The Reading Vlog: A Week of Mixed Fortunes

As I sit down to write this week's update, I must admit that I'm feeling a bit behind schedule. My usual enthusiasm for reading has taken a hit, and I've barely made any progress on my current book. However, I've decided to press on with the vlog, even if it doesn't quite meet my own expectations.

One of the books I was planning to finish this week is "Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Reborn. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time for reading lately, and I'm only about 42% of the way through the book. Despite this, I've found myself really enjoying the story so far. It's an action-packed thriller that follows characters as they try to uncover the truth behind a mysterious plot. I must admit that I'm curious to see where the story goes from here.

On the other hand, I have another book on my list called "No Exit" by Taylor Adams. This is one of his thrillers that takes place over the course of 24 hours, which isn't really my favorite type of book. However, I've found myself drawn into the story so far, and I'm enjoying the suspenseful plot twists. The main character, Darby, finds herself stranded at a rest stop during a snowstorm with four other people, only to discover that one of them is being held captive by someone who will stop at nothing to get away with their crime. I must admit that this part of the book has been quite disturbing for me, but it's also keeping me engaged.

As much as I love reading, I have to admit that this week hasn't been my best. I've been feeling a bit in a slump, and I haven't had the motivation to read for long periods of time. However, I'm determined to power through and finish my books, even if it means just going slow. Sometimes, it's all about taking things one step at a time.

I did manage to make some progress on my reading goals this week, albeit slowly. I've been thinking about how much older the characters are in "Killers of a Certain Age" compared to me. My mom is getting up there in years, and it makes me realize that 60 isn't as old as I used to think it was. It's funny how our perspectives can change over time.

In other news, I'm excited for my best friend's upcoming visit. We're finally going to watch the new "Hocus Pocus" movie together, which has been a long time coming. I've been looking forward to this all week, and I'm hoping it'll be just what I need to take my mind off of reading for a bit.

In conclusion, not much reading happened this week, but that's okay. Sometimes it's better to slow down and enjoy the journey rather than rushing through books. I appreciate you guys following along with me on this vlog, even if it's not as polished as I'd like it to be. I'll keep working on my skills, and hopefully, next month's vlog will be a bit more successful.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone welcome to another reading Vlog another seasonal reading Vlog have Autumn here with me because you guys know she loves when I Vlog because she likes looking at herself in a little monitor spooky readathon so I'm gonna attempt to read three different books in this Vlog hopefully they're all spooky Vibes and creepy I've been saving them specifically for this Vlog if you don't know last month I did kind of another seasonal Vlog where it was all fallish reads and all three of them were very fallish but they all kind of disappointed me so hopefully we can turn that around in this Vlog so before I get to the books I'm talking about this week that I'm reading this week I want to thank the sponsor of today's video yeah this video is so kindly sponsored by Better Health betterhelp is online therapy that can help you in so many ways if you struggle with anything with anxiety with depression with anything at all and you think therapy would help better hop is amazing at it all you have to do is go online and fill out their survey you can tell them exactly what you're looking to get out of therapy what are your goals what are you hoping to talk about and they will match you with a therapist within 48 hours which is amazing from there you will schedule to meet with your therapist whether it be a video chat a text message you don't have to do face to face if you want an online chat whatever you want to do and what's even great is if you don't mesh well with your therapist which sometimes happens that happens to everybody how can switch your therapist with no additional charge at all go online fill out their you know questionnaire and figure out exact and get matched with a therapist I think it's highly beneficial to talk to someone as a person who struggles greatly with things anxiety more particularly medical anxiety and I'm going a lot through with my family right now I'm pretty much the caretaker for my Father which is not easy in the slightest I think no matter what being caretak or special when you have a strained relationship with the set person you're caretaking for it makes it even tougher and anxiety my anxiety levels are through the roof lately honestly but just knowing that better help is there to help you is amazing so you can go online to check them out to do this questionnaire at www.betterhelp.com bookables and what's even great is you can go to that in case you're like I want to do this I want to talk to someone I want to get help which is amazing if you go to the link I listed down below you can get 10 off your first month which is always amazing so don't ever be afraid to talk to someone don't ever be afraid to ask for help I know I've been in that camp several times thinking like I can do it all I can seem like I have my life together I can juggle all these balls in the air in reality we can't we really honestly can't and knowing that better help us out there is amazing so join the three plus million people people that have taken charge of their mental health today by checking out better help like I said all the information will be down below for you to check out I have two ebooks one physical book I'm gonna start the physical book because it's right here and that is a Wilderness of stars by Shay Earnshaw the only y book in this video is known for kind of atmospheric spooky reads and I thought why not read it in a reading Vlog because I really enjoy her books I love the wicked deep and I like winterwood um so I'm very excited to read this one this one is about a girl I think it's a witch that's also like an astronomer so very excited for this one this one doesn't come out until November I believe so maybe it's not super creepy but I figure Halloween's like the perfect time to read it it's almost 400 pages I did not think it's gonna be that long but we're gonna we're gonna attempt it then we have House of hunger by Alexis Henderson this is their second book I did read her first book The Year of the witching this one is about like vampires the more particularly if all character named Marion who decides to become a blood maid and what that means is she gets shipped off to this really fancy mansion where she lives with vampires and she is just kind of you know their blood bank if you will and then she starts noticing that other blood maidens are starting to go missing so