**Book Reviews and Recommendations**

I was like that's super cool definitely into that I didn't realize the like um the gross aspect of it I guess because there's a really nasty like plague thing that's going around and it was so hard to read at times or listen to you I was like blue like it definitely made me kind of itchy um but it was super well written like this was so good and I just I enjoyed the Dynamics I enjoyed the Romeo and Juliet retelling aspect of it and the setting and the Gang culture like you have a really interesting Main character a very flawed main character it was just so cool like this was exactly what I was hoping that it was going to be and I can't wait to read the next one and more by Chloe gong because I have like other books by her too that now I definitely need to read next.

Is Kingdom of the Cursed by Karen Maniscalco, finally read this one as well so this is the second book uh to what's the first one again Kingdom of the Wicked and the third one's already out so I will probably be reading that one soon this one it apparently flips to new adult but I'm pretty sure that you still find it in like the why a section at the bookstore because new adult is not its own section I will just say it's definitely not YA anymore but it's still really enjoyable. The whole like world in the characters like the Wrath and everything like that was so interesting and it has The Vibes that I'm looking for for around fall like for sure through and through it's just a great series but do be aware that it has gotten very romantic and very uh Saucy if you will in the final book.

That's what I found out about the Kingdom of the Cursed by Karen Maniscalco. The author did an amazing job at writing this new adult novel, especially considering its genre is not typically classified as new adult. The story features a complex plot with many twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. One thing to note is that it's definitely not suitable for all audiences due to the mature content.

Another recent read I've completed is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E Schwab. This book has been on my list for a long time, and finally getting around to reading it was an exciting experience. I wasn't immediately drawn into the story like I thought I would be, however. The beginning of the book was quite slow-paced and left me with many questions. But as I continued reading, the pieces began to fall into place, and I found myself becoming increasingly invested in Addie's life.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a unique story that explores themes of immortality, love, and the power of storytelling. The author has done an excellent job at crafting a compelling narrative that spans centuries, with a focus on the protagonist's journey through time. One thing I appreciate about this book is its ability to balance multiple timelines, making it easy to follow Addie's life from one era to another.

One thing that might be confusing for some readers is the non-linear structure of the story. The author jumps back and forth in time, which can make it difficult to keep track of events at first. However, as you read on, the connections between different time periods become clearer. I found this approach to be both challenging and rewarding, adding depth to the narrative without overwhelming the reader.

Overall, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a beautifully written novel that explores complex themes and ideas. While it may take some time to get into, once you do, it's an unforgettable reading experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone it's Haley and today I wanted to talk about more books that I've read recently because I have read so much so literally a week ago to the day I was filming my recent reads video the last one that you would have seen and I had just been like talking about how much I've been reading lately how I'd been reading so much all of that I had just finished a book that morning and yeah was doing great and I have been keeping up that momentum because literally since I filmed that video I have read all of these books I would say I don't know what's happening but audiobooks have been saving my life it has been so great to just sit and listen and I feel like I'm absorbing even more of them than I do when I'm physically reading something so most of these I did listen to but like I have found some real gems in here honestly I have a couple of dnfs so like whatever if that doesn't count for you I really don't care I'm not like trying to speed through all of these books to I don't know impress anyone or do anything or reach my Goodreads goal because I already have it's literally just like I have this insatiable need right now to just be reading and consuming stories constantly and it's been really great like I'm not complaining at all because I'm kind of coming off of a period where I wasn't really doing that so much so this is like the complete opposite and it's absolutely lovely I am loving it so I finished two books today I just I have so many books to talk about and I'm so excited I feel like I not that I fell out of love with reading but I felt like I was kind of forcing myself but I was having so much trouble paying attention which probably is partially because of my undiagnosed at the time ADHD but now with audiobooks and like I basically just like am making computer backgrounds for myself while I'm listening to them as well as coloring on that like coloring app that I'm talking about it has been the best like it's literally been such a great way for me to spend some time reading and relaxing and everything and obviously it's been paying off I have 13 books to talk about so I think it was actually two Saturdays ago but nonetheless we have tons to talk about I'm going to be talking about them all spoiler free so don't worry if you haven't read any of these and I'm going to try and go through them as quickly as possible because there are so many books to talk about like I didn't realize how many I have read so let's get to so the first book that I finished today is the audiobook that I was just listening to I literally finished it right before I started filming this but that is lessons in chemistry by Bonnie garmis this book came out around when I was starting my internship at penguin and it was the Penguin book club pick of the month so I got a copy because of that and I was quite excited about it I thought it sounded really cool and then I just didn't get around to it but I started listening to it yesterday and oh my God I loved this I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did but truly this was so good I I just didn't know what to expect I knew that it was set in like the 1950s 1960s and it was following a woman who is a chemist which obviously she's not respected like there's a lot of gatekeeping there but I didn't know know about like the reality show that she starts she starts this reality cooking show but it's different than like other shows so she's kind of defying what the producers want her to do because she's actually like teaching these women about chemistry and how to stand up for themselves and everything and she's like defying all these societal norms and just being who she is and it was just so so great like this one took me completely by surprise with how absorbed I became in the story I didn't realize that we were gonna get the dog's point of view I was really worried the whole time just in case you are as well nothing happens to the dog so don't worry like I don't know if people consider that a spoiler but like I'm always on that website does the dog die and if it does I'm not I'm not interested or I'm skipping over it so don't worry nothing happens