A Review of Recent Reads: A Journey Through Fantasy and Romance

As I delved into the world of reading, I found myself transported to two vastly different settings - Winchester England and Miami, each with its own unique culture. The first book, which I didn't have the pleasure of reviewing in detail, managed to transport me to both places without being unreasonable in doing so. This was particularly impressive, as it's not often that a single book can evoke such a strong sense of place and atmosphere.

The second book, which I did get to review, was a delightful mix of fantasy and romance. The author's ability to blend elements of both genres was truly remarkable, making for a story that was both fun and cute while still tackling some heavy emotional themes. The world-building in this book was top-notch, with a unique magic system and a richly detailed history that added depth and complexity to the narrative.

One of the things that struck me most about this book was its ability to balance action and emotion. The author did an excellent job of never info-dumping too much information, instead opting for a more streamlined approach that allowed the story to breathe. The characters were well-developed and relatable, with each one bringing their own unique perspective to the table. I particularly enjoyed watching the protagonist grow and develop over time, as her experiences shaped her into the person she was meant to be.

Speaking of protagonists, the main character in this book was a fascinating case study in loneliness and isolation. Her desire for connection and human interaction was palpable, making it easy to become invested in her journey. The author did an excellent job of conveying the emotional depth of this character, making her feel like a fully fleshed-out person rather than just a prop or plot device.

Of course, no discussion of this book would be complete without mentioning the twist at the end. I won't say any more about it, but suffice it to say that it was a masterclass in storytelling. The author had a way of setting up clues and hints throughout the story that made sense in retrospect, but were expertly concealed from view until the very end. It was like watching a puzzle come together, with each piece falling into place in perfect harmony.

The cast of characters in this book was equally impressive, with each one bringing their own unique energy to the table. The relationships between them were complex and multifaceted, making it easy to become invested in their struggles and triumphs. I particularly enjoyed watching the way the author wove together different plot threads, creating a rich tapestry of story that felt both cohesive and expansive.

Overall, this book was a true standout, with its unique magic system, well-developed characters, and expertly crafted twist at the end. It's a testament to the author's skill as a storyteller that they were able to balance action and emotion so seamlessly, creating a narrative that was both fun and thought-provoking. I'm excited to see what the future holds for this series, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a compelling fantasy read.

The next book on my list was "Ray Bearer" by Jordan Ifuco, which promised to deliver a super unique fantasy experience. From the get-go, this book had me hooked with its fascinating premise - essentially, the protagonist is tasked with being part of an elite group known as the Emperor's Son, who possess special abilities known as "rays". I won't delve too deeply into the specifics of the magic system, but suffice it to say that it was expertly crafted and added a whole new level of depth to the story.

One of the things that struck me most about this book was its ability to balance character development with world-building. The author took their time introducing us to each member of the council, allowing us to get to know them on a personal level before revealing more about their roles and motivations. This created a sense of intimacy and connection between the reader and the characters that was hard to shake.

The protagonist herself was also fascinating - an isolated individual with a deep desire for human connection. Her journey was both heartbreaking and inspiring, as she struggled to come to terms with her place in the world. I found myself rooting for her from the very beginning, eager to see how she would navigate the complexities of her new role.

As the story progressed, it became clear that this book was not just about one individual's journey - but also about the larger cast of characters and their relationships with each other. The author expertly wove together multiple plot threads, creating a rich tapestry of story that felt both epic and intimate at the same time. I particularly enjoyed watching the way the different council members interacted with each other, their personalities and dynamics shaping the course of events in ways both big and small.

The pacing of this book was also noteworthy - it moved at a breakneck speed without ever feeling rushed or overwhelming. The author had a keen sense of when to reveal information and when to hold back, keeping me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. And just when I thought I knew where the story was headed, the author would throw in a curveball that completely upended my expectations.