we have kind of a murder mystery Gothic Vibe going on which is perfect for Halloween so very excited to read that malice house by I forgot the author's name but this is an adult mystery thriller also like kind of horror if you will this one all I know it's about a character that father passes away that was a famous author and she kind of goes to clean out his house and he she finds this manuscript that he wrote that's kind of Darker and then people want it or something and also the house may be kind of haunted that's all I know I do have a couple backup books planned in case I'm not feeling in these books because sometimes that happens and I am a mood reader I don't want to hold myself accountable to any of these books they can all change of the subject's notice but this um this week is I think today is the hottest day 81. then in a cup days it drops down to like 75 and 70 which is oh just Peak weather I think it's even supposed to rain a couple days so it'll be the perfect time to read these so um it's still not quite October I still want to start this Vlog because I wanted to so we're just gonna do it what book I'll start off with I have no clue we're winging it okay we're truly winging it so let's wing it together and let's have some fun I wanted to share with you um some stickers I've recently got so if you don't know I'm big into planning I'm well not big like you know I don't do like a weekly spread but I love um getting my planner at the end of every year and putting stickers in it and you know kind of decorating it I didn't do a video last year but I'm doing one this year um and with that I've ordered a lot of stickers ordered some from my dear friend Amy she just opened up like a sticker stationery shop called happy Olive Studio which is just amazing um I've known Amy for a few years here on YouTube and um bookstagram so I place an order for some stickers and she sent me a whole bunch of extra goodies which she did not need to do but I thought I would share with you with them because they are all so sticking cute so if you like stickers highly recommend checking out her shop um first up are these really cute little ghosts that have um that have like sparkles on them super cute for Halloween also some pumpkins with the same type of effect with the glitter on them this might be my favorite if it's a candle that says oh it's a sweater weather will I get it to focus I don't know right that's what it's like um we also have just some regular pumpkins with smiley faces on them that are super cute also this one it's really cute it's glittery as well and it says witch juice on it I also love this one this one might be my favorite I just need it's like a cat and a ghost in a graveyard and it says cozy day and it's like a Polaroid it is super freaking cute then we have like a piece of pie which is adorable I can already see this going in the month of November and this one which is great because it's me lately coffee books and True Crime time I don't know who I am anymore but this is me this is another really cute one it says Dead Tired which is my life that's probably why she sent it to me she gets me and then we have a really small one that's a ghost with totally like a frappuccino it's stinking adorable then we have some really small ones so I'll try to do my best with focusing this is basically a stack of Stephen King books with them all on the spine I want to see these are Boba teas I don't know I've never had Boba before in my life but either way they're super cute then we have a carrot with a cat it's like they're all so cute oh I have another little small bubble one too and then the last sticker set it's called the brunch club which is super cute it's got a bunch of brunch so she probably sent it to me because of Leslie Knope she loves um if you don't know she's from Parks and Rec loves breakfast as do I and then she also sent me two of her bookmarks I believe these are brand new to her shop and they are super cute these are pumpkins or squash I think they're pumpkins but I need some bookmarks actually surprise surprise I don't have a lot so I'm gonna use this today and then I have this one that's like a moon and stars on it and it's just adorable and then I don't want to see and then she also has some notepads which I believe are new to her um store um this is has the Boba or maybe it's a frappuccino I could be 100 raw but either way it's super cute it's got Moons and stars on it and then this one has like paint and stuff like that those are the stickers she sent me I'll leave the link to her shop down below highly recommend you check her out because it's always great supporting small businesses I especially try to do that with stickers and stuff in fact let me show you the other shirt because I bought I was actually trying to organize my stickers before this is my new planner it's a happy planner I get one every single year but I have organized my stickers that's right I got a whole bag of them um let's see of what are some that I've bought this year I did buy a whole bunch of fall stickers on Amazon because it was pretty true but for the stickers I'm focusing on like at the opening of my planners if you don't know it's what I do I did order a lot from Etsy for small shops a couple Bible verse ones this one's my all-time favorite Bible verse your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path by this is Psalms 119. it's my favorite Bible verse of all time I won the sticker of it it's really cute and then I have this one I ordered as I lift my eyes to the hill we're doing my where does my help come from my help comes from the Lord who made the Heaven and the Earth and that Psalms 121. I'm a big fan of Psalms and then I was big into re-watching Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit like a few weeks ago like I rewatched all of them so I really wanted to get a hobbit hole sticker so that's what I got it it says in a hole in the ground they're live to hop it and this is the most adorable sticker ever so I got all of those from small Etsy shops in fact I'm actually waiting on a couple more but I have like so many stickers I even bought some from like happy planner I bought like a fall Harvest one which is just super cute this one has like a whole bunch of fall stuff in it because that's like my fave hit season if you don't know you probably do even has some Halloween ones in there um but it's just adorable and then I got some because they were on super clearance this is teacher florals it's just got a bunch of florals in it I'm digging to that this year and this one's seasons of color it's some kind of floral ones again um I think these were on clearance I think and then I bought um a Christmas one I believe this one was on clearance from last year um and then I bought this one I always buy one something like this it's a holiday um planner sticker it's got like all the different holidays and then you know that's about it for stickers I have I also have some bookish ones I bought on Amazon that I'm gonna use so I'm going to start probably filming my um planner like put together here in the next couple weeks but I'm very excited for it because I love decorating my planner because