**Author's Take on the Goodreads Choice Awards**

As I sat down to evaluate my predictions for the Goodreads Choice Awards, I couldn't help but feel a sense of nervousness and excitement. Who was I to predict the winners, after all? And yet, despite my trepidation, I decided to share my thoughts with you, dear readers.

I must say, I'm pretty pleased with how I did. My top 10 predictions were remarkably accurate, with only one book that didn't make it onto the list surprising me - Meet Me at the Lake, which didn't quite crack the top 10. However, two books that did make it onto the list - Final Offer and King of Pride - are ones that I had hoped to see represented, and I'm thrilled to see them included.

But what's most important to me is not just predicting winners, but sharing my love for romance with all of you. As an author who has spent years honing her craft, I've come to realize that there are so many amazing books out there that deserve your attention. My top 10 list is a curated selection of those books - the ones that flew under the radar this year, but are truly deserving of love.

Take The Seven-Year Slip, for example. This book has been on my radar for quite some time now, and I'm so glad to see it included in the real top 10. It's not a book that I would have organically picked up on my own, but after reading it, I can confidently say that it's one that deserves your attention. And then there's You Again by Kate Goldblatt - a book that I'm passionate about and think you'll love if you enjoy Emily Henry and Sally Rooney.

Of course, not all of the books on my list are for everyone. But what I do hope is that you'll take a chance on some of them, even if they don't resonate with you. And to those authors who didn't make it onto the list - don't be discouraged! There are plenty of other amazing romances out there waiting to be discovered.

**Diversity in the List**

As I looked at the real top 10 list, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment. Despite my best efforts to represent diversity and inclusion on my own list, the reality is that it still falls short in many ways. There are no queer romances represented on this year's list, which is deeply frustrating for me. And while there are a few authors of color featured, it feels like we're still not seeing enough representation overall.

That's why I was excited to see Amazon's own top 20 romance list - and what a difference that makes! The diversity and inclusivity on this list are truly inspiring, and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to highlight some of these amazing books in a future video. For now, though, I hope you'll join me in celebrating the romances that did make it onto the Goodreads list - even if they don't entirely align with my own vision for what's possible.

**Conclusion**

As I wrap up this article, I want to leave you with a sense of gratitude and enthusiasm. Thank you for joining me on this journey through the Goodreads Choice Awards - I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! And if you have any thoughts or opinions on the list itself, please don't hesitate to share them in the comments below. Let's keep the conversation going!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello welcome back to my channel in today's video I'm going to be reading and ranking the 2023 nominees for the Goodreads Choice Awards in the category of romance this is my fifth year making this video and this is my favorite video that I make every single year I'm going to Vlog my reactions to the books that I haven't read before the Goodreads Choice Awards and I am going to sit here and tell you about all of the books that I have read prior to the Goodreads Choice Awards at the end of the video I will tell you my predictions for what I believe the top 10 of those top 20 are going to be and also what I believe the winner of the good re choice for will be so without further Ado let's get into it let us read and react to the nominees for the 2023 good re Choice Awards honestly there's just nothing like starting another good reads Choice Awards reading Vlog section it feels good I wish I had better news and better books to bring you but T life and T this this video series right this is just happens every year so I'm 50% into king of Pride by anong and this is definitely not as bad as the book that I vlogged first last year but that's not saying much this book is about Isabella and Kai and we learn about them in the first book in the series they are like Side characters and now they're having their own romance yay Kai is a buttoned up English businessman I guess is going to become CEO of his mom's company she's like stepping down early he was supposed to get it when he was like 40 he's only 32 what's going on and then we also have Isabella who is like she's just vibing you know what I mean like she's writing her own erotic Thriller which I don't know what the that means but she she was an aspiring author and her family's like girl you really need to get a better job besides bartending and like writing on the side but she doesn't listen cuz you know all your dreams or whatever it's not bad the writing is definitely good you can tell that editor is involved which I like which is no shade to an Wang's first book that she wrote and that I read it was not a bad book but this is just clearly more polished that being said I kind of miss the sort of like unhinged fanfictiony Vibes of Twisted love I feel like this book is just kind of lacking in the flavor Department it's not bad it's just kind of boring and I don't know which is worse gotten to the point where the two characters are hooking up where Kai is like I'm not actually buttoned up I'm really your type you know he can't stand the fact that she's like dancing with another guy at a club and so he's like come home with me I'll show you how Lous I can be and he does I guess I don't know it wasn't as like 0 to 60 again as like some of the books in that first series she wrote I just remember like reading some of those books and being like wow okay cute fan fakey moments and then like taste my member baby girl like more aggressive I don't know I don't really know I'm not doing a good job at describing what I didn't like about those ones but this it feels like a natural progression of the relationship blah blah blah like I'm not really seeing it feel like Beyond a shared love of piano I'm not really understanding their connection I kind of feel that way about a lot of billionaire romances a full disclosure billionaire romances are not my favorite I think my my problem maybe with them is that often times you have these incredibly young and Incredibly high-powered dudes who fall for women who I don't want to say are stupid but they just don't seem to have anything in common with them right like we like to think that opposite track Fish Out of Water romances kind of work I feel like if you are someone who is highly educated someone who is around the same kind of people every day and like your friends are all kind of same Vibe like why would you look for a sexual or like romantic partner that's completely different than that I mean I guess the novelty of it but like I just don't see how these really work out long term unless you guys have very shared interests and like compliment each other I don't think that happens very often in billionaire romances like I'm thinking of the classic 50 Shades right I'm sorry but like Anna and Christian like what the did they have in common besides like a like of kinky sex she didn't even like kinky sex that much I was kind of like it about this it's not it's not bad it's palatable like I'm very bored at this 50% Mark I'm like I have to read another 200 pages of this okay cool cool cool so um you know a time I'm not going to ramble anymore I'll get back to you when I'm done with this all right king of Pride finished it I thought this was a book A book that I read a book that I was incredibly bored and disappointed by I really love inong I really like her writing and I was really excited because I think this book is better edited than a lot of her books okay but unfortunately was just lacking the heart that I have come to expect from her books I feel like I believe in her romances even if the surrounding things tend to be a little crazy and in this book there actually wasn't any craziness but there also wasn't any romance to really read root for I didn't understand ultimately why this billionaire wanted to be with this heroin who works at this club and doesn't seem to have much in common with him maybe I'm not very romantic and not loving a opposite of track sort of romance but I don't know I wasn't convinced I thought the third act conflict was boring as I don't know I just this wasn't for me okay it wasn't terrible but it wasn't for me and there's no wor really to rank this book yet cuz it's the first book I'm reading for this video sort of so there she blows love convoluted by Ellie Hazelwood is a story about Elsie theoretical physicist adjunct professor just trying to make ends me and serial fake dating extraordinaire Elsie is fake dating a guy named Greg for money initially she like starts fake dating people on this fake dating app who need like one off dates to events and she kind of goes off script goes off of the app whenever she meets Greg because he seems like a really nice genuine guy who she wants to help out he wants to look nice and important in front of his family but unfortunately his brother Jack is kind of on to him and kind of thinks there's more to Elsie than meets the eye and that she might be lying about who she is unfortunately his fears and suspicions are confirmed whenever he meets Elsie when she is uh interviewing for a position at the school that he teaches at he is a professor of experimental physics I believe and she is of course a theoretical physicist and this causes a bunch of Mayhem because apparently theoretical physicists and experimental physicists don't get along and specifically back wrote a scathing article way back in the day about how theoretical physicists are basically bunk and you shouldn't believe them and nothing they say is true but the more that Jack and Elsie get to know each other the more that he starts kind of loosening up and she starts breaking down his walls and none of the plot none of the confusing ass plot that I just told you matters at all mean I guess it does in that it is the plot of the book I think the confusing ass synopsis of this book really does a disservice to what I consider to be Ali hazelwood's most grounded romance to date this book is deeply romantic and despite some miscommunication that happens at the beginning obviously uh the communication that develops between Jack and Elsie I think is really sweet deeply romantic super snw worthy and I actually found myself crying at one point in this book which I didn't ever expect to do for an author who typically specializes in row fanfiction uh but she got me Hook Line and Sinker four stars placing this one ahead of king of Pride obviously number three hello dumbass by Katherine Center this is a book about girl Liam sad who feeds her dog Chinese food instead of kibble and because of a head injury is now face blind which puts stie in a proverbial pickle because she's a portrait artist trying to prove to her family that she has What It Takes by entering this prestigious art competition but it wouldn't be a romance without some euphemistic pickle and stie our face bind manic pixie dream girl is torn between a rock and a dick place the hot vet who helps her take care of her poorly taken care of dog the guy that lives in her apartment building who's like kind of a misogynist but like not really and if you put your thinking cap on you might be thinking to yourself or might be more to the SL triangle that meets the eye part of that though is how much of this book was a disappointment to me okay I loved The Bodyguard last year it was one of my favorite romances it was very silly but ultimately very Charming this book the heroin was grading the hero was decent but the surrounding elements of the story really made it hard for me to enjoy I wanted to root for S and see her overcome her face blindness to be able to paint a really interesting and um inventive portrait that doesn't really happen her her job stuff kind of Falls by the wayside even though that's like the majority of what this book is supposed to be about the majority of the book is really spent with sa being gaslit by her family this one could be hard to pick where to put but honestly boring is going to be out annoying any day of the week so this is going to the back of the line all right y'all I did not give you a 50% update on this book but I finished Wildfire by Miss Hannah Grace and I actually really enjoyed this I have to say I wasn't really expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did I feel like for a lot of the book I was kind of sitting at that like kind of middle of the road like two or three star but as the book continued I felt like this book really showed me that it was like three and a half four star material and that Hannah Grace's writing is improving over time Icebreaker I believe was her debut novel and it kind of went viral so many people loved that one and I liked it but I didn't really understand the hype after reading it but this book I feel like I do understand the hype for it it's about our two main characters who I've promptly forgotten the names of uh but there's hero there's a heroin oh the hero's name is Russ Russ I do know that he and the heroine hook up at a party and and she's like kind of forward which I really with heavily he's a little bit more shy and a little more reserved and so he's a little awkward after the exchange takes place after they like hook up but they both have a really good time and I think the heroin wants it to happen again I don't know about the hero but regardless they end up kind of running into each other again at this summer camp that they are working at over the summer and I just really have to commend Hannah Grace and authors who do stuff like this for including so much outside of the Romantic relationship in a romance novel I think that often authors can kind of put everything to the Wayside when they're writing a romance because they know that the romance plot line is the most important and while that's true I think so much shapes our perception of love and romance and to not include that in like a new Adult Book would be a big big big mistake and Hannah Grace doesn't make that mistake we have a hero who has a dad who's got a gambling problem who lets his son down multiple times and that really colors how he interacts with people in the world and his confidence in himself we also have a heroine who also kind of has daddy issues she proclaims that she has daddy issues I'm not putting that on her and she works through that over the course of the story is able to advocate for herself and also come to terms with the fact that sometimes your parents are just not the people that you want them to be and sometimes they are just shitty people and I really like that lesson I guess for both of them and how they kind of deal with their family problems you also have this like wide cast of Side characters that I think makes the book feel more realistic if it times a little bit like much my only real complaint with this one to be honest is that it is too long I think Hannah Grace books tend to be a little bit bloated I think had we cut back on some of the side characters and just tightened up the plot just a little bit this would have been like slam dunk for me I really really liked this one and again I can see so much improvement from that first book it felt a little bit more coherent and I just thought this was a really good time didn't expect to enjoy this one to be honest and if I did I I expected it to be kind of more of a three star middle of the road read but as it stands I think I'm going to put this one right after love theoretically and before king of Pride I feel like that makes total sense given what I thought about this book but I had such a good time with this one and I think if you are looking for a good college like new adult romance I think this one is definitely one to add to your list all right number five meet me at the girin is about our main character Fern who sleeps with the dude that she just met many many years ago in the past right but obviously this guy's coming back into her life and he is going to help her figure things out or she's going to help him figure things out cuz he helped her many years ago or some like that basically he's going to have to team up with her to save her mom's delightful Lakeside Resort that she for some reason hates cuz she's a whole lot of fun and not a brat at all all right if I'm being so for real I read this book like 6 months ago I don't really remember much about it other than that it is another book about a girl by a lake who was irritating weirdly I disliked this one less on hello stranger though this was like so forgettable so amorphous