**A Mixed Bag: A Reader's Disappointing Experience with "Hush Hush"**

I recently had the opportunity to read "Hush Hush", a romance novel that promised to deliver a unique and exciting reading experience. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was short-lived as I found myself struggling to connect with the protagonist, Aubrey, and her story. From the get-go, I felt like something was off, and my initial impressions were reinforced by the book's unusual tone and style.

One of the first things that struck me as strange was the way the author approached the concept of one-night stands. The girls in question go out and engage in casual hookups, but before Aubrey becomes a sex worker, she has a particularly unsettling experience with the madam of a club-like establishment. This scene left me feeling uneasy and confused, and I couldn't help but wonder if this was an accurate representation of how such encounters actually work. The author's decision to include this detail felt jarring and unnecessary, adding to my overall sense of discomfort.

As I continued reading, I found myself growing increasingly frustrated with Aubrey's character. Her comments and actions often seemed shallow and insincere, particularly when compared to the more developed characters in other books I've read. One instance that stood out to me was her comment "for tonight it's bitter swallow", which struck me as tone-deaf and dismissive. I couldn't help but feel like Aubrey was being treated poorly by the rich billionaire she eventually hooks up with, and I found this aspect of the story to be particularly off-putting.

What did strike me as interesting about "Hush Hush" was the way it explored themes of power dynamics and consent in relationships. While I didn't appreciate the author's approach to these topics, I can see why some readers might find them thought-provoking. The novel raises questions about the nature of desire and control, particularly in situations where one partner may have significant wealth or influence over the other.

In contrast to Aubrey's struggles, I found myself drawn to the character of Natalie, who seems more confident and self-assured from the outset. While I didn't feel a strong connection to either protagonist, I did find some aspects of their story to be engaging, particularly the romantic tension between them.

One of my main takeaways from "Hush Hush" is that this type of romance novel may not be for everyone. While it's clear that the author aimed to create a unique and provocative reading experience, I couldn't help but feel that the book ultimately fell short in its execution. If you're looking for something new and zesty, you might find "Hush Hush" intriguing – but for me, it was a disappointing read.

**A Comparison to Other Books**

In contrast to my experience with "Hush Hush", I've found other books on this list to be much more engaging. For example, I recently read "Quill Prints" by Jade, which I enjoyed immensely. While it's a ditzy new adult romance, I found myself becoming increasingly invested in the story and its characters.

Unfortunately, my experience with "Queen of Shadows" was decidedly different. If there's one thing I can say about this book, it's that you should avoid it at all costs. My initial impressions were reinforced as I continued reading, and I ultimately found myself feeling frustrated and disappointed with the author's handling of key themes.

On the other hand, my experience with "Hush Hush" was much more mixed. While I didn't enjoy the book overall, I did find some aspects to be interesting and thought-provoking. One of the things that struck me about this novel is how it compares to other books in its genre. With its focus on power dynamics and consent, it raises questions about the nature of desire and control – but ultimately falls short in its execution.

**A Lesson Learned**

One thing I've learned from reading "Hush Hush" is that not every book will resonate with me. While I appreciate a good romance novel, I'm increasingly drawn to stories that offer more substance and depth. In this case, my expectations were high, but the author's approach fell short in many areas.

Despite my disappointment with "Hush Hush", I do hope to continue reading books on this list and finding ones that truly resonate with me. After all, there's nothing quite like discovering a new favorite book or author – and I'm always eager to learn more about what others have read and loved.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso I had an idea I was perusing Amazon a couple of months ago looking for a new romance to read that I hadn't seen people previously talking about and I came across this book called cruel prints and I thought to myself that sounds awfully familiar it also got me thinking I wonder how many other indie romances have the same name or share a name with a young adult book and I can't cause quite a few so the whole idea of this video is that I am going to read indie romances that share the same name with young adult books is this sort of gimmicky yes do I care no I figured this could be a fun experiment and we can see if these books that share the same name have any similarities and I don't know I do you know it just sounded like a good idea we're just gonna we're gonna go for it so I'll talk to you guys about the three books that I have selected that share a name with your adult books then we could just get into the vlog portion of this video so first book obviously that we're going to be reading for this video is cruel Prince which shares name with Holly Black's the cruel Prince they seem to have like a little bit of a similarity when I was comparing of these synopses obviously this version is just a typical and new adult to bully romance but it does share the bullying aspects with the cruel prince which I mean it kind of makes sense it's sort of in the name I doubt I'll be interested to see how that one goes and how many similarities it shares with the cruel prince the next book on my list is queen of Shadows which shares a name with the fourth book in the throne of glass series and this one doesn't seem to share that many similarities although I will say that our main character seems kind of alien esque this story is about a girl in Austin I think it's a paranormal romance and she is the lead singer or front woman for a band and she is kind of I don't know if she's fallen on hard times or what but I know she gets in leagues with a vampire so that should be interesting I don't know maybe there's gonna be like an alien Rowen situation we shall see if and lastly we have hush hush by Lucia Franco now I thought if the idea for this video before all of that came out about Lucia Franco so I will acknowledge that I don't necessarily support her as an author or recommend her books but this was too interesting to pass up especially since the cover kind of reminded me a lot of hush-hush the young adult book which centers on an angel named patch and the cover for a shway Lucia Franco has feathers