it's just it's a it's a thing I do it relaxes me I put on a show and I just have a good time with it to show you this is my brand new planner see how things I haven't added anything to my planner for this year it's got a lot of stuff in it I'll show you like how I have decorated it usually what I do is with the Etsy stickers I showed you I put on my end page as you can see this is kind of how it is what I think of the year so I was really being in a Seinfeld last year so I got a Seinfeld sticker I had some bookish ones I had some Gilmore Girls I got this one it says take me back to 1990s because hello uh and yeah and then I kind of just decorate it for every single month let's go to September like I always kind of personalize it to books I've read videos I want to do and then I just really you know then I go for it it's not like crazily sticker fied I mean sometimes there it is sometimes it's not but I enjoy decorating okay it's just the thing I like to do I love about this planner it's got the dashboard layout which is a weekly thing so I always write my dinners here I write down what I need to do I write book videos when I do like book photos I need to take video ideas all that kind of stuff so that's how I do my planner thank you thank you hello it's Thursday I finally finished a book I I don't even know if I told you I started out with malice house by Megan Shepard and it was a huge disappointment it took me a long time to read it um I oh it really pains me to say this because I think I did a video somewhat recently of like five star predictions and I believe that was on it I have a very high hopes for this book and it just was not not good I mean I'm not uh I looked at the reviews on Goodreads and I could see why it doesn't have the best reviews so let me tell you what it's about before I tell you I didn't like it this book we have a character named Haven Haven goes back to her um like father's house called malice house where um he died he was older he had dementia and so she has to kind of sort his Affairs and things like that he was a famous author like he won a Pulitzer Prize he won like a man Booker prize like he his work was revered people loved him and with that she when she's going through is how she finds this old kind of manuscript that he wrote and Haven is not doing well financially so she's like hey maybe I could sell this and it's like a story it's a book of short stories of like it's called a book for Monsters or bedtime stories for Monsters and they're all kind of short stories about monsters and creepy things and Haven is an aspiring illustrator she thinks hey I can illustrate these um stories and you know kind of do a package deal and try to get somebody to publish this and so she reaches out to some of her dad's friends who knows publishing and people start getting really obsessed with the manuscript also while that she's thinking maybe Mal's house is haunted because in her father's like last days he was saying that the house was haunted but people were thinking it was just as dementia and that's what the whole book is kind of about it sounds intriguing doesn't it but it fell flat there was a few reasons for that for me um I believe this book is almost 400 Pages it did not need to be that long it drug on and on it could have easily been 50 to 75 Pages less honestly and I would have been fine with it also with it dragging on the first half is extremely slow like so slow that I feel like it's kind of putting me in a slump um so uh and then the second half got really interesting but I think I was so bored from the first half oh thank you I did not care about the second half it was really intriguing I will say how everything came to fruition I enjoyed that but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the first half would have been good also Haven is a character not that great there I said it there's another plot that I was like that's kind of stupid I don't know it just wasn't that great I think it could have been the writing was really good I think my favorite part of this whole book was the Snippets of all the short stories her dad wrote at the beginning of each chapter I would have read the whole bedtime stories for Monsters honestly and really enjoyed it but sadly I'm gonna give this three out of five did not really enjoy it that's yeah that's it I'm very disappointed in this because I had really high heels for this one but you end and some you lose some so like I said I'm kind of in a funk now like I'm not feeling any particular books so what I'm planning to do is I'm going to read the first couple chapters of three different books and see which one I'm feeling and go with that we're preparing for Hurricane Ian if you don't know hurricane Ian hit Florida um literally yesterday and it really has done a lot of really bad things and it's going to continue to do bad things in like Georgia South Carolina and things like that I live in Southern Virginia so we're not gonna get hit a lot at all thankfully um we're just gonna get a ton like a ton of rain like Friday Saturday and Sunday I'll use this kind of weather we're just preparing for it's gonna suck that it's gonna be raining for like four days straight but that's okay I just hope everyone in Florida stays safe I have a few friends in Florida and they are all okay thankfully because it really hit Florida hard um I think it's like category four or was it category five on it oh it's a big big hurricane either way that's my update for now not the best first book to start off with this Vlog but hopefully it will go up from here hello it's Friday I look like crap but you know what it is what it is it's raining today it's yucky yeah um I want to update you on the book I picked I totally picked a book that I didn't even mention to you guys because when I was trying to figure out well I was like let me start reading these chapters and I looked at my Kindle and I organized Now by my like month releases I know that sounds really crazy it's just how my brain works but I looked in November and I realized oh yeah CJ Tudor has a short story collection coming out in November if you don't know she's like a mystery writer I've written one of her books called the chalkman have I read another one of hers I don't know but either way I was like oh short stories that would be a perfect book for me right now since Mal's house kind of put me in a slump so I've already read the first three short stories in it and I'm enjoying them I would say the third one's been my favorite sure and I like this book because before each short story she sells like a before each short story she tells like a story of the inspiration behind the short story like for example the second one I read she was thinking like years ago that this could have been like a why a middle grade kind of scary book but then she was like no I think I want to rework into a short story and then she'll the third one it was kind of a very steaming king-esque short story which I really liked um it was like like in a jazz club was murder it was interesting but I'm really liking it so far and I think I picked the right book because they're short and quick um I don't have to put too much investment