to the dog in this book I like that this focused on the main character and like just her as a human being it wasn't so much of Love Story it was the story of her as a chemist and trying to be herself when everything is defying her like she has so many barriers in society set up against her and she's just trying to break them all down she is accomplishing so much but she's not recognized for it purely because she's a woman so all of her accomplishments they're being taken credit for it by someone else and she like gets with this guy and he's also a really well-known chemist so that I ends up kind of throwing a wrench in things she has a child so that throws a wrench in things like just constantly obstacles and you see how she's dealing with them and then ultimately when she is like sharing her knowledge with other like women out there it was just so freaking good I loved the writing I thought the writing did a great job of conveying the story it was really interesting and different and yeah I just I had a blast with this one it was like sad and hard to read because of what these women went through and you can only imagine like how many women went through something like that and especially women of color who their accomplishments aren't even recognized just because of who they are like it's so terrible to think of and you like like to think that that gatekeeping doesn't exist anymore but it definitely does maybe not to that extent but I'm also kind of hesitant to say that but yeah it's definitely going to be a read that will make you think but I highly recommend because it manages to be heavy in the way that it like teaches you a lot there's a lot going on in it but at the same time it is light because the main character has just such kind of like a quirky voice but not quirky and like a caricature way I don't really know how to describe it other than just just read it the other book that I finished this morning is the cheat sheet by Sarah Adams so this book had been really hyped up on Tick Tock as a friends to lovers romance it's definitely more of a PG-13 one um rather than the other Tick Tock books which are usually kind of like R-rated this one is more of a Fade to Black romance it's like no Smite whatsoever but I love friends to love her so I was really looking forward to this one and this one is actually friends to lovers with a little bit of fake dating thrown in there so I was like oh my God two of my favorite tropes absolutely but it's following these two best friends they've been best friends for like six years and it's Nathan and Bree and they just have so much chemistry like you can tell they're best friends I think that's why I love friends to lovers romances so much is because I don't like the conflict as much I know that like that's what makes a book interesting but I like seeing the couple together and like getting along and everything so with friends to lovers you obviously get that because they're friends so they obviously get along but anyways Nathan is actually a pro football player and Brie she owns a dance studio she was like a ballerina was supposed to dance with company and everything but then she ended up getting into a terrible accident and it just kind of like changed everything for her so she essentially ends up getting drunk and Spills her secret like love for him but then she plays it off as a joke but then they want to actually spin it as a PR thing so that's when they end up fake dating now what I wasn't expecting from this book is that you actually get both perspectives and from that like very early on so this is not a spoiler but you know that they both actually have feelings for each other which just makes it so much more freaking frustrating because you know they like each other but both of them are just like too I don't want to say stupid because it's not stupid but they're too like worried and nervous about losing this friendship that means so much to them that they keep on like keeping up this Bruce like it's just so infuriating because it ends up being kind of like a slow burn you definitely have to work for the romance and it was cute like I liked it I enjoyed the fact that Nathan's friends the other football players they came into the story kind of like a love romance book club where they're helping him with like this cheat sheet and everything and like I said I definitely felt the chemistry between the two characters but the plot was kind of like meh and it definitely could be a little bit cheesy at times for me I found certain things to be overly corny so it didn't like stand out to me as the best friends to lovers romance ever but I thought it was really sweet and I do have another book by this author so I will be reading that one soon next up is xylen Kai by Christina Forrest so I have read all of christinafore's books so far so when I picked this one up obviously I knew how to read it I was very surprised by how big it is because for a contemporary and like a why a contemporary at that it's really huge but it didn't feel long at all it felt like such uh like I really liked this one it was a really well-rounded great look at First Love and both is Isla and Kai you're getting their perspectives and you see how like their love blossoms and all of the kind of like obstacles that they're facing along the way there's some like inner obstacles but then also outer things it's really just it captures that kind of like all-encompassing nature of First Love And how that can feel like the end-all and be y'all and you see both characters are kind of like slipping from things that they care about and things that matter to them because they're so absorbed with each other so I felt like out of all of the kind of why a romances that I've read this one had the most realistic and relatable conflicts in my opinion and I think that I depicted them really well I think this would be like a really helpful book for anyone who is like experiencing first love to read because it kind of reminds you that there's life beyond that obviously like it's all well and good it's great and it's fun it makes you happy but at the same time there's other important things you know so I liked the fact that you were dealing with a lot of conflict within this relationship and it just felt super super realistic to me but they also had So Much Chemistry with each other I like really fell for their romance I thought it was so sweet and it's kind of like a frame tale where they've been dating everyone knows that they're like this great couple so at the beginning and you find out that they have gone missing like they were on the senior trip and they ended up going missing and that's where the story starts and then it kind of brings you back to the beginning which is the summer before where they were working at this Carnival together and they that's when they like first met and they were like oh we're just gonna be friends like started out being friends and then you over the course of the book like it starts to be more and then you see the relationship until ultimately you find out what happened along the way and by the way that's not a spoiler because it literally says like in the synopsis they go missing together but everyone's surprised because everyone knows that they broke up so there's a lot of like you're trying to piece together what may have happened because when you're in it it just doesn't make sense you know so yeah I just I really really enjoyed this one I thought it was so sweet and at the same time just a very like reflective and helpful story if that makes sense I still have so many books to talk about and I just saw how long I've been talking for so I'm gonna try and and uh not talk for a song but next up is daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lin