in the world and kind of how the world works because they're obviously incredibly privileged and then also just kind of like maneuvering through this world is super interesting just like going from town to town and just seeing i just feel like it's really creative and i'm liking it a lot so i'm gonna keep reading but i wanted to check in and say that i am a huge fan of this book so far so i feel like i'll have no trouble finishing it this weekend look who has graced us with their presence first matilda who's now basking in the sun and clayton who's playing his madden football good reading news is that i have passed the 200 page mark of wicked crows and i am now going to venture into filming two of the four videos i want to film this weekend so i'm gonna get this out of the way and then clay and i are gonna make a tasty breakfast and then start the rest of our day we're also going to shoot some fun photos today too which we're both excited about so check out my instagram because they will be up but anyway time to get to filming i have officially finished filming and we're about to start breakfast which i'm so thrilled for because i am starving uh and we're also going to watch the finale of the great british bake off which incredibles incredible stuff truly an incredible saturday it's it is unfolding in front of us i made a delicious breakfast and we're watching bake off obsessed to find out more go to my instagram hi everyone a bit of time has passed since i have checked in but i promise it's because clay and i have just been like busy um being super productive full honesty first off and most importantly we got our flu shots so i'm really proud of us we just kind of walk into a pharmacy it was so easy anyone hasn't got their flu shot yet go get your swing shot my mom keeps telling me it's gonna be a really bad flu season she's not a doctor so i can't confirm or deny but that's what she says two i picked up some fall flowers i thought these were kind of interesting there's like a cabbage in there so that's cool three clay and i took our halloween post preview with the scoops ahoy scoops ahoy outfit it's all my instagram now so you haven't seen it go check it out and now we have about an hour until we have to leave for the movie i haven't read since i read this morning but i'm now going to sit down and read some more i read to page 200 this morning so 125 pages which means i've read 175 pages so far this weekend which i'm pleased with and i'm gonna read more prior to the movie i'm so excited to go to alamo drafthouse tonight oh gosh chicken fingers are gonna be consumed ranch and popcorn like my favorite things the whole white world it's gonna be great i'm actually gonna change out of the skirt i put on to take a photo and put my jeans back on and get all comfy and ready for the movie and we are about to depart we are going to see joker and uh i'm really excited about it actually i'm a little nervous i'm worried it's gonna be too scary but i'm excited for the chicken fingers just wearing my favorite j.crew coat that i now own in two colors and a sweater and my sneakers we're going just like and we're back at alamo who's surprised hi everyone we're back home from the movie i loved my chicken fingers and popcorn honestly the movie i don't think was for me to be honest um did not love it and i love comic book movies but that one just like particularly wasn't for me you're a single bookshelf now but now that we're home i definitely feel like i need a palette cleanser so i'm going to do a bit of reading tonight and then clay and i are going to start a new tv show i think we're going to start dairy girls just kind of watch something funny which i think it'll be really fun so that is our plan for it tonight but yeah i did want to check in post movie and basically say no thank you good morning everyone and happy sunday and welcome to one of my most favorite sundays of the whole year and that is daylight savings sunday um daylight savings is a bit of a mixed bag with me but i love it when i gain an hour and uh i hate it when i lose an hour but this sunday i gained an hour it's so early i've gotten a full night's sleep and yet it's so early so i have so much of my day to accomplish everything i could possibly dream generally speaking for some reason well not for some reason obvious reasons i just get so productive on these days and i just feel accomplished and amazing so i'm looking forward to this sunday um last night clay and i stayed up and watched probably seven episodes of dairy girls it was so funny and charming i could not stop watching until honestly i fell asleep so that being said i did not read anything but because it's so early in the morning i'm gonna start reading now and i foresee no issue getting a good chunk of the way through and then i'll jump over to a new book which i still haven't decided what i want to read next but regardless i'm gonna actually try to like sit here this morning and finish this book before i do anything else i do need to film today and shoot a few more um instagrams i want to film at least two more videos and i need to edit but there's plenty of time for that so i'm gonna dedicate the next like two hours to finish the last 160 pages of this book and i should be able to do that so all right i'm gonna get to reading and i will check in with you guys as i get further along in the story got lots of good reading in i've read 60 pages so far but i needed to do a quick break to show you matilda this morning she's kind of backlit so it's hard to see but she's just so snuggling and queen i am going to take a quick break from reading and take a shower and then make a coffee and then i'm going to get right back to finishing it it's so good i'll do a kind of an overview of my thoughts in a minute but i just want to shower first mandy you're so cute we have tragically run out of espresso but i found these that i forgot we have which are like limited edition madeline coffee pods so i'm making that i'm gonna put some milk in it because i made milk so