so boring um that I'm putting it between king of Pride and hello stranger on the one hand in the likely event by Rebecca yaros has really convincing chemistry I definitely feel the sort of like palpable relationship between Izzy and her military man boyfriend that being said I don't like these sorts of romances and I feel like I've never articulated that or if I have I don't remember articulating that but I'm personally not a fan of cop romances military romances just men in uniform that's just not my thing and I respect that it is other people's thing it is just really not mine I also think that the way that certain topics are handled in this book is not my favorite granted I'm only 50% in but I can't argue with the white savior arguments that are being made in the Goodreads reviews for this book essentially the heroine gets into a plane crash with a man at the very beginning of this book he is in the military he saves her from this plane crash I mean he saves a bunch of people from this plane crash because he's a quick thinker and like super strong muscle man or whatever and then in the present day they are sort of like reconnecting I suppose and she is engaged to another man and he is upset about this and he is like protecting her in a war torn country I think it's Afghanistan and is making sure that she is not killed I guess while she's there I think she's a US senator or something like that uh she is on a mission to save her sister who is a journalist I I'm just not into this sort of thing and I feel like I struggle with books like this for a number of reasons but I think the biggest one is that I feel like I should have some level of objectivity when I'm doing videos like this right like I am reviewing the Goodreads books of the year and like maybe this is the only good reads romance video you're going to watch like I don't want to um say that this book is terrible but I am also human with emotions and feelings and I just don't really I don't like this kind of thing and that sucks again because I actually think that the romance is solid I actually kind of like the romance but I just can't anticipate like reading this highly I just can't it is what it is it is what it is is I'm going to finish the book it's like one of those things where I'm like do I even read this can I just put this at the end the end of my list like I don't think this is going to win and I don't like it I think that's it I think that's it for now hello I'm back let's talk about my final thoughts on in the likely event I don't have thoughts I just know that I this isn't for me you know and I I think I expressed that pretty vly in the last clip but I just don't really like the setting of the story I don't really like the relationship Dynamic I don't really like the white saviorism I ju this is just not for me you know and I know a lot of people love this and you know I've mentioned that I was reading this book and a lot of people replied wow this is the best book I've read all year and I'm like okay good for you I'm happy for you I'm glad that this book exists I'm glad that books exist for people you know what I mean even if they're certainly not for me so here's the thing I don't want to rate this book because there were elements of the book that I liked but it's just never going to be for me ever ever ever that leaves me in kind of a weird place but like here's the thing if it's not for me I don't need to rate it and I can just put it at the end of the line number seven things we hide from the light definitely doesn't sound like how I would refer to someone's butthole it's definitely a book about a detective who has come to town to investigate a crime that happened in the first book in this series and her love affair I guess with the chief of police who is dealing with PTSD after some of the that's happened to him uh he is no longer the Charming guy that we got to know in the first book he's going to be an just like his brother from the first book here's the deal I don't like romantic suspense being shot at or fearing for my life doesn't really add to the sex appeal of a romance though I am apparently the only person on the planet who feels this way because it seems like everybody and their mother loves this series and you know what more power to you I just personally feel like the books are too long I don't love the relationship development I don't like how Lucy score really likes to use the word milk in her sex scenes all of that being said this is a little bit better than the first book in the series but again kind of put me to sleep so snoozeville but not totally irritating so between hello stranger and meet me at the lake hello from me and this one hair um I'm 50% into the seven-year slip I Ashley poson Poston not sure how she says it but I can't tell you a knows how to write a book or at least she knows how to write a book this year I think this is the second year that one of her books has made it on the good read Choice word nominee list I didn't love the dead Romantics which was her first book I believe this however I am enjoying surprisingly I didn't want to pick this one up I wouldn't have picked this up on my own but I purchased this a few months ago cuz I was like you know what I think this is going to make it on to the good reads Choice Awards and guess what she was right folks this book by- main character Clementine which don't love I think we could come up with a better name for a main character that doesn't feel so quirky but Clementine is dealing with the death of her aunt analie spelled anal Le she's she's sad she's not having a great time and her aunt has left her at this apartment that is supposedly magical and in this apartment it can time travel or it can be a place of time travel for 7 years so like 7 years in the past or 7even years in the future and our heroine discovers that this random man is in her apartment and he is from 7 years in the past and she does not communicate this information to him but she instead like engages in a semi romantic roommates sort of situation with him for a few days until he disappears mysteriously and like the apartment no longer time travels I guess outside of the apartment she is dealing with a lot of stuff in her professional life she is potentially going to get a really big promotion but to kind of bag this promotion and to kind of like prove that she is as good as she has been as a publicist she's supposed to land this really prestigious chef and he is going to ready cookbook for them because I guess the publisher that she works for does like travel guides and cookbooks mostly so anyway she's supposed to get this guy land him and it's like a time travel romance kind of I think the writing of this is really fantastic I didn't expect to like this premise because I don't really like when the whole premise or Crux of a romance is based on something that just logically cannot be overcome and I know that that's silly because a lot of my most favorite romance tropes are ones where like things are forbidden and I guess this isn't that far off but you're telling me this man only knew her s years ago and like does he actually know who she is in present day is this like a fake scenario I don't know it's it's sort of confusing the rules of the world or like not even confusing but we just haven't really figured out exactly what this means like yes she knew this guy s years ago or like seven years in the past does he know her I don't know I don't know how the rules of this are going to shake out but the writing is just so Charming I love the kind of instant chemistry I felt between Clementine and Yuan I believe is his name he is this like auburn-haired Chef who has a real passion for cooking and making food for others and just like he just has a real zest for life which I think is really Charming I have no idea how this romance is going to shake out I am very curious to see if there are more flashback scenes or if that's like all we're getting I'm assuming there's going to be more but generally speaking I'm having a good time with this I think the expiration of grief is is nice and not overdone I mean everybody's definition of overdone is going to be different I'm fine with hard topics being handled in Romance but I don't really like when the romance is overshadowed by kind of like really really hard-hitting topics like that and I felt that way about the dead Romantics this is uh a little bit more bearable because it's not like that and also I believe the hero and this isn't dead which I think is the case in that one I can't remember I don't really care this one however I'm liking and actually I think this will probably be one of my more favorite books that I'm reading for the Vlog portion of this video I could see this like being a four or five star read I don't know stranger things have definitely happened I guess like time traveling 7even years for some good dick okay bye basic alert this was so good I am sort of to lost for words about this book it was kind of perfect in every way it was deeply romantic the writing was Snappy it handles hard-headed topics without overtaking the main plot line the banter between hero and heroine is just spoton and perfect and it's just deeply romantic like this book is perfect and I am shocked I would not have wanted to pick this up I didn't want to pick this up after reading the dead Romantics that book was not bad bad but it was not great it was not something that I personally connected with however this is really really great and the sort of like weird premise is something that I am willing to overlook I didn't expect this to be one of the tops of this video and yet here we are with the five star read I'm not mad at it I'm the opposite of mad at it actually this might make it onto my best romances of the year list I think if you are looking for something that really checks all the boxes sweet sexy Charming romantic this is it this is it for you you're not going to get indepth corn shucking good times but there I mean there is sex in this book so I mean if you're upset at that like I don't know get over it this book was really good and and you might be asking yourself Chandler okay like where is this ranking the tippy top number nine practice definitely makes perfect when your most recent date calls you a boar and you enlist the help of a really hot bodyguard to teach you how to date and how to catch the attention of men this book is about Annie who is a flower shop owner and a really nice girl and will who is the bodygard of a pop star that we meet in the first book in the series this book is a quaint small town romance with a lot of spoony moments and tons of really great relationship development it might not be the most exciting book on this list but sometimes you just want something that's solid dependable and sweet and this book delivers so I personally give it four stars since there's three fourstar reads at this point it does make it kind of hard to decide where to put this one because it was normal length I'm going to put it between love theoretically and Wildfire the problem with romantic comedy by Curtis senfeld is that it is neither romantic nor comedy in these first 50 pages and because of time constrains and because I just don't want to I'm not going to finish this book I gave it the old College try as the kids say I got again 50 pages in and I am just failing to see what's funny about this or romantic so the story follows our main character Sally who is a sketch writer for basically SNL this book's version of SNL and we follow her as she writes sketches for this show for a guy named Noah Okay and like her main premise I suppose for one of her sketches that he basically out and out denies that he would do that this is the only sketch that he says absolutely I don't want to do this is a sketch where he basically dates someone who is below him aesthetically so basically like another sketch writer I guess he's not a sketch writer he is a musician who's coming on to the show as a guest host anyway he is going to I guess date someone in the sketch and it's going to be like illegal right because there's no way that a really handsome and well-to-do man would date someone his age and someone who is less attractive than him which is kind of the reverse of what normally happens where a lot of successful beautiful smart and intelligent women date these kind of like Bland unattractive men that write for the show it's just a trend that Sally has noticed and so she pitches the sketch to Noah and Noah's like isn't the joke not really on me then isn't that joke on other people that doesn't really seem fair and uh he basically dismisses it but in the scene that I just read she is helping him with his sketch that he came up with and like you know workshopping it to be something that could actually be on the show and I think we're supposed to be Charmed and be like oh my God Sally and Noah forever the writing of this is so dry and not funny for a book that is set in an SNL type setting it's not funny and for those of you that don't like SNL maybe that's no surprise to you but I am just so not laughing thing at this and I feel like this is so contrasted with seven-year slip which I just finished and that book was not necessarily pitched as a romcom but there are so many funny moments in that book The Writing just feels smooth it flows it's got this like Charming romantic Bend to it and this book is not like that book this book is not trying to be like that book so I'm not necessarily comparing you know everything but that book was effortlessly funny this book is trying very hard to be funny and is not succeeding at it and I also just don't know that I love the premise or the character like Sally wow um she has no flavor she is kind of and cynical and doesn't really have anything going for her in my humble opinion Noah seems pretty boring too so I feel pretty confident in dnfing this I would say and here's the thing I'm not I haven't finished this book I would bet that this is not a true romance and if there is a romantic plot line in it that's cool and all but it was never going to be for me so dnfing going to add it to just the back of the list and with the like unranked stuff yeah no number 11 Yours Truly by Abby JZ just goes to show that when a hero truly hates himself things happen this book is about our badass doctor Brianna Ortiz who is trying to gain a promotion at work believe she is just a regular doctor and she's trying to become like chief of surgery or something like that but unfortunately a man is hired to work at the hospital alongside her and is the guy that's chosen for the promotion instead and she also has kind of a runin with him at the beginning of the book where she immediately just kind of clocks him as an doesn't really understand who he is as a person like doesn't care to get to know him he being the sweet guy that he actually is writes Brian a letter I guess apologizes for what happened kind of explains himself this charms her immediately and she is like very curious about this guy and like what is there like what more is there with him so they start talking they befriend each other she kind of realizes that he has this like little bit of self-loathing going on which of course is like so deeply sexy and even The Accidental pregnancy that happens in this book wasn't enough to it up which I think really says a lot about Abby himes's writing this is a five-star read for me now the wheat and the chaff are starting to separate the Kurds from the way the swimmers from the spum yours truly is a book I truly loved uh but I will say there was a moment of thir that conflict that has this one sitting below the seven-year slip a long time coming by Megan quinnn this book is actually surprising me I feel like I have such mixed luck with this author I've read quite a few of her books at this point I've enjoyed some of her Sports romances I've enjoyed some of her other books and others have been complete fails for me I'm happy to report that at the 50% Mark of this book I'm actually having a pretty good time despite the hero being named breaker this book's about breaker and Leah they've been friends since college and we get to see them become friends in college essentially they're both into really geeky things they like to have Scrabble nights they both really like fiction and anything geeky basically you name it they were into it he likes bird watching that sort of thing and they have remained platonic for I don't know how long maybe a decade at this point and things are getting a little complicated because our heroine is getting married soon to a guy that she met right after the death of her parents about a year ago he's just popped the question and she said yes and she has to kind of break it to her best friend that they're probably not going to be hanging out as much and that like their relationship's going to change and I say that she is really not the proponent of their relationship changing but our hero kind of knows that the relationship is going to change because she is getting married and he's having a hard time kind of