tan this is an adult fantasy actually I had thought it was a why a fantasy because it was kind of being categorized as that but it's not and I think the other thing was because it's blurred by Stephanie Garber and she is a ya author I just kind of assumed and that's like the blurb that's on the cover so I just kind of assumed but whatever it is not it's an adult fantasy and oh my goodness this was a really great one like every now and again when I'm reading a book or like listening to it in this case I'll be like wow I'm really enjoying this and that happened with this book and that happened with lessons in chemistry and it doesn't mean that like other books I haven't liked but they're just ones that I'm like this is like Top Notch really really good and that's absolutely what happened here so you're following the daughter of the Moon Goddess obviously and she's essentially on this quest to try and set her mother free but along the way at that Quest like she's hiding who she is and she's with this Prince and like hiding who she is from him but their relationship is really different than other relationships that he's had with other people there's obviously starting to be kind of a romance there this is once again a book that follows a really long span of time and I love when books follow a really long span of time because I find it never bores me I feel more so like I'm really getting to know these characters and getting a full picture of things and that was absolutely what I felt like I got here I felt like it took work to get to the end but not in a bad way like it felt super satisfying all around you saw so much development from the main character and from her relationships as well and how hard she worked like she was just a real pleasure to follow honestly and the world was super cool and interesting as well I know that there is a sequel out now or at least I believe it's a sequel because I mean the cover looks the same I'll have to look into it but I probably will actually be reading that one because I just enjoyed this one so much that I think I'm gonna need to continue with it but this was super hyped up and I understand why the writing was so good like loved the writing and the story itself like plot was amazing characters were amazing it was just all around a success for me next up I finally got to one last stop by Casey mcquiston this is another one I really loved I swear like I haven't loved every single book that I've read lately but it just kind of feels like I've been having so many successes and I don't know why but hey I'm not complaining obviously but this is by the author of red white and royal blue and I actually have the latest by this author they have a why a book out and I've wanted to read it but I wanted to read this one first because like chronologically for publishing that's how they came out they're unrelated however I just I felt like it was right for me to read this one first and oh I'm so glad that I did I really really enjoyed this one this was just like a love letter to the lgbtq plus community and it was so well done it kind of like it's very different than red white and royal blue because it has a little bit of a magical element to it where basically the main character ends up finding out something about her Subway Crush they say specifically what it is in the synopsis but I think that that kind of like ruins the mystery a little bit so just like go into it not knowing a lot personally I wish that I had not known that much about it but I mean it is what it is but I would just go into it knowing like her Subway Crush there's just something a little off about her and she like discovers what that is and then goes on a journey and she try and save her and help her and all the characters I loved them like just such a great story in all ways like there's so many things that come to mind the setting of New York was so prevalent in the story and almost was like a character itself and I feel like I've read a few books that are set in New York and it always seems to be like that but it just really transports you there and then it's also set like so often on the subway so I feel like the subway is also like such a part of New York and you have this found family that just warmed my heart I loved them like the friendships and the just bond between them you could really feel it the romance I really liked there were things that I didn't like about it like some of the Romantic scenes the setting of it was not my favorite uh PDA a lot and I'm just not really into that and I don't mean like just like kissing whatever I mean like more than that like when there's other people I'm just I'm not really a fan of that but it was like a beautiful Sapphic romance and you also had this Diner that was so prevalent in the story and everything stood out on its own but also came together in a beautiful way so yeah this was just fantastic like Casey mcquiston can honestly do no wrong they are just a fantastic writer now I'm going to actually talk about the couple of dnfs I have here because they'll go by pretty quickly so Royal Holiday by Jasmine Galore I just don't think that this author's writing is for me I read The Wedding Date and I wasn't really a huge fan of it and I can't remember if it was because of the writing I don't think it was because like I have another book by her other than this one but I think with that one it was just I expected it to be more focused on the wedding itself and it wasn't so it's kind of disappointing but here this one jumped right into the story and I just didn't really like it like I didn't like the writing because I found it was very robotic and matter of fact like it was a lot of telling rather than showing and I feel like that's constantly something that you're hearing if you like are a writer or have written anything it's like showing versus telling like you have to pay attention to that but this is one of the like real instances that I can think of of reading a Finnish Book where I'm like wow you're really like telling me everything you're really handing everything to me and I don't know if it was partially the narrator for the audiobook but it just felt so wooden and I didn't want that because it seems so adorable like it's set at Christmas time the main character her daughter is actually going to work at the palace and well not the palace but she's going to work for the royal family and she's going to be the stylist for The Duchess and she wants her mom to come with her so they end up going and then her mom ends up like starting to spend a lot of time with the queen secretary but it just kind of jumped like right into it and I felt like I didn't really know like the characters very much and I was just getting told like oh I'm going to do this now and then I'm going to do this now and now I think this and it just didn't work for me unfortunately because like this would have been my first Christmas read of the year but I ended up just not really liking it I actually also ended up dnfing Challenger Deep by Neil Shusterman I think that this is a really important book I think it's one that's going to mean a lot to a lot of people but for me I found it I found it a little triggering because it talks about anxiety a lot and like the care all the characters anxieties and like as I was just listening to the spiral I was like oh my God like this is no it definitely was triggering me a little bit so that's like a me problem but at the same time it was just kind of like the storytelling I found to be confusing and I couldn't really get into it but I can see like the Merit in it I can see why the story was being told in that way because you're going between like reality I guess but then also the characters