**A Year of Reading: My Favorite Books and Authors**

I have been keeping track of my reading this year, and I'm excited to share my favorite books with you. As I reflect on my reading journey, I realize that I've loved a wide range of genres and authors. From romance to mystery, fantasy to literary fiction, I've explored it all.

One book that stands out in my mind is "Icebreaker". In one sentence, I can summarize my love for this book as follows: "I loved the found family vibes, sports romance, friends with benefits, strong female character, period." This book was a perfect blend of genres, and I enjoyed exploring other characters while still getting to read about my favorite characters from the Avatar series. Another book that I thoroughly enjoyed is "Frost and Starlight" and "A Court of Silver Flames". While these were my least favorite books in the Avatar series, I loved getting to explore other characters and worlds.

I also want to mention that I've been obsessed with the entire Octavia Butler's world, particularly "The Crawdads Sing". I love how this book blended romance, murder mystery, and literary fiction. The writing was beautiful, and I appreciated how it tackled complex themes like grief, guilt, mental health, addiction, forgiveness, and dysfunctional families. Another author that I've fallen in love with is Cassandra Clare. Her books are always so emotionally charged, and I appreciate how she weaves together complex characters and plotlines.

One of my favorite tropes is the "slow burn" romance, and I think "Wait for It" by Miranda Zapata perfectly captures this trope. I also loved "The Roommate" by Rosie Danan, which had a unique premise and explored themes like grief, guilt, mental health, addiction, forgiveness, and dysfunctional families. The romance was cute, but not my favorite romance ever, but I appreciated how the book was sex-positive and tackled many tough topics.

I also want to mention that "Five Survive" by Sarah J. Maas is an amazing read. I loved the dynamic between the six characters and how they all reacted differently in a life-or-death situation. The author did an excellent job of unfolding all their secrets, keeping me engaged until the very end. Another book that I enjoyed is "The Do-Over", which was so cute and adorable.

Unfortunately, not every book has been a hit for me. One book that didn't quite work out was "Buy a Thread" by Lucy Score, although I do love tropes like workplace romance and grumpy bosses. The plot was a bit convoluted, but the writing was engaging, and I appreciated how it tackled complex themes.

In terms of series, I've been enjoying "The Folk of the Air" series by Holly Black, particularly "Four Dead Queens". This book was so much fun to read, and I loved getting back into the world that I had missed. The author's writing is witty, and I appreciated how it tackled complex themes like power, identity, and morality.

Another series that I've been loving is "The Once Upon a Broken Heart" series by Alaina Urquhart. This series was so engaging, and I devoured both books in just 72 hours! The reunion concept was fun, but I did find the second book to be a bit boring. On the other hand, "Legend of the Selkie" is a beautiful retelling of "The Little Mermaid", with nods to the original story while also exploring new themes and characters.

Finally, I want to mention that "Legends and Lattes" by Becky Albertalli was just okay for me. While it didn't quite capture my attention, I appreciate how it explored complex themes like grief, loss, and identity. On a more positive note, "Happy Place" by Emily Henry was so beautifully written, and I loved the bittersweet feeling that it conveyed.

Overall, this year has been an amazing journey for me as a reader, with so many wonderful books and authors to discover.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello I thought it'd be nice to do a little check-in of like how many books I've read this year what are my thoughts on them so I'm gonna be doing the mid-year freakout tag that was really popular and going around last year it's a bunch of bookish questions like these about all the books that I've read so far this year and then after that I would like speed one or two sentence review every single book I've read this year so far but first I have all of my stats from story graph that I thought would be fun to go through my reading goal that I set for this year is 100 bucks last year I read 93 so I've never ever read 100 books in a year but I thought I'd be like a good goal so far I've read 37 books will I hit 100 books by the end of the year I don't know it's not looking great for my reading moods the number one is emotional that makes sense I feel like I love me like some angsty romances number two adventurous mysterious light-hearted Adventures surprised me at first when I saw this but I have been getting a lot more into fantasy so I'm assuming that's where that comes from page number books that are around like 350 ish are definitely my comfort zone bigger than 500 for sure intimidates me books that are smaller I feel like there a novella then I'm excited about it but if it's a normal book that's under 300 Pages sometimes I feel like they can't have as much depth because they're short 100 fiction yeah not much to say about that genres or romance I read 23 romances Fantasy 14 books this is so exciting I read the Avatar series at the very end of 2022 and that was like my first big launch into fantasy so to see that I've now read 14 this year it's pretty exciting most read authors Este Abby that's who wrote the mindfuck series those are the only books I've ever read by her but since it was a five book series that makes sense Holly black the folk of the air series Cassandra Odette which is the entangled with Fae series Stephanie Garber Cassandra Clare all of these top authors are fantasy authors so that's pretty cool to see star rating my average star rating is four stars I feel like