A Week of Reading: My Experience with "One Last Stop" by Casey McQuisten

I haven't been outside but for some quick updates before my hands are filled with donuts, bagels, and drinks. So sunny I can barely see, I'm 97% done with one last stop and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in this book. I actually think that I'm gonna give it five out of five stars because I just can't find any flaws with it. I've absolutely loved it. There was one twist in this book that really did catch me off guard - I wasn't expecting it, and I just feel like the whole story has been written so well. I'm super pleased with the way that things have turned out with like the whole time travel type thing of where Jane is stuck in the present day. Like I feel like Casey McQuisten did a really good job of explaining it all and making it still feel realistic even if it has this supernatural twist.

And although I still have 20 minutes left, the ending is definitely not what I expected when starting this book. And I love when a book can surprise me like that. So I'm just really happy with the way that the story is wrapping up. I feel like we just have like the final moments for the story of Jane in August and I'm excited to look forward to it. Now, I'm gonna go get some Dunkin' Donuts and eat breakfast and spend time with my boyfriend and my dad. And hopefully, some point soon, I will finish One Last Stop and I will give you the final thoughts on this reading vlog.

A Weekend in Philadelphia

Jake and I went to Philadelphia on the way home from my dad's place. It was such a nice time. We went to Reading Terminal Market and got tons of food and sweets for lunch. And then like dessert afterwards. And then we stood outside the Magic Gardens, which is just like this beautiful, like gallery art installation thing you have to visit when you go to Philly. But they were sold out for today, so we didn't get to go inside. It was still cool to hang around that area.

Back Home

We made it home and I unpacked like so much of my stuff from a week away. And I'm just feeling really good about going into a new week tomorrow to finish off my thoughts on Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid and One Last Stop by Casey McQuisten. Malibu Rising is definitely a new favorite of mine. I think I'm gonna settle on a four out of five rating because, compared to other T.J. Jenkins read books, it's not my favorite favorite. But I love this story so much. I'm very connected to the characters. It has great characterization and writing, beautiful setting and world-building. It's just amazing.

I've got so many good things to say about it. I mentioned before that I'm going to Malibu this summer, which I'm really, really excited to do. I'm definitely going to appoint doom and I'm going to live my Malibu Rising dreams and it's going to be fantastic. Super happy. I read this one definitely fulfilled my expectations. And then with One Last Stop, I don't have much more to end on because I feel like I've kind of been wrapping up my thoughts.

Final Thoughts

One Last Stop is gonna get a five out of five rating for me. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I think I'd like it even more than Red, White and Royal Blue, which is saying something because I loved that book. It's funny, heartwarming, heartbreaking, talks about a lot of important topics like race as Jane is Chinese so there's like so much Chinese immigrant and like Chinese American influence in this story. Jane being a lesbian, August being bisexual and having some really interesting relationships with her roommates and friends, as well as her mother and her past. Super well-rounded.

Great read. Could not recommend this one enough. I think that anyone who likes contemporary books should read One Last Stop. It is definitely worth all the hype right now but that concludes this reading vlog.

The Vlog Experience

This was definitely like the greatest pairing of books that I could choose for a reading vlog inspired by my most anticipated books of the year. I definitely would like to film more reading vlogs just casual random ones like this coming up because they really motivate me to read and I feel like you guys enjoy them as well.

So, in the comments below, let me know what you liked about this reading vlog your favorite parts what you thought about either of the books that I read. I just want to connect and hear more from you all but that was it for this video. Thank you all so much for watching and I'll see you soon for a new one bye.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up hello my name is emma and today i'm starting a new reading vlog i've been wanting to do a like reading two of my most anticipated books of the year reading vlog pretty much all of 2021 and this is the first opportunity that i have two books that i'm equally excited about and cannot wait to start before i dive into the reading vlog i want to give a thank you to book of the month for sponsoring today's video book of the month is an amazing subscription service that allows you to reduce your time looking for the best new releases so you can spend more time reading every month you get to choose one of five curated new and early releases to choose from from a wide variety of genres from mystery thrillers to fantasy to contemporary romance and historical fiction and they also have a risk-free skip policy so any month that you are not totally wowed by any of the choices or need to save that money for something else you can skip your membership and come back to it when you're ready first up for book of the month's august choices we have damnation springs by ash davison which follows a logging or lumber town where environmental degradation is causing the unraveling of the community and one particular family once there were wolves by katherine mcconaughey which follows a woman who travels to scotland to reintroduce a group of wolves to the wilderness not a happy family by shari lepena which follows an affluent family where the two parents have died and it's kind of a question of if the three siblings who are set to receive a large inheritance did it or if it is someone else entirely the inheritance of orkidya divina by zorreida cordova which follows a family who has received a magical inheritance and years later they have to travel to ecuador in order to stop these hidden figures from taking away their magic and blessings and finally the heart principle by helen huang which follows an autistic violinist who is grappling with career burnout along with the changing of a long-time relationship and finding love with someone who may accept her for who she really is so these are the book of the month choices for their august box and if you are interested in any of these titles you can get your first book of the month box for only 9.99 using the code emma books i really do love book of the month i've read so many wonderful books from their choices which you will see later in this reading vlog honestly if i wasn't like an ambassador for book of the month i probably would be a subscriber myself just because every month there is always like a book that i have heard of that i'm excited to read and one that's totally new to me that really piques my interest so if you're interested check out book of the month doing so really helps support my channel and let's dive into my reading vlog in my reading vlogs i always like to have a physical book that i'm reading in an audiobook that i'm listening to so the physical book i am starting is malibu rising by taylor jenkins read i think that yesterday was actually release day for both of the books that i'm reading happy pride month but if you have not heard of malibu rising yet all i really know about it is it follows this family of four siblings that are like an international supermodel a photographer a professional surfer whatever rich famous family and every year the four siblings throw a like end of summer party together and so malibu rising follows the events of like the one day like leading up to the party what happens during the party and by the morning the i think it's the riva or the riva household is up in flames so it's all about finding out what happened