like on a ship and yeah it's really confusing um I think it's a great story like dealing with mental health but I just think it wasn't one for me like I think the depiction of it was almost too realistic for my like wanting to read it if that makes sense I don't know like I guess it depends on the Mind state or like what the characters are thinking because I can read Turtles all the way down and I haven't found that triggering but like something like this I found like really triggering and maybe it was because I was listening to the audiobook as well and I like physically read Turtles all the way down I don't really know but whatever next I read the Looking Glass boars by Frank bedore this has been a long time book on my TBR I don't even know how many years I didn't even realize that this book actually came out in 2006. I knew it was older but I didn't realize it was that old and so many of you were like commenting that it was such a throwback for you guys but for me I obviously hadn't read it but it has been recommended to me many many times over the years because obviously I love Alice in Wonderland if you didn't know I love Alice in Wonderland so it's been recommended to me as a really great retelling and I have won it for a while now to film a video talking about Alice in Wonderland retelling specifically and this has been like the last one that I've needed to read but I just kept on putting it off I don't really know why but I did really like it like I thought it was a lot of fun I thought it was an interesting look at things where you have that combination of fantasy and reality and the way that they were Blended was super cool like I felt like it's still I've read so many Alice in Wonderland retellings by now but I felt like it still was very unique it was one of the more unique ones that I've read and especially the depiction of like certain characters like the Mad Hatter is usually depicted in a certain way but it was very different in this book so that was interesting it reminded me quite a bit of the Tim Burton film like not in a bad way like not in the way that it's just like it but the depiction of certain characters like the Cheshire Cat definitely reminded me of that sort of although I mean his characterization isn't the same but for some reason it reminded me of that but I felt like the depiction of Alice as a character was one of the most like most interesting things so it really does blend fantasy and reality in a very interesting way and I think if you like Alice in Wonderland retellings this is a great one to read so I know that there's at least one more book I'm not sure if it's a trilogy but I'm probably going to try and continue with it next I read two books by the same author and they're kind of in the the same series it's like a companion series and that is guilt and tarnish by Catherine Longshore so these are Tudor era Y.A stories and I actually have Brazen which is another one but I listen to these on audio loved the audiobook but Brayson doesn't have an audiobook which makes me so sad so I'm trying to decide if I want to actually read it or not like if it's gonna be worth it we'll see but for now I did read these two and oh my God I devoured them these are definitely told with like really modern language so they're not like the most historically authentic but they're so fun like they're really well I feel like fun might be the wrong word I think if you like the TV show Reign then this is a great one to try out because it's kind of like just like that you have the core drama the Intrigue like all of that and it's just so easy to keep on going with it so I started with guilt I actually started with guilt because on Goodreads it says that this is number one and which is not because like I wanted to read them in chronological order and in chronological order this one should come first because it is Anne Boleyn but I started with this one and it's about Catherine Howard it's actually not like her perspective though which I thought was very interesting it's told from the perspective of one of her best friends so it was kind of interesting to get that like outside look at things but this one is about Amber Lynn and I would say that this one leans more toward the romance side of things like it's not strictly about that but it definitely does lean a little bit more romantic whereas this one is more kind of like right in court life in the politics of that both of them obviously deal with both of those things but I felt like they were very distinctive stories on their own and yeah just if you're looking for like a tour era really easy to read historical this series is awesome I don't know if it's like even in print anymore because I know these ones are also quite old but it's super good if you can find it I'm almost done I swear I have three more books to go so next is these violent Delights by Chloe gong I know I finally read this it took me so long and I finally did it so yay like mission accomplished but this is a Romeo and Juliet retelling set in the 1920s in Shanghai and I didn't realize like exactly beyond that what it dealt with I knew that it dealt with rival gangs so I was like that's super cool definitely into that I didn't realize the like um the gross aspect of it I guess because there's a really nasty like plague thing that's going around and it was so hard to read at times or listen to you I was like blue like it definitely made me kind of itchy um but it was super well written like this was so good and I just I enjoyed the Dynamics I enjoyed the Romeo and Juliet retelling aspect of it and the setting and the Gang culture like you have a really interesting Main character a very flawed main character it was just so cool like this was exactly what I was hoping that it was going to be and I can't wait to read the next one and more by Chloe gong because I have like other books by her too that now I definitely need to read next is kingdom of the cursed by Karen Maniscalco finally read this one as well so this is the second book uh to what's the first one again Kingdom of the wicked and the third one's already out so I will probably be reading that one soon this one it apparently flips to new adult but I'm pretty sure that you still find it in like the why a section at the bookstore because new adult is not its own section I will just say it's definitely not y a it's definitely way more mature and it really leans into the smut and the romance aspect of it which I'm not complaining about because I did like it it was kind of like a court of mist and fury situation where like the first book there's kind of like a little bit of SMUD like a little bit of steamy moments and then all of a sudden you're being like slapped in the face with it and I was like wow so yeah just a fair warning if we read the first book this definitely is not y a anymore but it's still really enjoyable the whole like world in the characters like the Wrath and everything like that was so interesting and it has The Vibes that I'm looking for for around fall like for sure through and through it's just a great series but do be aware that it has gotten very romantic and very uh Saucy if you will in the final book that I have read recently is the invisible life of Addie LaRue by v.e Schwab another one I have had for so long I'm just taking advantage of like this time in my life where I'm feeling just like reading everything and devouring books to go through books that I have had for a super super long time and finally get to them and it's been great I really liked Addie LaRue I didn't love it so I'd say like for the beginning I was kind of having trouble wasn't really feeling it all that much and I would say wasn't until about like honestly maybe two-thirds or three quarters