that makes sense for me I'm glad to see that I only had two two stars I feel like before I read a book honestly before I buy a book I I really feel like I researched it a decent amount I make sure it's like a book I've heard a lot about or like read a lot of reviews and hopefully know that I'm gonna like 29 out of the 37 books I've read this year I gave either four or five stars now for the mid-year tag the first question is the best book you've read so far in 2023 you know I cannot pick just one so I have picked my top two series The Folk of the air series the Once Upon A Broken Heart series which isn't completed yet I'm still waiting for the third book to come out in the fall both of these are fantasy series with romance subplots and I loved them so much what I love about the cruel Prince is the rometto plot is enemies to lovers and it is enemies to lovers like I feel like some enemies lovers they just kind of don't like each other there's a real hatred at the beginning I also just love Jude the main female character I feel like she's such a strong character like she will do whatever needs to be done to do what's right she is a human living in a fantasy Fae world and so like the FAE are obviously like stronger more powerful than her whatever but she's still like stand up to them and I think that's something I'm realizing that I really like in female characters is them being like very strong bold like feisty female main characters and then once upon a broken heart also similar feels when with like the romance a plot and our lead female character but what I really liked about this book is the world they have all these like stories about the history and it really feels like you're living in this fairy tale world but like a dark fairy tale World which was really unique fantasy romance is just becoming my new favorite genre I just love escaping to a literal Whole New World speaking of going to A Whole New World or should I say a new country I would love to tell you guys about Rosetta Stone which is a fantastic language learning platform I attempted to learn Spanish when I was still in school and I feel like it was so hard for me to retain what I was learning so I turned to Rosetta Stone for a bit more help Rosetta Stone takes a very engaging and immersive approach by doing things like pairing pictures with audio from native speakers so it feels like I'm learning from a real person and they have a pronunciation engine to help Learners nail the accent which I feel like is so vital to me and feeling confident enough to be conversation ready and the lessons are as short as 10 minutes which makes it so easy to squeeze lessons in between your classes or work meetings and to top it all off they haven't app that makes it so easy to do those lessons anywhere learning a language is so valuable you could put that on your resume or just really immerse yourself before going on an international trip I'm going to Costa Rica later in the summer which I am so excited about my goal is to feel confident enough in my Spanish to be able to ask vocals for recommendations or go to restaurants and shops where they may not speak English what's really cool is that in addition to 3 and 12 month subscriptions they have a lifetime subscription option you can literally be a member for life with no renewal fees the lifetime subscription is typically 2.99 but it's 15 off right now so you can get it for 150 from now until June 18th I think a lifetime subscription just makes so much sense because you can learn multiple languages learn at your own pace and brush up on a language at any point in your life so click the link in my description to get started with Rosetta Stone and thank you so much to Rosetta Stone for partnering with me on today's video the best sequel you've read and definitely a court of silver Flames that's not my favorite book in the acatar series but it's the only one that I read in 2023 this one's pretty different because throughout the most of the series you're following favor and then in this one we follow Nesta favorite sister and I had such mixed feelings about nastelic she is kind of a hard character to like and I think the theme for me in 2023 is morally gray characters I've just been really enjoying morally great characters especially where you like fall in love with them at the end and I know some people have read this book and still don't like Nessa by the end but I really liked her I feel like it makes it so much more meaningful to love characters even with all their flaws no releases you haven't read yet but want to meet me at the lake which is by Carly fortune and I read every summer after by her last summer and I really liked it I admittedly didn't like the ending of that book but I really liked her writing style and 90 of the book so I'm excited to read a another book by her then also out this year is the stolen Heir which is a spin-off to the folk of air series it's eight years later and follows Oak and I just love the whole folk of air series so much if you couldn't tell by now and just to continue to exist in that world I'm so excited to do I need to get that book ASAP and read it and then the true love experience admittedly I don't really know what this book is about but it's by Christina Lauren I haven't read a Christina Lauren book in a really long time and like hearing someone type about this book coming out I'm like wow I miss them as authors I need to read another book by them soon most anticipated release for the second half of the Year okay so many literally so many but I'm gonna try and keep it down to three okay number one Maple Hills which is the sequel to Icebreaker Icebreaker if you haven't read it I don't know why not it's a college sports romance he's a hockey player and she's an ice skater and oh my gosh I really do not even know anything about this sequel just that it is the sequel did I say it was called Maple Hills it's called Wildfire but it's in the Maple Hill Series