on it so well I don't think the plots Sherratt that many similarities I I'll be interested to give this one a try from what I can tell this an Optus is pretty vague but it seems like it's going to be potentially a sugar daddy situation so that might be interesting so now that I've told you the books that we're going to be reading lets get reading I'm a 3% into this book and I'm just astounded at how stupid it is our main character Dylan just arrived to town and she apparently has history with this guy in this town even though she like didn't go to high school with I'm so confused I don't know how they know each other I'm sure we'll figure it out later but so stupid the intro was kind of dark though because the hero Jace his brother I think committed suicide it was because he got bullied so I think his brother's gonna be a bully because of that I'm assuming he's gonna bully Dylan the girl but just this intro has been so stupid her step cousin got his dick out so there's just a lot to unpack okay how is it possible to think of is really stupid but like simultaneously really enjoy it cuz I'm actually really liking this book I wasn't very coherent yesterday but essentially the book is about Jace and Dylan Dylan's the girl Jace is the guy they used to go to school together when they were younger they were best friends I think through elementary school and middle school and then in high school Dylan goes away for a while and then she comes back I think they had a falling-out right before she left I'm actually just liking the details that they're including I like that Jace is actually half Indian which is pretty cool I don't feel like I ever see super diverse new adult books so I really appreciate that detail I think a lot of shit's really stupid but I'm liking some of the details that are included if that makes sense I mean the high school is called Royal Herts Academy so it's like hard not to roll my eyes but at the same time I think the story is fun if a little bit stupid I mean if you like fan fiction and you like shrubs and stuff I think you'll enjoy this there was just a scene where it's set in the past and Dylan and Jace are talking and Dylan has a big crush on Jace she's like what am I not pretty enough for you and he's like no that's not it like I don't know it's just it's cute and I like it and it's stupid but I don't know I didn't expect to enjoy this but I'm actually thoroughly enjoying it I was supposed to be editing right now actually but I decided that I wanted to read instead so that's how you know that the books like pretty solid so my plan is to finish this book tonight is it gonna happen I don't know I say tonight I mean it's like mid day right now on some moon making Pizza tots for lunch and I think my goal is to finish this by like five I mean I definitely can do that but I've also been around a lot this whole pandemic thing like I am being productive for the most part like I'm getting my actual work done for work and I'm editing and like getting videos posted but it's no harder to read than I had anticipated and I don't have any audio books before any of these books so I don't know how it's gonna go but I am liking this book so far and I'll keep you guys posted as the stupid in did you have so much to say so much has happened since the hot spot I'm like 70% ish into this book and it's sending me quite a bit there have been a lot of contenders between our hero and heroine now and you can tell he's just kind of a dick and I can understand why people don't like this book because he is unrepentant and I'm pretty sure there's not gonna be groveling or anything to really make up for his behaviour I'm not that upset about though the steamier scenes have been a raunchy as and I'm like very here for that I didn't know what to expect like one level of smut to expect sorry that my lamps on background but it's been good it's been good um although a lot of the choices that are being made are strange our main character he's beaten up a girl quite a few times like the same girl multiple times she's an aggressor I guess like the girl is bullying her and so she beats her up in retaliation which is kind of a whole thing so there's a lot of like body shaming girl hate all that good stuff and then like I just got to a scene where the hero and heroine finally have like their first sexual encounter and it's on the hood of a car and then the guy just like walks away and I'm pretty sure it's his car so like did he just leave his car with her I don't know very confusing and then there's also sort of a love triangle situation because of course there has to be a jealousy component to this because like what would this book be without jealousy so Dylan press this guy named Tommy that she knew from a long time ago and Tommy kind of always liked her and he's just kind of a dick as well we found out he abandons her at a marina because she like won't put out or whatever because you know like typical teen movie she ends up getting picked up by Jace and like her cousin ends and friends and stuff and they're like oh like we're gonna terrorize this and she's like no you can't leave him alone never and then Jace precedes to pee in this guy's gas tank of his car they think he's gonna his car up too so we should be interesting I think there's gonna be some sort of Rumble that goes down at some point I think Tommy vs. Jace is gonna happen they're on rival football teams which i think so I know Jason's little brothers on the football team but I'm assuming Jace probably is too it's um it's interesting it's like really objectively a bad book but I am liking it so what does that say about me at this point I think I'd give this book three stars because it's fun I'm enjoying it but it's not good why I'm about to be interrogated this lighting is really bad okay I finished cruel prints and I think I am gonna give it three stars it was enjoyable as I'm so stupid so many bad plot twists but I enjoyed it and if you like stupid like I do I think you might enjoy this it's set in high school which i think was probably the wrong choice I think it's the most glaringly obvious poor choice in this book the events that happen in the present I could maybe see happening in high school like in a teen drama but the events that take place in the past took place when the characters were in eighth grade and some of the characters were younger than that I just don't think that the actions of those characters back then really lined up with that big in middle school I think the story would have made more sense at the flashbacks been high school and then they were in college for the present day you know you can't you can't get everything that you wish for and that is okay but I guess now we can kind of compare this to the cool prints by Holly black there were similarities in that there's bullying I guess the main plot of this book hinges on miscommunication so I guess that's not really the same as the crow prints and let's be real I think the idea for this video is pretty tenuous to begin with like