Overall, "Ray Bearer" was an incredible read that left me breathless and eager for more. Its unique magic system, well-developed characters, and expertly crafted plot twists made it a true standout - and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a compelling fantasy experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone it's haley and today i wanted to talk about some more books that i have read recently so if you haven't read any of these books that is no problem these are the books that i'm going to be discussing today so if there is a specific one that you would like to hear about then i will have the timestamps in the description box down below but we've got a good mix here of some contemporary some fantasy a very anticipated release for me that i got an arc of that i've read so let's just get into it i guess i'll start off with that really anticipated release so that is the soulmate equation by christina lauren so i was so excited for this book honestly and i'm so happy that it did not let me down this is coming out on may 18th so there's still a little ways to go but christina lauren is my favorite romance author duo i love their stuff they have so many romances they come out with like two a year and i would say out of their recent ones this one is probably my favorite i also did really enjoy the honey don't list but i think this one kind of surpasses that just because of how unique it is so in this story we follow the main character i can't remember her name because i'm terrible with that jess that is her name we follow jess who is a single mother and she doesn't really try to date she just doesn't feel very optimistic about it but then she gets the opportunity to sign up for this dating service that is actually based in dna and she is a i don't know how to say this statistician like like she does statistics for a living basically like freelance statistics so she's really into numbers so the science behind it does very much interest her but it ends up being a little twist when she decides to sign up for the service and she ends up being a 98 match with one of the founders of the dating service so she wasn't expecting that and as the dating service is about to go public they decide that they are going to do a little fake dating thing she's going to be compensated for her time and they are going to kind of use it for publicity but like it's not a publicity stunt because like it's real but it you know it just kind of worked out that way anyways i feel like i made that way more confusing than i had to i'm sorry i was automatically really intrigued by the dating service that this like story has i felt like it seemed like a very interesting opportunity to kind of twist things i feel like it's not the typical romance because of that i loved the fake dating aspect which i wasn't actually expecting i didn't know that was going to be part of it going in so that is a trope that i love so that was a really nice surprise it's kind of a little bit enemies to lovers like he's not exactly the most warm character the love interest so it takes time to warm up to each other but i did completely buy into their chemistry like immediately and i don't know if it's just because like i was told that they scientifically had chemistry so i was like yes i see it like it is definitely there or if it just like they really had that chemistry i'm not sure which one it is but either way it worked for me one of my favorite things about christina lauren's romances at least like they're more like they have this whole business series that that one's very smutty but most of their other romances aren't super smutty and that is what i enjoy like i don't like a ton of smite i kind of like the slow burn leading up to the relationship and enjoying that romantic side of things and that's what i got in this book as well i also loved the supporting cast of characters i really really loved fizzy she was fantastic so she's her best friend and she is a romance writer and i thought that was a really neat element to it because she was also fascinated because of this dating service she's like oh i could write something about this so like it was kind of meta in that way and she was just a really great friend and you also have her grandparents because her mother isn't exactly the most stable mother so she doesn't really have that much of a relationship with her mother but her grandparents raised her and they are very prevalent in the story and they were so sweet like i loved that family dynamic and having her daughter i've never read a book by christina lauren or i don't really think i've read like maybe one other i think i've read one other but i can't think of what it is but where the main character in a romance has a child i don't i can't think of what it is and that's bugging me but anyways this is the first one by them with that and i wasn't really sure about that but i thought oh what i'm thinking of is undercover um no the bromance book club like the first one but in this one she's raising her daughter by herself and you see her as like this really strong single mother and looking out for her child like i love the relationship that she had with her daughter i wasn't really expecting this to have like the twists that it did so that was really interesting i feel like a lot of people might see those twists coming but i didn't so that was enjoyable like i never see twists coming so that's not surprising but i just with romance novels i tend to like think i know how things are gonna go i know how it's going to play out but in this case i didn't and that was kind of refreshing overall this was such a fast read i just could not put it down i kept on reading it reading it and i just didn't want it to end but it also was adorable and i was very satisfied with how it ended it was all around just a very enjoyable read and definitely a new romance release to look out for i'm not at all going in order of how i actually read these books to be honest i'm just kind of picking up stuff so the next book that i have here is star daughter by shavita thakrar i was really excited when i found out about this book because i thought the concept sounded really cool so the main character is the daughter of a star so she's half star and like stars are like god-like figures and she ends up accidentally injuring her father and in order to save her father she ends up having to answer the call of the star song and go to like the court of stars if you will and there she has to compete in this competition so she can hopefully save her father i thought this was so interesting like i loved the world of it the concept of stars and them being these god-like figures was fascinating to me and it also was really rich in cultures so hindu culture is very prevalent in the story and i thought it was really seamlessly blended into things like there were things that i had to google to see what the creatures were but i don't mind that at all because like i don't need to be spoon-fed you know like i can google that's totally fine and i thought that it made it like not so jarring i guess i feel like if they had like really described everything and laid it out it wouldn't have been as immersive of a read so i really didn't mind googling things i thought the world was super well built up and really fascinating i thought this was actually going to be a high fantasy but it's not it's an urban fantasy which i guess i should have known going into it because she's half star so she's half human that was really dumb of me but whatever i didn't know that but i thought the blend of like the world that we know mixed with the star world was very well done i will say though this did kind of read like a debut fantasy it is a debut fantasy and i think it was a solid debut but it did suffer in some ways and kind of read like a debut the writing was really really beautiful but it was kind of a little bit too flowery at times i think it suited the story perfectly but