coping with this he ends up getting set up on a blind date by Leah's fiance Brian and he really likes this girl but he's also like I don't know I'm just not feeling the spark and as the story continues obviously he realizes he has a spark with his best friend Leah he sees her in a wedding dress because he is her man of honor and he's like helping her I guess through this kind of challenging time both Leah's parents are deceased and so her mother-in-law is kind of like a pain in the ass and is really trying to make this wedding happen in like 5 weeks so she's trying on wedding dresses with breaker there and breaker sees her in a dress for the first time and it's like wow she is beautiful and I feel totally struck by lightning and attracted to her and now he's really having to fight that sexual attraction he's feeling towards her on top of the fact that he has you know always been best friends with her and like and like sees every part of her so I am enjoying it I will say this book doesn't have like an incredibly exciting opening I think the prologue is cute but the story feels sort of ordinary in the way that it's plotted in Pace there's nothing like super remarkable about it I'd say it's a little bit longer than it maybe needs to be about with this 450 page length uh I think Megan Quinn is able to establish this friendship establish why these two should maybe be together they've got shared interests I would I think maybe like to see more relationship development but I say that I'm not actually I'm not I'm not mad at how things are playing out I just think there's a lot that was like in the past that is being brought up rather than like things being shown in the present to convince me these two should be together but that being said like I know they should be together they have similar interests he is very supportive of her she's supportive of him and it's just so clear that even though Brian is a nice guy he's actually not villainized even though he's probably not going to be like the choice it's just so clear that these two should be together so I don't know I like it I think it's pretty good I could see this being a four- star read maybe three star maybe four star but this is definitely better than a lot of the things that I've read for this video and I'm surprised that it's on the list because I don't think I've heard anyone talk about it but at the same time Megan Quinn books are so popular so I guess it makes sense anyway I'll check in when I'm done but so far I'm having a good time all right so a long time coming was better than I had expected I think I told you all that I was having a really good time with it I couldn't imagine this being less than a four star read and I will say I think the page length kind of took away from my like final love of this book also the third act conflict was a little bit corny and too drawn out obviously the heroin breaks up with her fiance I like that she kind of does it of her own accord too and it's not really influenced by the hero like she definitely decides on her own like I don't want to be with this man and uh she's kind of oblivious to the fact actually that the hero loves her and that like he wants a romantic relationship with her so after they break up you know she is being wooed I guess you could say by her uh boyfriend also I look nuts I promise I don't look this crazy in real life anyway she ends up falling for her best friend and and he really puts on all the charm to woo her he kind of messes up in the beginning by just like coming onto her sexually which I mean she's into but she's also confused she's like are you like do you want to be with me actually or is this just like a ploy and he's like no no I love you let's do this and it takes her a while obviously to come around to that but they they wind up together as they should you know romance is not dead I I don't know this one's tough for me because when I'm like looking at my chart right here and like looking at the way that I'm ranking things this one was cute but I don't know that it's going to like beat out a wildfire or a practice makes perfect to me I think this is like a three and halfar low fourstar read I think what I'm going to do is put this one right after wildfire and I'm starting to see like a pattern emerge here I guess this pattern's been emerging for a while but it's like I've got my sort of like top tier reads and then everything else like everything that's like two star or like I don't want to rate it and this is definitely better than like king of Pride but it's just not quite on on par with like the other fourstar reads I've had so I'm going to put it after Wildfire Christina Lauren do miss actually kind of often but they do strike gold on occasion I'm pleased to report that the true love experiment by Christina Lauren is 24 Karat baby it's a about romance novelist fizzy who is finally looking to find a love of her own so when she's approached by a documentary filmmaker who's being forced to make a reality television dating show she decides she's going to sign up the only catch is of course that she falls for Conor who is said documentary filmmaker the Sparks and the chemistry this book is just so undeniable I absolutely loved it there's this initial misunderstanding too at the beginning of this book that I think sets it apart from some of the other books that we've read There is this sort of like delicious tension and angst and when that tension and angst is broken it is uh explosive and fireworks light off like I guess the cover of the book I initially rated this book five stars I will say absolutely loved it I just feel like it's not a book I can see myself rereading and I think that is the true Hallmark of a five star to me so I'm actually going to change my rating for this one to a fourstar I just don't think I loved this book as much as love theoretically so I'm going to put it right after it all right let's get this over this shall we I'm 50% into the long game by Elena Armes and I am not loving it I mean I'm not shocked or surprised I did not enjoy her first two books and I'm not enjoying this one for a very different reason I will say I guess to her credit this book doesn't feel like her other two books and the issue I had with those ones was really the writing I felt like the heroins in those books were a little bit irritating and just not really my cup of tea but I know a lot of people love those kind of books and I think in a lot of ways her writing kind of reminds me of Mariana Zapata that being said this book doesn't have that which should be a win it should be something that makes it to where I enjoyed this book more however I feel like there's nothing replacing it right the heroin in the story has absolutely no flavor she basically gets kicked I don't want to say out of her job but basically she up and she attacks the professional soccer team's mascot for the team she works for it goes viral and now she's in charge of helping a little league soccer team in like North Carolina or something I guess get their team good and it should be charming and it should be cute but it's just not really any of those things surprisingly I don't feel like there's enough moments spent with the team I guess you could say oh there's like goats and stuff that makes it fun no and also again like if the kids are supposed to be at the center of the story why aren't they at the center of the story really and then you have like the whole romance between the coach of the team and adelyn who I believe is supposed to be the team's manager they're a pack of 10-year-old girls by the way this like little league team that she is uh managing but the professional soccer star who was like coaching the team I think is supposed to be charming and British and like sweet or whatever here's here's the thing though it's not that either of the characters are like egregiously bad or irritating it's they have literally no flavor I don't understand what they see in each other I mean at this point I guess it's nothing because they're not together in a relationship but there is no like fun playful banter I don't understand either character's motivations and this this is a dual point of view story Cameron I have no idea why he is like helping out this team except that he was asked to do it I guess and he's retired now so sure and then the heroin again it's like she's there but what does she want like I feel like it's so not often that I read a story where character motivations are this unclear and I didn't realize I guess how important that is to a story if I don't understand why the characters are doing the things that they're doing I don't care why they are going to be in a relationship I guess there's been some arguing between the two of them but like what's Charming about that I'm not impressed I really want to dnf this book I'm going to be honest with you but I think I'm going to like try to scam the last 50% and uh give you my final thoughts all right so I finished the long game by Elena armis and it was fine I told y I was going to skim I didn't really skim the last part of this book but I don't think it was able to overcome the issues that I had with it earlier on which is pretty disappointing But ultimately unsurprising given my history with this author I think that if you like her books though I think you might be disappointed by this one cuz it doesn't have that like quirky charm that people I think have come to expect from her books given that her first two really had that quirky charm but I do applaud her for trying something different with this heroin and like having a sort of I wouldn't say reverse grumpy Sunshine but having a heroin who is a little less like Corky and upbeat you know I applaud her for the attempt but I feel like it was missing the internal dialogue again that like makes her books so special and like get you in the mind of her characters so I don't know it was fine the ending was cute but ultimately like this is kind of like a low three star for me like just kind of meh and in terms of like where I would rate it amongst the other books that I've read so far I think I'm going to put it before king of Pride like that makes sense cuz they gave that one two stars but it's going to be after a long time coming because that one to me was quite Charming so I feel like this is kind of a good place to put it and I think like ultimately at the end of the day it'll probably kind of remain in the bottom tier for me not in the top 10 spots but probably just below because it was fine but just like not my favorite the right move is buying the love of your life a big ass expensive ass house and making her her favorite coffee every day even though you don't drink coffee this book is about Ryan and Indie Ryan is an NBA player who is seen as kind of stoic and grumpy by the people in his life especially the I believe GM of the team and he is passed up for a team captain opportunity because of his like not a team player kind of approach right he's trying to remedy this so he enlists the help of Indie who is living with him he kind of begrudgingly let Indie live with him he wasn't super jazzed about it Indie is his little sister's best friend she just got out of a really bad breakup she's dealing with a ton including her infertility which is a fairly large portion of this book so I thought it was worth mentioning if they decide to fake date it's going to be a mutually beneficial thing it is one of the most deeply romantic books I think I've read this entire year I love love the way that Ryan goes out of his way for Indie all of the little romantic gestures really add up and I think this might be my favorite Indie romance that I read in all of 2023 this one is so hard for me because I think I really did love this one equally to the seven-year slip The Vibes are totally different but again I think it comes down to the tightness of plot page length and the recency of which I've read these books so I'm going to put it in second place you again by Kate goldbeck is probably the book that I was the most interested in Reading from all of the books that I haven't read yet for good reads Choice words like for all of the books that I've had to Vlog this is the one that intrigued me the most because so many of y'all when I did my reaction to the selections for the good read Choice words the nominees so many of y'all said that this was very good or very bad I was like okay sign me the up very curious the cover is cute in my humble opinion I have to say I'm actually very much enjoying this book it's but our two main characters Ari and Josh and it is very much a kind of like modern take on When Harry Met Sally and that is my favorite romcom I'm going to say it's just so good anyway this is also really really good Ari is sort of a mess she is a comedian she kind of does odd jobs and she is just living for the moment living for the next good thing but I would say around the 20% Mark she gets married to a woman and that woman is wanting to like have this open relationship I think her name's like Cass or something like that and eventually unfortunately Ari kind of gets kicked to the curb and is cheated on essentially even though they had this open relationship it was very clear that AR's wife wasn't really interested in being faithful so we have her kind of dealing with the emotional repercussions of being divorced she really thought this was going to be a for everything even if her wife didn't so she's dealing with this divorce she seeks Solace I guess in this guy who she keeps coming across over the years kind of like Sally and Harry they strike up this friendship he's also kind of reeling from a breakup he is a serial monogamist very buttoned up and he's also dealing with the loss of not only his dad but also the fact that this business that he took over from his dad and kind of reinvented completely failed like he is a chef and this restaurant was just a complete failure so he is like not in a good place she's not in a good place and they really lean on each other for emotional support during this time I have to say just the way that this book is told I'm really liking it I was reading the long game by Elena armis earlier and this couldn't be more different than that this definitely has a witty banter quickness uh both characters feel very real they have personality Ari at times feels maybe a little I don't want to say manic pixie dream girl maybe just so outside of the realm of anyone I've ever met before like just so hot mess but I think her emotions are relatable enough to where I'm like willing to overlook that so I'm liking this I am very curious to see when the relationship starts to evolve into something romantic at this 50% Mark Ari has accompanied Josh to this like Gala or something like that where his dad I believe is being honored I think they're like slow dancing or something and so I'm like okay I think we're getting there I think the romance is like ratcheting up it's a very pleasant read it's not the most deeply romantic or romance centered book and I feel like that was one of the things that I read in yall's comments was that you didn't feel like this should have been nominated for a good read stories award in the category of romance because it felt too much like straight up fiction to you with like a romance subplot and I don't know I'm not sure how I feel about that yet I think it sort of depends on how things evolve over course of the rest of the story I can definitely see arguments both ways so so far I can't see this being anything less than like a four-star read like it is a very very solid book I have found myself laughing out loud a couple of times finished you again and I really liked this book I have to say I wasn't expecting to given the premise and given what some of the Goodreads reviews for this book said a lot of people are saying oh it's not really a romance didn't see where they're coming from you definitely like spans a long period of time our characters go through some growth they do kind of like break up ultimately this was a deeply romantic story and I think if you were a fan of Sally Rooney Emily Henry I think you would really like this book it takes two incredibly messy characters with a lot of character flaws and just shows you why these two should be together and you know what that is what a romance is ultimately trying to do right just tell us why two deeply flawed people should be together you know some books characters are more or less flawed but this one characters can be irritating like I can definitely understand what would put people off a lot of people actually the reviews that I read but that they didn't like the heroin and I get it she's not relatable to me in her hot messiness I honestly don't know anyone who is as deeply up as she is but I feel like she goes she under go realistic growth throughout the story it's not like she goes from being a hot mess to being perfect but she definitely um becomes compatible with the hero You know despite just like liking him thinking he's sexy and like enjoying his company I liked this I love the Big Love declaration at the