trying to compare these books they're not the same but I do think if you like the cruel prints by Holly black and you also like shitty new it all books like I do you probably will enjoy this is it laughable and fan fiction II in like the worst possible way absolutely but no some of you guys have bad taste like I do so anyway not upset about it I think now I'm going to move on to queen of Shadows next because that one seems decent I think hush hush by Lucia Franco's gonna be a train wreck but I have some hopes for queen of Shadows probably gonna start that tomorrow because I need to edit this episode of the de book club but tomorrow we're gonna start it on that and it's gonna be a time the plot seems interesting and there's vampires I like vampires so we'll see hello friends it is so I don't even know a day is I think it's Thursday it's noon and I didn't just wake up but I've been kind of I did some work and now I am chillin and I'm ready to start in on we know shadows but before I do that I figured I'd like to do my hair talk to you about the little tiny bit that I've heard of queen of Shadows so far to be honest I really want to read anything but this book at this point in time I have just started honey don't list my Christina Lauren for another video that I'm doing and I'm in the middle of a new adult romance that I'm reading like just for fun and so this really is like not something that I am interested in reading I haven't been doing anyway I think the reason that I'm like not super hyped about it is because I can't tell if the like details she's including are like name-dropping or if I'm just sensitive to it because I actually live in Austin and that's where this book I said but I'm just like every time she mentions 6th Street or Lamar I'm just like stop talking please also hi hello this is my natural hair I like to fix the front of it kind of so it doesn't look quite as stupid I pretty much never go anywhere with my natural hair because I just feel like it's super unruly and like not great so I usually blow dry my hair curl it you know make it look like nice and smooth today I'm just gonna like touch a couple of pieces up and call it a day because I'm staying home and no one cares but I do like to feel more like myself I'd like to know I know this is not that like relevant to the actual content of this video but what do you guys do when you are facing a global pandemic like what has been your coping mechanism I've tried to like get up every day and try to stick to a routine like I get up at 8 to start working or at least to get online I usually work until about noon and I stay online obviously until 5 o'clock but I will start reading make sure that my bed's made make sure that I have like makeup on and just like feel normal I guess like I try to do as many things as I can to make me feel normal but I've got it I've got to be honest with you guys my reading and like video creation and just my life I don't all have been super weird since this whole thing started I don't know I just feel like I wanted to be open with you guys about because that's sort of wearing that right now as far as this book goes I feel like it is reminding me a fair amount to at least the beginning of class I mean this is called queen of Shadows but like queen of Shadows is like the fourth book in the front of classrooms so I'm not surprised I guess because this is a urban fantasy and urban fantasies tend to have kind of annoying like stereotypically strong the female main characters well I honestly probably should have read about this in gold but they don't actually look that scary okay if I don't know I feel like I needed to like defend myself but I am just not surprised at the comparisons to be honest like I said the beginning this was kind of a gimmicky video to start with I am noticing more similarities that I had anticipated in these books so maybe I was gonna try to quote Romeo and Juliet and like you know rose by any other name but you get it you know maybe names meet something hello friends it is Saturday I think the last time we talked it was Thursday I was like getting ready to read this book and then I just didn't can't even remember what I did though the rest of Thursday I was like it I'll just like push it off I don't really want to read and then yesterday I had to help my sister like emergency evacuate from her dorm room she goes to college at University of Texas and they shut down everything so she had to move all her belongings into my apartment and I helped her do that which wasn't too bad it'll be nice having her here I did that I also want to target yesterday it was like the first time I had gone out in like seven days and I got this like comfy matching athleisure outfit not even athleisure it's just like leisure I guess I got a switch which is over there I don't wanna pick it up but it's yellow and it's really cute and I was playing Animal Crossing yesterday and I just didn't feel like reading however I did pick up queen of Shadows today and I especially didn't have to at 4 percent which is kind of crazy I end up spending like 5 bucks on this book which is kind of a lot I think for an e-book I normally get like cheap indeed books for like a dollar so that was irritating feel like I wasted my money but it was bad there was a lot of name dropping I know that I mentioned briefly like not knowing whether or not I was just like sensitive to it but I didn't like the way certain things were handled I didn't like the way the author referred to certain areas Austin I don't know that she used the word ghetto but I don't know I just I didn't like the way that she was referring to certain parts of the city as like poor and gross I didn't like that and then on top of that there was a very brittle and graphic rape scene very very early on the book which I had not read about in any of the trigger warnings for this book and I personally I'm just not in place mentally where I can stomach that sort of thing right now I you know I just want to be reading like fine happy romances or like steamy romances I don't need any dark drama at the moment that's just like not when I'm in the mood for tell yeah she ends up I can't getting attacked and she wakes up and those people are still there and they're gonna brutalize her somewhere and I was like yeah I'm good I don't need this right now so yeah it's hard to tell if I'm just like something to it right now or if this is just really like gross but it's really just gross I think she eventually gets saved by the hero that's like one of my least favorite tropes though the whole like getting assaulted or almost getting assaulted and then being saved by the hero of the book I don't really appreciate that it's overdone and I it's gross I know rape happens but I just don't want it in my romance so I can't honestly tell you how similar or different it is from queen of Shadows why a book I will say though it kind of her mindset our main characters mindset essentially I think the lot of this book I don't think I really explained it