and all of these different like secrets and dynamics between these siblings i actually finished my fourth listen of the audiobook to daisy johnson the six like a couple of hours ago so i'm very much in the mood to dive right into one of my favorite authors newest releases and then the audiobook i'm going to be listening to is one last stop by casey mcquisten every time i say that i'm now going to think of all the people who arrested me because i thought her name was casey mcquestion i've been so hyped for one last stop to come out and it is a story of a girl who moves to new york city and it's just like not the romanticized life that she was imagining until she sees another woman on the subway and they end up commuting the same way every day and she starts getting a little crush on her but she determines after getting to know the girl that she is like displaced from brooklyn in like the 1970s so there's some like supernatural time travel aspect here i think um and so it's all about like them falling for each other but also the main character trying to help this girl find her way back to her own time i do want to mention that technically both books that i'm reading were sent to me for free i got malibu rising from book of the month because it is one of their june choices and the audiobook copy of one last dot that i'm listening to i requested from the publisher but to be clear no one is paying me or influencing me to talk about these books or share my opinions on them i'm making this vlog because i am so pumped about both of these stories and can't wait to share my views on them with you this reading vlog is going to be spoiler free so you don't have to have read malibu rising or one last stop to watch along with me but now i'm going to start one last stop and go buy some new plants so currently these are all of the plants i have in my office and i love them all so dearly but i have a whole other shelf full of just crap that i need to fill with plants and then my mom and i have actually been redoing our little deck out here so our umbrella is currently not up but we have a couple of plants and like herbs over here growing we've got these really nice comfy adirondack chairs a couple plants right there and then my pride and joy is this outdoor plant rack i'm not looking for anything specific i don't even know much about plants i just know that i like having plants and i'm addicted to buying more so we're gonna go look for some more plants wow okay today took a very different turn as i'm driving to go to the plant nursery i stop at a stop sign and my car just stops working my car isn't automatic but it was like it stalled like it was still a drive it was still on but it would not go anywhere i turned it off and turned it back on and somehow got it to work but i took it right to my mechanic and my mechanic was like you're fine it's fine one day my car is just going to leave me straight into the middle of the seat and then i'm going to go shake all of the mechanics i've seen and be like i told you there was something wrong anyways not risking it to go to the plant store to park and have to get home because i still have some clients later but i decided to stopping at most for lunch because your girl is hungry and that means that i can sit home and eat and start malibu rising i have been listening to one last stop i have not made a dent in it i'm still in the middle of chapter one but i will say it's great so far i love casey mcquestions voice they are such a talented writer and i'm excited to be back and continue on with the story i will say the very first time that the narrator said the main character's name and i realized that this book was written in third person i was like oh fuck no like not another third-person novel and it's funny because like i don't mind third person perspectives so many of my favorite books i've ever read are third person perspectives but for some reason every time i'm reading a book that i think is going to be first person and it's not i am i just feel betrayed and angry but i'm over it so yeah let's get out of traffic and hopefully home safely and uh then start reading malibu rising hold the fucking phone i can't even i can't even see but i i have feelings okay so this is the riva family the ribba family right i don't know how to pronounce it the father of the main characters is named mick riva mick reba whatever it is i don't know how to pronounce it and i'm like this name is so familiar this name is so familiar like who who is this guy right mick riva is a fucking evelyn hugo's ex-husband i'm looking online and apparently people knew this and i fucking knew it man why do i feel like i'm the last one to know this but i'm so shocked by it mick riva was also at one of daisy's parties in daisy jones and the six so in all of like recent taylor jenkins read lore this kind of confirms that they all take place in the same universe which is wild that means that for sure all of the siblings in this book have listened to the aurora album from daisy johnson vi and that pleases my heart unrelated theory i'm currently reading a scene between two of the siblings jay and kit and jay is like weirded out because some guy he knows was checking out his younger sister and she's like not interested at all so jay says uh kate could do worse than seth whittles sometimes she made no sense to him and i'm like kid's gay right like that's what we're alluding to like kit likes women so we'll see if that comes true later warren rhodes drummer of daisy jones and the six i love all these easter eggs celia st james celia saint james celia st james celia st james hello so i had a relatively nice day i did some internship work this afternoon and had a session with one of my clients and then mama books and i went for a nice long walk around the neighborhood together and we stopped at one of my favorite coffee shops and i got an iced chai latte with oat milk and it was delicious when we got home from the walk we were actually going to go to the plant store and my mom was going to drive and as we are starting to drive we're like i don't know if we have enough time before the other things that we have to do so we came back and so somehow i found the motivation to go to the gym this evening which was really nice i've really been struggling to prioritize being active lately and it's a goal that i really have for myself so i've been taking it really easy going to the gym whenever motivation strikes and just like doing some simple things that feel good to me but i had a really great workout session and i'm feeling so good about it also got my classic retro blend smoothie which is like the motivation for going to the gym is like i can walk out with a retro blend smoothie and life is good so i wanted to do a quick reading update i have not read much of malibu rising i think i'm only on like page 20 and i've just gotten a brief introduction to some of the characters i like them all they're very interesting excited to keep reading i will say there was a line where at a previous year's party kit the youngest sister uh had met a girl that she spent time with and like spent weeks of testing over her and like i'm not gonna keep saying this throughout the book but like i'm not gonna keep saying it but you know i haven't read before bed in a while but that is definitely my plan for tonight i have made a really decent chunk in my listening for one last stop today i'm currently 19 in after only starting it this afternoon which feels really great i feel like casey mcqueston just has the perfect writing voice for people in their 20s maybe it's just me and my preferences but i just feel like they write dialogue and descriptions like the exact way that i like to read them i really like august as a main character she has a very unique backstory and i picked up on it and like the first couple of chapters with her like moving around so much i knew that there was like a story there and it's very interesting and i'm super intrigued to see how it pans out for the rest of the story not only am i intrigued by her past but i really love the fact this book like gives a voice to people who are in their 20s and like have not kissed or dated anyone