this sounds cute wait I'm so excited okay it says it follows two summer camp counselors who reconnect after a one night stand that sounds so perfect for summer but it doesn't come out until October 3rd then I'm also really excited for the honeymoon Crashers this isn't even a book I expected to exist it's the sequel to the UN Honeymooners which I feel like was like OG book talk like when everyone was like getting back into reading they were reading on Honeymooners so to get a surprise sequel is so exciting to me and then a curse for true love which is the third book in the Once Upon A Broken Heart series but yeah those are the three I'm most excited for there's literally so many I'll put a little list on the screen I've had this list of my notes since like January 1st and I just keep looking at it and being like okay are any of these out yet nope are any of them out yet nope so that's my whole list of books I'm waiting for biggest surprise okay I don't know exactly what that means but I'm gonna go with the most surprising plots without a doubt the mindfuck series I loved the series so much this is a romance between are you ready for this surprising plot a serial killer and an FBI agent like what that is crazy that's so crazy and so I don't know I just love that it was such a roller coaster like the romance of them like falling in love but also she's a serial killer and she has to like hide that whole part of her life because he could arrest her but also we got to follow his cases because he's an FBI agent who tracks down serial killers he was like murder mystery meets romance meets like vigilante serial killer honorable mention would be a five Survive by Holly Jackson this one was such a like cool plot in that there's six friends and they're all inside of an RV for eight hours with a sniper outside the RV so I think that's cool plot I love that it was like a short timeline and I thought the ending was really surprising favorite new author debuted or to you I don't think I read any debuted authors like I mentioned at the beginning there's so many fantasy authors where it was my first time reading them but an author that I've just started reading and I'm obsessed with is Lucy score I read things we never got over last year my first Lucy score book and I really liked it but I feel like it took reading two more books by her to really cement that she is a new Auto by author she is my Hall of Fame author so far for 2023. I love her male love interests I love them so much they're like great feel-good books but her her men that she writes are like brooding like grumpy a little bit rough around the edges newest fictional Crush okay besides Lucy scores men besides my brooding morally gray fantasy men I'm gonna have to say Nate Hawkins I think there's not enough College romance or maybe I just don't know about them but this is very much like the deal Vibes off-campus Vibes just I just love a book boyfriend who's like so sweet would do anything for her but he's also not just like that nice guy you know that sounds good hard to say like he's attractive and he knows it you know he's an athlete this book also starts out with him being like more friends with benefits and that's all she wants she's not really looking for a relationship and he's kind of the one who Falls first so boy Falls first is really cute as well books that made you cry I think a little life is the only book that I've actually cried in so far this year this book is so sad like 11 out of 10 sad crazy sad I think this book is so well written but there were points where it's just so devastatingly sad with no reprieve like very few hopeful happy moments do I like sad books like do I like to torture myself yes and no I don't know another shot book I read that I didn't cry in but is sad is darling Venom the girl's first love ends in tragedy that's all I'll say definitely deals with mental health and grief and some heavier topics and then when she's a bit older she ends up running into her first loves brother books that made you happy definitely Lynn painter books I mean just look at these covers and how colorful they are obviously such cute happy books I feel like Lynn painter he's the queen of cute happy romances so far this year I've read the do-over by her and the love waiter by her the do-over is fun it was a time Loop book so the main character is repeating the same day over and over and then the love wager I just read I love this book so freaking much I loved it way more than I thought I was gonna love it this is my first time reading a new adult book by Lynn painter and her banter in this book The witty banter unmatched unmatched like I really loved it and I don't know what it is about her writing but whenever I read her books I feel like I'm just reading like this like just like smiling and the whole time reading and I don't even realize I'm smiling the most beautiful book you bought so far this year or received I don't know if it means beautiful content and writing or like physically literally beautiful but I'm gonna go with literally aesthetically beautiful and that would be how the king of elfhame learned to hate stories this is a prequel Novella to the cruel Prince like look at this cover it's so pretty the inside gorgeous it's got a bunch of short stories and a ton of Art in it which is really cool it was just so fun to read this book and look at all the pictures and I don't think I've ever owned a book that's this pretty I just want to display like every single page I have recently started getting into specialty or like collectible edition books I've ordered a few and none of them have come in they are expensive and my wallet is hurting but I'm so excited for them to come in I ordered a special edition of happy place that looks so pretty I also ordered my dark Romeo I just think the cover of this book is so gorgeous to begin with it's in the special edition is it's especially gorgeous and then in the fall I have the six