**Underrated Reads: A Year of Discovery**

I'm excited to share with you some of my favorite underrated reads from this year that I think deserve more attention. As someone who loves to discover new books and authors, I've been fortunate enough to come across some amazing titles that have flown under the radar.

One series that really caught my attention is Banks' Lands Like This. This is a series that I definitely want to reread because it's making a mess of my desk, thanks for the buddy system! The main character takes up space on my desk and then jumps onto my lap, which is just adorable. But what really drew me in was the fact that this series is highly underrated - it has all the makings of a classic, with its Gatsby-esque fantasy storylines, magic, and witches. It's like a forbidden love affair between magic and danger, and I couldn't get enough of it.

Another series that I've been meaning to talk about for ages is Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May. This book has it all: a Gatsby-esque storyline, magic, romance, and a dash of dark fantasy. The story follows a woman who doesn't know much about her family history or her ties to magic, which makes for a delightful and lovely exploration of identity and belonging. I loved how the author wove together different themes and motifs to create something truly unique and captivating.

**A Fan Favorite: Mass Effect**

If you're a fan of science fiction, especially video games like Mass Effect, then you'll love Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdez. This series is heavily inspired by the game, but it's not just a straightforward retelling or fan fiction - it's something entirely new and unique. The first book in the series was on my list last year, but I only got to read it after the second book came out. Let me tell you, the second installment is even better - it's fast-paced and action-packed, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing.

But what really sets this series apart is its character exploration. The main character has to confront some major mistakes from her past, which makes for a compelling and intense storyline. And let me tell you, the relationship between the two main characters is one of the highlights of the book - it's not smudgy or over-the-top, but rather nuanced and realistic.

**A Hidden Gem: The Last Watch**

Finally, I want to talk about The Last Watch by JSD. This sci-fi novel has flown under the radar for me, which is why I'm excited to share it with you all. It's a story about a group of outcasts who are sent to the fringes of the universe, where they're tasked with watching over a phenomenon known as "The Divide." As The Divide begins to collapse, our heroes must figure out what's going on and how to stop it.

I loved this book for its fast-paced action and sci-fi elements - it's like a thrill ride through space! But what really drew me in was the cast of characters. Our main character is a commander who has some amazing dynamics with her fellow outcasts, including an exiled prince-type character who's more of a scientist than royalty. The author does a great job of creating tension and conflict between these characters, which makes for a compelling and engaging story.

**A Trilogy in the Making**

I also want to mention that this series is part of a larger trilogy, which means there's more to come! I only read the first book, but I've heard it's going to be even better. If you're a fan of fast-paced sci-fi with interesting characters, then this might be the perfect series for you.