because it is just so normalized to have those experiences as a teenager and that leaves people in their 20s 30s and 40s who haven't had those experiences feeling really lonely and isolated so i think this is like a great book for people who maybe have had similar experiences of trying to find love and romance when you are not as experienced in that area as your peers i also like the side characters i think it's mila she's my favorite i think she is fun and like a great addition to the story i cannot wait to see the development of her friendship with august which i know is coming and i think it's mikko who is her boyfriend and like a psychic or something he's really interesting i don't know how to feel about him yet and i like jane too jane is a love interest and she's definitely got that like cool mysterious punk vibe that is like the intention behind her character there's just something about me lately that gets really turned off by romantic interests especially in the beginning because i am just so tired of reading love interests who are like so perfect and flawless and they're quirky and outgoing and they always have these adventurous amazing ideas they're not all manic pixie dream girls because it's a very specific archetype but there's something there's some manic pixie energy there but i have a lot of faith in casey mcqueston so i think there's going to be some development on jean's like flaws and her characterization and probably just projecting bad experiences with love interests that i've had in the past but i think they're cute together i'm super excited to read more and the only other thing i still haven't figured out yet which makes sense because i'm just in the beginnings of the book is like this this time travel aspect it makes no sense to me so far and i feel like it is so often that a book that is set in like a contemporary real world has a supernatural twist that just like is not explained defies the laws of physics and does not make sense so i'm afraid that's what's happening here is that like we know that gene is from the 70s but it's going to be very vaguely explained how she is here and how she can interact with all these people and how she goes back so i don't really have anything that i have to do tonight and it's getting pretty late already so my main plan is just to get ready for bed and read more malibu rising which i am very excited to do okay so what i want you to do right now is close your eyes get into a comfortable position and imagine a reading vlog where i actually read after telling you i'm going to this is not that reading vlog i didn't read last night and i don't know why because i want to read malibu rising so badly but it doesn't matter this morning i woke up feeling very shitty like it is pride month i should not be allowed to be depressed this is very homophobic all i want to do on this rainy day is lay in bed and watch tv and do nothing but i can't do that so i'm going to start off my day by doing a little stretch hopefully to get my body moving and then i'm going to like take a shower and get ready and i'm going to listen to one last stop while i do my stretches hello so it is oh my god it's almost 1am today was an off day like i said i woke up not feeling great and i had therapy and so i just cried for a bit this morning i did do my stretch-in and listening to one last stop though which was definitely a good point of today i had one session with a client today and then i spent most of the evening in class because i have four hours of class on tuesdays and thursdays until july which sucks and i hate it and i don't want to do it so today was kind of busy and just kind of weird so i did not get any malibu rising reading done and i also did not read it last night like i said i would so even though it was 1am and i have a very early hair appointment tomorrow i would really like to read i'm gonna go back to my system that usually works for me which is saying i can just read a chapter and go to bed and just making progress in one chapter will make me feel good and i also will get so much reading done tomorrow while i'm getting my hair dyed so i'm not too concerned but i'm very much excited to dive back into malibu rising because i just want to make some progress in this book that i like so much already i have not listened to my reading music playlist in a while and i feel like it just like always gets me in the mood to read because of the association with it so if you're interested i will link my spotify below and you can follow me and my playlists and if i forget to do it like i always do leave me a comment and i'll edit i thought i would do the pink lighting to match the text of malibu rising with my blue shirt and it just feels like a good vibe oh you find so cool you go out at when you're night so i only really read two chapters but like anything is better than nothing i did realize that if you remember me being annoyed about how one last stop is in third person when i first started it malibu rising is also in third person and i think the reason that doesn't affect me is i like third-person books when there are multiple characters multiple main characters and point of views and i don't like third person when it is a singular person's point of view it appears there are some flashbacks to the relationship between mick the father and june the mother and so i got to read them like meeting each other and falling in love for the first time and it was such a lovely chapter their romance started off like so perfect and magical and it just makes me feel bad because like i know it's gonna go down south like of course it is nothing ever happy happens definitely excited to get like so much reading done while i get my hair done tomorrow though so i'm gonna go to sleep wake up and next time you see me i'll probably be getting my hair done well hello there i had another very unexpected day mercury retrograde kicking my ass is the theme of this vlog luckily the one thing that did go according to plan is i got my hair dyed you can't see it super well because i put it up because it's so humid out today but i'm so happy with it my initial plan for today was i was going to meet monica from monica kim in the city and we were going to hang out a little and then go to this bar called marie's crisis which is like a classic gay show tunes bar in nyc the first mishap is i went to my train and it was kind of late which is normal for the long island railroad but then it just got an announcement that it was delayed and now like most of the trains were cancelled so mama books being the absolute doll that she is came to pick me up and drove me to a nearby train station so i could still get into the city and today we had a really bad forecast where there were going to be thunderstorms and stuff and it was looking really bad for a while so monica and i decided not to go in but then like an hour later the rain cleared up i've done a whole lot of nothing today but while i was waiting for my train or for my aunt to pick me up i went to my favorite east rock cafe which is a coffee shop on long island that you should definitely go to if you're ever in the area i got an iced chai latte with oat milk and a pump of vanilla and is my new favorite drink from there and then because i had not really eaten today because i was in a cilantro for so many hours i decided to try a new sandwich on their menu which is a bacon fig chutney grilled cheese and it is so delicious and this is also only half of it i had the other half earlier so i'm excited to dive back into reading and eat the rest of my lunch or now dinner because it's 8 p.m it is so light out why is it 8 p.m disgusting anyways i just realized i had not listened to any of one last stop today so maybe i should do like some stretching or something later and get a little bit of listening in but i read so much of malibu rising i'm almost like halfway there now so i'm currently on page 132 so i read like 70-ish pages while i was getting my hair done which was really great and i feel like the most of what i've read has really been backstory on mick and june it's very interesting because typically when i have the cast of characters defined in a story at the very