in it it's rainy I plan to when this little one goes down for a nap to watch my best friend's exorcism I'm so excited it came out today I'm so excited to watch it I hope to really enjoy it and I know you're probably thinking for the date of this you're gonna watch Hocus Pocus too right wrong oh um I'm sure if you know everyone loves Hocus Pocus I'm a 90s kid so of course I do um plans with my friends this weekend to watch it I have two best friends we love Hocus Pocus we went to like a drive-in to see it one time um and we have plans to watch it together but unfortunately one of the friend one of them has to work this weekend so we cannot get together this weekend so I'm thinking we're supposed to get together one night next week next week to watch it so we're all waiting to watch it none of us are allowed to watch it until we all so we can watch it together so that's why I'm not gonna watch it for this maybe I'll watch the first one but we might do a double feature I don't know my plans for today is to read the short story to watch My Vest at Fred's exorcism and to try to do all that before I pick up my son from school and then we'll see how the day progresses we also have poor cake in here she loves being outside especially like in the cool crisp weather which is really ironic because she's from Turks and Caicos like she was born there but she loves like fall and spring those are her months but she said she has to be inside today because it's raining I'm so sorry foreign foreign foreign foreign vlogger award again goes to me um I did a vlog for Saturday or Sunday mainly because Saturdays we were picking we were spending the whole day pretty much picking up the yard um I'm sure you've heard if you've lived in the um the South um East at all um that hurricane Ian came through and hit Florida the most our damage was nothing really we just have a lot of pine trees in our backyard so we had a lot of Limbs a lot of pine cones a few big branches fell but nowhere nearly that bad we just had to pick up a lot like I know a lot of people in Florida have lost their homes lost their lives so our damage is literally nothing um so but anyway if you spent Saturday doing that and then Sunday as you saw we went to the pumpkin patch and the corn maze and we spent time with my husband's family which was really fun and both the kids did really good so that is a very successful outing and yeah I have oh reading guys I'm I'm in a slump I'm just gonna have to say it like it takes me a while to admit when I'm in a slump but when I admit it last time I talked to you I was reading sliver of darkness by CJ Tudor I have since finished it um that has a whole bunch of short stories in it I had 11 short stories in it I liked a few of them but overall it was kind of just okay I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it unless you really are a big Avid fan of like kind of mysteries or horror short stories none of them really like scared me a ton but I would say my favorites of the bunch or runaway blues that was the one that's most Stephen king-esque that she said um but I enjoyed it um I also really enjoyed Gloria that was very interesting my other favorite was Final course those three really stood out to me the rest were just kind of mediocre so I don't know if you're a big fan of CJ tutor I check it out if not maybe Let It Go um yeah I just I think my again my plans for this reading along just kind of went off I really think malice house did a number on me reading-wise like I just am kind of of not feeling reading right now that happens to me every now and then I feel like I have a few Spurt of like good most reading and then there's a month that's just like kind of I don't know maybe I'm kind of getting over the atmospheric wreath and I need to read romance I right now I am in the middle of two books I'm hoping to finish one of them today and both of them were books I did not say I was gonna read in this Vlog that's what happens when you're a mood reader and you're in a little bit of a slump the first book that I'm in the middle of right now is killers of a certain age by Deanna Rayborn and I'm actually really enjoying it and this is basically about a bunch of 60 year olds it's um for 60 year old females that were part of like this assassination Squad like they were hired killers and they were really good at their job but now they're all retiring and so they go on this cruise that their job is holding for them and then they realize that somebody's out there to kill them so they have to escape and things like that you also get Snippets of back when they were recruited for this when they were in their young 20s and it's just very interesting I really enjoy it I also feel like when they're talking about 60s they feel like they're so old and my mom's gonna be 60 here in a couple years and I'm like she's still relatively young like I don't 60 is not that old maybe I say that because I'm getting older and I'm like I don't know I'm actually really enjoying it that's the one book I'm planning to finish today I hopefully I'm like 40 of the way in um but I really like it like I'm surprised by how much I like I think that's why I'm reading it slowly because I'm enjoying it so much it's kind of like a like action movie where people have to kind of go undercover and like figure out who's after them and things like that it's really a spy-esque I like it a lot and the other one I am a little bit into is no exit by Taylor Adams this is one of my 22 books I want to read in 20 2022 um this had a blue adaptation as well I don't know if I'll watch it or not but either way I'm on page 108 it's okay Taylor Adams I've noticed this is my second book by him has a tendency to write Thrillers that take place like all in one night like within 24 hours and I'm not the biggest fan of those I feel like I'm like I just I don't know I like them kind of spread out more but I'm enjoying it so far I have a feeling it's gonna go one way but we'll have to see if you don't know what this book is about it's basically like it's set in winter time we follow character I don't even know her name uh um Darby and she's on the way home to go see her dying mom and she gets kind of stuck at this rest stop um because it's snowing so bad like the interstate's closed and she's there with four other people and so when she goes outside to like maybe see if she has a signal she notices there's a work van and she knows there's a young girl that's like maybe age nine that's um in the work van trapped in an animal crate and she's like somebody here is kidnap this child so she's trying to figure it out and it's it's kind of disturbing I'm surprised I'm reading it because I don't do really well with like child stuff because my half child I have kids but either way I don't know if I'll finish that today hopefully tomorrow but um that's my plan tonight actually I'm going to my best friend's house because we're finally watching Hocus Pocus together the new one we've been waiting for each other to watch it so I'm hoping just to have a good time and hang out with them and have you know a spooky Hocus Pocus time but that's my update for now not a lot of reading has been happening the