of the way through that I was like oh I really like this so I kind of want to say I like it more than I really liked it but it took a while it took a while for me to get into and I if I had been physically reading it it would not have worked like I know that I had heard from a lot of people that it was very slow in the beginning but it was slow for quite a while it was slow for a really long time and it was just kind of the nature of the story it did end up like all piecing together and I understood things but there was a really long time where you're kind of Meandering like why why is this happening like you're just you have a lot of questions but you're watching a relationship build and you still don't have answers related to the questions so if you don't know this story is about Addie LaRue obviously and she makes a deal with the devil where she is like she's able to live forever but she's going to be forgotten by everyone that she ever meets so you're following her life over years and years and years years and years and you're jumping from the present to the past and once again following a very long period of time to get a very well-rounded look at her life and yeah I can't even imagine writing this I'm sure it would have been really complicated and confusing but it was super good I did think it was very well done it just took me a while to get to that point where I was like really liking it for the most part I was kind of like this is fine I just I don't really know how I feel about it but then eventually I was like oh no I do actually really like this okay so those are all of the books that I have read recently oh my God who like grab things a lot of books um I hope that you guys enjoyed today's video thank you so much for watching and I will see you in another new one soon bye Doohey everyone it's Haley and today I wanted to talk about more books that I've read recently because I have read so much so literally a week ago to the day I was filming my recent reads video the last one that you would have seen and I had just been like talking about how much I've been reading lately how I'd been reading so much all of that I had just finished a book that morning and yeah was doing great and I have been keeping up that momentum because literally since I filmed that video I have read all of these books I would say I don't know what's happening but audiobooks have been saving my life it has been so great to just sit and listen and I feel like I'm absorbing even more of them than I do when I'm physically reading something so most of these I did listen to but like I have found some real gems in here honestly I have a couple of dnfs so like whatever if that doesn't count for you I really don't care I'm not like trying to speed through all of these books to I don't know impress anyone or do anything or reach my Goodreads goal because I already have it's literally just like I have this insatiable need right now to just be reading and consuming stories constantly and it's been really great like I'm not complaining at all because I'm kind of coming off of a period where I wasn't really doing that so much so this is like the complete opposite and it's absolutely lovely I am loving it so I finished two books today I just I have so many books to talk about and I'm so excited I feel like I not that I fell out of love with reading but I felt like I was kind of forcing myself but I was having so much trouble paying attention which probably is partially because of my undiagnosed at the time ADHD but now with audiobooks and like I basically just like am making computer backgrounds for myself while I'm listening to them as well as coloring on that like coloring app that I'm talking about it has been the best like it's literally been such a great way for me to spend some time reading and relaxing and everything and obviously it's been paying off I have 13 books to talk about so I think it was actually two Saturdays ago but nonetheless we have tons to talk about I'm going to be talking about them all spoiler free so don't worry if you haven't read any of these and I'm going to try and go through them as quickly as possible because there are so many books to talk about like I didn't realize how many I have read so let's get to so the first book that I finished today is the audiobook that I was just listening to I literally finished it right before I started filming this but that is lessons in chemistry by Bonnie garmis this book came out around when I was starting my internship at penguin and it was the Penguin book club pick of the month so I got a copy because of that and I was quite excited about it I thought it sounded really cool and then I just didn't get around to it but I started listening to it yesterday and oh my God I loved this I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did but truly this was so good I I just didn't know what to expect I knew that it was set in like the 1950s 1960s and it was following a woman who is a chemist which obviously she's not respected like there's a lot of gatekeeping there but I didn't know know about like the reality show that she starts she starts this reality cooking show but it's different than like other shows so she's kind of defying what the producers want her to do because she's actually like teaching these women about chemistry and how to stand up for themselves and everything and she's like defying all these societal norms and just being who she is and it was just so so great like this one took me completely by surprise with how absorbed I became in the story I didn't realize that we were gonna get the dog's point of view I was really worried the whole time just in case you are as well nothing happens to the dog so don't worry like I don't know if people consider that a spoiler but like I'm always on that website does the dog die and if it does I'm not I'm not interested or I'm skipping over it so don't worry nothing happens to the dog in this book I like that this focused on the main character and like just her as a human being it wasn't so much of Love Story it was the story of her as a chemist and trying to be herself when everything is defying her like she has so many barriers in society set up against her and she's just trying to break them all down she is accomplishing so much but she's not recognized for it purely because she's a woman so all of her accomplishments they're being taken credit for it by someone else and she like gets with this guy and he's also a really well-known chemist so that I ends up kind of throwing a wrench in things she has a child so that throws a wrench in things like just constantly obstacles and you see how she's dealing with them and then ultimately when she is like sharing her knowledge with other like women out there it was just so freaking good I loved the writing I thought the writing did a great job of conveying the story it was really interesting and different and yeah I just I had a blast with this one it was like sad and hard to read because of what these women went through and you can only imagine like how many women went through something like that and especially women of color who their accomplishments aren't even recognized just because of who they are like it's so terrible to think of and you like like to think that that gatekeeping doesn't exist anymore but it definitely does maybe not to that extent but I'm also kind of hesitant to say that but yeah it's definitely going to be a read that will make you think but I highly recommend because it manages to be heavy in the way that it like teaches you a lot there's a lot going on in it but at the same time it is light because the main character has just such kind of like a quirky voice but not quirky and like a caricature