beginning i only care about those characters so whenever we introduce like flashbacks or other points of views from different people i am just not interested and it's probably just because taylor jenkins read is a masterful storyteller but i'm super invested in their story and it's very similar to what i was kind of expecting like i feel like nothing about malibu rising has surprised me so far i feel like everything i've been able to like figure out i'm sure that won't be the case for long but on that same note i think that's because this story has an omniscient narrator and i love a good omniscient narrator when it's done really well if it's poorly done i hate it but it just works really well for the story with the setup of it being that like we know that malibu goes up in flames in the end so the vibe is just great for the story i'm loving like the california malibu 19 i think 50s and 80s setting it's really fun what what hour am i at i feel like that's a really good way to track this book because it goes from like 7am to 7pm so i'm currently at like noon i think am i further than noon i'm at 3pm girl how much i've been reading also that shows how much the story really takes place when the party begins at like 7 p.m so it's definitely going to be a wild ride that i'm excited to dive back into also i got my us hardcover edition of malibu rising in the mail today so now i have two copies and i think i'm probably going to give the book of the month copy to my sister because she has been super excited for malibu rising as well okay let's do more reading oh my god like i said before like malibu raising has not surprised me yet and i figured out what was coming on this page i just didn't expect it to happen here and i also did not consider the gravity of what this event would mean and i'm heartbroken and i like don't want to continue reading this page oh my god i just want to clarify that face was because i'm reading from kit and she said she was going to kiss a boy and i just do not believe it okay that's the last time i'm talking about her sexuality i promise listen it's pride month i want to read about the gays for anyone watching who has not read malibu rising yet and plans to you are not ready for four o'clock and five o'clock p.m you just aren't i'm sorry you'll have to go through it the exact way that i just did and wow i feel exhausted by the pain so i haven't done much since i last vlogged i haven't read any more of malibu rising but i am on page 160 we're at 6 p.m from where i left off and i'm definitely going to read at least one more chapter before bed i feel like malibu rising has pretty short chapters or at least the way it's divided up between the present and the flashbacks they feel like short chapters which is really good to read and then with one last stop i did do a little bit of listening tonight while i did a nice light workout and now i am 36 of the way in and i have about seven hours left of the audiobook we found out just a little bit more about jane's predicament of her being stuck on the subway not like why she's that way or anything just a little bit of information about what jane's experience of being stuck on is like and honestly it's like much sadder than what i was expecting but i really liked this course of the story with august trying to help jane remember things from her past so that they can find more information to hopefully find a way to get her back home i think jane and august are really cute together i'm very intrigued to see where this story goes because this feels like one of those books that's going to end with the main couple not being together like i just don't see that happening but i feel like casey mcquisten could write a satisfying enough love story that they don't have to end up together and that's kind of what i'm hoping for i really like the audiobook and i'm enjoying my time listening so i definitely want to prioritize listening a little bit more tomorrow but we're going to do just a little bit more malibu rising reading tonight and then it shall be a new day hiya happy saturday i went to my chiropractor this morning so my body's feeling good and then i went and got my nails done and i got these really beautiful wavy rainbows on all of my nails for pride month of course and i love them so much i never get like such intense nail art and i love it these are my favorite nails i've ever gotten i have been sitting out on my deck doing just a little bit of tanning while i did some homework before and because i finished that assignment now i'm just going to finish laying out for a bit and read more of malibu rising i've got a nice midday angry orchard it is beautiful out not too hot not too windy so i'm just gonna have a good afternoon and then i will do a reading update because oh my god i listened to so much of one last stop while getting my nails done i always listen to my audiobooks when i'm getting a manicure and so much shit has happened i'm excited to update oh so i have had a really nice relaxing day i got to lay out for like two hours and i got some color which i'm feeling good about i got a ton of reading done today which is great so i figured i would do a little reading update on both one last stop and malibu rising as i get ready for a wine night with a couple of my friends so i am now 65 of the way through one last stop and i am really freaking loving this book it is definitely as good as everyone who has read it has said it is the thing about spoiler free vlogs is that it always gets harder towards the end because i want to like talk about the specific things that are happening but i don't want to spoil you we got a little bit more development on like this situation with jane with her being stuck in the subway and i like the way it's panning out so far i've really enjoyed the progression of jane and august's relationship i just think they're so cute together they complement each other well and i just wish they could have a happy ending and like i said i just i don't feel it coming i really love the side characters like myla and nico and i also like wes even though he's probably the one that i like know the least about in the story i've been very much looking forward to what casey mcquiston would do with the sex scenes in this book if there were any because red white and royal blue is known for having like great smut and i can't lie it was steamy but i would not consider it smutty because of all of the fade to black sex scenes but i'm happy to say that i feel like there has been a real improvement in that aspect in one last stop and i've thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed all of the naughty scenes and i think the other thing i wanted to talk about regarding one last stop was i really like how the relationship and not even the relationship but just like august's dedication to helping jane and like kind of her obsession with her because she really is kind of obsessed with her is um very much mirroring her mother's relationship with her missing brother i think it is a lot of what jane doesn't like about her mother is kind of being reflected in how like serious and intense she's taking on this role of helping jane and so i just thought that was a really interesting layer to add to the story i don't know why i feel like i don't have like the most thoughts on one last stop but i am like really really loving it it's a solid book super enjoyable great characterization i love casey mcquisten's writing it's just an all-around fabulous time i'm definitely interested to see where like the climax of the story is or just kind of like what more conflict will look like because most of the book has been pretty cutesy like oh there's this cute girl august has a crush on on the subway and she's so cool and like let's watch them fall in love and something's got to happen where like august doesn't see jane for like a couple of days or weeks or something or like they have a fight like there's obviously going to be some conflict so i'm just like interested to see how that's going to pan out and then we have malibu rising and i am on page like 319 of malibu rising so i'm like very much close to being done i have read almost all of part two while i was