slump has commenced I'm okay with it it's gonna be what it is foreign hello it's Tuesday and I'm here to finally wrap up this Vlog one day I'll have a vlog and I'll feel accomplished with it but today is not that day and this Vlog is not that Vlog so I told you I was really gonna try to finish a book I didn't I didn't read barely anything I think I'm still like 42 percent of the way into killers of a certain age by Deanna reborn and I'm really enjoying it I really am I'm just not in the mood to read right now I really do think I'm in a slump I'm kind of in that funk right now where I just don't feel like reading and I'm just gonna have to roll with it honestly so I think keeping vlogging until I finish them is kind of like just not as pointless honestly so I'm just gonna wrap it up I will have a successful Vlog one day I really wish that this one was gonna be the one but you you live when you win some and you lose some that's all I have to save either way I think it was a good week for me overall like I took my kids a pumpkin patch I watched um my best friend's exorcism which was okay I watched the new Hocus Pocus which I thought was pretty fun honestly with my friends so it was overall good a good week for the most part just reading wise no but it happened it happens needless to say thank you guys so much for watching I will have another reading Vlog next month you guys in my next Vlog hopefully hopefully betterhello everyone welcome to another reading Vlog another seasonal reading Vlog have Autumn here with me because you guys know she loves when I Vlog because she likes looking at herself in a little monitor spooky readathon so I'm gonna attempt to read three different books in this Vlog hopefully they're all spooky Vibes and creepy I've been saving them specifically for this Vlog if you don't know last month I did kind of another seasonal Vlog where it was all fallish reads and all three of them were very fallish but they all kind of disappointed me so hopefully we can turn that around in this Vlog so before I get to the books I'm talking about this week that I'm reading this week I want to thank the sponsor of today's video yeah this video is so kindly sponsored by Better Health betterhelp is online therapy that can help you in so many ways if you struggle with anything with anxiety with depression with anything at all and you think therapy would help better hop is amazing at it all you have to do is go online and fill out their survey you can tell them exactly what you're looking to get out of therapy what are your goals what are you hoping to talk about and they will match you with a therapist within 48 hours which is amazing from there you will schedule to meet with your therapist whether it be a video chat a text message you don't have to do face to face if you want an online chat whatever you want to do and what's even great is if you don't mesh well with your therapist which sometimes happens that happens to everybody how can switch your therapist with no additional charge at all go online fill out their you know questionnaire and figure out exact and get matched with a therapist I think it's highly beneficial to talk to someone as a person who struggles greatly with things anxiety more particularly medical anxiety and I'm going a lot through with my family right now I'm pretty much the caretaker for my Father which is not easy in the slightest I think no matter what being caretak or special when you have a strained relationship with the set person you're caretaking for it makes it even tougher and anxiety my anxiety levels are through the roof lately honestly but just knowing that better help is there to help you is amazing so you can go online to check them out to do this questionnaire at www.betterhelp.com bookables and what's even great is you can go to that in case you're like I want to do this I want to talk to someone I want to get help which is amazing if you go to the link I listed down below you can get 10 off your first month which is always amazing so don't ever be afraid to talk to someone don't ever be afraid to ask for help I know I've been in that camp several times thinking like I can do it all I can seem like I have my life together I can juggle all these balls in the air in reality we can't we really honestly can't and knowing that better help us out there is amazing so join the three plus million people people that have taken charge of their mental health today by checking out better help like I said all the information will be down below for you to check out I have two ebooks one physical book I'm gonna start the physical book because it's right here and that is a Wilderness of stars by Shay Earnshaw the only y book in this video is known for kind of atmospheric spooky reads and I thought why not read it in a reading Vlog because I really enjoy her books I love the wicked deep and I like winterwood um so I'm very excited to read this one this one is about a girl I think it's a witch that's also like an astronomer so very excited for this one this one doesn't come out until November I believe so maybe it's not super creepy but I figure Halloween's like the perfect time to read it it's almost 400 pages I did not think it's gonna be that long but we're gonna we're gonna attempt it then we have House of hunger by Alexis Henderson this is their second book I did read her first book The Year of the witching this one is about like vampires the more particularly if all character named Marion who decides to become a blood maid and what that means is she gets shipped off to this really fancy mansion where she lives with vampires and she is just kind of you know their blood bank if you will and then she starts noticing that other blood maidens are starting to go missing so we have kind of a murder mystery Gothic Vibe going on which is perfect for Halloween so very excited to read that malice house by I forgot the author's name but this is an adult mystery thriller also like kind of horror if you will this one all I know it's about a character that father passes away that was a famous author and she kind of goes to clean out his house and he she finds this manuscript that he wrote that's kind of Darker and then people want it or something and also the house may be kind of haunted that's all I know I do have a couple backup books planned in case I'm not feeling in these books because sometimes that happens and I am a mood reader I don't want to hold myself accountable to any of these books they can all change of the subject's notice but this um this week is I think today is the hottest day 81. then in a cup days it drops down to like 75 and 70 which is oh just Peak weather I think it's even supposed to rain a couple days so it'll be the perfect time to read these so um it's still not quite October I still want to start this Vlog because I wanted to so we're just gonna do it what book I'll start off with I have no clue we're winging it okay we're truly winging it so let's wing it together and let's have some fun I wanted to share with you um some stickers I've recently got so if you don't know I'm big into planning I'm well not big like you know I don't do like a weekly spread but I love