sometimes it did kind of take you away from like knowing exactly what was going on because it relied really heavily on purple prose but that's not saying like i did love the writing i thought it was very nice it just kind of was a bit heavy at times on that the flourishes if you will one of the biggest issues that i had though was the pacing for this i found the pacing to be very off the whole time you're building up to this competition and it's quite slow but then like the competition happens and that is over very quickly the ending was pretty rushed for me well i felt like the rest of it was kind of like a lot of build up and kind of too much almost so i feel like it could have been a little bit more evenly paced and i would have liked if the actual competition part was more a part of the story because i felt like it was just something at the end to wrap everything up there is a romance in here and i didn't really care for the romance so much i feel like it was prevalent and then it was kind of forgotten and then it was prevalent again and i was like oh i kind of forgot that that was a thing and i cared more about the friendship like the main character sheetal has her best friend menaul is with her and their relationship was so beautiful like i just loved how strong that friendship was and how much they cared for each other there were also a few instances of info dumping that i felt like kind of bogged down the story at times but i think that it had a certain whimsy to it and the world still was like very lovely to read about even though i felt like at times i did get like a lot of information at once it was just kind of a pacing issue again the pacing issue really came to a head in the middle when you're following the main character as she's just trying to understand things and trying to figure things out for a very long time which is understandable because like she's trying she has like she's faced with a lot and she's in a completely different world so she's trying to piece things together but just this focus of like paragraph after paragraph of her trying to figure things out trying to understand things learning things it felt really repetitive after a while because there wasn't really a lot of action to break it up and it just didn't make for the most pleasant reading experience throughout the middle and really made it dray i will say i think the whole concept of stars was very cool the element of having like stars being hunted for their blood and the power that it possesses and then the competition itself that is surrounded by art like stars acted as muses and they inspire people to create amazing art and i thought that was really interesting like having this art based competition and i think that's why i wanted the competition to be more in the story but overall i think this was a really cool debut i think it was totally worth the read like it was very whimsical and everything that i wanted really except it just did have like a couple of technical issues and then personal preference things where like i would have liked more of the competition but it was very cool and i think it's actually a standalone fantasy 2 which is like a unicorn in the book world so it is one that i think is worth checking out it was super unique and i did like it overall so next up is now that i found you by christina forrest so i actually have another book by christina forrest that she wrote before this one that i need to read and that one is i want to be where you are i think so i do want to pick that one up soon especially because i really liked this one so now that i found you is a hollywood-based story and i used to really like those when i was younger i remember when i didn't read a lot there was like this one series and i can't i can't think of what it's called but the cover looked like a like purse almost i feel like i don't know it just had a pattern on it maybe it was like confessions of a hollywood star like no there was one where it had a star on it it was black and then it had a pink star on it i don't know there were like two that i read and really liked it i'm super into the hollywood thing but this was a nice return to it because it was mysterious it kind of it makes me think of evelyn hugo a bit just because of like the old hollywood starlet and that aspect is in the main character's grandmother so the main character i want to see her name i completely can't remember evie so her grandmother is this old famous hollywood starlet and she has been away from hollywood for a very long time and evie is trying to make it big she finally gets this like great deal that is going to change everything but then she ends up getting betrayed by the person she thought she could trust the most her best friend and this video releases of her that like ruins everything she loses the movie deal and she has to try and piece everything together so part of this plan that she makes up to try and fix things involves her grandmother but then her grandmother goes missing so that is obviously problematic so you are following her as she is trying to find her grandmother again and also like piece together her life again this was just really sweet i thought it was very immersive in the world of hollywood like it's actually set in new york city but you get like the starlet side of things and milo the love interest he was so like i just loved him he was such a great character so music actually comes into this as well because milo is a guitarist for a band and he is also you know trying to make it big i felt like milo made the perfect match for evie because he was so extremely likable like you just want to hug him and squeeze him and love him and evie isn't so much that evie is a little bit of a tougher character she's more self-centered and it kind of makes sense because you know she's trying to make it as an actress so she has to look out for number one and she also has come out of a situation where she was betrayed so obviously she's going to be looking out for herself but she definitely can be a harder character to like because she doesn't seem to think of the consequences or like what might happen to other people when she acts and i thought that milo kind of brought her down to earth which is why i enjoyed the pairing of the two of them i loved evie's grandmother gigi as well i thought she was fascinating even though she's like not so much in the story like she is but since she's missing she's more of a presence and you're piecing together her history and learning more about her and i thought that it was really fascinating to like piece things together and see who she was i felt like overall it really pulled me into evie's world and all that made it up and that was a really terrible sentence but like it was just a really fun little game almost trying to figure out like where she had disappeared to and why this was a super fast read as well i think if i had had more time when i read it i would have been able to finish it in one sitting but it took me two but that's totally fine like i just breezed through it because it had so much going for it it had the intrigue it was a sweet and adorable story at the same time there were just lots of layers to it like you're watching evie develop and i would say she developed a decent amount like she definitely has a little bit more to go but she's getting there which i think is what's important at the end like it was kind of nice not to have like an arc where the character completely is different has changed everything and is a completely new person like she still is who she was at the beginning she just has started kind of making some changes to be a better person and kind of be less self-centered so overall i had a great time reading this and it definitely has made it so i cannot wait to read the other book that i have by this author next up i finally like finally freaking read this book and that is on birthday by liz brazwell so this is the latest release in the twisted