of crows duology coming in it's a order so I'm gonna have to wait till the fall but I think the covers are so cool and it's annotated and I have never read the six of crows duology so to get to read it like along with her little note is going to be so cool I'm so excited yeah if any of you guys are interested in where I found these I mostly look on lit joy and illumicrate or I'll just like Google that's how I found my darkest Romeo I think it's got from Amazon so you can just type in like special edition books or like collectible books but illumicrate and licho I have really cool books on their site what books do you need to read by the end of the year well let me just go get them so this is my romance book card I'm obviously not going to read all of this by the end of the year but I'll pull out the ones I'm most excited about Big Goal for me this year is to finish series I'm in the middle of so I really want to read the American roommate experiment which is the sequel to Spanish love deception I want to finish the Dreamland billionaire series So This is Love I've been really into fairy tale retellings recently and this is a Cinderella retelling as if Cinderella never tried on the glass slipper which sounds so interesting Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez I've never read a book by this author before and I would love to read more books by new Authors and then promises and pomegranates and hooked are both darker romances I have been enjoying dark romances or books with like a little more darker gritty elements okay my fantasy book cards I want to read another series by Sarah J Maas I would like to read the whole Throne of Glass series that is ambitious but I'd like to as well as the Shatter Me series if I could read both of those Series this year I think my goals would be complete the prison healers another series I'm excited about same with dance of Thieves I'm literally just about to list all of these like there's so many I'm excited about caramel is another series I'd like to commit to reading because this series happens before the events of Once Upon a broken heart which I already read so I should have read this series first but I'd now like to go back and read care of all I know everyone in their dog is talking about fourth Wing like everyone is loving this book so I think I have to read this book really soon and then on this bottom row are Mysteries and thrillers I haven't really been as into mystery and thrillers recently I think that'll change when it comes to fall so I'm sure I will start knocking some of these out in the second half of the Year and that is the entire mid-year tag I'll leave all the questions in the description so if any of you guys want to like answer all of them with your answers that would be so fun to read in the comments and then let me speed through every single book I've read so far this year there's obviously going to be some overlap because I just talked about a bunch of them the first book I finished this year was Icebreaker which I gave four stars that's it I feel like it's four and a half looking back do you guys ever do that I feel like I do this all the time I'll like finish a book and then rate it right away and then I feel like months later I don't like fully agree with my star rating so I don't know if I should wait to rate books or just trust my first instinctual rating but anyway Icebreaker reviewed in one sentence I loved the found family Vibes Sports romance Friends with Benefits strong female character period a quarter Frost and starlight and a court of silver Flames these were my least two favorite in the Avatar series but I loved getting to explore other characters and I'm so freaking obsessed with the entire octar world where the crawdads sing I love that this was a good blend of genres romance murder mystery and literary fiction but I did feel like it moved a bit slower points Twisted love I love the way Alex would literally burn down the world for Ava but he isn't my perfect ideal book boyfriends which is no complaint to the book that's just a personal thing part of the Raven Prince first fairy tale retelling this is a Cinderella retelling I loved the chemistry and banter and how does a Cinderella retelling but in a fey World The Roommate by Rosie danan what a unique Story the male love interest is an adult Entertainer if you catch what I'm saying which was so unique to read about I don't know anything about that whole world I thought the romance was like cute and steamy not my favorite romance ever but I loved how really sex positive the whole book is wait for it by Miranda Zapata always love Maria ozapada but this book had a little bit too much slow plot points in this little bird romance darling Venom such an emotional read I loved the romance and how this book deals with so many topics like grief guilt mental health addiction forgiveness dysfunctional families and so much more five survive I love the dynamic between the six different characters how they all react differently in a life or death situation and trying to unfurl all of their secrets the do-over so freaking cute Miss Cassandra Clare how is she always always finding new and painful ways to keep characters apart the romance is just so good and I love that so many of her series are set in the same Shadowhunter Universe if he had been with me I really liked this book but unpopular opinion I really didn't like the ending it's sad and it felt really abrupt to me a little life um just the crying Emoji that's my whole review buy a thread by Lucy score I'm the best tropes workplace romance grumpy boss enemies lovers Slow Burn spicy like what more do you need the mindfuck series is the craziest freaking plot and I love that it's romance meets murder mystery lotha for science I I did love this book not a first sight but by like the halfway point if I wasn't reading it for a video I probably would have dnf'd it the folk of the air series I feel like I've