way I don't really know how to describe it other than just just read it the other book that I finished this morning is the cheat sheet by Sarah Adams so this book had been really hyped up on Tick Tock as a friends to lovers romance it's definitely more of a PG-13 one um rather than the other Tick Tock books which are usually kind of like R-rated this one is more of a Fade to Black romance it's like no Smite whatsoever but I love friends to love her so I was really looking forward to this one and this one is actually friends to lovers with a little bit of fake dating thrown in there so I was like oh my God two of my favorite tropes absolutely but it's following these two best friends they've been best friends for like six years and it's Nathan and Bree and they just have so much chemistry like you can tell they're best friends I think that's why I love friends to lovers romances so much is because I don't like the conflict as much I know that like that's what makes a book interesting but I like seeing the couple together and like getting along and everything so with friends to lovers you obviously get that because they're friends so they obviously get along but anyways Nathan is actually a pro football player and Brie she owns a dance studio she was like a ballerina was supposed to dance with company and everything but then she ended up getting into a terrible accident and it just kind of like changed everything for her so she essentially ends up getting drunk and Spills her secret like love for him but then she plays it off as a joke but then they want to actually spin it as a PR thing so that's when they end up fake dating now what I wasn't expecting from this book is that you actually get both perspectives and from that like very early on so this is not a spoiler but you know that they both actually have feelings for each other which just makes it so much more freaking frustrating because you know they like each other but both of them are just like too I don't want to say stupid because it's not stupid but they're too like worried and nervous about losing this friendship that means so much to them that they keep on like keeping up this Bruce like it's just so infuriating because it ends up being kind of like a slow burn you definitely have to work for the romance and it was cute like I liked it I enjoyed the fact that Nathan's friends the other football players they came into the story kind of like a love romance book club where they're helping him with like this cheat sheet and everything and like I said I definitely felt the chemistry between the two characters but the plot was kind of like meh and it definitely could be a little bit cheesy at times for me I found certain things to be overly corny so it didn't like stand out to me as the best friends to lovers romance ever but I thought it was really sweet and I do have another book by this author so I will be reading that one soon next up is xylen Kai by Christina Forrest so I have read all of christinafore's books so far so when I picked this one up obviously I knew how to read it I was very surprised by how big it is because for a contemporary and like a why a contemporary at that it's really huge but it didn't feel long at all it felt like such uh like I really liked this one it was a really well-rounded great look at First Love and both is Isla and Kai you're getting their perspectives and you see how like their love blossoms and all of the kind of like obstacles that they're facing along the way there's some like inner obstacles but then also outer things it's really just it captures that kind of like all-encompassing nature of First Love And how that can feel like the end-all and be y'all and you see both characters are kind of like slipping from things that they care about and things that matter to them because they're so absorbed with each other so I felt like out of all of the kind of why a romances that I've read this one had the most realistic and relatable conflicts in my opinion and I think that I depicted them really well I think this would be like a really helpful book for anyone who is like experiencing first love to read because it kind of reminds you that there's life beyond that obviously like it's all well and good it's great and it's fun it makes you happy but at the same time there's other important things you know so I liked the fact that you were dealing with a lot of conflict within this relationship and it just felt super super realistic to me but they also had So Much Chemistry with each other I like really fell for their romance I thought it was so sweet and it's kind of like a frame tale where they've been dating everyone knows that they're like this great couple so at the beginning and you find out that they have gone missing like they were on the senior trip and they ended up going missing and that's where the story starts and then it kind of brings you back to the beginning which is the summer before where they were working at this Carnival together and they that's when they like first met and they were like oh we're just gonna be friends like started out being friends and then you over the course of the book like it starts to be more and then you see the relationship until ultimately you find out what happened along the way and by the way that's not a spoiler because it literally says like in the synopsis they go missing together but everyone's surprised because everyone knows that they broke up so there's a lot of like you're trying to piece together what may have happened because when you're in it it just doesn't make sense you know so yeah I just I really really enjoyed this one I thought it was so sweet and at the same time just a very like reflective and helpful story if that makes sense I still have so many books to talk about and I just saw how long I've been talking for so I'm gonna try and and uh not talk for a song but next up is daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lin tan this is an adult fantasy actually I had thought it was a why a fantasy because it was kind of being categorized as that but it's not and I think the other thing was because it's blurred by Stephanie Garber and she is a ya author I just kind of assumed and that's like the blurb that's on the cover so I just kind of assumed but whatever it is not it's an adult fantasy and oh my goodness this was a really great one like every now and again when I'm reading a book or like listening to it in this case I'll be like wow I'm really enjoying this and that happened with this book and that happened with lessons in chemistry and it doesn't mean that like other books I haven't liked but they're just ones that I'm like this is like Top Notch really really good and that's absolutely what happened here so you're following the daughter of the Moon Goddess obviously and she's essentially on this quest to try and set her mother free but along the way at that Quest like she's hiding who she is and she's with this Prince and like hiding who she is from him but their relationship is really different than other relationships that he's had with other people there's obviously starting to be kind of a romance there this is once again a book that follows a really long span of time and I love when books follow a really long span of time because I find it never bores me I feel more so like I'm really getting to know these characters and getting a full picture of things and that was absolutely what I felt like I got here I felt like it took work to get to the end but not in a bad way like it felt super satisfying all around you saw so much development from the main character and from her relationships as well and how hard she worked like she was just a real pleasure to follow honestly and the world