um getting my planner at the end of every year and putting stickers in it and you know kind of decorating it I didn't do a video last year but I'm doing one this year um and with that I've ordered a lot of stickers ordered some from my dear friend Amy she just opened up like a sticker stationery shop called happy Olive Studio which is just amazing um I've known Amy for a few years here on YouTube and um bookstagram so I place an order for some stickers and she sent me a whole bunch of extra goodies which she did not need to do but I thought I would share with you with them because they are all so sticking cute so if you like stickers highly recommend checking out her shop um first up are these really cute little ghosts that have um that have like sparkles on them super cute for Halloween also some pumpkins with the same type of effect with the glitter on them this might be my favorite if it's a candle that says oh it's a sweater weather will I get it to focus I don't know right that's what it's like um we also have just some regular pumpkins with smiley faces on them that are super cute also this one it's really cute it's glittery as well and it says witch juice on it I also love this one this one might be my favorite I just need it's like a cat and a ghost in a graveyard and it says cozy day and it's like a Polaroid it is super freaking cute then we have like a piece of pie which is adorable I can already see this going in the month of November and this one which is great because it's me lately coffee books and True Crime time I don't know who I am anymore but this is me this is another really cute one it says Dead Tired which is my life that's probably why she sent it to me she gets me and then we have a really small one that's a ghost with totally like a frappuccino it's stinking adorable then we have some really small ones so I'll try to do my best with focusing this is basically a stack of Stephen King books with them all on the spine I want to see these are Boba teas I don't know I've never had Boba before in my life but either way they're super cute then we have a carrot with a cat it's like they're all so cute oh I have another little small bubble one too and then the last sticker set it's called the brunch club which is super cute it's got a bunch of brunch so she probably sent it to me because of Leslie Knope she loves um if you don't know she's from Parks and Rec loves breakfast as do I and then she also sent me two of her bookmarks I believe these are brand new to her shop and they are super cute these are pumpkins or squash I think they're pumpkins but I need some bookmarks actually surprise surprise I don't have a lot so I'm gonna use this today and then I have this one that's like a moon and stars on it and it's just adorable and then I don't want to see and then she also has some notepads which I believe are new to her um store um this is has the Boba or maybe it's a frappuccino I could be 100 raw but either way it's super cute it's got Moons and stars on it and then this one has like paint and stuff like that those are the stickers she sent me I'll leave the link to her shop down below highly recommend you check her out because it's always great supporting small businesses I especially try to do that with stickers and stuff in fact let me show you the other shirt because I bought I was actually trying to organize my stickers before this is my new planner it's a happy planner I get one every single year but I have organized my stickers that's right I got a whole bag of them um let's see of what are some that I've bought this year I did buy a whole bunch of fall stickers on Amazon because it was pretty true but for the stickers I'm focusing on like at the opening of my planners if you don't know it's what I do I did order a lot from Etsy for small shops a couple Bible verse ones this one's my all-time favorite Bible verse your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path by this is Psalms 119. it's my favorite Bible verse of all time I won the sticker of it it's really cute and then I have this one I ordered as I lift my eyes to the hill we're doing my where does my help come from my help comes from the Lord who made the Heaven and the Earth and that Psalms 121. I'm a big fan of Psalms and then I was big into re-watching Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit like a few weeks ago like I rewatched all of them so I really wanted to get a hobbit hole sticker so that's what I got it it says in a hole in the ground they're live to hop it and this is the most adorable sticker ever so I got all of those from small Etsy shops in fact I'm actually waiting on a couple more but I have like so many stickers I even bought some from like happy planner I bought like a fall Harvest one which is just super cute this one has like a whole bunch of fall stuff in it because that's like my fave hit season if you don't know you probably do even has some Halloween ones in there um but it's just adorable and then I got some because they were on super clearance this is teacher florals it's just got a bunch of florals in it I'm digging to that this year and this one's seasons of color it's some kind of floral ones again um I think these were on clearance I think and then I bought um a Christmas one I believe this one was on clearance from last year um and then I bought this one I always buy one something like this it's a holiday um planner sticker it's got like all the different holidays and then you know that's about it for stickers I have I also have some bookish ones I bought on Amazon that I'm gonna use so I'm going to start probably filming my um planner like put together here in the next couple weeks but I'm very excited for it because I love decorating my planner because it's just it's a it's a thing I do it relaxes me I put on a show and I just have a good time with it to show you this is my brand new planner see how things I haven't added anything to my planner for this year it's got a lot of stuff in it I'll show you like how I have decorated it usually what I do is with the Etsy stickers I showed you I put on my end page as you can see this is kind of how it is what I think of the year so I was really being in a Seinfeld last year so I got a Seinfeld sticker I had some bookish ones I had some Gilmore Girls I got this one it says take me back to 1990s because hello uh and yeah and then I kind of just decorate it for every single month let's go to September like I always kind of personalize it to books I've read videos I want to do and then I just really you know then I go for it it's not like crazily sticker fied I mean sometimes there it is sometimes it's not but I enjoy decorating okay it's just the thing I like to do I love about this planner it's got the dashboard layout which is a weekly thing so I always write my dinners here I write down what I need to do I write book videos when I do like book photos I need to take video ideas all that kind of stuff so that's how I do my planner thank you thank you hello it's Thursday I finally finished a book I I don't even know if I told you I started out with malice house by Megan Shepard and it was a huge disappointment it took me a