already talked about this series a bunch in this video you know it's five stars four dead Queens my first urban fantasy and I love that it's fantasy with romance with murder mystery it's about a world where there are four queens and all four of them are murdered killjoy what a cute Novella prequel to The Good Girls guide to murder series it was so fun to be back inside and the world of epip things we hide from the light this book is good boy bad girl which is so fun and in Trope we don't get enough funny you should ask I love this is a romance between a journalist and a movie star the one of them is famous Trope is always really fun the Once Upon A Broken Heart series I devoured this series I think I read both books in like 72 hours which I feel like is all the review you need the reunion what a fun concept it's both of them are famous tropes but I did think it was a little boring which was a bummer because it has a really fun plot of two childhood movie co-stars coming together to do a reunion episode okay so the selki and other fairy tale retelling this is a Little Mermaid retelling I love that this book has so many nods to the original Little Mermaid but also has lots of its own twists the love wager what a cute Swoon worthy book and I love that they really become best friends before they explore the romance which makes the romance so much more meaningful Legends and lattes I know people love this book but I didn't I get the hype and the appeal but it was too slow for me two slices and lastly happy place it took me a little bit to bond with the romance but once I did I loved it and I really loved all the elements the friendships the Heartbreak and just how perfectly Emily Henry encapsulates that Bittersweet feeling of growing up that is every single book that I've read so far this year alright see you guys in the next video bye but I guess I'll just put on my favorite sweater and Say Goodbye to somewherehello I thought it'd be nice to do a little check-in of like how many books I've read this year what are my thoughts on them so I'm gonna be doing the mid-year freakout tag that was really popular and going around last year it's a bunch of bookish questions like these about all the books that I've read so far this year and then after that I would like speed one or two sentence review every single book I've read this year so far but first I have all of my stats from story graph that I thought would be fun to go through my reading goal that I set for this year is 100 bucks last year I read 93 so I've never ever read 100 books in a year but I thought I'd be like a good goal so far I've read 37 books will I hit 100 books by the end of the year I don't know it's not looking great for my reading moods the number one is emotional that makes sense I feel like I love me like some angsty romances number two adventurous mysterious light-hearted Adventures surprised me at first when I saw this but I have been getting a lot more into fantasy so I'm assuming that's where that comes from page number books that are around like 350 ish are definitely my comfort zone bigger than 500 for sure intimidates me books that are smaller I feel like there a novella then I'm excited about it but if it's a normal book that's under 300 Pages sometimes I feel like they can't have as much depth because they're short 100 fiction yeah not much to say about that genres or romance I read 23 romances Fantasy 14 books this is so exciting I read the Avatar series at the very end of 2022 and that was like my first big launch into fantasy so to see that I've now read 14 this year it's pretty exciting most read authors Este Abby that's who wrote the mindfuck series those are the only books I've ever read by her but since it was a five book series that makes sense Holly black the folk of the air series Cassandra Odette which is the entangled with Fae series Stephanie Garber Cassandra Clare all of these top authors are fantasy authors so that's pretty cool to see star rating my average star rating is four stars I feel like that makes sense for me I'm glad to see that I only had two two stars I feel like before I read a book honestly before I buy a book I I really feel like I researched it a decent amount I make sure it's like a book I've heard a lot about or like read a lot of reviews and hopefully know that I'm gonna like 29 out of the 37 books I've read this year I gave either four or five stars now for the mid-year tag the first question is the best book you've read so far in 2023 you know I cannot pick just one so I have picked my top two series The Folk of the air series the Once Upon A Broken Heart series which isn't completed yet I'm still waiting for the third book to come out in the fall both of these are fantasy series with romance subplots and I loved them so much what I love about the cruel Prince is the rometto plot is enemies to lovers and it is enemies to lovers like I feel like some enemies lovers they just kind of don't like each other there's a real hatred at the beginning I also just love Jude the main female character I feel like she's such a strong character like she will do whatever needs to be done to do what's right she is a human living in a fantasy Fae world and so like the FAE are obviously like stronger more powerful than her whatever but she's still like stand up to them and I think that's something I'm realizing that I really like in female characters is them being like very strong bold like feisty female main characters and then once upon a broken heart also similar feels when with like the romance a plot and our lead female character but what I really liked about this book is the world they have all these like stories about the history and it really feels like you're living in this fairy tale world but like a dark fairy tale World which was really unique fantasy romance is just becoming my new favorite genre I just love escaping to a literal Whole New World speaking of going to A Whole New World