was super cool and interesting as well I know that there is a sequel out now or at least I believe it's a sequel because I mean the cover looks the same I'll have to look into it but I probably will actually be reading that one because I just enjoyed this one so much that I think I'm gonna need to continue with it but this was super hyped up and I understand why the writing was so good like loved the writing and the story itself like plot was amazing characters were amazing it was just all around a success for me next up I finally got to one last stop by Casey mcquiston this is another one I really loved I swear like I haven't loved every single book that I've read lately but it just kind of feels like I've been having so many successes and I don't know why but hey I'm not complaining obviously but this is by the author of red white and royal blue and I actually have the latest by this author they have a why a book out and I've wanted to read it but I wanted to read this one first because like chronologically for publishing that's how they came out they're unrelated however I just I felt like it was right for me to read this one first and oh I'm so glad that I did I really really enjoyed this one this was just like a love letter to the lgbtq plus community and it was so well done it kind of like it's very different than red white and royal blue because it has a little bit of a magical element to it where basically the main character ends up finding out something about her Subway Crush they say specifically what it is in the synopsis but I think that that kind of like ruins the mystery a little bit so just like go into it not knowing a lot personally I wish that I had not known that much about it but I mean it is what it is but I would just go into it knowing like her Subway Crush there's just something a little off about her and she like discovers what that is and then goes on a journey and she try and save her and help her and all the characters I loved them like just such a great story in all ways like there's so many things that come to mind the setting of New York was so prevalent in the story and almost was like a character itself and I feel like I've read a few books that are set in New York and it always seems to be like that but it just really transports you there and then it's also set like so often on the subway so I feel like the subway is also like such a part of New York and you have this found family that just warmed my heart I loved them like the friendships and the just bond between them you could really feel it the romance I really liked there were things that I didn't like about it like some of the Romantic scenes the setting of it was not my favorite uh PDA a lot and I'm just not really into that and I don't mean like just like kissing whatever I mean like more than that like when there's other people I'm just I'm not really a fan of that but it was like a beautiful Sapphic romance and you also had this Diner that was so prevalent in the story and everything stood out on its own but also came together in a beautiful way so yeah this was just fantastic like Casey mcquiston can honestly do no wrong they are just a fantastic writer now I'm going to actually talk about the couple of dnfs I have here because they'll go by pretty quickly so Royal Holiday by Jasmine Galore I just don't think that this author's writing is for me I read The Wedding Date and I wasn't really a huge fan of it and I can't remember if it was because of the writing I don't think it was because like I have another book by her other than this one but I think with that one it was just I expected it to be more focused on the wedding itself and it wasn't so it's kind of disappointing but here this one jumped right into the story and I just didn't really like it like I didn't like the writing because I found it was very robotic and matter of fact like it was a lot of telling rather than showing and I feel like that's constantly something that you're hearing if you like are a writer or have written anything it's like showing versus telling like you have to pay attention to that but this is one of the like real instances that I can think of of reading a Finnish Book where I'm like wow you're really like telling me everything you're really handing everything to me and I don't know if it was partially the narrator for the audiobook but it just felt so wooden and I didn't want that because it seems so adorable like it's set at Christmas time the main character her daughter is actually going to work at the palace and well not the palace but she's going to work for the royal family and she's going to be the stylist for The Duchess and she wants her mom to come with her so they end up going and then her mom ends up like starting to spend a lot of time with the queen secretary but it just kind of jumped like right into it and I felt like I didn't really know like the characters very much and I was just getting told like oh I'm going to do this now and then I'm going to do this now and now I think this and it just didn't work for me unfortunately because like this would have been my first Christmas read of the year but I ended up just not really liking it I actually also ended up dnfing Challenger Deep by Neil Shusterman I think that this is a really important book I think it's one that's going to mean a lot to a lot of people but for me I found it I found it a little triggering because it talks about anxiety a lot and like the care all the characters anxieties and like as I was just listening to the spiral I was like oh my God like this is no it definitely was triggering me a little bit so that's like a me problem but at the same time it was just kind of like the storytelling I found to be confusing and I couldn't really get into it but I can see like the Merit in it I can see why the story was being told in that way because you're going between like reality I guess but then also the characters like on a ship and yeah it's really confusing um I think it's a great story like dealing with mental health but I just think it wasn't one for me like I think the depiction of it was almost too realistic for my like wanting to read it if that makes sense I don't know like I guess it depends on the Mind state or like what the characters are thinking because I can read Turtles all the way down and I haven't found that triggering but like something like this I found like really triggering and maybe it was because I was listening to the audiobook as well and I like physically read Turtles all the way down I don't really know but whatever next I read the Looking Glass boars by Frank bedore this has been a long time book on my TBR I don't even know how many years I didn't even realize that this book actually came out in 2006. I knew it was older but I didn't realize it was that old and so many of you were like commenting that it was such a throwback for you guys but for me I obviously hadn't read it but it has been recommended to me many many times over the years because obviously I love Alice in Wonderland if you didn't know I love Alice in Wonderland so it's been recommended to me as a really great retelling and I have won it for a while now to film a video talking about Alice in Wonderland retelling specifically and this has been like the last one that I've needed to read but I just kept on putting it off I don't really know why but I did really like it like I thought it was a lot of fun I thought it was an interesting look at things where you have that combination of fantasy and reality and the way that they were Blended was super cool like I felt like it's still I've read so many Alice in Wonderland retellings by now but I felt like it still was very unique it was one of the more unique ones that