end it's very much When Harry Met Sally I know some of their viws again were saying like it it tried to be but it wasn't and I'm like you know what but it was it was like a modern take on it it's exactly what it was and it pulled it off so four stars I liked it okay and I think I'm going to put this one between the true love experiment and practice makes perfect I kind of didn't know where to put this one because I feel like we're swimming in a seat of four-star romances which is a good place to be it seems like we're just having Banger after Banger and I for one am simply hoping it never stops power list by Elsie silver is about childhood best friends Jasper and Sloan he saves her from getting married to a total piece of and they kind of fall in love of course I know it sounds a little basic and premise wise it sort of is but Elsie silver is really really excellent in executing on tropes that we all know and love I thought this was fun and I really understood both character's hesitancy to get into a relationship together the only reason this wasn't a festar read for me is because Elie put out three books this year other two I liked a little bit more I personally wanted a little bit more onpage development of the relationship I feel like this often happens when it is a childhood friends lovers thing you just kind of assume that the reader will understand this connection that they've had the entire time and I think sometimes authors don't put in enough work to show us on page why these two should be together so not a major deal obviously it's Elsie silver it was still fantastic but this wasn't my favorite book by her this year and when I really try to think about what I loved I have to say I'm kind of drawing blanks like this one compared to some of the other ones just didn't stand out to me so I'm going to put this one for a long time coming after wildfire who's ready to get pucked up I'm 50% into pucking round by Emily wrath and this is the second time that I am attempting to read this book I tried before try as I might physically to read this book I was just not entranced as the kid shall say here's the thing why choose novels I just don't have luck with them I I deeply want to I deeply want to be that girl that's just like I was going to say Goblin glizzies but you know what I'm saying like I want to be that person and I just simply am not I just think a little too hard about the logistics of it you know polyamorous relationships I get everybody's kind of sharing or people are like pursuing different things but like how magical is this girl snatch that she would attract three beautiful men is it misogynistic to say I just don't think that's going to work I don't know I don't know okay let me talk about this book okay start character Rachel she is a physician who landed her dream like internship I guess at this hockey I was going to say rank new hockey team in Jacksonville because Jacksonville is just a place everybody wants to live she's reunited with a guy that she hooked up with at her brother's wedding like I don't think that guy was at her brother's wedding but was like in the lobby of the hotel where the wedding took place and she hooks up with them and they have a magical night of passion and sure I could have listened to that noela audio book was I going to no because the Audi book for this book it's like 24 hours long and that's obscene anyway Rachel reunites with this man his name is Jake and he has a monster uh she also gets to meet the equipment management man Caleb who apparently is like golden and has a has a really sweet dog but also gives like vampire demon Vibes um as is evidenced by the sex that I just finished reading and then we've got Mars I believe his name is he's the finished goalkeeper is uh I guess trying to hide the fact that he's injured and she's trying to help him because she's a doctor right despite the hipo violations this book is fine okay if you are willing to overlook all of the I don't want to say but if you're willing to overlook all of the unrealistic aspects of this book it's fun okay it's a fun time it's hot I like seeing people have sex well okay I like reading about people having sex I don't want to see people have sex the sex scenes in this book are hot so far Mars has not joined in the fun but I'm sure he will uh eventually mostly at this point we're kind of just dealing with Caleb and homeg girl and Jake having fun good for what it is I like that the sex is pretty gay as well which is nice I understand sexuality is complex but I like that everybody is having a good time together and that the swords are crossing I can't talk about this book seriously I really can't um it's better the second time around okay I'm sort of invested I want to see where things go there's a a scene where they like spit into each other's mouths so you know it's a book well all is well that happy and as well I finished around and I will say this book actually pleasantly surprised me I really thought this was going to end up being like a two and a half three star read because it is egregiously long there's no reason for this book to be this long however I feel like this book sort of took my complaints and fears with uh why's novels and sort of got me to rethink those things and I think that's because this book is truly a polyamorous uh romance it's not just four or five different men um agreeing to the same woman uh and I liked that I liked that there was a lot of communication about who was going to have contact with who what they wanted their relationship to look like essentially I think like way that everything evolved is that the finnished guy has his like own one-on-one relationship with the heroine and then the other two guys have sort of like a relationship with each other and then also with the heroine so it's cute I actually really liked how this book ended uh they they go public with their relationship our heroin does get in trouble with her job for like violating hipa basically which is you know good for that to actually have been addressed I I did appreciate that obiously she ends up keeping her job and everything is hunky dory they all just like rabbits C is everywhere and that's fun you know they're going to be a happy family and it seems like most of the people in their life are accepting of their relationship which is nice really don't have much to complain about again except for the length of this book I know that a lot of these other books I have bitched about the length but there is absolutely no reason for a romance especially mudy romance to be over 700 pages long and to be a 24-hour audiobook what in God's name I'm sorry that's just obscene so this one's tough for me I had a good time with it I don't think that ultimately this is like the most me romance ever I think if you're someone who likes a traditional romance and you want something that feels like very digestible I don't know that this is going to be for you if you want something that feels intensely smudy and you do like some good communication in your stories maybe this will be for you I mean I think I'm going to give this a three star it was fine and in terms of like where I would rank this I think I put this between a long time coming and final offer yeah I don't know this was a decent why choose maybe not for me I I like to choose okay bye now I'm not sure how you can make a book about a Bonafide Disney adult and billionaire CEO on fun but somehow Lauren Asher managed in final offer this is a book that I was really really excited about because the hero Cal is unlike the other two heroes in the series both these kind of again like grumpy stoic types what you think of when you think of a billionaire romance Cal is kind of a hot mess and I liked the promise of his character I wanted to see some self-loathing in there because that's kind of the girl I am I like a good self-loathing hero but unfortunately Cal's substance abuse in this book is something that is not resolved quickly and takes up the bulk of the story and I'm not saying that romances shouldn't have hard-hitting topics in them I think that that is definitely something that is important I think people should feel seen in a romance but there were just a couple of things that made this book not perfect for me namely the heroin I felt so bad for her not only does her childhood best friend have a substance abuse issue and that's kind of why they aren't together but also she is in charge of uh taking care of her niece she has custody of her niece because her sister has a substance abuse problem it's really sad that the heroin has so many people in her life that are letting her down and it really dragged down the tone of this book additionally Cal up a lot it's not just like one time and then he gets help um he continues to up and up and up and it's a long book so you just have to see the trials and tribulations over and over again again it's like I I it's not that I don't think serious romances should exist it just feels in congruous with the rest of the series and I feel like it needed a little bit of levity to like a complete story to me so yeah this book was just fine it wasn't bad but it wasn't fun and if there's something that I personally require from almost all of my romances it's a little bit of fun uh especially again when all the other books in the series were so I'm going to put this one after pucking around but before the long game number 20 the last book incompatible place by Emily Henry uh this books about Harriet and WN who have been together for very many years but unfortunately they are now broken up but they have to pretend to be together because they are going on this like friend vacation friendcation if you will with all of the friends that collected over the years or through high school or college I don't remember to be honest I don't really care the friends were boring this book sucked for me there is so much emphasis on friendship and friendships growing apart and I in theory like that but I don't give a single hairy about any of the friends in this book they were either grading or forgettable and a lot of the characters just kind of ran together like the conflict surrounding the friendship and like whether or not they were being honest with each other which is kind of uh not my favorite but obviously like the the worst part of this book was the relationship between and wi why would you date someone that you wouldn't feel comfortable sharing details about your family with the empathy that I normally lack was even more lacking in that particular aspect of the book I just genuinely don't understand how people who are I believe nearing their 30s uh can't just say hey uh shit's going wrong in my life can you be there for me and one thing that I whole heartedly stand by is that women should be able to and should be encouraged to be absolute degenerates okay I really I really do believe that women should be pieces of if they want to be and I'm not saying that's what Harriet decided to do but dropping out of medical school to follow a man to Wyoming to do Pottery because you suddenly decided that the only reason you were doing medical school and the only reason that you were like halfway through was because you were trying to impress your parents be so for real also when was a total sad sack like Mega Sympathy for the that he had to go through like his family life seemed pretty rough you know uh his dad died I think his mom had Parkinson like to hard things okay but can we give the man some personality trait for sake two stars and because it's the season of giving I'm going to be generous and I'm going to give this book a place between king of Pride and meet me at the lake Ba humbug all right folks now let's move on to the fun part of the video in which we're going to guess which book is going to be the winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards you know it might be the book that I just finished talking about who knows let's look at my final rankings shall we I feel like this is not at all what I expected frankly uh the seven-year slip is a book that I was again so hesitant to read will be the book that surprised me the most definitely surprises me that I think this should be the winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards but frankly all of the books in the top 10 I really enjoyed and I don't know if I've had this many highly ranked and highly rated books ever before like I don't think I've ever had this many four-star reads and it's interesting to me to see the dichotomy it's like lots of five and four stars and a lot of two stars not a whole lot of like middle of the road three star books but that's okay I actually had more fun I think this year reading the books and I feel really confident with my final rankings but I think what's more interesting here is comparing what my top 10 is to what my actual predictions are because just because I enjoy these books doesn't mean that I actually think these are going to make it into the top 10 I do in fact have two brain cells that I rub together on occasion and those brain cells are telling me that the predictions that I made are going to differ again from my actual top 10 and I'm illustrating that here with the red boxes right the books that I've highlighted and read in my top 10 are books that I don't actually foresee being in the top 10 right the true love experiment you again practice makes perfect powerless in a long time time coming while I liked all five of these books I don't actually anticipate that these are going to be in the top 10 as much as I would like them to be the five books that I actually think are going to make into the top 10 are going to be happy placed as the winner of course things be hide from the light because again nobody can get enough of Miss lcy score meet me at the lake because people gag over Carly Fortune romantic comedy because this has pushed us so hard by Publishers that there's just no way this isn't going to be here and in the likely event is kind of a wild card that I threw in here but I feel kind of confident in this decision because everybody loves fourwing right so like why wouldn't in the like event Mak it onto this list even though I thought it was um pretty horrible so let's go ahead and look folks let's see who the winner of the 2023 good re Choice word Sor okay I'm scared I'm nervous I've got my laptop on my lap if that wasn't clear yeah God damn it happy place by Emily Henry who is shocked who is surprised am I great at predicting I think I am does not take much intelligence actually to figure out who would be the winner of the good re Choice Awards but I think it's a damn shame because I think there are so many better romances but let's go ahead and evaluate my top 10 versus the real top 10 we've got some stuff here right and I think I think I was um pretty spot on with my actual like predictions let's let's look at that first let's look at that all right my top 10 my predictions and the real top 10 okay so I think it's pretty clear from looking at this that I'm pretty goddamn good at predicting things I wasn't like excellent at necessarily predicting the order in which um my predictions would go versus like the real top 10 but I think that's just because this year the things that I thought would actually make the top 10 were not things I was enamored with it was like a bunch of that I was fine with it being in any order yeah there's not much I feel Lake that was missing for my predictions versus the real top 10 if we look at my predictions again versus the real top 10 meet me at the lake didn't end up making the top 10 which actually does kind of surprise me and in the likely event didn't that was my wild card so I'm not like super super shocked but I guess I'm kind of surprised that the two that did make it in which are final offer and king of Pride I do like to see Indie romance authors making on the list and I guess you could argue that Lauren Asher and anah Hong are like traditionally published now but they started off Indie and like in my heart they're Indie okay you know not shoot my own horn but I damn good at predicting these things okay so how do I feel now that we're done how do I feel now that I correctly predicted the Goodreads Choice Awards winner I'm feeling interesting about it like looking at the real top 10 I did love love theoretically I did love yours truly right move I'm glad to see there the seven-year slip I'm glad to see there as well if there's any takeaway I would say from this it's um read my top 10 okay I'm a connoisseur of romance shall we say and um I just believe that the ones in my top 10 are some books that have kind of like flown under the radar this year things that I really do think deserve your attention again the seven-year slip I think I've heard a lot of people talk about this but it's not one that I would have organically picked up on my own and I know a lot of my like Indie romance girlies y'all probably wouldn't picked this one up either so go ahead and pick it up I think you're really going to enjoy it the right move again is one that I really desperately