tales series that disney has and this series i have quite a few of them they're actually behind me and i haven't read them yet i keep on talking about doing a readathon for them and i just haven't gotten around to it yet i haven't had the time but it will be coming at some point hopefully soon i'm really sorry about that but i knew that this one i didn't want to read for the readathon one because it's a little bit bigger than the others and two because it's in alice in wonderland retelling and i wanted to like dedicate all my time to it you know i didn't want to be like feeling like i had to read it in a certain amount of time i wanted to be able to enjoy the experience of wonderland so this whole series it takes a typical disney fairy tale and it twists it on its head so it asks a question and like the whole story is answering that question so this one is what if wonderland was in peril and alice was very very late so as excited as i was for this book honestly i was really nervous going into it like i i don't know i just was like what if i don't like it because i had built it up so much in my head i haven't read an alice in wonderland retelling in a really long time and i felt like this one was like a solid place to start but i was not let down by this at all i had so much fun reading this like it had the nostalgia but it was also fresh and new and it was the perfect mix of the two i felt like seeing the wonderland characters that i know and love i could like easily picture them and even picture like the cartoon characters from like the original alice i could picture them so well and it just made my reading experience fantastic like it was full of the nonsense and whimsy that i would expect but it's also a little bit darker and you get to see alice in an older setting i will say she did read a little bit younger than she is supposed to be i think she's supposed to be 17 or 18. no she's 18. and she read younger but at the same time i wouldn't expect her to read like as an older character because i think the point of alice is that she remains childlike and has that imagination and she never loses that so i didn't mind that so much but that being said you did see her getting to deal with some older situations like marriage is something that is on the table like everyone's after her for and she's just like not interested so she stayed true to who she was when she was younger but also had matured a bit from the alice you know from the original movie there were so many little moments that like paid homage to the original movie that just made me so happy and then also moments that stayed true to lewis carroll's book so it was a nice mix of the two i loved that you got to see more of alice in the victorian society and in like an actual real world setting and you also got to see more of her sister and that relationship dynamic was very interesting i left that the politics of the time came into it i wasn't at all expecting that it was going to deal with immigration and prejudice toward immigrants but it did so in a really seamless way and i loved that that conversation was brought up in the story i also loved the fact that photography was brought into it because photography is something that was new around victorian times and was super big and you see alice like getting involved in photography and it also connects to wonderland and i thought that was so clever and like i just i loved that from the very beginning the one like mini thing about this it's really small the pacing was kind of slow but i didn't mind that so much like you kind of jump in and out of wonderland and victorian society and i thought that it was very well done like the mix of the two i didn't feel like one was kind of favored over the other it just kind of read a little bit more slow than i would have liked but that's like a very very minor thing overall it felt like coming home reading this it was so sweet it had all the charm of the wonderland that i know and love all of those characters like i felt like they stayed true to their characterization and alice especially like it was just so much fun and has made me really excited to read the rest of the twisted tales that i have next up is a cubing girl's guide to tea and tomorrow by laura taylor namey so i heard some really amazing things about this book and i do think that my expectations were a little bit too high going into it but that's not to say that i didn't enjoy it so you follow the main character oh my gosh i can't remember anyone's name i want to try and do it without looking i think it's pronounced leela i remember i wasn't sure if it was leela or lila but i'm gonna go with lila and i'm sorry if i'm incorrect but that's just what we're gonna roll with so she is having a really rough time her abuela has died and her best friend has left her and her boyfriend has broken up with her so she is just not doing very well mentally and her family ends up sending her away to england to winchester england i kept on saying it was london but it is not london it is winchester england and she is sent there to live with a relative and hopefully to recover from everything that she is facing so i loved the fact that this was set in winchester and not london like it was really cool to see a different setting in england and i thought it was very charming and you also have the love interest oren who was super super sweet and i will say as much as i thought he was adorable i wasn't like super super invested in their romance until there were certain moments that i was like okay that is actually the cutest thing and then i realized that i did care a little bit more than i realized but one of my favorite things about this was the cooking and the baking like really the baking specifically but it's also like a mix of cooking and baking i didn't know that that was going to be a part of the story going into it but it is like so prevalent in the story so leela wants to be a baker she's super passionate about that and specifically like the recipes that her abuela cooked she connected with her through that so it's something that she has such passion for and really overall passion is the name of this book honestly like the passion for cuban culture was so prevalent in this and her love for her home in miami and her love for her family and her passion for cooking you just got to really see who lila is even though she's suffering a lot you got to see all that she loved and it totally came through in the entire story like the cooking it just made me so hungry the descriptions of things smells of things like it was super vivid and also her love of her home and her culture was like very very important to the story and i think that part i did kind of struggle with a little bit like i think that it's important to her because her family is there like she loves miami so much and i think i just struggled on a personal level like connecting with that because i've lived in the same city my whole life and i don't really have a deep connection with it other than my family being here so the fact that she was so upset to be in england was very confusing to me and kind of annoyed me at times but that's just like that's entirely a personal thing and maybe it's just me being stir crazy for not being able to travel anywhere either and being jealous about that however i did enjoy when she started taking those strides toward healing and getting through all that she's been facing i thought she made incredible leaps and bounds of character development throughout the book but not in an unreasonable way this book managed to transport me both to winchester england and her like getting to know that culture but also to miami and getting to know her culture of home and i thought it was really interesting that i was able to transport me to both of those settings despite like it's really only set in the one i thought both were very vivid and really well done so i did enjoy this a lot it was fun and cute and at the same