reading outside and shit is really hitting the fan like so much stuff has happened and i'm really enjoying it again like i i love it so much i love both of these books so much and they were the perfect pairing to pick for this reading vlog while i think that malibu rising is like fantastic i think it is a beautifully written book and everything is executed well it's very character based and the characters are super interesting like the riva family will definitely be one of my favorite literary families for a long time to come but comparing it to daisy jones and the six and evelyn hugo which are of course two of my like all-time favorite books it doesn't really stand up like i truly love malibu rising so much it's definitely going to be making it on my favorites of the year list and it's not just that like evelyn and daisy are two of like my favorite books of all time and i think they are like two of the greatest books i've ever read there's something about malibu rising that is just like missing that the other two books have that this one doesn't there's just like more excitement in both of the stories and i don't know if it has to do with the fact that like this book is set in one day because like there are so many flashbacks to multiple different characters it's definitely got like the same tone and feel to it but it's just not as like grand as the other two stories maybe that's a good way for me to put it and like i said before like malibu rising hasn't really surprised me there's been like a couple of things that like maybe i just didn't put a lot of thought into but nothing entirely unexpected and it's not that i feel that the other two books had like a lot of plot twists because i don't feel like that's what taylor jenkins reads books are for but the other two just had like something special about them and i do think malibu raising is still special but just in a different way don't let my critiques fool you it is such a freaking good book oh the one other thing that i wasn't super happy with is i felt the pacing of the party has been kind of off like the hours were going by quickly and as i was reading i just like wanted more content and plot to it i do like the point i'm currently at in the story i feel like there has been some really good growth and while i keep saying that like nothing is shocking me i have no clue how this book is gonna end so i feel like that is going to be the big shocker i have one win going down and one win going up oh also um i'm not going to say what i was right about because some people would consider it a spoiler but just know i was right i was right i was right i was right i was right i definitely think i'm going to finish malibu rising if not tonight or like before i go out with my friends uh definitely tomorrow so i added some gems to match my green cargo pants so my makeup is done and i'm going to continue listening to one last stop while i get my hair done and i will check in with y'all later hello it is sunday and i mostly spent today like cleaning up my rooms packing because i'm about to head out to jake's and filming i filmed like a 50 book haul my biggest book haul ever so i'll link that below if you haven't watched it yet but oh my gosh i'm exhausted like my feet have never hurt from filming before but they hurt now i have not listened to any more of one last stop because i have like an hour long drive so i knew i was going to get a lot of listening in but this morning while i was eating lunch i did finish malibu rising honestly though i feel like i don't have a lot to comment on at the end of this book that's not like a bad thing it's just that most of the stuff i'd want to talk about are spoilery and i just feel like this book has been pretty consistent throughout like the way that i felt about this book from start to finish has been the same and i think that's a really good thing i loved malibu rising i'm gonna give it 4 out of five stars because it did not blow me away but it was a really satisfying and enjoyable story like i thoroughly enjoyed every second of this story i think the only thing i can say about the ending of this book is that mcriba is an ass like that is it mick riva is an ass that is the tagline of malibu rising i would say that malibu rising really fulfilled my expectations for it if being just like a touch less than what i expected it was really good i had a great time glad i read it so now i'm heading out to jake's and i'm gonna be spending most of the week at his because this weekend we are going to a wedding in baltimore which is going to be so fun and a nice little weekend away so i'm going to listen to more of one last stop while i drive and i will check in later when i'm at jake's so the next episode on mercury retrograde is kicking my ass in this reading vlog i actually was not able to drive to jake's long story short i've been having a lot of car trouble with it turning on and like stopping while i'm driving so did not feel safe driving stakes so he had to drive an hour to me just to pick me up to drive me an hour to his house that face was siri reading me a text in my ear pods that was from michael that said happy hump day and it was just very unexpected luckily my car's in the shop it's all getting fixed we got to jake safely so olive's okay i have not started another physical book to read yet because i've been pretty busy with school and work and whatnot but i have been listening to more of one last stop and i am like 86 or 89 of the way in i think i am definitely encroaching on the climax of the story which is going to be this big event to raise money for a restaurant and then my airpod is falling out and also we've reached a point where we are like trying to figure out how we are going to save jean and send her back and so things are heating up and i am very excited to see where they go i feel like i said in the beginning that like i felt like i knew where the ending of the story was going to be but i don't think that's correct anymore so i'm interested to see what's actually gonna happen good morning it has been a hot minute since i last vlogged but i thought i would catch you up to speed so i'm not sure if i mentioned but i spent the week at jake's and then we went to baltimore for a wedding on friday and it was really lovely it was honestly just like really nice to spend a weekend away and do something different and because my dad lives in delaware which is so close to baltimore we stopped at his house and spent the night there i don't talk a lot about my dad on my channel because he lives so far away and i don't see him frequently but i talk to him like every day and we have a great relationship so it was just really lovely to spend some quality time with him and jake and now i am just taking a walk up the block to get some duncan for breakfast for everyone because we all know a hoe loved dunkin i haven't said that in my videos in a while it's because we're in a pandemic and i haven't been outside but for some quick updates before my hands are filled with donuts bagels and drinks so sunny i can't see i am 97 of the way done with one last stop and i have thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed my timing in this book i actually think that i'm gonna give it five out of five stars because i just can't find any flaws with it i've absolutely loved it there was one twist in this book that really did catch me off guard i wasn't expecting and i just feel like the whole story has been written so well i'm super pleased with the way that things have turned out with like the whole time travel type thing of where jane is stuck in the present day like i feel like casey mcqueston did a really good job of explaining it all and making it still feel realistic even if it has this supernatural twist and although i still have 20 minutes left the ending is definitely not what i expected when starting this book and i love when a book can surprise me like that so i'm just really happy with the way that the story is wrapping up i feel like we just have like the final moments for the story of jane in august and i'm excited to look forward to and now i'm gonna go get some duncan and eat breakfast and spend time with my boyfriend and