delicious it's also still not even playing yet thriving as promised i am back with an update so i have 100 pages of this book left so i'm definitely making my way through it and i and plan to finish it right now after i give this update but i'm really liking this book i really enjoy the setting and the world and all of this different magic associated to these different birds and essentially like the magic is directly associated often with like what these different people do um and the crow magic is just so cool and interesting and gruesome just kind of like um their jobs which is to you know deal with dead bodies um and our main character is kind of being torn between worlds right now and her duty to her you know the people she grew up with and her like adopted father and then also this mission um to help this prince because if she helps his prince overall it could improve the lives of all crows across the land because they are just treated so poorly and throughout this entire journey it's just like a meeting of worlds and that everyone is kind of gaining perspective and kind of overcoming stereotypes in some ways but also it's mostly just a lesson for the prince to be like oh like people have told me i'm good but like i guess i'm not as good as i thought i was kind of thing which i think is a really interesting perspective the combat's really cool the angst is there definitely some inks definitely some romance and i don't know i'm just really enjoying it and i'm flying through it i would say like the first 50 or 60 pages were a little disorienting because there's no like info dump if you will which ultimately i feel like has served this book well because kind of once you get oriented in the story like everything begins to flow the characters really grow on you the writing style grows on you the magic begins to make sense and everything kind of clicks into place and i'm just loving it i'm flying through it melisha is staring at me like why are you talking but yeah so it's still not even 10 a.m i'm gonna drink my cup of coffee and i'm gonna work my way through the final part of this book and finish it up and then i'm gonna plan my videos for the day and figure out what i want to read next because i have nothing on the docket but reading and watching tv probably some more dairy girls because that show is freaking hilarious okay but i'm gonna get to it so goodbye i have finished my book and i will talk to you guys in a minute but first i'm getting the football game on and i'm gonna help clay make brick feast we're doing cinnamon rolls today love it and breakfast is served this morning with a scramble and i made the cinnamon rolls delish delish matilda pilda is streaming really hard and softly barking chasing something good in those dreams of hers bears game not going so hot but i am about to film my two videos i need to film today and then i'm gonna figure out what i'm gonna read next and then we are gonna spend the rest of the day doing just this sitting on the couch hey matilda are you comfortable you you were driving i mean honestly i don't even know what to say right now well enjoy your sunday milly we ran a very vital errand so i could pick up some cheetos and we got coffee and now clay and i are actually gonna play some video games um we got the new call of duty games so we're gonna play together and bond and such so that's what we're gonna do we have barely bonded this weekend so we figured it was time to play some xbox hi everyone it is already pitch black outside and it's like just after five winter is here um we are done playing call of duty and we ordered some food and i think we're actually gonna sit down and watch a movie but i wanted to sorry i'm getting comfortable i wanted to take a second to chat through what i plan to read next because i have decided on my next book and my initial well my final thoughts on the merciful crow and they basically are that i really liked this i was super slumpy for the past week and a half and i was just like nothing was really clicking and then i picked up this book and first what captured me was a really unique world and the magic and just kind of it's it's also very grim like it's kind of a dark world as well which i like and then as you get further along and settled you realize how much you grow attached to the characters and all of their story arcs and the and also the drama of the plot was just really compelling and propelled me through the story i would say like some of my like minor complaints would be like it's kind of short i think it could have benefited from more i never used world buildings i feel like that was pretty distinct but just like more time and places if that makes sense um but i don't you know like i think that would only add like additional layers of richness to the story but i felt like everything about this book was solidly completed i actually don't know if there's going to be another one um i would like for there to be more books in this series but i really have no idea but yeah i just got really attached to everyone i really liked that everyone was like flawed and i also feel like the decisions that people had to make were kind of rock and a hard place in a lot of ways and just like kind of going through the decision process and the their adventure i would call it more of a journey than an adventure but didn't look that fun um it was just great and i don't know i just thought i'd really recommend this i thought it was a really clever and interesting world and ultimately kept me super entertained and i finished it this morning so that is awesome which means i've read about 350 pages so far this weekend which is super solid it's still like pretty early on in the evening but tilda is on my legs but i'm going to grab my book i want to read next i feel bad to disturb her but uh millie i need to get up need to get up i need to get up she's like no come on that's not the way come on don't go off on the table milly come on there we go all to say that the book i've decided to read next is the beautiful