think you need to pick up You Again by Kate gold black I feel like it's s of divisive but again if you like Emily Henry and you like Sally Rooney I feel like you got to pick it up I feel like You' really enjoy it powerless of course by Elsie silver but I can I can I can I be honest with you I really wish hopeless would have made it on this list by her I think you should pick that one up and a long time coming with one if you're looking for a really solid friends to lovers romance I do think if you pick up any of these books though you're not going to be disappointed um that's actually not true you're probably going to be disappointed if you pick up books that weren't my top 10 but there are so many I think amazing books on this list and I think this is probably I want to say my favorite year that I have uh participated in but I do think it is worth noting that there is a lot lacking from this list when it comes to diversity right there are no queer romances on this list for the most part I guess you could count pucking around and there are not very many authors of color represented here which is very disappointing I do plan on actually reading the Amazon version of this Amazon has its own top 20 romances and that actually seems to be surprisingly more uh diverse and representative of romance as a whole so I will actually be doing a video on those books in the new year so be looking out for that but as always I loved doing this video thank you so much for watching I love you all so much let me know in the comments down below what you would have voted on for your winner I must know but I will see you tomorrowhello welcome back to my channel in today's video I'm going to be reading and ranking the 2023 nominees for the Goodreads Choice Awards in the category of romance this is my fifth year making this video and this is my favorite video that I make every single year I'm going to Vlog my reactions to the books that I haven't read before the Goodreads Choice Awards and I am going to sit here and tell you about all of the books that I have read prior to the Goodreads Choice Awards at the end of the video I will tell you my predictions for what I believe the top 10 of those top 20 are going to be and also what I believe the winner of the good re choice for will be so without further Ado let's get into it let us read and react to the nominees for the 2023 good re Choice Awards honestly there's just nothing like starting another good reads Choice Awards reading Vlog section it feels good I wish I had better news and better books to bring you but T life and T this this video series right this is just happens every year so I'm 50% into king of Pride by anong and this is definitely not as bad as the book that I vlogged first last year but that's not saying much this book is about Isabella and Kai and we learn about them in the first book in the series they are like Side characters and now they're having their own romance yay Kai is a buttoned up English businessman I guess is going to become CEO of his mom's company she's like stepping down early he was supposed to get it when he was like 40 he's only 32 what's going on and then we also have Isabella who is like she's just vibing you know what I mean like she's writing her own erotic Thriller which I don't know what the that means but she she was an aspiring author and her family's like girl you really need to get a better job besides bartending and like writing on the side but she doesn't listen cuz you know all your dreams or whatever it's not bad the writing is definitely good you can tell that editor is involved which I like which is no shade to an Wang's first book that she wrote and that I read it was not a bad book but this is just clearly more polished that being said I kind of miss the sort of like unhinged fanfictiony Vibes of Twisted love I feel like this book is just kind of lacking in the flavor Department it's not bad it's just kind of boring and I don't know which is worse gotten to the point where the two characters are hooking up where Kai is like I'm not actually buttoned up I'm really your type you know he can't stand the fact that she's like dancing with another guy at a club and so he's like come home with me I'll show you how Lous I can be and he does I guess I don't know it wasn't as like 0 to 60 again as like some of the books in that first series she wrote I just remember like reading some of those books and being like wow okay cute fan fakey moments and then like taste my member baby girl like more aggressive I don't know I don't really know I'm not doing a good job at describing what I didn't like about those ones but this it feels like a natural progression of the relationship blah blah blah like I'm not really seeing it feel like Beyond a shared love of piano I'm not really understanding their connection I kind of feel that way about a lot of billionaire romances a full disclosure billionaire romances are not my favorite I think my my problem maybe with them is that often times you have these incredibly young and Incredibly high-powered dudes who fall for women who I don't want to say are stupid but they just don't seem to have anything in common with them right like we like to think that opposite track Fish Out of Water romances kind of work I feel like if you are someone who is highly educated someone who is around the same kind of people every day and like your friends are all kind of same Vibe like why would you look for a sexual or like romantic partner that's completely different than that I mean I guess the novelty of it but like I just don't see how these really work out long term unless you guys have very shared interests and like compliment each other I don't think that happens very often in billionaire romances like I'm thinking of the classic 50 Shades right I'm sorry but like Anna and Christian like what the did they have in common besides like a like of kinky sex she didn't even like kinky sex that much I was kind of like it about this it's not it's not bad it's palatable like I'm very bored at this 50% Mark I'm like I have to read another 200 pages of this okay cool cool cool so um you know a time I'm not going to ramble anymore I'll get back to you when I'm done with this all right king of Pride finished it I thought this was a book A book that I read a book that I was incredibly bored and disappointed by I really love inong I really like her writing and I was really excited because I think this book is better edited than a lot of her books okay but unfortunately was just lacking the heart that I have come to expect from her books I feel like I believe in her romances even if the surrounding things tend to be a little crazy and in this book there actually wasn't any craziness but there also wasn't any romance to really read root for I didn't understand ultimately why this billionaire wanted to be with this heroin who works at this club and doesn't seem to have much in common with him maybe I'm not very romantic and not loving a opposite of track sort of romance but I don't know I wasn't convinced I thought the third act conflict was boring as I don't know I just this wasn't for me okay it wasn't terrible but it wasn't for me and there's no wor really to rank this book yet cuz it's the first book I'm reading for this video sort of so there she blows love convoluted by Ellie Hazelwood is a story about Elsie theoretical physicist adjunct professor just trying to make ends me and serial fake dating extraordinaire Elsie is fake dating a guy named Greg for money initially she like starts fake dating people on this fake dating app who need like one off dates to events and she kind of goes off script goes off of the app whenever she meets Greg because he seems like a really nice genuine guy who she wants to help out he wants to look nice and important in front of his family but unfortunately his brother Jack is kind of on to him and kind of thinks there's more to Elsie than meets the eye and that she might be lying about who she is unfortunately his fears and suspicions are confirmed whenever he meets Elsie when she is uh interviewing for a position at the school that he teaches at he is a professor of experimental physics I believe and she is of course a theoretical physicist and this causes a bunch of Mayhem because apparently theoretical physicists and experimental physicists don't get along and specifically back wrote a scathing article way back in the day about how theoretical physicists are basically bunk and you shouldn't believe them and nothing they say is true but the more that Jack and Elsie get to know each other the more that he starts kind of loosening up and she starts breaking down his walls and none of the plot none of the confusing ass plot that I just told you matters at all mean I guess it does in that it is the plot of the book I think the confusing ass synopsis of this book really does a disservice to what I consider to be Ali hazelwood's most grounded romance to date this book is deeply romantic and despite some miscommunication that happens at the beginning obviously uh the communication that develops between Jack and Elsie I think is really sweet deeply romantic super snw worthy and I actually found myself crying at one point in this book which I didn't ever expect to do for an author who typically specializes in row fanfiction uh but she got me Hook Line and Sinker four stars placing this one ahead of king of Pride obviously number three hello dumbass by Katherine Center this is a book about girl Liam sad who feeds her dog Chinese food instead of kibble and because of a head injury is now face blind which puts stie in a proverbial pickle because she's a portrait artist trying to prove to her family that she has What It Takes by entering this prestigious art competition but it wouldn't be a romance without some euphemistic pickle and stie our face bind manic pixie dream girl is torn between a rock and a dick place the hot vet who helps her take care of her poorly taken care of dog the guy that lives in her apartment building who's like kind of a misogynist but like not really and if you put your thinking cap on you might be thinking to yourself or might be more to the SL triangle that meets the eye part of that though is how much of this book was a disappointment to me okay I loved The Bodyguard last year it was one of my favorite romances it was very silly but ultimately very Charming this book the heroin was grading the hero was decent but the surrounding elements of the story really made it hard for me to enjoy I wanted to root for S and see her overcome her face blindness to be able to paint a really interesting and um inventive portrait that doesn't really happen her her job stuff kind of Falls by the wayside even though that's like the majority of what this book is supposed to be about the majority of the book is really spent with sa being gaslit by her family this one could be hard to pick where to put but honestly boring is going to be out annoying any day of the week so this is going to the back of the line all right y'all I did not give you a 50% update on this book but I finished Wildfire by Miss Hannah Grace and I actually really enjoyed this I have to say I wasn't really expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did I feel like for a lot of the book I was kind of sitting at that like kind of middle of the road like two or three star but as the book continued I felt like this book really showed me that it was like three and a half four star material and that Hannah Grace's writing is improving over time Icebreaker I believe was her debut novel and it kind of went viral so many people loved that one and I liked it but I didn't really understand the hype after reading it but this book I feel like I do understand the hype for it it's about our two main characters who I've promptly forgotten the names of uh but there's hero there's a heroin oh the hero's name is Russ Russ I do know that he and the heroine hook up at a party and and she's like kind of forward which I really with heavily he's a little bit more shy and a little more reserved and so he's a little awkward after the exchange takes place after they like hook up but they both have a really good time and I think the heroin wants it to happen again I don't know about the hero but regardless they end up kind of running into each other again at this summer camp that they are working at over the summer and I just really have to commend Hannah Grace and authors who do stuff like this for including so much outside of the Romantic relationship in a romance novel I think that often authors can kind of put everything to the Wayside when they're writing a romance because they know that the romance plot line is the most important and while that's true I think so much shapes our perception of love and romance and to not include that in like a new Adult Book would be a big big big mistake and Hannah Grace doesn't make that mistake we have a hero who has a dad who's got a gambling problem who lets his son down multiple times and that really colors how he interacts with people in the world and his confidence in himself we also have a heroine who also kind of has daddy issues she proclaims that she has daddy issues I'm not putting that on her and she works through that over the course of the story is able to advocate for herself and also come to terms with the fact that sometimes your parents are just not the people that you want them to be and sometimes they are just shitty people and I really like that lesson I guess for both of them and how they kind of deal with their family problems you also have this like wide cast of Side characters that I think makes the book feel more realistic if it times a little bit like much my only real complaint with this one to be honest is that it is too long I think Hannah Grace books tend to be a little bit bloated I think had we cut back on some of the side characters and just tightened up the plot just a little bit this would have been like slam dunk for me I really really liked this one and again I can see so much improvement from that first book it felt a little bit more coherent and I just thought this was a really good time didn't expect to enjoy this one to be honest and if I did I I expected it to be kind of more of a three star middle of the road read but as it stands I think I'm going to put this one right after love theoretically and before king of Pride I feel like that makes total sense given what I thought about this book but I had such a good time with this one and I think if you are looking for a good college like new adult romance I think this one is definitely one to add to your list all right number five meet me at the girin is about our main character Fern who sleeps with the dude that she just met many many years ago in the past right but obviously this guy's coming back into her life and he is going to help her figure things out or she's going to help him figure things out cuz he helped her many years ago or some like that basically he's going to have to team up with her to save her mom's delightful Lakeside Resort that she for some reason hates cuz she's a whole lot of fun and not a brat at all all right if I'm being so for real I read this book like 6 months ago I don't really remember much about it other than that it is another book about a girl by a lake who was irritating weirdly I disliked this one less on hello stranger though this was like so forgettable so amorphous so boring um that I'm putting it between king of Pride and hello stranger on the one hand in the likely event by Rebecca yaros has really convincing chemistry I definitely feel the sort of like palpable relationship between Izzy and her military man boyfriend that being said I don't like these sorts of romances and I feel like I've never articulated that or if I have I don't remember articulating that but I'm personally not a fan of cop romances military romances just men in uniform that's just not my thing and I respect that it is other people's thing it is just really not mine I also think that the way that certain topics are handled in this book is not my favorite granted I'm only 50% in but I can't argue with the white savior arguments that are being made in the Goodreads reviews for this book essentially the heroine gets into a plane crash with a man at the very beginning of this book he is in the military he saves her from this plane crash I mean he saves a bunch of people from this plane crash because he's a quick thinker and like super strong muscle man or whatever and then in the present day they are sort of like reconnecting I suppose and she is engaged to another man and he is upset about this and he is like protecting her in a war torn country I think it's Afghanistan and is making sure that she is not killed I guess while she's there I think she's a US senator or something like that uh she is on a mission to save her sister who is a journalist I I'm just not into this sort of thing and I feel like I struggle with books like this for a number of reasons but I think the biggest one is that I feel