very well she is a musician who can to manipulate emotions and she doesn't do it willingly but she plays music and if she is sad you know she's like a happy tune everybody around her is going to be sad she can also pick up on other people's emotions and read them we open up and she is kind of dealing with the repercussions of this and she has like a drug abuse issues to try to kind of calm all of the voices and emotions that she's hearing from other people which was dark and then again the rape scene happened I think she had saved by vampire and then eventually maybe turning to a vampire I'm not really sure because I didn't continue reading but I wouldn't recommend to this book I mean like pick it up if it interests you I know some of my friends on Goodreads liked it so maybe it does get better but I just I don't know I could not overlook that let's move on I don't want to talk about this book anymore I'm going to start in on hush-hush by Lucia Franco this one had actually bad ratings which is interesting queen of Shadows had good ratings I we had two DNF it this one has bad ratings maybe that means I'll enjoy it I mean that's sort of what happened with cruel Princeton I ended up liking that so maybe I'll like this book I don't have high hopes but I'm hoping I don't have to do enough this one because that would be a complete bill on video you want to say hi no happy sunday sorry for Lighting's weird it's like 450 and there is no Sun insights of the natural lighting is kind of ugly in here but it's line we're gonna carry on we just got cats galore today man they're just what what are you doing basically I got 50% into hush-hush and I decided to DNF it I know but imagine how tired we are imagine how tired we are that this video it's or no mess oh but I feel like posting it because I feel like my commentary for the first book was decent enough and yet I did like it and I did want to encourage you guys to maybe read it if you're into the same that I am so I don't fold that bad we can talk about this book though and talk about why idea enough to so hush-hush my Lucia Franco is not a story about angels oh my could be why a book by Becca Fitzpatrick is this one is indeed about a female escort sex work essentially my issue is that I understand having a character go from not really understanding what sex work is all about to being a sex worker can come with maybe some misconceptions being answered but I don't feel like it was done in a respectful way and I feel like our main character is just sort of a so her name is Aubrey and her roommate natalie is the sex worker she doesn't know that Natalie has been a sex worker for two years and whenever Natalie ends up telling her hey I am escort and this is what I do Aubrey kind of jokes about it and makes some kind of gross remarks that I don't necessarily enjoy she says NAT are you trying to tell me you're a Renta ho like I said I understand that eventually she goes from a place of like not understanding to understanding but I didn't get far enough to tell if she like makes that full transformation she does enter into sex work I got that far but not far enough to know if she is doing this from a place of empowerment and actually is going to like address those misconceptions it doesn't seem like that's gonna happen in this book and pull I'm not a sex worker and I I don't know what is and isn't offensive to sex workers I feel like I can safely say that a lot of the things that Aubry says are offensive and I just didn't like a lot of the verbage around sex work and on top of that I feel like the first few chapters of this book are very stupid and trivial and I know a lot of people dislike Audrey's main character which I can totally understand she really reminds me of a girl that I know you basically went to New York and kind of has a similar lifestyle to these two girls do you not a sex worker or anything but some of the clubs that are mentioned this guy the girl I know like goes to these clubs and stuff so it felt real istic in that sense I think a lot of people said that Aubrey wasn't a realistic character and I definitely don't agree with that but she was just like kind of an airhead which is interesting because her whole reason for getting into sex work is that she's not making enough money to make ends meet her parents are dead her grandma is still alive she wants to pay for her grandmother and for her own schooling and yet she just she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life it's not like she was like I want to be an attorney I have to make sure that that happens like I'm really passionate about school and you know it was just kind of hard to sympathize with her and I'm not saying you have to have some like good reason to go into any profession or like you know to go into sex work it just didn't feel like she was serious about anything in her life I don't know I just didn't care for her and the conversations and the like one nightstand that she has the beginning of the book just felt very strange and I guess I can say that it is not like anything else I've ever read before so if you're looking for something new and zesty this might be it but let me read you a few quotes that I stood out to me the first one the girls go out and have one-night stands this is before operate becomes a sex worker I think Natalie's has something like they don't call it the Meatpacking District for nothing this is after they both have hookups in the back of a club and then what really irritated me is that in the beginning of this book Aubrey goes for her tryout kind of thing to the madam of this club essentially it's not really a club it's I can't even remember what they call it but it's where you kind of get hooked up with very rich men to you know perform services or whatever the lady that's in charge of it basically like feels up on her boobs and starts touching her and like makes her essentially as part of the interview which I thought was so bizarre I mean I don't know how these things work but that doesn't seem like something that would happen in this sort of scenario super super weird but after that happens Aubrey makes the comment sink or swim right and then Natalie tribes end with for me tonight it's bitter swallow I didn't like that comment either I'm feel like I'm talking about a bunch of random different disparate things right now but I just I feel like this book wasn't mad like from what I could read a bit the encounters that Aubrey has are very weird until she gets to like the perfect man who I think is going to make her into a submissive which is fine and I know that that's something that is a big part of other people's sex lives and what but it's just so common in erotica and romance especially written before 2015 and I'm just kind of over it look I don't care about the rich billionaire making you into his submissive I've heard it a million times and I've been done with it too irritating main characters a billionaire that I didn't give a about I just none of this book felt respectful or particularly