by renee addie it's a little longer than i was anticipating only in that like i really want to read the toll right when it comes out so i'm just hoping this is super entertaining and something i fly through um but we shall see but this is what i'm gonna pick up next a nice vampire novel to keep me entertained can't wait we have started watchmen um because that started premiering and we have a pizza that arrived it's sunday night everyone yeah yeah okay i don't know what i'm doing but so far watchman is incredibly confusing but good so i'm curious to see how it's gonna unfold hi everyone so we watched the two episodes of watchmen that are out so far i'd say clay and i are enjoying it we're both incredibly disoriented and have no idea what's going on and it's definitely hooked us enough to keep watching there's definitely been some wild end of episode moments that have kind of left our mouths a gap if you will we're definitely intrigued and we're gonna you know keep watching week every week uh but i have now come into the bedroom to do some more reading i'm going to start the beautiful by renee addie which is that vampire inspired story that inspired it has vampires in it so i'm really excited to see how i like this book i'm really hoping it just completely captures all my attention and i just read 200 pages tonight that's my goal for the evening is to read about 200 pages of this um so we shall see but i'm gonna get started now and i'll check in as i you know uncover more of what this book is about and how i feel about it also hi millie someone described this book on goodreads as if twilight and the cruel prince met and became a book and for me that is a huge selling point also like i devoured twilight like if something could give me the same feeling as twilight that's a win in my book because i could not put twilight down when i read it for the first time in middle school so anyway i'm gonna start reading this now i looked over and clay was just playing sudoku on his ipad i'm dating an 85 year old man who doesn't like sudoku you got to keep your minds sharp in retirement boom hey everyone quick reading update i've just passed the 50 page mark and i feel like i have enough context now to kind of give you initial thoughts and also describe what this book is about so as i said this is a y a vampire centered uh story which i'm hoping is full of all sorts of drama uh more so though it's set in new orleans and i want to say like probably turn of the century we follow our main character who basically has traveled to new orleans to start a new life from france so um she was a like clothing person maker dressmaker in france um but right now she's at a convent with a bunch of other girls as they try to like get settled in their new life um i'm very intrigued so far i'm really enjoying the atmosphere quite a bit um you're mostly obviously following our main character but we kind of are jumping to some other vignettes of some mischievous happenings in the city i do think like a vampire story set in new orleans just inherently is really fun and i also appreciate the historical setting of it all 50 pages in so far so good um it's also a fast read i feel like i read those fifty pages super quickly i mean the font is huge i won't lie to you so that might be part of it but regardless um just wanted to check and let you know i've read three pages and then i'm going gonna keep going tonight and try to read as much as i can hi everyone and welcome to the end of the vlog the next day i just wanted to check in chat through all the books i was able to read this weekend first and foremost i read the last 300 pages of this i want to say i was on page 75 oh i guess just slightly under the last 300 pages of the merciful crow um which i really ended up liking this book really kind of totally captured my attention from page one i thought it just had one of the most unique worlds and i just loved every second of it so i was really happy i was able to honestly just fly through this book this past weekend so this is the first book i completed and then of course i also read 50 pages of 52 pages of jonathan strange and mr norrell um on my commute on friday which i'm really really liking i also read another 50 pages today which doesn't count because it's monday but it was great i'm really liking it things are not even gonna heat up a little bit heat up there's just more magic and characters are kind of colliding in ways i wasn't expecting and i'm just really here for it and then from there speaking of magic i was able to read 125 pages of the beautiful last night before i fell asleep so far this book really is intriguing me it's kind of giving me everything i wanted from it it's a atmospheric historical fiction vampire story it's pretty angsty it has good atmosphere it's cheesy but not too cheesy which i feel like is a tricky line to walk sometimes so far i like the main character uh she's very intriguing has lots of secrets which you know one would expect but honestly just giving me all the vampire diary vibes like because remember klaus you know he was in new orleans for a little bit so like give this a bit more of a historical time period than you know that spin-off show so for that reason i kind of have like a very big soft spot for it in my heart nothing has happened to make me like fall in love with it yet but i just really want to love it so i think that's kind of what's really making me so excited to be fair though it is engaging and i i like the writing style so far um and i'm intrigued so definitely pumped to continue to read this and it's also making me want to re re-watch vampire diaries because i actually never finished the series that is a tangent but true so all in all i think i read just under 500 pages which i'm honestly really really pleased with i was battling a reading slump so being able to read this much this weekend felt great because i'm trying to get out of that reading stuff but anyway i hope you guys enjoyed this video and i will see you soon with another one soon goodbye\n"