or should I say a new country I would love to tell you guys about Rosetta Stone which is a fantastic language learning platform I attempted to learn Spanish when I was still in school and I feel like it was so hard for me to retain what I was learning so I turned to Rosetta Stone for a bit more help Rosetta Stone takes a very engaging and immersive approach by doing things like pairing pictures with audio from native speakers so it feels like I'm learning from a real person and they have a pronunciation engine to help Learners nail the accent which I feel like is so vital to me and feeling confident enough to be conversation ready and the lessons are as short as 10 minutes which makes it so easy to squeeze lessons in between your classes or work meetings and to top it all off they haven't app that makes it so easy to do those lessons anywhere learning a language is so valuable you could put that on your resume or just really immerse yourself before going on an international trip I'm going to Costa Rica later in the summer which I am so excited about my goal is to feel confident enough in my Spanish to be able to ask vocals for recommendations or go to restaurants and shops where they may not speak English what's really cool is that in addition to 3 and 12 month subscriptions they have a lifetime subscription option you can literally be a member for life with no renewal fees the lifetime subscription is typically 2.99 but it's 15 off right now so you can get it for 150 from now until June 18th I think a lifetime subscription just makes so much sense because you can learn multiple languages learn at your own pace and brush up on a language at any point in your life so click the link in my description to get started with Rosetta Stone and thank you so much to Rosetta Stone for partnering with me on today's video the best sequel you've read and definitely a court of silver Flames that's not my favorite book in the acatar series but it's the only one that I read in 2023 this one's pretty different because throughout the most of the series you're following favor and then in this one we follow Nesta favorite sister and I had such mixed feelings about nastelic she is kind of a hard character to like and I think the theme for me in 2023 is morally gray characters I've just been really enjoying morally great characters especially where you like fall in love with them at the end and I know some people have read this book and still don't like Nessa by the end but I really liked her I feel like it makes it so much more meaningful to love characters even with all their flaws no releases you haven't read yet but want to meet me at the lake which is by Carly fortune and I read every summer after by her last summer and I really liked it I admittedly didn't like the ending of that book but I really liked her writing style and 90 of the book so I'm excited to read a another book by her then also out this year is the stolen Heir which is a spin-off to the folk of air series it's eight years later and follows Oak and I just love the whole folk of air series so much if you couldn't tell by now and just to continue to exist in that world I'm so excited to do I need to get that book ASAP and read it and then the true love experience admittedly I don't really know what this book is about but it's by Christina Lauren I haven't read a Christina Lauren book in a really long time and like hearing someone type about this book coming out I'm like wow I miss them as authors I need to read another book by them soon most anticipated release for the second half of the Year okay so many literally so many but I'm gonna try and keep it down to three okay number one Maple Hills which is the sequel to Icebreaker Icebreaker if you haven't read it I don't know why not it's a college sports romance he's a hockey player and she's an ice skater and oh my gosh I really do not even know anything about this sequel just that it is the sequel did I say it was called Maple Hills it's called Wildfire but it's in the Maple Hill Series this sounds cute wait I'm so excited okay it says it follows two summer camp counselors who reconnect after a one night stand that sounds so perfect for summer but it doesn't come out until October 3rd then I'm also really excited for the honeymoon Crashers this isn't even a book I expected to exist it's the sequel to the UN Honeymooners which I feel like was like OG book talk like when everyone was like getting back into reading they were reading on Honeymooners so to get a surprise sequel is so exciting to me and then a curse for true love which is the third book in the Once Upon A Broken Heart series but yeah those are the three I'm most excited for there's literally so many I'll put a little list on the screen I've had this list of my notes since like January 1st and I just keep looking at it and being like okay are any of these out yet nope are any of them out yet nope so that's my whole list of books I'm waiting for biggest surprise okay I don't know exactly what that means but I'm gonna go with the most surprising plots without a doubt the mindfuck series I loved the series so much this is a romance between are you ready for this surprising plot a serial killer and an FBI agent like what that is crazy that's so crazy and so I don't know I just love that it was such a roller coaster like the romance of them like falling in love but also she's a serial killer and she has to like hide that whole part of her life because he could arrest her but also we got to follow his cases because he's an FBI agent who tracks down serial killers he was like murder mystery meets romance meets like vigilante serial killer honorable mention would be a five Survive by Holly Jackson this one was such a like cool plot in that there's six friends and they're all inside of an RV for eight hours with a sniper outside the RV so I think that's cool plot I love that it was like a short timeline and I thought the ending was