good so I'm glad to not have to finish it I almost like skimmed through the last part of the book cuz I wanted to see what happens the guy - that she is hooking up with his married and she obviously has no say in her clients I mean like she could turn him down for a second date I guess but if the money's good you're not supposed to question it I don't know the whole thing is just interesting it wasn't for me let's just put it that way if this idea intrigues you maybe this is a book for you it's certainly not a book for me it's not much at all like hush hush my Becca Fitzpatrick so there's that but to recap let's talk about in summary the three books that I read for this video again I am I'm sorry I know I shouldn't apologize because like it's a crazy time and I don't have to defend myself but I feel compelled to do so because I like to provide at least interesting content if I'm gonna post something this wasn't that like zesty but anyway the first money read obviously was quill prints by a jade and I gave this book three stars I really enjoyed this I think it is kind of a stupid ditzy new adult romance but I'm really excited to read the sequel which is called ruthless night I'm just gonna read that front because I'm excited about it I just mmm I don't know I don't have much else to say besides the stuff I said in the beginning of this video but I I liked it I feel weird saying that because none of my Mutual's on Goodreads liked it but like I liked it so that's all that matters I next attempted to read queen of Shadows and if there's anything I can say and be stay away from this book it know just know and then the last book obviously is hush hush which we just talked about and I also do enough that one so one out of three ain't bad you never know what you're gonna get with with romances that you find on Amazon sadly two of these were kind of a fail but maybe I'll do a video like this again in the future if I can find other books that have the same names as y-a books and maybe Nelsons will be better than these ones one can only help but that's it for me I'm gonna go I have other videos that are hopefully gonna be more successful than this one that I am filming that are coming your way soon so I love you guys so much and until next timeso I had an idea I was perusing Amazon a couple of months ago looking for a new romance to read that I hadn't seen people previously talking about and I came across this book called cruel prints and I thought to myself that sounds awfully familiar it also got me thinking I wonder how many other indie romances have the same name or share a name with a young adult book and I can't cause quite a few so the whole idea of this video is that I am going to read indie romances that share the same name with young adult books is this sort of gimmicky yes do I care no I figured this could be a fun experiment and we can see if these books that share the same name have any similarities and I don't know I do you know it just sounded like a good idea we're just gonna we're gonna go for it so I'll talk to you guys about the three books that I have selected that share a name with your adult books then we could just get into the vlog portion of this video so first book obviously that we're going to be reading for this video is cruel Prince which shares name with Holly Black's the cruel Prince they seem to have like a little bit of a similarity when I was comparing of these synopses obviously this version is just a typical and new adult to bully romance but it does share the bullying aspects with the cruel prince which I mean it kind of makes sense it's sort of in the name I doubt I'll be interested to see how that one goes and how many similarities it shares with the cruel prince the next book on my list is queen of Shadows which shares a name with the fourth book in the throne of glass series and this one doesn't seem to share that many similarities although I will say that our main character seems kind of alien esque this story is about a girl in Austin I think it's a paranormal romance and she is the lead singer or front woman for a band and she is kind of I don't know if she's fallen on hard times or what but I know she gets in leagues with a vampire so that should be interesting I don't know maybe there's gonna be like an alien Rowen situation we shall see if and lastly we have hush hush by Lucia Franco now I thought if the idea for this video before all of that came out about Lucia Franco so I will acknowledge that I don't necessarily support her as an author or recommend her books but this was too interesting to pass up especially since the cover kind of reminded me a lot of hush-hush the young adult book which centers on an angel named patch and the cover for a shway Lucia Franco has feathers on it so well I don't think the plots Sherratt that many similarities I I'll be interested to give this one a try from what I can tell this an Optus is pretty vague but it seems like it's going to be potentially a sugar daddy situation so that might be interesting so now that I've told you the books that we're going to be reading lets get reading I'm a 3% into this book and I'm just astounded at how stupid it is our main character Dylan just arrived to town and she apparently has history with this guy in this town even though she like didn't go to high school with I'm so confused I don't know how they know each other I'm sure we'll figure it out later but so stupid the intro was kind of dark though because the hero Jace his brother I think committed suicide it was because he got bullied so I think his brother's gonna be a bully because of that I'm assuming he's gonna bully Dylan the girl but just this intro has been so stupid her step cousin got his dick out so there's just a lot to unpack okay how is it possible to think of is really stupid but like simultaneously really enjoy it cuz I'm actually really liking this book I wasn't very coherent yesterday but essentially the book is about Jace and Dylan Dylan's the girl Jace is the guy they used to go to school together when they were younger they were best friends I think through elementary school and middle school and then in high school Dylan goes away for a while and then she comes back I think they had a falling-out right before she left I'm actually just liking the details that they're including I like that Jace is actually half Indian which is pretty cool I don't feel like I ever see super diverse new adult books so I really appreciate that detail I think a lot of shit's really stupid but I'm liking some of the details that are included if that makes sense I mean the high school is called Royal Herts Academy so it's like hard not to roll my eyes but at the same time I think the story is fun if a little bit stupid I mean if you like fan fiction and you like shrubs and stuff I think you'll enjoy this there was just a scene where it's set in the past and Dylan and Jace are talking and Dylan has a big crush on Jace she's like what am I not pretty enough for you and he's like no