I've read and especially the depiction of like certain characters like the Mad Hatter is usually depicted in a certain way but it was very different in this book so that was interesting it reminded me quite a bit of the Tim Burton film like not in a bad way like not in the way that it's just like it but the depiction of certain characters like the Cheshire Cat definitely reminded me of that sort of although I mean his characterization isn't the same but for some reason it reminded me of that but I felt like the depiction of Alice as a character was one of the most like most interesting things so it really does blend fantasy and reality in a very interesting way and I think if you like Alice in Wonderland retellings this is a great one to read so I know that there's at least one more book I'm not sure if it's a trilogy but I'm probably going to try and continue with it next I read two books by the same author and they're kind of in the the same series it's like a companion series and that is guilt and tarnish by Catherine Longshore so these are Tudor era Y.A stories and I actually have Brazen which is another one but I listen to these on audio loved the audiobook but Brayson doesn't have an audiobook which makes me so sad so I'm trying to decide if I want to actually read it or not like if it's gonna be worth it we'll see but for now I did read these two and oh my God I devoured them these are definitely told with like really modern language so they're not like the most historically authentic but they're so fun like they're really well I feel like fun might be the wrong word I think if you like the TV show Reign then this is a great one to try out because it's kind of like just like that you have the core drama the Intrigue like all of that and it's just so easy to keep on going with it so I started with guilt I actually started with guilt because on Goodreads it says that this is number one and which is not because like I wanted to read them in chronological order and in chronological order this one should come first because it is Anne Boleyn but I started with this one and it's about Catherine Howard it's actually not like her perspective though which I thought was very interesting it's told from the perspective of one of her best friends so it was kind of interesting to get that like outside look at things but this one is about Amber Lynn and I would say that this one leans more toward the romance side of things like it's not strictly about that but it definitely does lean a little bit more romantic whereas this one is more kind of like right in court life in the politics of that both of them obviously deal with both of those things but I felt like they were very distinctive stories on their own and yeah just if you're looking for like a tour era really easy to read historical this series is awesome I don't know if it's like even in print anymore because I know these ones are also quite old but it's super good if you can find it I'm almost done I swear I have three more books to go so next is these violent Delights by Chloe gong I know I finally read this it took me so long and I finally did it so yay like mission accomplished but this is a Romeo and Juliet retelling set in the 1920s in Shanghai and I didn't realize like exactly beyond that what it dealt with I knew that it dealt with rival gangs so I was like that's super cool definitely into that I didn't realize the like um the gross aspect of it I guess because there's a really nasty like plague thing that's going around and it was so hard to read at times or listen to you I was like blue like it definitely made me kind of itchy um but it was super well written like this was so good and I just I enjoyed the Dynamics I enjoyed the Romeo and Juliet retelling aspect of it and the setting and the Gang culture like you have a really interesting Main character a very flawed main character it was just so cool like this was exactly what I was hoping that it was going to be and I can't wait to read the next one and more by Chloe gong because I have like other books by her too that now I definitely need to read next is kingdom of the cursed by Karen Maniscalco finally read this one as well so this is the second book uh to what's the first one again Kingdom of the wicked and the third one's already out so I will probably be reading that one soon this one it apparently flips to new adult but I'm pretty sure that you still find it in like the why a section at the bookstore because new adult is not its own section I will just say it's definitely not y a it's definitely way more mature and it really leans into the smut and the romance aspect of it which I'm not complaining about because I did like it it was kind of like a court of mist and fury situation where like the first book there's kind of like a little bit of SMUD like a little bit of steamy moments and then all of a sudden you're being like slapped in the face with it and I was like wow so yeah just a fair warning if we read the first book this definitely is not y a anymore but it's still really enjoyable the whole like world in the characters like the Wrath and everything like that was so interesting and it has The Vibes that I'm looking for for around fall like for sure through and through it's just a great series but do be aware that it has gotten very romantic and very uh Saucy if you will in the final book that I have read recently is the invisible life of Addie LaRue by v.e Schwab another one I have had for so long I'm just taking advantage of like this time in my life where I'm feeling just like reading everything and devouring books to go through books that I have had for a super super long time and finally get to them and it's been great I really liked Addie LaRue I didn't love it so I'd say like for the beginning I was kind of having trouble wasn't really feeling it all that much and I would say wasn't until about like honestly maybe two-thirds or three quarters of the way through that I was like oh I really like this so I kind of want to say I like it more than I really liked it but it took a while it took a while for me to get into and I if I had been physically reading it it would not have worked like I know that I had heard from a lot of people that it was very slow in the beginning but it was slow for quite a while it was slow for a really long time and it was just kind of the nature of the story it did end up like all piecing together and I understood things but there was a really long time where you're kind of Meandering like why why is this happening like you're just you have a lot of questions but you're watching a relationship build and you still don't have answers related to the questions so if you don't know this story is about Addie LaRue obviously and she makes a deal with the devil where she is like she's able to live forever but she's going to be forgotten by everyone that she ever meets so you're following her life over years and years and years years and years and you're jumping from the present to the past and once again following a very long period of time to get a very well-rounded look at her life and yeah I can't even imagine writing this I'm sure it would have been really complicated and confusing but it was super good I did think it was very well done it just took me a while to get to that point where I was like really liking it for the most part I was kind of like this is fine I just I don't really know how I feel about it but then eventually I was like oh no I do actually really like this okay so those are all of the books that I have read recently oh my God who like grab things a lot of books um I hope that you guys enjoyed today's video thank you so much for watching and I will see you in another new one soon bye Doo\n"