really surprising favorite new author debuted or to you I don't think I read any debuted authors like I mentioned at the beginning there's so many fantasy authors where it was my first time reading them but an author that I've just started reading and I'm obsessed with is Lucy score I read things we never got over last year my first Lucy score book and I really liked it but I feel like it took reading two more books by her to really cement that she is a new Auto by author she is my Hall of Fame author so far for 2023. I love her male love interests I love them so much they're like great feel-good books but her her men that she writes are like brooding like grumpy a little bit rough around the edges newest fictional Crush okay besides Lucy scores men besides my brooding morally gray fantasy men I'm gonna have to say Nate Hawkins I think there's not enough College romance or maybe I just don't know about them but this is very much like the deal Vibes off-campus Vibes just I just love a book boyfriend who's like so sweet would do anything for her but he's also not just like that nice guy you know that sounds good hard to say like he's attractive and he knows it you know he's an athlete this book also starts out with him being like more friends with benefits and that's all she wants she's not really looking for a relationship and he's kind of the one who Falls first so boy Falls first is really cute as well books that made you cry I think a little life is the only book that I've actually cried in so far this year this book is so sad like 11 out of 10 sad crazy sad I think this book is so well written but there were points where it's just so devastatingly sad with no reprieve like very few hopeful happy moments do I like sad books like do I like to torture myself yes and no I don't know another shot book I read that I didn't cry in but is sad is darling Venom the girl's first love ends in tragedy that's all I'll say definitely deals with mental health and grief and some heavier topics and then when she's a bit older she ends up running into her first loves brother books that made you happy definitely Lynn painter books I mean just look at these covers and how colorful they are obviously such cute happy books I feel like Lynn painter he's the queen of cute happy romances so far this year I've read the do-over by her and the love waiter by her the do-over is fun it was a time Loop book so the main character is repeating the same day over and over and then the love wager I just read I love this book so freaking much I loved it way more than I thought I was gonna love it this is my first time reading a new adult book by Lynn painter and her banter in this book The witty banter unmatched unmatched like I really loved it and I don't know what it is about her writing but whenever I read her books I feel like I'm just reading like this like just like smiling and the whole time reading and I don't even realize I'm smiling the most beautiful book you bought so far this year or received I don't know if it means beautiful content and writing or like physically literally beautiful but I'm gonna go with literally aesthetically beautiful and that would be how the king of elfhame learned to hate stories this is a prequel Novella to the cruel Prince like look at this cover it's so pretty the inside gorgeous it's got a bunch of short stories and a ton of Art in it which is really cool it was just so fun to read this book and look at all the pictures and I don't think I've ever owned a book that's this pretty I just want to display like every single page I have recently started getting into specialty or like collectible edition books I've ordered a few and none of them have come in they are expensive and my wallet is hurting but I'm so excited for them to come in I ordered a special edition of happy place that looks so pretty I also ordered my dark Romeo I just think the cover of this book is so gorgeous to begin with it's in the special edition is it's especially gorgeous and then in the fall I have the six of crows duology coming in it's a order so I'm gonna have to wait till the fall but I think the covers are so cool and it's annotated and I have never read the six of crows duology so to get to read it like along with her little note is going to be so cool I'm so excited yeah if any of you guys are interested in where I found these I mostly look on lit joy and illumicrate or I'll just like Google that's how I found my darkest Romeo I think it's got from Amazon so you can just type in like special edition books or like collectible books but illumicrate and licho I have really cool books on their site what books do you need to read by the end of the year well let me just go get them so this is my romance book card I'm obviously not going to read all of this by the end of the year but I'll pull out the ones I'm most excited about Big Goal for me this year is to finish series I'm in the middle of so I really want to read the American roommate experiment which is the sequel to Spanish love deception I want to finish the Dreamland billionaire series So This is Love I've been really into fairy tale retellings recently and this is a Cinderella retelling as if Cinderella never tried on the glass slipper which sounds so interesting Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez I've never read a book by this author before and I would love to read more books by new Authors and then promises and pomegranates and hooked are both darker romances I have been enjoying dark romances or books with like a little more darker gritty elements okay my fantasy book cards I want to read another series by Sarah J Maas I would like to read the whole Throne of Glass series that is ambitious but I'd like to as well as the Shatter Me series if I could read both of those Series this year I think my goals would be complete the prison healers another series I'm excited about same with dance of Thieves I'm literally just about to