time it had a lot of emotion to it as well so it's a little mix of everything in here and all of it was just very well done i've gone on for way longer than i was expecting to so i'm really sorry about that but the next book that i have to talk about actually the last book that i have to talk about is ray bearer by jordan ifuco this was such a cool read a super unique fantasy and like i totally fell in love with it in this book you follow tari sai and she has been isolated from everyone her entire life she only knows the lady who is her mother figure but she never even really gets to see the ladies so basically she is just so lonely she's desperate for a connection and she gets the opportunity to be part of this group like the emperor's son basically the emperor is a ray bearer so he has like the opportunity to connect with 11 different council members and they are known as rays like it's a very hard thing for me to explain the book does a way better job of it obviously but she has the opportunity to be one of these council members to have this connection and for her that seems like the ultimate opportunity because she is so desperate to have someone to connect with and not be left alone all the time and the problem with this is that she has the lady behind her who has made it so she has this mission kind of it reminded me a lot of ella enchanted in that way where she has to kill the prince and she doesn't want to do that obviously so there's a lot of drama the magic system of this was fascinating like i said i did terrible job of explaining it but i thought it was so unique and i just was completely absorbed by it like it was very well explained and the world was built up so well and i was super invested in like the history of it and where it would be moving forward there were a lot of characters in this story between like the council members of the current emperor and then you have the council members of the child emperor i can't like i don't know how else to say that but there were a lot of characters basically but i thought all of them were really well developed and the dynamics between all of them was like whoa and there were a lot of twists that i did not see coming i never guessed twists but like especially these i like totally was like wow okay didn't see that coming and i was like what but i loved what the twist did i felt like the story was completely turned on its head and i just i'm very excited for the sequel now one of my favorite things about this story was that you got to follow the characters from a pretty young age and you get to see them develop and i felt like seeing them from such a young age in the early stages of life i became very connected to them and just wanted what was best for like all of them and i loved seeing how they progressed over the years i loved the fact that it covered such a long time period but it really didn't feel like a long time period like this was a super fast fantasy read there were some relationships though that i felt like they were going to go a certain way but then they didn't end up going that way and i liked that it didn't end up going that way like i thought that it was kind of going to follow a typical thing and that the love interest was going to be one person but then it wasn't and i really enjoyed and appreciated that little twist overall i felt like this was a great book with a mix of political intrigue and social intrigue and those relationships like i felt like all of it was blended really seamlessly and there was a lot of action but not too much action and never really too much info dumping either it was just such a pleasure to read and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time wondering what was going to happen and i'm super excited to read the next one whenever it's coming out okay so those are all six of the most recent books that i have read so i'm really sorry that this was so long i just could not stop talking about any of them but i hope you enjoyed this video let me know if you have read any of these books your thoughts on them because i would love to know and i will see you guys in the next video very soon bye youhey everyone it's haley and today i wanted to talk about some more books that i have read recently so if you haven't read any of these books that is no problem these are the books that i'm going to be discussing today so if there is a specific one that you would like to hear about then i will have the timestamps in the description box down below but we've got a good mix here of some contemporary some fantasy a very anticipated release for me that i got an arc of that i've read so let's just get into it i guess i'll start off with that really anticipated release so that is the soulmate equation by christina lauren so i was so excited for this book honestly and i'm so happy that it did not let me down this is coming out on may 18th so there's still a little ways to go but christina lauren is my favorite romance author duo i love their stuff they have so many romances they come out with like two a year and i would say out of their recent ones this one is probably my favorite i also did really enjoy the honey don't list but i think this one kind of surpasses that just because of how unique it is so in this story we follow the main character i can't remember her name because i'm terrible with that jess that is her name we follow jess who is a single mother and she doesn't really try to date she just doesn't feel very optimistic about it but then she gets the opportunity to sign up for this dating service that is actually based in dna and she is a i don't know how to say this statistician like like she does statistics for a living basically like freelance statistics so she's really into numbers so the science behind it does very much interest her but it ends up being a little twist when she decides to sign up for the service and she ends up being a 98 match with one of the founders of the dating service so she wasn't expecting that and as the dating service is about to go public they decide that they are going to do a little fake dating thing she's going to be compensated for her time and they are going to kind of use it for publicity but like it's not a publicity stunt because like it's real but it you know it just kind of worked out that way anyways i feel like i made that way more confusing than i had to i'm sorry i was automatically really intrigued by the dating service that this like story has i felt like it seemed like a very interesting opportunity to kind of twist things i feel like it's not the typical romance because of that i loved the fake dating aspect which i wasn't actually expecting i didn't know that was going to be part of it going in so that is a trope that i love so that was a really nice surprise it's kind of a little bit enemies to lovers like he's not exactly the most warm character the love interest so it takes time to warm up to each other but i did completely buy into their chemistry like immediately and i don't know if it's just because like i was told that they scientifically had chemistry so i was like yes i see it like it is definitely there or if it just like they really had that chemistry i'm not sure which one it is but either way it worked for me one of my favorite things about christina lauren's romances at least like they're more like they have this whole business series that that one's very smutty but most of their other romances aren't super smutty and that is what i enjoy like i don't like a ton of smite i kind of like the slow burn leading up to the relationship and enjoying that romantic side of things and that's what i got in this book as well i also loved the supporting cast of characters i really really loved fizzy she was fantastic so she's her best friend and she is a romance writer and i thought that was a really neat element to it because she was also fascinated because of this dating service she's like oh i could write something about this