long time to read it um I oh it really pains me to say this because I think I did a video somewhat recently of like five star predictions and I believe that was on it I have a very high hopes for this book and it just was not not good I mean I'm not uh I looked at the reviews on Goodreads and I could see why it doesn't have the best reviews so let me tell you what it's about before I tell you I didn't like it this book we have a character named Haven Haven goes back to her um like father's house called malice house where um he died he was older he had dementia and so she has to kind of sort his Affairs and things like that he was a famous author like he won a Pulitzer Prize he won like a man Booker prize like he his work was revered people loved him and with that she when she's going through is how she finds this old kind of manuscript that he wrote and Haven is not doing well financially so she's like hey maybe I could sell this and it's like a story it's a book of short stories of like it's called a book for Monsters or bedtime stories for Monsters and they're all kind of short stories about monsters and creepy things and Haven is an aspiring illustrator she thinks hey I can illustrate these um stories and you know kind of do a package deal and try to get somebody to publish this and so she reaches out to some of her dad's friends who knows publishing and people start getting really obsessed with the manuscript also while that she's thinking maybe Mal's house is haunted because in her father's like last days he was saying that the house was haunted but people were thinking it was just as dementia and that's what the whole book is kind of about it sounds intriguing doesn't it but it fell flat there was a few reasons for that for me um I believe this book is almost 400 Pages it did not need to be that long it drug on and on it could have easily been 50 to 75 Pages less honestly and I would have been fine with it also with it dragging on the first half is extremely slow like so slow that I feel like it's kind of putting me in a slump um so uh and then the second half got really interesting but I think I was so bored from the first half oh thank you I did not care about the second half it was really intriguing I will say how everything came to fruition I enjoyed that but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the first half would have been good also Haven is a character not that great there I said it there's another plot that I was like that's kind of stupid I don't know it just wasn't that great I think it could have been the writing was really good I think my favorite part of this whole book was the Snippets of all the short stories her dad wrote at the beginning of each chapter I would have read the whole bedtime stories for Monsters honestly and really enjoyed it but sadly I'm gonna give this three out of five did not really enjoy it that's yeah that's it I'm very disappointed in this because I had really high heels for this one but you end and some you lose some so like I said I'm kind of in a funk now like I'm not feeling any particular books so what I'm planning to do is I'm going to read the first couple chapters of three different books and see which one I'm feeling and go with that we're preparing for Hurricane Ian if you don't know hurricane Ian hit Florida um literally yesterday and it really has done a lot of really bad things and it's going to continue to do bad things in like Georgia South Carolina and things like that I live in Southern Virginia so we're not gonna get hit a lot at all thankfully um we're just gonna get a ton like a ton of rain like Friday Saturday and Sunday I'll use this kind of weather we're just preparing for it's gonna suck that it's gonna be raining for like four days straight but that's okay I just hope everyone in Florida stays safe I have a few friends in Florida and they are all okay thankfully because it really hit Florida hard um I think it's like category four or was it category five on it oh it's a big big hurricane either way that's my update for now not the best first book to start off with this Vlog but hopefully it will go up from here hello it's Friday I look like crap but you know what it is what it is it's raining today it's yucky yeah um I want to update you on the book I picked I totally picked a book that I didn't even mention to you guys because when I was trying to figure out well I was like let me start reading these chapters and I looked at my Kindle and I organized Now by my like month releases I know that sounds really crazy it's just how my brain works but I looked in November and I realized oh yeah CJ Tudor has a short story collection coming out in November if you don't know she's like a mystery writer I've written one of her books called the chalkman have I read another one of hers I don't know but either way I was like oh short stories that would be a perfect book for me right now since Mal's house kind of put me in a slump so I've already read the first three short stories in it and I'm enjoying them I would say the third one's been my favorite sure and I like this book because before each short story she sells like a before each short story she tells like a story of the inspiration behind the short story like for example the second one I read she was thinking like years ago that this could have been like a why a middle grade kind of scary book but then she was like no I think I want to rework into a short story and then she'll the third one it was kind of a very steaming king-esque short story which I really liked um it was like like in a jazz club was murder it was interesting but I'm really liking it so far and I think I picked the right book because they're short and quick um I don't have to put too much investment in it it's rainy I plan to when this little one goes down for a nap to watch my best friend's exorcism I'm so excited it came out today I'm so excited to watch it I hope to really enjoy it and I know you're probably thinking for the date of this you're gonna watch Hocus Pocus too right wrong oh um I'm sure if you know everyone loves Hocus Pocus I'm a 90s kid so of course I do um plans with my friends this weekend to watch it I have two best friends we love Hocus Pocus we went to like a drive-in to see it one time um and we have plans to watch it together but unfortunately one of the friend one of them has to work this weekend so we cannot get together this weekend so I'm thinking we're supposed to get together one night next week next week to watch it so we're all waiting to watch it none of us are allowed to watch it until we all so we can watch it together so that's why I'm not gonna watch it for this maybe I'll watch the first one but we might do a double feature I don't know my plans for today is to read the short story to watch My Vest at Fred's exorcism and to try to do all that before I pick up my son from school and then we'll see how the day progresses we also have poor cake in here she loves being outside especially like in the cool crisp weather which is really ironic because she's from Turks and Caicos like she was born there but she loves like fall and spring those are her months but she said she has