my dad and hopefully some point soon i will finish one last stop and i will give you the final final thoughts on this reading vlog so i'm exhausted from a relaxing but fun-filled and exciting weekend i never finished my vlogs on time the last clip is always like three months after the rest of the vlog so i really wanted to make sure that i filmed and finished this vlog tonight but today jake and i went to philadelphia on the way home from my dad's and it was such a nice time we went to reading terminal market and got tons of food and sweets for lunch and then like dessert afterwards and then we stood outside the magic gardens which is just like this beautiful like gallery art insulation thing you have to visit when you go to philly but they were sold out for today so we didn't get to go inside it was still cool to hang around that area and then we made it home and i unpacked like so much of my stuff from a week away and i'm just feeling really good about going into a new creek tomorrow to finish off my thoughts of malibu rising by taylor jenkins read and one last stop by casey mcquisten malibu rising is definitely a new favorite of mine i think i'm gonna settle on a four out of five rating because compared to other tilla jenkins read books it's not my favorite favorite but i love this story so much i'm very connected to the characters it has great characterization and writing beautiful setting and world building it's just amazing i have so many good things to say about it i can't wait to reread it and i think i mentioned before that i'm going to malibu this summer which i'm really really excited to i'm definitely going to appoint doom and i'm going to live my malibu rising dreams and it's going to be fantastic super happy i read this one definitely fulfilled my expectations and then with one last stop i don't have much more to end on because i feel like i've kind of been wrapping up my thoughts but one last stop is gonna get a five out of five rating for me i thought it was absolutely fantastic i think i'd like it even more than red white and royal blue which is saying something because i loved that book it's funny heartwarming heartbreaking talks about a lot of important topics like race as jane is chinese so there's like so much chinese immigrant and like chinese american influence in this story jane being a lesbian august being bisexual and having some really interesting relationships with her roommates and friends as well as her mother and her past super well-rounded great read could not recommend this one enough i think that anyone who likes contemporary books should read one last stop it is definitely worth all the hybrid is getting right now but that concludes this reading vlog and i had so much fun reading both of these books and filming my experience for you guys this was definitely like the greatest pairing of books that i could choose for a reading vlog inspired by my most anticipated books of the year i definitely would like to film more reading vlogs just casual random ones like this coming up because they really motivate me to read and i feel like you guys enjoy them as well so in the comments below let me know what you liked about this reading vlog your favorite parts what you thought about either of the books that i read i just want to connect and hear more from you all but that was it for this video thank you all so much for watching and i'll see you soon for a new one byehey what's up hello my name is emma and today i'm starting a new reading vlog i've been wanting to do a like reading two of my most anticipated books of the year reading vlog pretty much all of 2021 and this is the first opportunity that i have two books that i'm equally excited about and cannot wait to start before i dive into the reading vlog i want to give a thank you to book of the month for sponsoring today's video book of the month is an amazing subscription service that allows you to reduce your time looking for the best new releases so you can spend more time reading every month you get to choose one of five curated new and early releases to choose from from a wide variety of genres from mystery thrillers to fantasy to contemporary romance and historical fiction and they also have a risk-free skip policy so any month that you are not totally wowed by any of the choices or need to save that money for something else you can skip your membership and come back to it when you're ready first up for book of the month's august choices we have damnation springs by ash davison which follows a logging or lumber town where environmental degradation is causing the unraveling of the community and one particular family once there were wolves by katherine mcconaughey which follows a woman who travels to scotland to reintroduce a group of wolves to the wilderness not a happy family by shari lepena which follows an affluent family where the two parents have died and it's kind of a question of if the three siblings who are set to receive a large inheritance did it or if it is someone else entirely the inheritance of orkidya divina by zorreida cordova which follows a family who has received a magical inheritance and years later they have to travel to ecuador in order to stop these hidden figures from taking away their magic and blessings and finally the heart principle by helen huang which follows an autistic violinist who is grappling with career burnout along with the changing of a long-time relationship and finding love with someone who may accept her for who she really is so these are the book of the month choices for their august box and if you are interested in any of these titles you can get your first book of the month box for only 9.99 using the code emma books i really do love book of the month i've read so many wonderful books from their choices which you will see later in this reading vlog honestly if i wasn't like an ambassador for book of the month i probably would be a subscriber myself just because every month there is always like a book that i have heard of that i'm excited to read and one that's totally new to me that really piques my interest so if you're interested check out book of the month doing so really helps support my channel and let's dive into my reading vlog in my reading vlogs i always like to have a physical book that i'm reading in an audiobook that i'm listening to so the physical book i am starting is malibu rising by taylor jenkins read i think that yesterday was actually release day for both of the books that i'm reading happy pride month but if you have not heard of malibu rising yet all i really know about it is it follows this family of four siblings that are like an international supermodel a photographer a professional surfer whatever rich famous family and every year the four siblings throw a like end of summer party together and so malibu rising follows the events of like the one day like leading up to the party what happens during the party and by the morning the i think it's the riva or the riva household is up in flames so it's all about finding out what happened and all of these different like secrets and dynamics between these siblings i actually finished my fourth listen of the audiobook to daisy johnson the six like a couple of hours ago so i'm very much in the mood to dive right into one of my favorite authors newest releases and then the audiobook i'm going to be listening to is one last stop by casey mcquisten every time i say that i'm now going to think of all the people who arrested me because i thought her name was casey mcquestion i've been so hyped for one last stop to come out and it is a story of a girl who moves to new york city and it's just like not the romanticized life that she was imagining until she sees another woman on the subway and they end up commuting the same way every day and she starts getting a little crush on her but she determines after getting to know the girl that she is like displaced from brooklyn in like the 1970s so there's some like supernatural time travel aspect here i think um and so it's all about like them falling for each other but also the main character trying to help this girl find her way back to her own time i do want to mention that