list all of these like there's so many I'm excited about caramel is another series I'd like to commit to reading because this series happens before the events of Once Upon a broken heart which I already read so I should have read this series first but I'd now like to go back and read care of all I know everyone in their dog is talking about fourth Wing like everyone is loving this book so I think I have to read this book really soon and then on this bottom row are Mysteries and thrillers I haven't really been as into mystery and thrillers recently I think that'll change when it comes to fall so I'm sure I will start knocking some of these out in the second half of the Year and that is the entire mid-year tag I'll leave all the questions in the description so if any of you guys want to like answer all of them with your answers that would be so fun to read in the comments and then let me speed through every single book I've read so far this year there's obviously going to be some overlap because I just talked about a bunch of them the first book I finished this year was Icebreaker which I gave four stars that's it I feel like it's four and a half looking back do you guys ever do that I feel like I do this all the time I'll like finish a book and then rate it right away and then I feel like months later I don't like fully agree with my star rating so I don't know if I should wait to rate books or just trust my first instinctual rating but anyway Icebreaker reviewed in one sentence I loved the found family Vibes Sports romance Friends with Benefits strong female character period a quarter Frost and starlight and a court of silver Flames these were my least two favorite in the Avatar series but I loved getting to explore other characters and I'm so freaking obsessed with the entire octar world where the crawdads sing I love that this was a good blend of genres romance murder mystery and literary fiction but I did feel like it moved a bit slower points Twisted love I love the way Alex would literally burn down the world for Ava but he isn't my perfect ideal book boyfriends which is no complaint to the book that's just a personal thing part of the Raven Prince first fairy tale retelling this is a Cinderella retelling I loved the chemistry and banter and how does a Cinderella retelling but in a fey World The Roommate by Rosie danan what a unique Story the male love interest is an adult Entertainer if you catch what I'm saying which was so unique to read about I don't know anything about that whole world I thought the romance was like cute and steamy not my favorite romance ever but I loved how really sex positive the whole book is wait for it by Miranda Zapata always love Maria ozapada but this book had a little bit too much slow plot points in this little bird romance darling Venom such an emotional read I loved the romance and how this book deals with so many topics like grief guilt mental health addiction forgiveness dysfunctional families and so much more five survive I love the dynamic between the six different characters how they all react differently in a life or death situation and trying to unfurl all of their secrets the do-over so freaking cute Miss Cassandra Clare how is she always always finding new and painful ways to keep characters apart the romance is just so good and I love that so many of her series are set in the same Shadowhunter Universe if he had been with me I really liked this book but unpopular opinion I really didn't like the ending it's sad and it felt really abrupt to me a little life um just the crying Emoji that's my whole review buy a thread by Lucy score I'm the best tropes workplace romance grumpy boss enemies lovers Slow Burn spicy like what more do you need the mindfuck series is the craziest freaking plot and I love that it's romance meets murder mystery lotha for science I I did love this book not a first sight but by like the halfway point if I wasn't reading it for a video I probably would have dnf'd it the folk of the air series I feel like I've already talked about this series a bunch in this video you know it's five stars four dead Queens my first urban fantasy and I love that it's fantasy with romance with murder mystery it's about a world where there are four queens and all four of them are murdered killjoy what a cute Novella prequel to The Good Girls guide to murder series it was so fun to be back inside and the world of epip things we hide from the light this book is good boy bad girl which is so fun and in Trope we don't get enough funny you should ask I love this is a romance between a journalist and a movie star the one of them is famous Trope is always really fun the Once Upon A Broken Heart series I devoured this series I think I read both books in like 72 hours which I feel like is all the review you need the reunion what a fun concept it's both of them are famous tropes but I did think it was a little boring which was a bummer because it has a really fun plot of two childhood movie co-stars coming together to do a reunion episode okay so the selki and other fairy tale retelling this is a Little Mermaid retelling I love that this book has so many nods to the original Little Mermaid but also has lots of its own twists the love wager what a cute Swoon worthy book and I love that they really become best friends before they explore the romance which makes the romance so much more meaningful Legends and lattes I know people love this book but I didn't I get the hype and the appeal but it was too slow for me two slices and lastly happy place it took me a little bit to bond with the romance but once I did I loved it and I really loved all the elements the friendships the Heartbreak and just how perfectly Emily Henry encapsulates that Bittersweet feeling of growing up that is every single book that I've read so far this year alright see you guys in the next video bye but I guess I'll just put on my favorite sweater and Say Goodbye to somewhere\n"