that's not it like I don't know it's just it's cute and I like it and it's stupid but I don't know I didn't expect to enjoy this but I'm actually thoroughly enjoying it I was supposed to be editing right now actually but I decided that I wanted to read instead so that's how you know that the books like pretty solid so my plan is to finish this book tonight is it gonna happen I don't know I say tonight I mean it's like mid day right now on some moon making Pizza tots for lunch and I think my goal is to finish this by like five I mean I definitely can do that but I've also been around a lot this whole pandemic thing like I am being productive for the most part like I'm getting my actual work done for work and I'm editing and like getting videos posted but it's no harder to read than I had anticipated and I don't have any audio books before any of these books so I don't know how it's gonna go but I am liking this book so far and I'll keep you guys posted as the stupid in did you have so much to say so much has happened since the hot spot I'm like 70% ish into this book and it's sending me quite a bit there have been a lot of contenders between our hero and heroine now and you can tell he's just kind of a dick and I can understand why people don't like this book because he is unrepentant and I'm pretty sure there's not gonna be groveling or anything to really make up for his behaviour I'm not that upset about though the steamier scenes have been a raunchy as and I'm like very here for that I didn't know what to expect like one level of smut to expect sorry that my lamps on background but it's been good it's been good um although a lot of the choices that are being made are strange our main character he's beaten up a girl quite a few times like the same girl multiple times she's an aggressor I guess like the girl is bullying her and so she beats her up in retaliation which is kind of a whole thing so there's a lot of like body shaming girl hate all that good stuff and then like I just got to a scene where the hero and heroine finally have like their first sexual encounter and it's on the hood of a car and then the guy just like walks away and I'm pretty sure it's his car so like did he just leave his car with her I don't know very confusing and then there's also sort of a love triangle situation because of course there has to be a jealousy component to this because like what would this book be without jealousy so Dylan press this guy named Tommy that she knew from a long time ago and Tommy kind of always liked her and he's just kind of a dick as well we found out he abandons her at a marina because she like won't put out or whatever because you know like typical teen movie she ends up getting picked up by Jace and like her cousin ends and friends and stuff and they're like oh like we're gonna terrorize this and she's like no you can't leave him alone never and then Jace precedes to pee in this guy's gas tank of his car they think he's gonna his car up too so we should be interesting I think there's gonna be some sort of Rumble that goes down at some point I think Tommy vs. Jace is gonna happen they're on rival football teams which i think so I know Jason's little brothers on the football team but I'm assuming Jace probably is too it's um it's interesting it's like really objectively a bad book but I am liking it so what does that say about me at this point I think I'd give this book three stars because it's fun I'm enjoying it but it's not good why I'm about to be interrogated this lighting is really bad okay I finished cruel prints and I think I am gonna give it three stars it was enjoyable as I'm so stupid so many bad plot twists but I enjoyed it and if you like stupid like I do I think you might enjoy this it's set in high school which i think was probably the wrong choice I think it's the most glaringly obvious poor choice in this book the events that happen in the present I could maybe see happening in high school like in a teen drama but the events that take place in the past took place when the characters were in eighth grade and some of the characters were younger than that I just don't think that the actions of those characters back then really lined up with that big in middle school I think the story would have made more sense at the flashbacks been high school and then they were in college for the present day you know you can't you can't get everything that you wish for and that is okay but I guess now we can kind of compare this to the cool prints by Holly black there were similarities in that there's bullying I guess the main plot of this book hinges on miscommunication so I guess that's not really the same as the crow prints and let's be real I think the idea for this video is pretty tenuous to begin with like trying to compare these books they're not the same but I do think if you like the cruel prints by Holly black and you also like shitty new it all books like I do you probably will enjoy this is it laughable and fan fiction II in like the worst possible way absolutely but no some of you guys have bad taste like I do so anyway not upset about it I think now I'm going to move on to queen of Shadows next because that one seems decent I think hush hush by Lucia Franco's gonna be a train wreck but I have some hopes for queen of Shadows probably gonna start that tomorrow because I need to edit this episode of the de book club but tomorrow we're gonna start it on that and it's gonna be a time the plot seems interesting and there's vampires I like vampires so we'll see hello friends it is so I don't even know a day is I think it's Thursday it's noon and I didn't just wake up but I've been kind of I did some work and now I am chillin and I'm ready to start in on we know shadows but before I do that I figured I'd like to do my hair talk to you about the little tiny bit that I've heard of queen of Shadows so far to be honest I really want to read anything but this book at this point in time I have just started honey don't list my Christina Lauren for another video that I'm doing and I'm in the middle of a new adult romance that I'm reading like just for fun and so this really is like not something that I am interested in reading I haven't been doing anyway I think the reason that I'm like not super hyped about it is because I can't tell if the like details she's including are like name-dropping or if I'm just sensitive to it because I actually live in Austin and that's where this book I said but I'm just like every time she mentions 6th Street or Lamar I'm just like stop talking please also hi hello this is my natural hair I like to fix the front of it kind of so it doesn't look quite as stupid I pretty much never go anywhere with my natural hair because I just feel like it's super unruly and like not great so I usually blow dry my hair curl it you know make it look like nice and smooth today I'm just gonna like touch a couple of pieces up and call it a day because I'm staying home and no one cares but I do like to feel more like myself I'd