Overall, these are just a few of my favorite underrated reads from this year that I think deserve more attention. Whether you're a fan of fantasy, science fiction, or just great storytelling in general, there's something on this list for everyone. So, if you haven't already, give these books a try and let me know what you think!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Sam welcome back to vlogmas today we're going to be talking about the five most underrated books that I read in 2023 technically there's still a few books that I'm reading before the end of the year but I don't know if any of those will fall into like most underrated most underhyped so we're doing things a little early even though it's against by nature and these are books that at least on my side of the bookish internet book talk and book primarily I have not seen a lot of people talk about these a few of these one one of these in particular has like a few champions of them but I would still say they were largely underrated so let's get into it first is thistle foot by Gemma Rose nethercot you're going to hear me talking about this book all of the time and all my wrap-ups and like favorites of the year and stuff because spoiler alert this is one of my favorite books of the year but the fact that this is not talked about more I get that there's something about it that makes it a little bit hard to recommend generally speaking if you're just giving like a blanket recommendation because there's some heavy topics there's themes of like anti-Semitism and Trauma and like some of the historical things around anti-Semitism and uh the way like even like domestic Terror and things like that that are heavy in addition to all of that it also explores very interesting magic that is almost like smaller in scale this is not necessarily an epic scoped book it very much follows certain characters lives uh and is very like sort of intimate character study in a lot of ways it has a sentient house it talks about the Baba Yaga myth it explores sibling Dynamics and Families that are like theatrical families and identity and queerness and like a bunch of stuff the writing quality is excellent like I just think that this is a book that generally speaking if you were to make a blanket statement about it there is something in here that everyone probably could like because there's a lot of things explored really well so yeah this book more people should be reading it also as I mentioned in my review of this which I did recently if more people read it maybe we'll get special editions of it because because apparently the special edition creators only do it for books that are super super hyped and so we have 18 editions of like every Sarah J moss book when really I just want one more of these I want a beautiful Edition so anyway this will foot then another book I've been talking about a lot and all these wrap-ups even though I read it the beginning of the year my first book that I read this year lock Lance by Robert Jackson Bennett The Foundry size series by Robert Jackson Bennett this series is so underrated and I'm sick of yelling at y'all to read it it's just like unlike anything that I have read before it's one of the books that like I read a lot of pretty decent books this year but I will say not a lot of them stick out as being fantastic in the way that this does and that this series does this series does something so interesting as I've mentioned before it takes almost elements that would usually be sci-fi and make some fantasy like it makes Tech into fantasy like it's so cool on a way that I've never seen anything else do uh it has it has everything it has a found families it has like eccentric mentors it has sophic relationships uh it it explores so much it's so good uh there's some like religious trauma pieces it's really good um so yeah this series highly underrated I have heard not enough people talk about even just Foundry side which is book one let alone the finale lock lands like this is a series that I definitely want to reread Banks is making a mess of my desk thank you buddy I'll just to it over here you know you could have jumped on my lap from the floor he doesn't realize that he could jump on my lap from the floor he's taken up um getting onto the desk and then coming down into my lap when he could just jump up from here cats but anyway that's a series that I won't stop talking about because highly underrated then we have wild and wicked things by Franchesca may this is a great gatsby-esque fantasy story there are parts of it that feel like a retelling and then it sort of diverges and becomes its own unique thing but this it has again make it safic and make it dark and make it about magic and witches and so instead of you know alcohol and like the prohibition um magic is like fairly outlawed and considered very dangerous for a number of reasons this is one of those stories where magic comes to the price we have again a gatsby-esque storyline at the beginning that then diverges um we have a woman who doesn't know a lot about her family history and her ties to Magic so this was delightful and and lovely and again something that I think a lot of people would enjoy a lot of people like you know takes on classic lit this has witches I think the magic uh and alcohol prohibition like metaphor is something that's pretty commonly used but I tend to like that theme exploration and yeah this was very good and something that I didn't expect because no one had talked about this so when I read it um I had gotten this yeah as an arc and it came out in March of 2022 and then I so I had the arc before that no one has talked about this I've heard or a few people have talked about it at least so yeah this is great more people should read it then from another series that was on my list last year I read the first book last last year but the second book Prime deceptions by Valerie Valdez as I mentioned when I talked about this last year when I've talked about the series in general this is a series heavily inspired by the game Mass Effect wearing Mass Effect sweater because basically every video I've filmed for vlogmas I've been wearing this sweater because I've filmed on different days and bulk filmed so it's essentially the sweater the entire time but this has a lot of elements of Mass Effect if you like that but even if you are not familiar with the game it's not like it's a complete retelling or fan fic of it uh but this second book the second installment while the first book is a lot more like it's very very fast-paced um and a lot of like uh the main character making a lot of mistakes and stuff this is more of a character exploration because the main character has to confront something about her past uh where like she really messed up um and so she has to go back to this like area in which that all happened so continued greatness I love the relationship here there's an alien romance it's not smudy not everything has to be smudy uh so yeah highly enjoyed this this series continues to be underrated I know sci-fi in general tends to be underrated more people should read it and finally another sci-fi book The Last Watch by jsd I almost included um some desperate Glory by Emily Tesh but I think that is slightly more hyped within the Sci-Fi realm this I don't hear talked about nearly at all like I think I've heard like maybe two people recommend it those people talk very highly of it um but this is a Sci-Fi story that is following a cast of sort of like Outcast characters that were sent to the fringes of the universe for reasons um and they have to just basically watch what is called The Divide which is like the edge of the universe and then it starts kind of like collapsing and so they're having to figure out what is going on so you primarily are following two main characters one is like the commander of this area um and she has very interesting Dynamics with everybody sort of like an exiled Prince type character but instead of him really seeming like royalty he's more of like a scientist type character uh and they're both very fun this is very fastpaced intense um space oper e type scified apparently this is going to be a Trilogy there's two books out I thought it was just going to be a duology apparently it's going to be a Trilogy I've only read this first book but again if you are into Fun fast-paced sci-fi with interesting characters this is good so those are the five books that I read this