so like it was kind of meta in that way and she was just a really great friend and you also have her grandparents because her mother isn't exactly the most stable mother so she doesn't really have that much of a relationship with her mother but her grandparents raised her and they are very prevalent in the story and they were so sweet like i loved that family dynamic and having her daughter i've never read a book by christina lauren or i don't really think i've read like maybe one other i think i've read one other but i can't think of what it is but where the main character in a romance has a child i don't i can't think of what it is and that's bugging me but anyways this is the first one by them with that and i wasn't really sure about that but i thought oh what i'm thinking of is undercover um no the bromance book club like the first one but in this one she's raising her daughter by herself and you see her as like this really strong single mother and looking out for her child like i love the relationship that she had with her daughter i wasn't really expecting this to have like the twists that it did so that was really interesting i feel like a lot of people might see those twists coming but i didn't so that was enjoyable like i never see twists coming so that's not surprising but i just with romance novels i tend to like think i know how things are gonna go i know how it's going to play out but in this case i didn't and that was kind of refreshing overall this was such a fast read i just could not put it down i kept on reading it reading it and i just didn't want it to end but it also was adorable and i was very satisfied with how it ended it was all around just a very enjoyable read and definitely a new romance release to look out for i'm not at all going in order of how i actually read these books to be honest i'm just kind of picking up stuff so the next book that i have here is star daughter by shavita thakrar i was really excited when i found out about this book because i thought the concept sounded really cool so the main character is the daughter of a star so she's half star and like stars are like god-like figures and she ends up accidentally injuring her father and in order to save her father she ends up having to answer the call of the star song and go to like the court of stars if you will and there she has to compete in this competition so she can hopefully save her father i thought this was so interesting like i loved the world of it the concept of stars and them being these god-like figures was fascinating to me and it also was really rich in cultures so hindu culture is very prevalent in the story and i thought it was really seamlessly blended into things like there were things that i had to google to see what the creatures were but i don't mind that at all because like i don't need to be spoon-fed you know like i can google that's totally fine and i thought that it made it like not so jarring i guess i feel like if they had like really described everything and laid it out it wouldn't have been as immersive of a read so i really didn't mind googling things i thought the world was super well built up and really fascinating i thought this was actually going to be a high fantasy but it's not it's an urban fantasy which i guess i should have known going into it because she's half star so she's half human that was really dumb of me but whatever i didn't know that but i thought the blend of like the world that we know mixed with the star world was very well done i will say though this did kind of read like a debut fantasy it is a debut fantasy and i think it was a solid debut but it did suffer in some ways and kind of read like a debut the writing was really really beautiful but it was kind of a little bit too flowery at times i think it suited the story perfectly but sometimes it did kind of take you away from like knowing exactly what was going on because it relied really heavily on purple prose but that's not saying like i did love the writing i thought it was very nice it just kind of was a bit heavy at times on that the flourishes if you will one of the biggest issues that i had though was the pacing for this i found the pacing to be very off the whole time you're building up to this competition and it's quite slow but then like the competition happens and that is over very quickly the ending was pretty rushed for me well i felt like the rest of it was kind of like a lot of build up and kind of too much almost so i feel like it could have been a little bit more evenly paced and i would have liked if the actual competition part was more a part of the story because i felt like it was just something at the end to wrap everything up there is a romance in here and i didn't really care for the romance so much i feel like it was prevalent and then it was kind of forgotten and then it was prevalent again and i was like oh i kind of forgot that that was a thing and i cared more about the friendship like the main character sheetal has her best friend menaul is with her and their relationship was so beautiful like i just loved how strong that friendship was and how much they cared for each other there were also a few instances of info dumping that i felt like kind of bogged down the story at times but i think that it had a certain whimsy to it and the world still was like very lovely to read about even though i felt like at times i did get like a lot of information at once it was just kind of a pacing issue again the pacing issue really came to a head in the middle when you're following the main character as she's just trying to understand things and trying to figure things out for a very long time which is understandable because like she's trying she has like she's faced with a lot and she's in a completely different world so she's trying to piece things together but just this focus of like paragraph after paragraph of her trying to figure things out trying to understand things learning things it felt really repetitive after a while because there wasn't really a lot of action to break it up and it just didn't make for the most pleasant reading experience throughout the middle and really made it dray i will say i think the whole concept of stars was very cool the element of having like stars being hunted for their blood and the power that it possesses and then the competition itself that is surrounded by art like stars acted as muses and they inspire people to create amazing art and i thought that was really interesting like having this art based competition and i think that's why i wanted the competition to be more in the story but overall i think this was a really cool debut i think it was totally worth the read like it was very whimsical and everything that i wanted really except it just did have like a couple of technical issues and then personal preference things where like i would have liked more of the competition but it was very cool and i think it's actually a standalone fantasy 2 which is like a unicorn in the book world so it is one that i think is worth checking out it was super unique and i did like it overall so next up is now that i found you by christina forrest so i actually have another book by christina forrest that she wrote before this one that i need to read and that one is i want to be where you are i think so i do want to pick that one up soon especially because i really liked this one so now that i found you is a hollywood-based story and i used to really like those when i was younger i remember when i didn't read a lot there was like this one series and i can't i can't think of what it's called but the cover looked like a like purse almost i feel like i don't know it just had a pattern on it maybe it was like confessions of a hollywood star like no there was one where it had a star on it it was black and then it had a pink star on it i don't know there were like two that i read and really liked it i'm super into the hollywood thing but this was