like to know I know this is not that like relevant to the actual content of this video but what do you guys do when you are facing a global pandemic like what has been your coping mechanism I've tried to like get up every day and try to stick to a routine like I get up at 8 to start working or at least to get online I usually work until about noon and I stay online obviously until 5 o'clock but I will start reading make sure that my bed's made make sure that I have like makeup on and just like feel normal I guess like I try to do as many things as I can to make me feel normal but I've got it I've got to be honest with you guys my reading and like video creation and just my life I don't all have been super weird since this whole thing started I don't know I just feel like I wanted to be open with you guys about because that's sort of wearing that right now as far as this book goes I feel like it is reminding me a fair amount to at least the beginning of class I mean this is called queen of Shadows but like queen of Shadows is like the fourth book in the front of classrooms so I'm not surprised I guess because this is a urban fantasy and urban fantasies tend to have kind of annoying like stereotypically strong the female main characters well I honestly probably should have read about this in gold but they don't actually look that scary okay if I don't know I feel like I needed to like defend myself but I am just not surprised at the comparisons to be honest like I said the beginning this was kind of a gimmicky video to start with I am noticing more similarities that I had anticipated in these books so maybe I was gonna try to quote Romeo and Juliet and like you know rose by any other name but you get it you know maybe names meet something hello friends it is Saturday I think the last time we talked it was Thursday I was like getting ready to read this book and then I just didn't can't even remember what I did though the rest of Thursday I was like it I'll just like push it off I don't really want to read and then yesterday I had to help my sister like emergency evacuate from her dorm room she goes to college at University of Texas and they shut down everything so she had to move all her belongings into my apartment and I helped her do that which wasn't too bad it'll be nice having her here I did that I also want to target yesterday it was like the first time I had gone out in like seven days and I got this like comfy matching athleisure outfit not even athleisure it's just like leisure I guess I got a switch which is over there I don't wanna pick it up but it's yellow and it's really cute and I was playing Animal Crossing yesterday and I just didn't feel like reading however I did pick up queen of Shadows today and I especially didn't have to at 4 percent which is kind of crazy I end up spending like 5 bucks on this book which is kind of a lot I think for an e-book I normally get like cheap indeed books for like a dollar so that was irritating feel like I wasted my money but it was bad there was a lot of name dropping I know that I mentioned briefly like not knowing whether or not I was just like sensitive to it but I didn't like the way certain things were handled I didn't like the way the author referred to certain areas Austin I don't know that she used the word ghetto but I don't know I just I didn't like the way that she was referring to certain parts of the city as like poor and gross I didn't like that and then on top of that there was a very brittle and graphic rape scene very very early on the book which I had not read about in any of the trigger warnings for this book and I personally I'm just not in place mentally where I can stomach that sort of thing right now I you know I just want to be reading like fine happy romances or like steamy romances I don't need any dark drama at the moment that's just like not when I'm in the mood for tell yeah she ends up I can't getting attacked and she wakes up and those people are still there and they're gonna brutalize her somewhere and I was like yeah I'm good I don't need this right now so yeah it's hard to tell if I'm just like something to it right now or if this is just really like gross but it's really just gross I think she eventually gets saved by the hero that's like one of my least favorite tropes though the whole like getting assaulted or almost getting assaulted and then being saved by the hero of the book I don't really appreciate that it's overdone and I it's gross I know rape happens but I just don't want it in my romance so I can't honestly tell you how similar or different it is from queen of Shadows why a book I will say though it kind of her mindset our main characters mindset essentially I think the lot of this book I don't think I really explained it very well she is a musician who can to manipulate emotions and she doesn't do it willingly but she plays music and if she is sad you know she's like a happy tune everybody around her is going to be sad she can also pick up on other people's emotions and read them we open up and she is kind of dealing with the repercussions of this and she has like a drug abuse issues to try to kind of calm all of the voices and emotions that she's hearing from other people which was dark and then again the rape scene happened I think she had saved by vampire and then eventually maybe turning to a vampire I'm not really sure because I didn't continue reading but I wouldn't recommend to this book I mean like pick it up if it interests you I know some of my friends on Goodreads liked it so maybe it does get better but I just I don't know I could not overlook that let's move on I don't want to talk about this book anymore I'm going to start in on hush-hush by Lucia Franco this one had actually bad ratings which is interesting queen of Shadows had good ratings I we had two DNF it this one has bad ratings maybe that means I'll enjoy it I mean that's sort of what happened with cruel Princeton I ended up liking that so maybe I'll like this book I don't have high hopes but I'm hoping I don't have to do enough this one because that would be a complete bill on video you want to say hi no happy sunday sorry for Lighting's weird it's like 450 and there is no Sun insights of the natural lighting is kind of ugly in here but it's line we're gonna carry on we just got cats galore today man they're just what what are you doing basically I got 50% into hush-hush and I decided to DNF it I know but imagine how tired we are imagine how tired we are that this video it's or no mess oh but I feel like posting it because I feel like my commentary for the first book was decent enough and yet I did like it and I did want to encourage you guys to maybe read it if you're into the same that I am so I don't fold that bad we can talk about this book though and talk about why idea enough to so hush-hush my Lucia Franco is not a story about angels oh my could be why a book by Becca Fitzpatrick is this one is indeed about a female escort sex work essentially my issue is that I understand