technically both books that i'm reading were sent to me for free i got malibu rising from book of the month because it is one of their june choices and the audiobook copy of one last dot that i'm listening to i requested from the publisher but to be clear no one is paying me or influencing me to talk about these books or share my opinions on them i'm making this vlog because i am so pumped about both of these stories and can't wait to share my views on them with you this reading vlog is going to be spoiler free so you don't have to have read malibu rising or one last stop to watch along with me but now i'm going to start one last stop and go buy some new plants so currently these are all of the plants i have in my office and i love them all so dearly but i have a whole other shelf full of just crap that i need to fill with plants and then my mom and i have actually been redoing our little deck out here so our umbrella is currently not up but we have a couple of plants and like herbs over here growing we've got these really nice comfy adirondack chairs a couple plants right there and then my pride and joy is this outdoor plant rack i'm not looking for anything specific i don't even know much about plants i just know that i like having plants and i'm addicted to buying more so we're gonna go look for some more plants wow okay today took a very different turn as i'm driving to go to the plant nursery i stop at a stop sign and my car just stops working my car isn't automatic but it was like it stalled like it was still a drive it was still on but it would not go anywhere i turned it off and turned it back on and somehow got it to work but i took it right to my mechanic and my mechanic was like you're fine it's fine one day my car is just going to leave me straight into the middle of the seat and then i'm going to go shake all of the mechanics i've seen and be like i told you there was something wrong anyways not risking it to go to the plant store to park and have to get home because i still have some clients later but i decided to stopping at most for lunch because your girl is hungry and that means that i can sit home and eat and start malibu rising i have been listening to one last stop i have not made a dent in it i'm still in the middle of chapter one but i will say it's great so far i love casey mcquestions voice they are such a talented writer and i'm excited to be back and continue on with the story i will say the very first time that the narrator said the main character's name and i realized that this book was written in third person i was like oh fuck no like not another third-person novel and it's funny because like i don't mind third person perspectives so many of my favorite books i've ever read are third person perspectives but for some reason every time i'm reading a book that i think is going to be first person and it's not i am i just feel betrayed and angry but i'm over it so yeah let's get out of traffic and hopefully home safely and uh then start reading malibu rising hold the fucking phone i can't even i can't even see but i i have feelings okay so this is the riva family the ribba family right i don't know how to pronounce it the father of the main characters is named mick riva mick reba whatever it is i don't know how to pronounce it and i'm like this name is so familiar this name is so familiar like who who is this guy right mick riva is a fucking evelyn hugo's ex-husband i'm looking online and apparently people knew this and i fucking knew it man why do i feel like i'm the last one to know this but i'm so shocked by it mick riva was also at one of daisy's parties in daisy jones and the six so in all of like recent taylor jenkins read lore this kind of confirms that they all take place in the same universe which is wild that means that for sure all of the siblings in this book have listened to the aurora album from daisy johnson vi and that pleases my heart unrelated theory i'm currently reading a scene between two of the siblings jay and kit and jay is like weirded out because some guy he knows was checking out his younger sister and she's like not interested at all so jay says uh kate could do worse than seth whittles sometimes she made no sense to him and i'm like kid's gay right like that's what we're alluding to like kit likes women so we'll see if that comes true later warren rhodes drummer of daisy jones and the six i love all these easter eggs celia st james celia saint james celia st james celia st james hello so i had a relatively nice day i did some internship work this afternoon and had a session with one of my clients and then mama books and i went for a nice long walk around the neighborhood together and we stopped at one of my favorite coffee shops and i got an iced chai latte with oat milk and it was delicious when we got home from the walk we were actually going to go to the plant store and my mom was going to drive and as we are starting to drive we're like i don't know if we have enough time before the other things that we have to do so we came back and so somehow i found the motivation to go to the gym this evening which was really nice i've really been struggling to prioritize being active lately and it's a goal that i really have for myself so i've been taking it really easy going to the gym whenever motivation strikes and just like doing some simple things that feel good to me but i had a really great workout session and i'm feeling so good about it also got my classic retro blend smoothie which is like the motivation for going to the gym is like i can walk out with a retro blend smoothie and life is good so i wanted to do a quick reading update i have not read much of malibu rising i think i'm only on like page 20 and i've just gotten a brief introduction to some of the characters i like them all they're very interesting excited to keep reading i will say there was a line where at a previous year's party kit the youngest sister uh had met a girl that she spent time with and like spent weeks of testing over her and like i'm not gonna keep saying this throughout the book but like i'm not gonna keep saying it but you know i haven't read before bed in a while but that is definitely my plan for tonight i have made a really decent chunk in my listening for one last stop today i'm currently 19 in after only starting it this afternoon which feels really great i feel like casey mcqueston just has the perfect writing voice for people in their 20s maybe it's just me and my preferences but i just feel like they write dialogue and descriptions like the exact way that i like to read them i really like august as a main character she has a very unique backstory and i picked up on it and like the first couple of chapters with her like moving around so much i knew that there was like a story there and it's very interesting and i'm super intrigued to see how it pans out for the rest of the story not only am i intrigued by her past but i really love the fact this book like gives a voice to people who are in their 20s and like have not kissed or dated anyone because it is just so normalized to have those experiences as a teenager and that leaves people in their 20s 30s and 40s who haven't had those experiences feeling really lonely and isolated so i think this is like a great book for people who maybe have had similar experiences of trying to find love and romance when you are not as experienced in that area as your peers i also like the side characters i think it's mila she's my favorite i think she is fun and like a great addition to the story i cannot wait to see the development of her friendship with august which i know is coming and i think it's mikko who is her boyfriend and like a psychic or something he's really interesting i don't know how to feel about him yet and i like jane too jane is a love interest and she's definitely got that like cool mysterious punk vibe that is like the intention behind her character there's just something about me lately that gets really turned off by romantic interests especially in the beginning because i am just so tired of reading love interests who are like so perfect and flawless and they're quirky and outgoing and they always have these adventurous