a nice return to it because it was mysterious it kind of it makes me think of evelyn hugo a bit just because of like the old hollywood starlet and that aspect is in the main character's grandmother so the main character i want to see her name i completely can't remember evie so her grandmother is this old famous hollywood starlet and she has been away from hollywood for a very long time and evie is trying to make it big she finally gets this like great deal that is going to change everything but then she ends up getting betrayed by the person she thought she could trust the most her best friend and this video releases of her that like ruins everything she loses the movie deal and she has to try and piece everything together so part of this plan that she makes up to try and fix things involves her grandmother but then her grandmother goes missing so that is obviously problematic so you are following her as she is trying to find her grandmother again and also like piece together her life again this was just really sweet i thought it was very immersive in the world of hollywood like it's actually set in new york city but you get like the starlet side of things and milo the love interest he was so like i just loved him he was such a great character so music actually comes into this as well because milo is a guitarist for a band and he is also you know trying to make it big i felt like milo made the perfect match for evie because he was so extremely likable like you just want to hug him and squeeze him and love him and evie isn't so much that evie is a little bit of a tougher character she's more self-centered and it kind of makes sense because you know she's trying to make it as an actress so she has to look out for number one and she also has come out of a situation where she was betrayed so obviously she's going to be looking out for herself but she definitely can be a harder character to like because she doesn't seem to think of the consequences or like what might happen to other people when she acts and i thought that milo kind of brought her down to earth which is why i enjoyed the pairing of the two of them i loved evie's grandmother gigi as well i thought she was fascinating even though she's like not so much in the story like she is but since she's missing she's more of a presence and you're piecing together her history and learning more about her and i thought that it was really fascinating to like piece things together and see who she was i felt like overall it really pulled me into evie's world and all that made it up and that was a really terrible sentence but like it was just a really fun little game almost trying to figure out like where she had disappeared to and why this was a super fast read as well i think if i had had more time when i read it i would have been able to finish it in one sitting but it took me two but that's totally fine like i just breezed through it because it had so much going for it it had the intrigue it was a sweet and adorable story at the same time there were just lots of layers to it like you're watching evie develop and i would say she developed a decent amount like she definitely has a little bit more to go but she's getting there which i think is what's important at the end like it was kind of nice not to have like an arc where the character completely is different has changed everything and is a completely new person like she still is who she was at the beginning she just has started kind of making some changes to be a better person and kind of be less self-centered so overall i had a great time reading this and it definitely has made it so i cannot wait to read the other book that i have by this author next up i finally like finally freaking read this book and that is on birthday by liz brazwell so this is the latest release in the twisted tales series that disney has and this series i have quite a few of them they're actually behind me and i haven't read them yet i keep on talking about doing a readathon for them and i just haven't gotten around to it yet i haven't had the time but it will be coming at some point hopefully soon i'm really sorry about that but i knew that this one i didn't want to read for the readathon one because it's a little bit bigger than the others and two because it's in alice in wonderland retelling and i wanted to like dedicate all my time to it you know i didn't want to be like feeling like i had to read it in a certain amount of time i wanted to be able to enjoy the experience of wonderland so this whole series it takes a typical disney fairy tale and it twists it on its head so it asks a question and like the whole story is answering that question so this one is what if wonderland was in peril and alice was very very late so as excited as i was for this book honestly i was really nervous going into it like i i don't know i just was like what if i don't like it because i had built it up so much in my head i haven't read an alice in wonderland retelling in a really long time and i felt like this one was like a solid place to start but i was not let down by this at all i had so much fun reading this like it had the nostalgia but it was also fresh and new and it was the perfect mix of the two i felt like seeing the wonderland characters that i know and love i could like easily picture them and even picture like the cartoon characters from like the original alice i could picture them so well and it just made my reading experience fantastic like it was full of the nonsense and whimsy that i would expect but it's also a little bit darker and you get to see alice in an older setting i will say she did read a little bit younger than she is supposed to be i think she's supposed to be 17 or 18. no she's 18. and she read younger but at the same time i wouldn't expect her to read like as an older character because i think the point of alice is that she remains childlike and has that imagination and she never loses that so i didn't mind that so much but that being said you did see her getting to deal with some older situations like marriage is something that is on the table like everyone's after her for and she's just like not interested so she stayed true to who she was when she was younger but also had matured a bit from the alice you know from the original movie there were so many little moments that like paid homage to the original movie that just made me so happy and then also moments that stayed true to lewis carroll's book so it was a nice mix of the two i loved that you got to see more of alice in the victorian society and in like an actual real world setting and you also got to see more of her sister and that relationship dynamic was very interesting i left that the politics of the time came into it i wasn't at all expecting that it was going to deal with immigration and prejudice toward immigrants but it did so in a really seamless way and i loved that that conversation was brought up in the story i also loved the fact that photography was brought into it because photography is something that was new around victorian times and was super big and you see alice like getting involved in photography and it also connects to wonderland and i thought that was so clever and like i just i loved that from the very beginning the one like mini thing about this it's really small the pacing was kind of slow but i didn't mind that so much like you kind of jump in and out of wonderland and victorian society and i thought that it was very well done like the mix of the two i didn't feel like one was kind of favored over the other it just kind of read a little bit more slow than i would have liked but that's like a very very minor thing overall it felt like coming home reading this it was so sweet it had all the charm of the wonderland that i know and love all of those characters like i felt like they stayed true to their characterization and alice especially like it was just so much fun and has made me really excited to read the