to be inside today because it's raining I'm so sorry foreign foreign foreign foreign vlogger award again goes to me um I did a vlog for Saturday or Sunday mainly because Saturdays we were picking we were spending the whole day pretty much picking up the yard um I'm sure you've heard if you've lived in the um the South um East at all um that hurricane Ian came through and hit Florida the most our damage was nothing really we just have a lot of pine trees in our backyard so we had a lot of Limbs a lot of pine cones a few big branches fell but nowhere nearly that bad we just had to pick up a lot like I know a lot of people in Florida have lost their homes lost their lives so our damage is literally nothing um so but anyway if you spent Saturday doing that and then Sunday as you saw we went to the pumpkin patch and the corn maze and we spent time with my husband's family which was really fun and both the kids did really good so that is a very successful outing and yeah I have oh reading guys I'm I'm in a slump I'm just gonna have to say it like it takes me a while to admit when I'm in a slump but when I admit it last time I talked to you I was reading sliver of darkness by CJ Tudor I have since finished it um that has a whole bunch of short stories in it I had 11 short stories in it I liked a few of them but overall it was kind of just okay I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it unless you really are a big Avid fan of like kind of mysteries or horror short stories none of them really like scared me a ton but I would say my favorites of the bunch or runaway blues that was the one that's most Stephen king-esque that she said um but I enjoyed it um I also really enjoyed Gloria that was very interesting my other favorite was Final course those three really stood out to me the rest were just kind of mediocre so I don't know if you're a big fan of CJ tutor I check it out if not maybe Let It Go um yeah I just I think my again my plans for this reading along just kind of went off I really think malice house did a number on me reading-wise like I just am kind of of not feeling reading right now that happens to me every now and then I feel like I have a few Spurt of like good most reading and then there's a month that's just like kind of I don't know maybe I'm kind of getting over the atmospheric wreath and I need to read romance I right now I am in the middle of two books I'm hoping to finish one of them today and both of them were books I did not say I was gonna read in this Vlog that's what happens when you're a mood reader and you're in a little bit of a slump the first book that I'm in the middle of right now is killers of a certain age by Deanna Rayborn and I'm actually really enjoying it and this is basically about a bunch of 60 year olds it's um for 60 year old females that were part of like this assassination Squad like they were hired killers and they were really good at their job but now they're all retiring and so they go on this cruise that their job is holding for them and then they realize that somebody's out there to kill them so they have to escape and things like that you also get Snippets of back when they were recruited for this when they were in their young 20s and it's just very interesting I really enjoy it I also feel like when they're talking about 60s they feel like they're so old and my mom's gonna be 60 here in a couple years and I'm like she's still relatively young like I don't 60 is not that old maybe I say that because I'm getting older and I'm like I don't know I'm actually really enjoying it that's the one book I'm planning to finish today I hopefully I'm like 40 of the way in um but I really like it like I'm surprised by how much I like I think that's why I'm reading it slowly because I'm enjoying it so much it's kind of like a like action movie where people have to kind of go undercover and like figure out who's after them and things like that it's really a spy-esque I like it a lot and the other one I am a little bit into is no exit by Taylor Adams this is one of my 22 books I want to read in 20 2022 um this had a blue adaptation as well I don't know if I'll watch it or not but either way I'm on page 108 it's okay Taylor Adams I've noticed this is my second book by him has a tendency to write Thrillers that take place like all in one night like within 24 hours and I'm not the biggest fan of those I feel like I'm like I just I don't know I like them kind of spread out more but I'm enjoying it so far I have a feeling it's gonna go one way but we'll have to see if you don't know what this book is about it's basically like it's set in winter time we follow character I don't even know her name uh um Darby and she's on the way home to go see her dying mom and she gets kind of stuck at this rest stop um because it's snowing so bad like the interstate's closed and she's there with four other people and so when she goes outside to like maybe see if she has a signal she notices there's a work van and she knows there's a young girl that's like maybe age nine that's um in the work van trapped in an animal crate and she's like somebody here is kidnap this child so she's trying to figure it out and it's it's kind of disturbing I'm surprised I'm reading it because I don't do really well with like child stuff because my half child I have kids but either way I don't know if I'll finish that today hopefully tomorrow but um that's my plan tonight actually I'm going to my best friend's house because we're finally watching Hocus Pocus together the new one we've been waiting for each other to watch it so I'm hoping just to have a good time and hang out with them and have you know a spooky Hocus Pocus time but that's my update for now not a lot of reading has been happening the slump has commenced I'm okay with it it's gonna be what it is foreign hello it's Tuesday and I'm here to finally wrap up this Vlog one day I'll have a vlog and I'll feel accomplished with it but today is not that day and this Vlog is not that Vlog so I told you I was really gonna try to finish a book I didn't I didn't read barely anything I think I'm still like 42 percent of the way into killers of a certain age by Deanna reborn and I'm really enjoying it I really am I'm just not in the mood to read right now I really do think I'm in a slump I'm kind of in that funk right now where I just don't feel like reading and I'm just gonna have to roll with it honestly so I think keeping vlogging until I finish them is kind of like just not as pointless honestly so I'm just gonna wrap it up I will have a successful Vlog one day I really wish that this one was gonna be the one but you you live when you win some and you lose some that's all I have to save either way I think it was a good week for me overall like I took my kids a pumpkin patch I watched um my best friend's exorcism which was okay I watched the new Hocus Pocus which I thought was pretty fun honestly with my friends so it was overall good a good week for the most part just reading wise no but it happened it happens needless to say thank you guys so much for watching I will have another reading Vlog next month you guys in my next Vlog hopefully hopefully better\n"