like I should have some level of objectivity when I'm doing videos like this right like I am reviewing the Goodreads books of the year and like maybe this is the only good reads romance video you're going to watch like I don't want to um say that this book is terrible but I am also human with emotions and feelings and I just don't really I don't like this kind of thing and that sucks again because I actually think that the romance is solid I actually kind of like the romance but I just can't anticipate like reading this highly I just can't it is what it is it is what it is is I'm going to finish the book it's like one of those things where I'm like do I even read this can I just put this at the end the end of my list like I don't think this is going to win and I don't like it I think that's it I think that's it for now hello I'm back let's talk about my final thoughts on in the likely event I don't have thoughts I just know that I this isn't for me you know and I I think I expressed that pretty vly in the last clip but I just don't really like the setting of the story I don't really like the relationship Dynamic I don't really like the white saviorism I ju this is just not for me you know and I know a lot of people love this and you know I've mentioned that I was reading this book and a lot of people replied wow this is the best book I've read all year and I'm like okay good for you I'm happy for you I'm glad that this book exists I'm glad that books exist for people you know what I mean even if they're certainly not for me so here's the thing I don't want to rate this book because there were elements of the book that I liked but it's just never going to be for me ever ever ever that leaves me in kind of a weird place but like here's the thing if it's not for me I don't need to rate it and I can just put it at the end of the line number seven things we hide from the light definitely doesn't sound like how I would refer to someone's butthole it's definitely a book about a detective who has come to town to investigate a crime that happened in the first book in this series and her love affair I guess with the chief of police who is dealing with PTSD after some of the that's happened to him uh he is no longer the Charming guy that we got to know in the first book he's going to be an just like his brother from the first book here's the deal I don't like romantic suspense being shot at or fearing for my life doesn't really add to the sex appeal of a romance though I am apparently the only person on the planet who feels this way because it seems like everybody and their mother loves this series and you know what more power to you I just personally feel like the books are too long I don't love the relationship development I don't like how Lucy score really likes to use the word milk in her sex scenes all of that being said this is a little bit better than the first book in the series but again kind of put me to sleep so snoozeville but not totally irritating so between hello stranger and meet me at the lake hello from me and this one hair um I'm 50% into the seven-year slip I Ashley poson Poston not sure how she says it but I can't tell you a knows how to write a book or at least she knows how to write a book this year I think this is the second year that one of her books has made it on the good read Choice word nominee list I didn't love the dead Romantics which was her first book I believe this however I am enjoying surprisingly I didn't want to pick this one up I wouldn't have picked this up on my own but I purchased this a few months ago cuz I was like you know what I think this is going to make it on to the good reads Choice Awards and guess what she was right folks this book by- main character Clementine which don't love I think we could come up with a better name for a main character that doesn't feel so quirky but Clementine is dealing with the death of her aunt analie spelled anal Le she's she's sad she's not having a great time and her aunt has left her at this apartment that is supposedly magical and in this apartment it can time travel or it can be a place of time travel for 7 years so like 7 years in the past or 7even years in the future and our heroine discovers that this random man is in her apartment and he is from 7 years in the past and she does not communicate this information to him but she instead like engages in a semi romantic roommates sort of situation with him for a few days until he disappears mysteriously and like the apartment no longer time travels I guess outside of the apartment she is dealing with a lot of stuff in her professional life she is potentially going to get a really big promotion but to kind of bag this promotion and to kind of like prove that she is as good as she has been as a publicist she's supposed to land this really prestigious chef and he is going to ready cookbook for them because I guess the publisher that she works for does like travel guides and cookbooks mostly so anyway she's supposed to get this guy land him and it's like a time travel romance kind of I think the writing of this is really fantastic I didn't expect to like this premise because I don't really like when the whole premise or Crux of a romance is based on something that just logically cannot be overcome and I know that that's silly because a lot of my most favorite romance tropes are ones where like things are forbidden and I guess this isn't that far off but you're telling me this man only knew her s years ago and like does he actually know who she is in present day is this like a fake scenario I don't know it's it's sort of confusing the rules of the world or like not even confusing but we just haven't really figured out exactly what this means like yes she knew this guy s years ago or like seven years in the past does he know her I don't know I don't know how the rules of this are going to shake out but the writing is just so Charming I love the kind of instant chemistry I felt between Clementine and Yuan I believe is his name he is this like auburn-haired Chef who has a real passion for cooking and making food for others and just like he just has a real zest for life which I think is really Charming I have no idea how this romance is going to shake out I am very curious to see if there are more flashback scenes or if that's like all we're getting I'm assuming there's going to be more but generally speaking I'm having a good time with this I think the expiration of grief is is nice and not overdone I mean everybody's definition of overdone is going to be different I'm fine with hard topics being handled in Romance but I don't really like when the romance is overshadowed by kind of like really really hard-hitting topics like that and I felt that way about the dead Romantics this is uh a little bit more bearable because it's not like that and also I believe the hero and this isn't dead which I think is the case in that one I can't remember I don't really care this one however I'm liking and actually I think this will probably be one of my more favorite books that I'm reading for the Vlog portion of this video I could see this like being a four or five star read I don't know stranger things have definitely happened I guess like time traveling 7even years for some good dick okay bye basic alert this was so good I am sort of to lost for words about this book it was kind of perfect in every way it was deeply romantic the writing was Snappy it handles hard-headed topics without overtaking the main plot line the banter between hero and heroine is just spoton and perfect and it's just deeply romantic like this book is perfect and I am shocked I would not have wanted to pick this up I didn't want to pick this up after reading the dead Romantics that book was not bad bad but it was not great it was not something that I personally connected with however this is really really great and the sort of like weird premise is something that I am willing to overlook I didn't expect this to be one of the tops of this video and yet here we are with the five star read I'm not mad at it I'm the opposite of mad at it actually this might make it onto my best romances of the year list I think if you are looking for something that really checks all the boxes sweet sexy Charming romantic this is it this is it for you you're not going to get indepth corn shucking good times but there I mean there is sex in this book so I mean if you're upset at that like I don't know get over it this book was really good and and you might be asking yourself Chandler okay like where is this ranking the tippy top number nine practice definitely makes perfect when your most recent date calls you a boar and you enlist the help of a really hot bodyguard to teach you how to date and how to catch the attention of men this book is about Annie who is a flower shop owner and a really nice girl and will who is the bodygard of a pop star that we meet in the first book in the series this book is a quaint small town romance with a lot of spoony moments and tons of really great relationship development it might not be the most exciting book on this list but sometimes you just want something that's solid dependable and sweet and this book delivers so I personally give it four stars since there's three fourstar reads at this point it does make it kind of hard to decide where to put this one because it was normal length I'm going to put it between love theoretically and Wildfire the problem with romantic comedy by Curtis senfeld is that it is neither romantic nor comedy in these first 50 pages and because of time constrains and because I just don't want to I'm not going to finish this book I gave it the old College try as the kids say I got again 50 pages in and I am just failing to see what's funny about this or romantic so the story follows our main character Sally who is a sketch writer for basically SNL this book's version of SNL and we follow her as she writes sketches for this show for a guy named Noah Okay and like her main premise I suppose for one of her sketches that he basically out and out denies that he would do that this is the only sketch that he says absolutely I don't want to do this is a sketch where he basically dates someone who is below him aesthetically so basically like another sketch writer I guess he's not a sketch writer he is a musician who's coming on to the show as a guest host anyway he is going to I guess date someone in the sketch and it's going to be like illegal right because there's no way that a really handsome and well-to-do man would date someone his age and someone who is less attractive than him which is kind of the reverse of what normally happens where a lot of successful beautiful smart and intelligent women date these kind of like Bland unattractive men that write for the show it's just a trend that Sally has noticed and so she pitches the sketch to Noah and Noah's like isn't the joke not really on me then isn't that joke on other people that doesn't really seem fair and uh he basically dismisses it but in the scene that I just read she is helping him with his sketch that he came up with and like you know workshopping it to be something that could actually be on the show and I think we're supposed to be Charmed and be like oh my God Sally and Noah forever the writing of this is so dry and not funny for a book that is set in an SNL type setting it's not funny and for those of you that don't like SNL maybe that's no surprise to you but I am just so not laughing thing at this and I feel like this is so contrasted with seven-year slip which I just finished and that book was not necessarily pitched as a romcom but there are so many funny moments in that book The Writing just feels smooth it flows it's got this like Charming romantic Bend to it and this book is not like that book this book is not trying to be like that book so I'm not necessarily comparing you know everything but that book was effortlessly funny this book is trying very hard to be funny and is not succeeding at it and I also just don't know that I love the premise or the character like Sally wow um she has no flavor she is kind of and cynical and doesn't really have anything going for her in my humble opinion Noah seems pretty boring too so I feel pretty confident in dnfing this I would say and here's the thing I'm not I haven't finished this book I would bet that this is not a true romance and if there is a romantic plot line in it that's cool and all but it was never going to be for me so dnfing going to add it to just the back of the list and with the like unranked stuff yeah no number 11 Yours Truly by Abby JZ just goes to show that when a hero truly hates himself things happen this book is about our badass doctor Brianna Ortiz who is trying to gain a promotion at work believe she is just a regular doctor and she's trying to become like chief of surgery or something like that but unfortunately a man is hired to work at the hospital alongside her and is the guy that's chosen for the promotion instead and she also has kind of a runin with him at the beginning of the book where she immediately just kind of clocks him as an doesn't really understand who he is as a person like doesn't care to get to know him he being the sweet guy that he actually is writes Brian a letter I guess apologizes for what happened kind of explains himself this charms her immediately and she is like very curious about this guy and like what is there like what more is there with him so they start talking they befriend each other she kind of realizes that he has this like little bit of self-loathing going on which of course is like so deeply sexy and even The Accidental pregnancy that happens in this book wasn't enough to it up which I think really says a lot about Abby himes's writing this is a five-star read for me now the wheat and the chaff are starting to separate the Kurds from the way the swimmers from the spum yours truly is a book I truly loved uh but I will say there was a moment of thir that conflict that has this one sitting below the seven-year slip a long time coming by Megan quinnn this book is actually surprising me I feel like I have such mixed luck with this author I've read quite a few of her books at this point I've enjoyed some of her Sports romances I've enjoyed some of her other books and others have been complete fails for me I'm happy to report that at the 50% Mark of this book I'm actually having a pretty good time despite the hero being named breaker this book's about breaker and Leah they've been friends since college and we get to see them become friends in college essentially they're both into really geeky things they like to have Scrabble nights they both really like fiction and anything geeky basically you name it they were into it he likes bird watching that sort of thing and they have remained platonic for I don't know how long maybe a decade at this point and things are getting a little complicated because our heroine is getting married soon to a guy that she met right after the death of her parents about a year ago he's just popped the question and she said yes and she has to kind of break it to her best friend that they're probably not going to be hanging out as much and that like their relationship's going to change and I say that she is really not the proponent of their relationship changing but our hero kind of knows that the relationship is going to change because she is getting married and he's having a hard time kind of coping with this he ends up getting set up on a blind date by Leah's fiance Brian and he really likes this girl but he's also like I don't know I'm just not feeling the spark and as the story continues obviously he realizes he has a spark with his best friend Leah he sees her in a wedding dress because he is her man of honor and he's like helping her I guess through this kind of challenging time both Leah's parents are deceased and so her mother-in-law is kind of like a pain in the ass and is really trying to make this wedding happen in like 5 weeks so she's trying on wedding dresses with breaker there and breaker sees her in a dress for the first time and it's like wow she is beautiful and I feel totally struck by lightning and attracted to her and now he's really having to fight that sexual attraction he's feeling towards her on top of the fact that he has you know always been best friends with her and like and like sees every part of her so I am enjoying it I will say this book doesn't have like an incredibly exciting opening I think the prologue is cute but the story feels sort of ordinary in the way that it's plotted in Pace there's nothing like super remarkable about it I'd say it's a little bit longer than it maybe needs to be about with this 450 page length uh I think Megan Quinn is able to establish this friendship establish why these two should maybe be together they've got shared interests I would I think maybe like to see more relationship development but I say that I'm not actually I'm not I'm not mad at how things are playing out I just think there's a lot that was like in the past that is being