rest of the twisted tales that i have next up is a cubing girl's guide to tea and tomorrow by laura taylor namey so i heard some really amazing things about this book and i do think that my expectations were a little bit too high going into it but that's not to say that i didn't enjoy it so you follow the main character oh my gosh i can't remember anyone's name i want to try and do it without looking i think it's pronounced leela i remember i wasn't sure if it was leela or lila but i'm gonna go with lila and i'm sorry if i'm incorrect but that's just what we're gonna roll with so she is having a really rough time her abuela has died and her best friend has left her and her boyfriend has broken up with her so she is just not doing very well mentally and her family ends up sending her away to england to winchester england i kept on saying it was london but it is not london it is winchester england and she is sent there to live with a relative and hopefully to recover from everything that she is facing so i loved the fact that this was set in winchester and not london like it was really cool to see a different setting in england and i thought it was very charming and you also have the love interest oren who was super super sweet and i will say as much as i thought he was adorable i wasn't like super super invested in their romance until there were certain moments that i was like okay that is actually the cutest thing and then i realized that i did care a little bit more than i realized but one of my favorite things about this was the cooking and the baking like really the baking specifically but it's also like a mix of cooking and baking i didn't know that that was going to be a part of the story going into it but it is like so prevalent in the story so leela wants to be a baker she's super passionate about that and specifically like the recipes that her abuela cooked she connected with her through that so it's something that she has such passion for and really overall passion is the name of this book honestly like the passion for cuban culture was so prevalent in this and her love for her home in miami and her love for her family and her passion for cooking you just got to really see who lila is even though she's suffering a lot you got to see all that she loved and it totally came through in the entire story like the cooking it just made me so hungry the descriptions of things smells of things like it was super vivid and also her love of her home and her culture was like very very important to the story and i think that part i did kind of struggle with a little bit like i think that it's important to her because her family is there like she loves miami so much and i think i just struggled on a personal level like connecting with that because i've lived in the same city my whole life and i don't really have a deep connection with it other than my family being here so the fact that she was so upset to be in england was very confusing to me and kind of annoyed me at times but that's just like that's entirely a personal thing and maybe it's just me being stir crazy for not being able to travel anywhere either and being jealous about that however i did enjoy when she started taking those strides toward healing and getting through all that she's been facing i thought she made incredible leaps and bounds of character development throughout the book but not in an unreasonable way this book managed to transport me both to winchester england and her like getting to know that culture but also to miami and getting to know her culture of home and i thought it was really interesting that i was able to transport me to both of those settings despite like it's really only set in the one i thought both were very vivid and really well done so i did enjoy this a lot it was fun and cute and at the same time it had a lot of emotion to it as well so it's a little mix of everything in here and all of it was just very well done i've gone on for way longer than i was expecting to so i'm really sorry about that but the next book that i have to talk about actually the last book that i have to talk about is ray bearer by jordan ifuco this was such a cool read a super unique fantasy and like i totally fell in love with it in this book you follow tari sai and she has been isolated from everyone her entire life she only knows the lady who is her mother figure but she never even really gets to see the ladies so basically she is just so lonely she's desperate for a connection and she gets the opportunity to be part of this group like the emperor's son basically the emperor is a ray bearer so he has like the opportunity to connect with 11 different council members and they are known as rays like it's a very hard thing for me to explain the book does a way better job of it obviously but she has the opportunity to be one of these council members to have this connection and for her that seems like the ultimate opportunity because she is so desperate to have someone to connect with and not be left alone all the time and the problem with this is that she has the lady behind her who has made it so she has this mission kind of it reminded me a lot of ella enchanted in that way where she has to kill the prince and she doesn't want to do that obviously so there's a lot of drama the magic system of this was fascinating like i said i did terrible job of explaining it but i thought it was so unique and i just was completely absorbed by it like it was very well explained and the world was built up so well and i was super invested in like the history of it and where it would be moving forward there were a lot of characters in this story between like the council members of the current emperor and then you have the council members of the child emperor i can't like i don't know how else to say that but there were a lot of characters basically but i thought all of them were really well developed and the dynamics between all of them was like whoa and there were a lot of twists that i did not see coming i never guessed twists but like especially these i like totally was like wow okay didn't see that coming and i was like what but i loved what the twist did i felt like the story was completely turned on its head and i just i'm very excited for the sequel now one of my favorite things about this story was that you got to follow the characters from a pretty young age and you get to see them develop and i felt like seeing them from such a young age in the early stages of life i became very connected to them and just wanted what was best for like all of them and i loved seeing how they progressed over the years i loved the fact that it covered such a long time period but it really didn't feel like a long time period like this was a super fast fantasy read there were some relationships though that i felt like they were going to go a certain way but then they didn't end up going that way and i liked that it didn't end up going that way like i thought that it was kind of going to follow a typical thing and that the love interest was going to be one person but then it wasn't and i really enjoyed and appreciated that little twist overall i felt like this was a great book with a mix of political intrigue and social intrigue and those relationships like i felt like all of it was blended really seamlessly and there was a lot of action but not too much action and never really too much info dumping either it was just such a pleasure to read and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time wondering what was going to happen and i'm super excited to read the next one whenever it's coming out okay so those are all six of the most recent books that i have read so i'm really sorry that this was so long i just could not stop talking about any of them but i hope you enjoyed this video let me know if you have read any of these books your thoughts on them because i would love to know and i will see you guys in the next video very soon bye you\n"