year that I think are the most underrated comment below let me know about some underrated reads that you've read this year thank you all for watching and I'll see all you guys soon byehey guys it's Sam welcome back to vlogmas today we're going to be talking about the five most underrated books that I read in 2023 technically there's still a few books that I'm reading before the end of the year but I don't know if any of those will fall into like most underrated most underhyped so we're doing things a little early even though it's against by nature and these are books that at least on my side of the bookish internet book talk and book primarily I have not seen a lot of people talk about these a few of these one one of these in particular has like a few champions of them but I would still say they were largely underrated so let's get into it first is thistle foot by Gemma Rose nethercot you're going to hear me talking about this book all of the time and all my wrap-ups and like favorites of the year and stuff because spoiler alert this is one of my favorite books of the year but the fact that this is not talked about more I get that there's something about it that makes it a little bit hard to recommend generally speaking if you're just giving like a blanket recommendation because there's some heavy topics there's themes of like anti-Semitism and Trauma and like some of the historical things around anti-Semitism and uh the way like even like domestic Terror and things like that that are heavy in addition to all of that it also explores very interesting magic that is almost like smaller in scale this is not necessarily an epic scoped book it very much follows certain characters lives uh and is very like sort of intimate character study in a lot of ways it has a sentient house it talks about the Baba Yaga myth it explores sibling Dynamics and Families that are like theatrical families and identity and queerness and like a bunch of stuff the writing quality is excellent like I just think that this is a book that generally speaking if you were to make a blanket statement about it there is something in here that everyone probably could like because there's a lot of things explored really well so yeah this book more people should be reading it also as I mentioned in my review of this which I did recently if more people read it maybe we'll get special editions of it because because apparently the special edition creators only do it for books that are super super hyped and so we have 18 editions of like every Sarah J moss book when really I just want one more of these I want a beautiful Edition so anyway this will foot then another book I've been talking about a lot and all these wrap-ups even though I read it the beginning of the year my first book that I read this year lock Lance by Robert Jackson Bennett The Foundry size series by Robert Jackson Bennett this series is so underrated and I'm sick of yelling at y'all to read it it's just like unlike anything that I have read before it's one of the books that like I read a lot of pretty decent books this year but I will say not a lot of them stick out as being fantastic in the way that this does and that this series does this series does something so interesting as I've mentioned before it takes almost elements that would usually be sci-fi and make some fantasy like it makes Tech into fantasy like it's so cool on a way that I've never seen anything else do uh it has it has everything it has a found families it has like eccentric mentors it has sophic relationships uh it it explores so much it's so good uh there's some like religious trauma pieces it's really good um so yeah this series highly underrated I have heard not enough people talk about even just Foundry side which is book one let alone the finale lock lands like this is a series that I definitely want to reread Banks is making a mess of my desk thank you buddy I'll just to it over here you know you could have jumped on my lap from the floor he doesn't realize that he could jump on my lap from the floor he's taken up um getting onto the desk and then coming down into my lap when he could just jump up from here cats but anyway that's a series that I won't stop talking about because highly underrated then we have wild and wicked things by Franchesca may this is a great gatsby-esque fantasy story there are parts of it that feel like a retelling and then it sort of diverges and becomes its own unique thing but this it has again make it safic and make it dark and make it about magic and witches and so instead of you know alcohol and like the prohibition um magic is like fairly outlawed and considered very dangerous for a number of reasons this is one of those stories where magic comes to the price we have again a gatsby-esque storyline at the beginning that then diverges um we have a woman who doesn't know a lot about her family history and her ties to Magic so this was delightful and and lovely and again something that I think a lot of people would enjoy a lot of people like you know takes on classic lit this has witches I think the magic uh and alcohol prohibition like metaphor is something that's pretty commonly used but I tend to like that theme exploration and yeah this was very good and something that I didn't expect because no one had talked about this so when I read it um I had gotten this yeah as an arc and it came out in March of 2022 and then I so I had the arc before that no one has talked about this I've heard or a few people have talked about it at least so yeah this is great more people should read it then from another series that was on my list last year I read the first book last last year but the second book Prime deceptions by Valerie Valdez as I mentioned when I talked about this last year when I've talked about the series in general this is a series heavily inspired by the game Mass Effect wearing Mass Effect sweater because basically every video I've filmed for vlogmas I've been wearing this sweater because I've filmed on different days and bulk filmed so it's essentially the sweater the entire time but this has a lot of elements of Mass Effect if you like that but even if you are not familiar with the game it's not like it's a complete retelling or fan fic of it uh but this second book the second installment while the first book is a lot more like it's very very fast-paced um and a lot of like uh the main character making a lot of mistakes and stuff this is more of a character exploration because the main character has to confront something about her past uh where like she really messed up um and so she has to go back to this like area in which that all happened so continued greatness I love the relationship here there's an alien romance it's not smudy not everything has to be smudy uh so yeah highly enjoyed this this series continues to be underrated I know sci-fi in general tends to be underrated more people should read it and finally another sci-fi book The Last Watch by jsd I almost included um some desperate Glory by Emily Tesh but I think that is slightly more hyped within the Sci-Fi realm this I don't hear talked about nearly at all like I think I've heard like maybe two people recommend it those people talk very highly of it um but this is a Sci-Fi story that is following a cast of sort of like Outcast characters that were sent to the fringes of the universe for reasons um and they have to just basically watch what is called The Divide which is like the edge of the universe and then it starts kind of like collapsing and so they're having to figure out what is going on so you primarily are following two main characters one is like the commander of this area um and she has very interesting Dynamics with everybody sort of like an exiled Prince type character but instead of him really seeming like royalty he's more of like a scientist type character uh and they're both very fun this is very fastpaced intense um space oper e type scified apparently this is going to be a Trilogy there's two books out I thought it was just going to be a duology apparently it's going to be a Trilogy I've only read this first book but again if you are into Fun fast-paced sci-fi with interesting characters this is good so those are the five books that I read this year that I think are the most underrated comment below let me know about some underrated reads that you've read this year thank you all for watching and I'll see all you guys soon bye\n"