brought up rather than like things being shown in the present to convince me these two should be together but that being said like I know they should be together they have similar interests he is very supportive of her she's supportive of him and it's just so clear that even though Brian is a nice guy he's actually not villainized even though he's probably not going to be like the choice it's just so clear that these two should be together so I don't know I like it I think it's pretty good I could see this being a four- star read maybe three star maybe four star but this is definitely better than a lot of the things that I've read for this video and I'm surprised that it's on the list because I don't think I've heard anyone talk about it but at the same time Megan Quinn books are so popular so I guess it makes sense anyway I'll check in when I'm done but so far I'm having a good time all right so a long time coming was better than I had expected I think I told you all that I was having a really good time with it I couldn't imagine this being less than a four star read and I will say I think the page length kind of took away from my like final love of this book also the third act conflict was a little bit corny and too drawn out obviously the heroin breaks up with her fiance I like that she kind of does it of her own accord too and it's not really influenced by the hero like she definitely decides on her own like I don't want to be with this man and uh she's kind of oblivious to the fact actually that the hero loves her and that like he wants a romantic relationship with her so after they break up you know she is being wooed I guess you could say by her uh boyfriend also I look nuts I promise I don't look this crazy in real life anyway she ends up falling for her best friend and and he really puts on all the charm to woo her he kind of messes up in the beginning by just like coming onto her sexually which I mean she's into but she's also confused she's like are you like do you want to be with me actually or is this just like a ploy and he's like no no I love you let's do this and it takes her a while obviously to come around to that but they they wind up together as they should you know romance is not dead I I don't know this one's tough for me because when I'm like looking at my chart right here and like looking at the way that I'm ranking things this one was cute but I don't know that it's going to like beat out a wildfire or a practice makes perfect to me I think this is like a three and halfar low fourstar read I think what I'm going to do is put this one right after wildfire and I'm starting to see like a pattern emerge here I guess this pattern's been emerging for a while but it's like I've got my sort of like top tier reads and then everything else like everything that's like two star or like I don't want to rate it and this is definitely better than like king of Pride but it's just not quite on on par with like the other fourstar reads I've had so I'm going to put it after Wildfire Christina Lauren do miss actually kind of often but they do strike gold on occasion I'm pleased to report that the true love experiment by Christina Lauren is 24 Karat baby it's a about romance novelist fizzy who is finally looking to find a love of her own so when she's approached by a documentary filmmaker who's being forced to make a reality television dating show she decides she's going to sign up the only catch is of course that she falls for Conor who is said documentary filmmaker the Sparks and the chemistry this book is just so undeniable I absolutely loved it there's this initial misunderstanding too at the beginning of this book that I think sets it apart from some of the other books that we've read There is this sort of like delicious tension and angst and when that tension and angst is broken it is uh explosive and fireworks light off like I guess the cover of the book I initially rated this book five stars I will say absolutely loved it I just feel like it's not a book I can see myself rereading and I think that is the true Hallmark of a five star to me so I'm actually going to change my rating for this one to a fourstar I just don't think I loved this book as much as love theoretically so I'm going to put it right after it all right let's get this over this shall we I'm 50% into the long game by Elena Armes and I am not loving it I mean I'm not shocked or surprised I did not enjoy her first two books and I'm not enjoying this one for a very different reason I will say I guess to her credit this book doesn't feel like her other two books and the issue I had with those ones was really the writing I felt like the heroins in those books were a little bit irritating and just not really my cup of tea but I know a lot of people love those kind of books and I think in a lot of ways her writing kind of reminds me of Mariana Zapata that being said this book doesn't have that which should be a win it should be something that makes it to where I enjoyed this book more however I feel like there's nothing replacing it right the heroin in the story has absolutely no flavor she basically gets kicked I don't want to say out of her job but basically she up and she attacks the professional soccer team's mascot for the team she works for it goes viral and now she's in charge of helping a little league soccer team in like North Carolina or something I guess get their team good and it should be charming and it should be cute but it's just not really any of those things surprisingly I don't feel like there's enough moments spent with the team I guess you could say oh there's like goats and stuff that makes it fun no and also again like if the kids are supposed to be at the center of the story why aren't they at the center of the story really and then you have like the whole romance between the coach of the team and adelyn who I believe is supposed to be the team's manager they're a pack of 10-year-old girls by the way this like little league team that she is uh managing but the professional soccer star who was like coaching the team I think is supposed to be charming and British and like sweet or whatever here's here's the thing though it's not that either of the characters are like egregiously bad or irritating it's they have literally no flavor I don't understand what they see in each other I mean at this point I guess it's nothing because they're not together in a relationship but there is no like fun playful banter I don't understand either character's motivations and this this is a dual point of view story Cameron I have no idea why he is like helping out this team except that he was asked to do it I guess and he's retired now so sure and then the heroin again it's like she's there but what does she want like I feel like it's so not often that I read a story where character motivations are this unclear and I didn't realize I guess how important that is to a story if I don't understand why the characters are doing the things that they're doing I don't care why they are going to be in a relationship I guess there's been some arguing between the two of them but like what's Charming about that I'm not impressed I really want to dnf this book I'm going to be honest with you but I think I'm going to like try to scam the last 50% and uh give you my final thoughts all right so I finished the long game by Elena armis and it was fine I told y I was going to skim I didn't really skim the last part of this book but I don't think it was able to overcome the issues that I had with it earlier on which is pretty disappointing But ultimately unsurprising given my history with this author I think that if you like her books though I think you might be disappointed by this one cuz it doesn't have that like quirky charm that people I think have come to expect from her books given that her first two really had that quirky charm but I do applaud her for trying something different with this heroin and like having a sort of I wouldn't say reverse grumpy Sunshine but having a heroin who is a little less like Corky and upbeat you know I applaud her for the attempt but I feel like it was missing the internal dialogue again that like makes her books so special and like get you in the mind of her characters so I don't know it was fine the ending was cute but ultimately like this is kind of like a low three star for me like just kind of meh and in terms of like where I would rate it amongst the other books that I've read so far I think I'm going to put it before king of Pride like that makes sense cuz they gave that one two stars but it's going to be after a long time coming because that one to me was quite Charming so I feel like this is kind of a good place to put it and I think like ultimately at the end of the day it'll probably kind of remain in the bottom tier for me not in the top 10 spots but probably just below because it was fine but just like not my favorite the right move is buying the love of your life a big ass expensive ass house and making her her favorite coffee every day even though you don't drink coffee this book is about Ryan and Indie Ryan is an NBA player who is seen as kind of stoic and grumpy by the people in his life especially the I believe GM of the team and he is passed up for a team captain opportunity because of his like not a team player kind of approach right he's trying to remedy this so he enlists the help of Indie who is living with him he kind of begrudgingly let Indie live with him he wasn't super jazzed about it Indie is his little sister's best friend she just got out of a really bad breakup she's dealing with a ton including her infertility which is a fairly large portion of this book so I thought it was worth mentioning if they decide to fake date it's going to be a mutually beneficial thing it is one of the most deeply romantic books I think I've read this entire year I love love the way that Ryan goes out of his way for Indie all of the little romantic gestures really add up and I think this might be my favorite Indie romance that I read in all of 2023 this one is so hard for me because I think I really did love this one equally to the seven-year slip The Vibes are totally different but again I think it comes down to the tightness of plot page length and the recency of which I've read these books so I'm going to put it in second place you again by Kate goldbeck is probably the book that I was the most interested in Reading from all of the books that I haven't read yet for good reads Choice words like for all of the books that I've had to Vlog this is the one that intrigued me the most because so many of y'all when I did my reaction to the selections for the good read Choice words the nominees so many of y'all said that this was very good or very bad I was like okay sign me the up very curious the cover is cute in my humble opinion I have to say I'm actually very much enjoying this book it's but our two main characters Ari and Josh and it is very much a kind of like modern take on When Harry Met Sally and that is my favorite romcom I'm going to say it's just so good anyway this is also really really good Ari is sort of a mess she is a comedian she kind of does odd jobs and she is just living for the moment living for the next good thing but I would say around the 20% Mark she gets married to a woman and that woman is wanting to like have this open relationship I think her name's like Cass or something like that and eventually unfortunately Ari kind of gets kicked to the curb and is cheated on essentially even though they had this open relationship it was very clear that AR's wife wasn't really interested in being faithful so we have her kind of dealing with the emotional repercussions of being divorced she really thought this was going to be a for everything even if her wife didn't so she's dealing with this divorce she seeks Solace I guess in this guy who she keeps coming across over the years kind of like Sally and Harry they strike up this friendship he's also kind of reeling from a breakup he is a serial monogamist very buttoned up and he's also dealing with the loss of not only his dad but also the fact that this business that he took over from his dad and kind of reinvented completely failed like he is a chef and this restaurant was just a complete failure so he is like not in a good place she's not in a good place and they really lean on each other for emotional support during this time I have to say just the way that this book is told I'm really liking it I was reading the long game by Elena armis earlier and this couldn't be more different than that this definitely has a witty banter quickness uh both characters feel very real they have personality Ari at times feels maybe a little I don't want to say manic pixie dream girl maybe just so outside of the realm of anyone I've ever met before like just so hot mess but I think her emotions are relatable enough to where I'm like willing to overlook that so I'm liking this I am very curious to see when the relationship starts to evolve into something romantic at this 50% Mark Ari has accompanied Josh to this like Gala or something like that where his dad I believe is being honored I think they're like slow dancing or something and so I'm like okay I think we're getting there I think the romance is like ratcheting up it's a very pleasant read it's not the most deeply romantic or romance centered book and I feel like that was one of the things that I read in yall's comments was that you didn't feel like this should have been nominated for a good read stories award in the category of romance because it felt too much like straight up fiction to you with like a romance subplot and I don't know I'm not sure how I feel about that yet I think it sort of depends on how things evolve over course of the rest of the story I can definitely see arguments both ways so so far I can't see this being anything less than like a four-star read like it is a very very solid book I have found myself laughing out loud a couple of times finished you again and I really liked this book I have to say I wasn't expecting to given the premise and given what some of the Goodreads reviews for this book said a lot of people are saying oh it's not really a romance didn't see where they're coming from you definitely like spans a long period of time our characters go through some growth they do kind of like break up ultimately this was a deeply romantic story and I think if you were a fan of Sally Rooney Emily Henry I think you would really like this book it takes two incredibly messy characters with a lot of character flaws and just shows you why these two should be together and you know what that is what a romance is ultimately trying to do right just tell us why two deeply flawed people should be together you know some books characters are more or less flawed but this one characters can be irritating like I can definitely understand what would put people off a lot of people actually the reviews that I read but that they didn't like the heroin and I get it she's not relatable to me in her hot messiness I honestly don't know anyone who is as deeply up as she is but I feel like she goes she under go realistic growth throughout the story it's not like she goes from being a hot mess to being perfect but she definitely um becomes compatible with the hero You know despite just like liking him thinking he's sexy and like enjoying his company I liked this I love the Big Love declaration at the end it's very much When Harry Met Sally I know some of their viws again were saying like it it tried to be but it wasn't and I'm like you know what but it was it was like a modern take on it it's exactly what it was and it pulled it off so four stars I liked it okay and I think I'm going to put this one between the true love experiment and practice makes perfect I kind of didn't know where to put this one because I feel like we're swimming in a seat of four-star romances which is a good place to be it seems like we're just having Banger after Banger and I for one am simply hoping it never stops power list by Elsie silver is about childhood best friends Jasper and Sloan he saves her from getting married to a total piece of and they kind of fall in love of course I know it sounds a little basic and premise wise it sort of is but Elsie silver is really really excellent in executing on tropes that we all know and love I thought this was fun and I really understood both character's hesitancy to get into a relationship together the only reason this wasn't a festar read for me is because Elie put out three books this year other two I liked a little bit more I personally wanted a little bit more onpage development of the relationship I feel like this often happens when it is a childhood friends lovers thing you just kind of assume that the reader will understand this connection that they've had the entire time and I think sometimes authors don't put in enough work to show us on page why these two should be together so not a major deal obviously it's Elsie silver it was still fantastic but this wasn't my favorite book