having a character go from not really understanding what sex work is all about to being a sex worker can come with maybe some misconceptions being answered but I don't feel like it was done in a respectful way and I feel like our main character is just sort of a so her name is Aubrey and her roommate natalie is the sex worker she doesn't know that Natalie has been a sex worker for two years and whenever Natalie ends up telling her hey I am escort and this is what I do Aubrey kind of jokes about it and makes some kind of gross remarks that I don't necessarily enjoy she says NAT are you trying to tell me you're a Renta ho like I said I understand that eventually she goes from a place of like not understanding to understanding but I didn't get far enough to tell if she like makes that full transformation she does enter into sex work I got that far but not far enough to know if she is doing this from a place of empowerment and actually is going to like address those misconceptions it doesn't seem like that's gonna happen in this book and pull I'm not a sex worker and I I don't know what is and isn't offensive to sex workers I feel like I can safely say that a lot of the things that Aubry says are offensive and I just didn't like a lot of the verbage around sex work and on top of that I feel like the first few chapters of this book are very stupid and trivial and I know a lot of people dislike Audrey's main character which I can totally understand she really reminds me of a girl that I know you basically went to New York and kind of has a similar lifestyle to these two girls do you not a sex worker or anything but some of the clubs that are mentioned this guy the girl I know like goes to these clubs and stuff so it felt real istic in that sense I think a lot of people said that Aubrey wasn't a realistic character and I definitely don't agree with that but she was just like kind of an airhead which is interesting because her whole reason for getting into sex work is that she's not making enough money to make ends meet her parents are dead her grandma is still alive she wants to pay for her grandmother and for her own schooling and yet she just she didn't know what she wanted to do with her life it's not like she was like I want to be an attorney I have to make sure that that happens like I'm really passionate about school and you know it was just kind of hard to sympathize with her and I'm not saying you have to have some like good reason to go into any profession or like you know to go into sex work it just didn't feel like she was serious about anything in her life I don't know I just didn't care for her and the conversations and the like one nightstand that she has the beginning of the book just felt very strange and I guess I can say that it is not like anything else I've ever read before so if you're looking for something new and zesty this might be it but let me read you a few quotes that I stood out to me the first one the girls go out and have one-night stands this is before operate becomes a sex worker I think Natalie's has something like they don't call it the Meatpacking District for nothing this is after they both have hookups in the back of a club and then what really irritated me is that in the beginning of this book Aubrey goes for her tryout kind of thing to the madam of this club essentially it's not really a club it's I can't even remember what they call it but it's where you kind of get hooked up with very rich men to you know perform services or whatever the lady that's in charge of it basically like feels up on her boobs and starts touching her and like makes her essentially as part of the interview which I thought was so bizarre I mean I don't know how these things work but that doesn't seem like something that would happen in this sort of scenario super super weird but after that happens Aubrey makes the comment sink or swim right and then Natalie tribes end with for me tonight it's bitter swallow I didn't like that comment either I'm feel like I'm talking about a bunch of random different disparate things right now but I just I feel like this book wasn't mad like from what I could read a bit the encounters that Aubrey has are very weird until she gets to like the perfect man who I think is going to make her into a submissive which is fine and I know that that's something that is a big part of other people's sex lives and what but it's just so common in erotica and romance especially written before 2015 and I'm just kind of over it look I don't care about the rich billionaire making you into his submissive I've heard it a million times and I've been done with it too irritating main characters a billionaire that I didn't give a about I just none of this book felt respectful or particularly good so I'm glad to not have to finish it I almost like skimmed through the last part of the book cuz I wanted to see what happens the guy - that she is hooking up with his married and she obviously has no say in her clients I mean like she could turn him down for a second date I guess but if the money's good you're not supposed to question it I don't know the whole thing is just interesting it wasn't for me let's just put it that way if this idea intrigues you maybe this is a book for you it's certainly not a book for me it's not much at all like hush hush my Becca Fitzpatrick so there's that but to recap let's talk about in summary the three books that I read for this video again I am I'm sorry I know I shouldn't apologize because like it's a crazy time and I don't have to defend myself but I feel compelled to do so because I like to provide at least interesting content if I'm gonna post something this wasn't that like zesty but anyway the first money read obviously was quill prints by a jade and I gave this book three stars I really enjoyed this I think it is kind of a stupid ditzy new adult romance but I'm really excited to read the sequel which is called ruthless night I'm just gonna read that front because I'm excited about it I just mmm I don't know I don't have much else to say besides the stuff I said in the beginning of this video but I I liked it I feel weird saying that because none of my Mutual's on Goodreads liked it but like I liked it so that's all that matters I next attempted to read queen of Shadows and if there's anything I can say and be stay away from this book it know just know and then the last book obviously is hush hush which we just talked about and I also do enough that one so one out of three ain't bad you never know what you're gonna get with with romances that you find on Amazon sadly two of these were kind of a fail but maybe I'll do a video like this again in the future if I can find other books that have the same names as y-a books and maybe Nelsons will be better than these ones one can only help but that's it for me I'm gonna go I have other videos that are hopefully gonna be more successful than this one that I am filming that are coming your way soon so I love you guys so much and until next time\n"