by her this year and when I really try to think about what I loved I have to say I'm kind of drawing blanks like this one compared to some of the other ones just didn't stand out to me so I'm going to put this one for a long time coming after wildfire who's ready to get pucked up I'm 50% into pucking round by Emily wrath and this is the second time that I am attempting to read this book I tried before try as I might physically to read this book I was just not entranced as the kid shall say here's the thing why choose novels I just don't have luck with them I I deeply want to I deeply want to be that girl that's just like I was going to say Goblin glizzies but you know what I'm saying like I want to be that person and I just simply am not I just think a little too hard about the logistics of it you know polyamorous relationships I get everybody's kind of sharing or people are like pursuing different things but like how magical is this girl snatch that she would attract three beautiful men is it misogynistic to say I just don't think that's going to work I don't know I don't know okay let me talk about this book okay start character Rachel she is a physician who landed her dream like internship I guess at this hockey I was going to say rank new hockey team in Jacksonville because Jacksonville is just a place everybody wants to live she's reunited with a guy that she hooked up with at her brother's wedding like I don't think that guy was at her brother's wedding but was like in the lobby of the hotel where the wedding took place and she hooks up with them and they have a magical night of passion and sure I could have listened to that noela audio book was I going to no because the Audi book for this book it's like 24 hours long and that's obscene anyway Rachel reunites with this man his name is Jake and he has a monster uh she also gets to meet the equipment management man Caleb who apparently is like golden and has a has a really sweet dog but also gives like vampire demon Vibes um as is evidenced by the sex that I just finished reading and then we've got Mars I believe his name is he's the finished goalkeeper is uh I guess trying to hide the fact that he's injured and she's trying to help him because she's a doctor right despite the hipo violations this book is fine okay if you are willing to overlook all of the I don't want to say but if you're willing to overlook all of the unrealistic aspects of this book it's fun okay it's a fun time it's hot I like seeing people have sex well okay I like reading about people having sex I don't want to see people have sex the sex scenes in this book are hot so far Mars has not joined in the fun but I'm sure he will uh eventually mostly at this point we're kind of just dealing with Caleb and homeg girl and Jake having fun good for what it is I like that the sex is pretty gay as well which is nice I understand sexuality is complex but I like that everybody is having a good time together and that the swords are crossing I can't talk about this book seriously I really can't um it's better the second time around okay I'm sort of invested I want to see where things go there's a a scene where they like spit into each other's mouths so you know it's a book well all is well that happy and as well I finished around and I will say this book actually pleasantly surprised me I really thought this was going to end up being like a two and a half three star read because it is egregiously long there's no reason for this book to be this long however I feel like this book sort of took my complaints and fears with uh why's novels and sort of got me to rethink those things and I think that's because this book is truly a polyamorous uh romance it's not just four or five different men um agreeing to the same woman uh and I liked that I liked that there was a lot of communication about who was going to have contact with who what they wanted their relationship to look like essentially I think like way that everything evolved is that the finnished guy has his like own one-on-one relationship with the heroine and then the other two guys have sort of like a relationship with each other and then also with the heroine so it's cute I actually really liked how this book ended uh they they go public with their relationship our heroin does get in trouble with her job for like violating hipa basically which is you know good for that to actually have been addressed I I did appreciate that obiously she ends up keeping her job and everything is hunky dory they all just like rabbits C is everywhere and that's fun you know they're going to be a happy family and it seems like most of the people in their life are accepting of their relationship which is nice really don't have much to complain about again except for the length of this book I know that a lot of these other books I have bitched about the length but there is absolutely no reason for a romance especially mudy romance to be over 700 pages long and to be a 24-hour audiobook what in God's name I'm sorry that's just obscene so this one's tough for me I had a good time with it I don't think that ultimately this is like the most me romance ever I think if you're someone who likes a traditional romance and you want something that feels like very digestible I don't know that this is going to be for you if you want something that feels intensely smudy and you do like some good communication in your stories maybe this will be for you I mean I think I'm going to give this a three star it was fine and in terms of like where I would rank this I think I put this between a long time coming and final offer yeah I don't know this was a decent why choose maybe not for me I I like to choose okay bye now I'm not sure how you can make a book about a Bonafide Disney adult and billionaire CEO on fun but somehow Lauren Asher managed in final offer this is a book that I was really really excited about because the hero Cal is unlike the other two heroes in the series both these kind of again like grumpy stoic types what you think of when you think of a billionaire romance Cal is kind of a hot mess and I liked the promise of his character I wanted to see some self-loathing in there because that's kind of the girl I am I like a good self-loathing hero but unfortunately Cal's substance abuse in this book is something that is not resolved quickly and takes up the bulk of the story and I'm not saying that romances shouldn't have hard-hitting topics in them I think that that is definitely something that is important I think people should feel seen in a romance but there were just a couple of things that made this book not perfect for me namely the heroin I felt so bad for her not only does her childhood best friend have a substance abuse issue and that's kind of why they aren't together but also she is in charge of uh taking care of her niece she has custody of her niece because her sister has a substance abuse problem it's really sad that the heroin has so many people in her life that are letting her down and it really dragged down the tone of this book additionally Cal up a lot it's not just like one time and then he gets help um he continues to up and up and up and it's a long book so you just have to see the trials and tribulations over and over again again it's like I I it's not that I don't think serious romances should exist it just feels in congruous with the rest of the series and I feel like it needed a little bit of levity to like a complete story to me so yeah this book was just fine it wasn't bad but it wasn't fun and if there's something that I personally require from almost all of my romances it's a little bit of fun uh especially again when all the other books in the series were so I'm going to put this one after pucking around but before the long game number 20 the last book incompatible place by Emily Henry uh this books about Harriet and WN who have been together for very many years but unfortunately they are now broken up but they have to pretend to be together because they are going on this like friend vacation friendcation if you will with all of the friends that collected over the years or through high school or college I don't remember to be honest I don't really care the friends were boring this book sucked for me there is so much emphasis on friendship and friendships growing apart and I in theory like that but I don't give a single hairy about any of the friends in this book they were either grading or forgettable and a lot of the characters just kind of ran together like the conflict surrounding the friendship and like whether or not they were being honest with each other which is kind of uh not my favorite but obviously like the the worst part of this book was the relationship between and wi why would you date someone that you wouldn't feel comfortable sharing details about your family with the empathy that I normally lack was even more lacking in that particular aspect of the book I just genuinely don't understand how people who are I believe nearing their 30s uh can't just say hey uh shit's going wrong in my life can you be there for me and one thing that I whole heartedly stand by is that women should be able to and should be encouraged to be absolute degenerates okay I really I really do believe that women should be pieces of if they want to be and I'm not saying that's what Harriet decided to do but dropping out of medical school to follow a man to Wyoming to do Pottery because you suddenly decided that the only reason you were doing medical school and the only reason that you were like halfway through was because you were trying to impress your parents be so for real also when was a total sad sack like Mega Sympathy for the that he had to go through like his family life seemed pretty rough you know uh his dad died I think his mom had Parkinson like to hard things okay but can we give the man some personality trait for sake two stars and because it's the season of giving I'm going to be generous and I'm going to give this book a place between king of Pride and meet me at the lake Ba humbug all right folks now let's move on to the fun part of the video in which we're going to guess which book is going to be the winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards you know it might be the book that I just finished talking about who knows let's look at my final rankings shall we I feel like this is not at all what I expected frankly uh the seven-year slip is a book that I was again so hesitant to read will be the book that surprised me the most definitely surprises me that I think this should be the winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards but frankly all of the books in the top 10 I really enjoyed and I don't know if I've had this many highly ranked and highly rated books ever before like I don't think I've ever had this many four-star reads and it's interesting to me to see the dichotomy it's like lots of five and four stars and a lot of two stars not a whole lot of like middle of the road three star books but that's okay I actually had more fun I think this year reading the books and I feel really confident with my final rankings but I think what's more interesting here is comparing what my top 10 is to what my actual predictions are because just because I enjoy these books doesn't mean that I actually think these are going to make it into the top 10 I do in fact have two brain cells that I rub together on occasion and those brain cells are telling me that the predictions that I made are going to differ again from my actual top 10 and I'm illustrating that here with the red boxes right the books that I've highlighted and read in my top 10 are books that I don't actually foresee being in the top 10 right the true love experiment you again practice makes perfect powerless in a long time time coming while I liked all five of these books I don't actually anticipate that these are going to be in the top 10 as much as I would like them to be the five books that I actually think are going to make into the top 10 are going to be happy placed as the winner of course things be hide from the light because again nobody can get enough of Miss lcy score meet me at the lake because people gag over Carly Fortune romantic comedy because this has pushed us so hard by Publishers that there's just no way this isn't going to be here and in the likely event is kind of a wild card that I threw in here but I feel kind of confident in this decision because everybody loves fourwing right so like why wouldn't in the like event Mak it onto this list even though I thought it was um pretty horrible so let's go ahead and look folks let's see who the winner of the 2023 good re Choice word Sor okay I'm scared I'm nervous I've got my laptop on my lap if that wasn't clear yeah God damn it happy place by Emily Henry who is shocked who is surprised am I great at predicting I think I am does not take much intelligence actually to figure out who would be the winner of the good re Choice Awards but I think it's a damn shame because I think there are so many better romances but let's go ahead and evaluate my top 10 versus the real top 10 we've got some stuff here right and I think I think I was um pretty spot on with my actual like predictions let's let's look at that first let's look at that all right my top 10 my predictions and the real top 10 okay so I think it's pretty clear from looking at this that I'm pretty goddamn good at predicting things I wasn't like excellent at necessarily predicting the order in which um my predictions would go versus like the real top 10 but I think that's just because this year the things that I thought would actually make the top 10 were not things I was enamored with it was like a bunch of that I was fine with it being in any order yeah there's not much I feel Lake that was missing for my predictions versus the real top 10 if we look at my predictions again versus the real top 10 meet me at the lake didn't end up making the top 10 which actually does kind of surprise me and in the likely event didn't that was my wild card so I'm not like super super shocked but I guess I'm kind of surprised that the two that did make it in which are final offer and king of Pride I do like to see Indie romance authors making on the list and I guess you could argue that Lauren Asher and anah Hong are like traditionally published now but they started off Indie and like in my heart they're Indie okay you know not shoot my own horn but I damn good at predicting these things okay so how do I feel now that we're done how do I feel now that I correctly predicted the Goodreads Choice Awards winner I'm feeling interesting about it like looking at the real top 10 I did love love theoretically I did love yours truly right move I'm glad to see there the seven-year slip I'm glad to see there as well if there's any takeaway I would say from this it's um read my top 10 okay I'm a connoisseur of romance shall we say and um I just believe that the ones in my top 10 are some books that have kind of like flown under the radar this year things that I really do think deserve your attention again the seven-year slip I think I've heard a lot of people talk about this but it's not one that I would have organically picked up on my own and I know a lot of my like Indie romance girlies y'all probably wouldn't picked this one up either so go ahead and pick it up I think you're really going to enjoy it the right move again is one that I really desperately think you need to pick up You Again by Kate gold black I feel like it's s of divisive but again if you like Emily Henry and you like Sally Rooney I feel like you got to pick it up I feel like You' really enjoy it powerless of course by Elsie silver but I can I can I can I be honest with you I really wish hopeless would have made it on this list by her I think you should pick that one up and a long time coming with one if you're looking for a really solid friends to lovers romance I do think if you pick up any of these books though you're not going to be disappointed um that's actually not true you're probably going to be disappointed if you pick up books that weren't my top 10 but there are so many I think amazing books on this list and I think this is probably I want to say my favorite year that I have uh participated in but I do think it is worth noting that there is a lot lacking from this list when it comes to diversity right there are no queer romances on this list for the most part I guess you could count pucking around and there are not very many authors of color represented here which is very disappointing I do plan on actually reading the Amazon version of this Amazon has its own top 20 romances and that actually seems to be surprisingly more uh diverse and representative of romance as a whole so I will actually be doing a video on those books in the new year so be looking out for that but as always I loved doing this video thank you so much for watching I love you all so much let me know in the comments down below what you would have voted on for your winner I must know but I will see you tomorrow\n"