amazing ideas they're not all manic pixie dream girls because it's a very specific archetype but there's something there's some manic pixie energy there but i have a lot of faith in casey mcqueston so i think there's going to be some development on jean's like flaws and her characterization and probably just projecting bad experiences with love interests that i've had in the past but i think they're cute together i'm super excited to read more and the only other thing i still haven't figured out yet which makes sense because i'm just in the beginnings of the book is like this this time travel aspect it makes no sense to me so far and i feel like it is so often that a book that is set in like a contemporary real world has a supernatural twist that just like is not explained defies the laws of physics and does not make sense so i'm afraid that's what's happening here is that like we know that gene is from the 70s but it's going to be very vaguely explained how she is here and how she can interact with all these people and how she goes back so i don't really have anything that i have to do tonight and it's getting pretty late already so my main plan is just to get ready for bed and read more malibu rising which i am very excited to do okay so what i want you to do right now is close your eyes get into a comfortable position and imagine a reading vlog where i actually read after telling you i'm going to this is not that reading vlog i didn't read last night and i don't know why because i want to read malibu rising so badly but it doesn't matter this morning i woke up feeling very shitty like it is pride month i should not be allowed to be depressed this is very homophobic all i want to do on this rainy day is lay in bed and watch tv and do nothing but i can't do that so i'm going to start off my day by doing a little stretch hopefully to get my body moving and then i'm going to like take a shower and get ready and i'm going to listen to one last stop while i do my stretches hello so it is oh my god it's almost 1am today was an off day like i said i woke up not feeling great and i had therapy and so i just cried for a bit this morning i did do my stretch-in and listening to one last stop though which was definitely a good point of today i had one session with a client today and then i spent most of the evening in class because i have four hours of class on tuesdays and thursdays until july which sucks and i hate it and i don't want to do it so today was kind of busy and just kind of weird so i did not get any malibu rising reading done and i also did not read it last night like i said i would so even though it was 1am and i have a very early hair appointment tomorrow i would really like to read i'm gonna go back to my system that usually works for me which is saying i can just read a chapter and go to bed and just making progress in one chapter will make me feel good and i also will get so much reading done tomorrow while i'm getting my hair dyed so i'm not too concerned but i'm very much excited to dive back into malibu rising because i just want to make some progress in this book that i like so much already i have not listened to my reading music playlist in a while and i feel like it just like always gets me in the mood to read because of the association with it so if you're interested i will link my spotify below and you can follow me and my playlists and if i forget to do it like i always do leave me a comment and i'll edit i thought i would do the pink lighting to match the text of malibu rising with my blue shirt and it just feels like a good vibe oh you find so cool you go out at when you're night so i only really read two chapters but like anything is better than nothing i did realize that if you remember me being annoyed about how one last stop is in third person when i first started it malibu rising is also in third person and i think the reason that doesn't affect me is i like third-person books when there are multiple characters multiple main characters and point of views and i don't like third person when it is a singular person's point of view it appears there are some flashbacks to the relationship between mick the father and june the mother and so i got to read them like meeting each other and falling in love for the first time and it was such a lovely chapter their romance started off like so perfect and magical and it just makes me feel bad because like i know it's gonna go down south like of course it is nothing ever happy happens definitely excited to get like so much reading done while i get my hair done tomorrow though so i'm gonna go to sleep wake up and next time you see me i'll probably be getting my hair done well hello there i had another very unexpected day mercury retrograde kicking my ass is the theme of this vlog luckily the one thing that did go according to plan is i got my hair dyed you can't see it super well because i put it up because it's so humid out today but i'm so happy with it my initial plan for today was i was going to meet monica from monica kim in the city and we were going to hang out a little and then go to this bar called marie's crisis which is like a classic gay show tunes bar in nyc the first mishap is i went to my train and it was kind of late which is normal for the long island railroad but then it just got an announcement that it was delayed and now like most of the trains were cancelled so mama books being the absolute doll that she is came to pick me up and drove me to a nearby train station so i could still get into the city and today we had a really bad forecast where there were going to be thunderstorms and stuff and it was looking really bad for a while so monica and i decided not to go in but then like an hour later the rain cleared up i've done a whole lot of nothing today but while i was waiting for my train or for my aunt to pick me up i went to my favorite east rock cafe which is a coffee shop on long island that you should definitely go to if you're ever in the area i got an iced chai latte with oat milk and a pump of vanilla and is my new favorite drink from there and then because i had not really eaten today because i was in a cilantro for so many hours i decided to try a new sandwich on their menu which is a bacon fig chutney grilled cheese and it is so delicious and this is also only half of it i had the other half earlier so i'm excited to dive back into reading and eat the rest of my lunch or now dinner because it's 8 p.m it is so light out why is it 8 p.m disgusting anyways i just realized i had not listened to any of one last stop today so maybe i should do like some stretching or something later and get a little bit of listening in but i read so much of malibu rising i'm almost like halfway there now so i'm currently on page 132 so i read like 70-ish pages while i was getting my hair done which was really great and i feel like the most of what i've read has really been backstory on mick and june it's very interesting because typically when i have the cast of characters defined in a story at the very beginning i only care about those characters so whenever we introduce like flashbacks or other points of views from different people i am just not interested and it's probably just because taylor jenkins read is a masterful storyteller but i'm super invested in their story and it's very similar to what i was kind of expecting like i feel like nothing about malibu rising has surprised me so far i feel like everything i've been able to like figure out i'm sure that won't be the case for long but on that same note i think that's because this story has an omniscient narrator and i love a good omniscient narrator when it's done really well if it's poorly done i hate it but it just works really well for the story with the setup of it being that like we know that malibu goes up in flames in the end so the vibe is just great for the story i'm loving like the california malibu 19 i think 50s and 80s setting it's really fun what what hour am i at i feel like that's a really good way to track this book because it goes from like 7am to 7pm so i'm currently at like noon i think am i further than noon i'm at 3pm girl how much i've been reading also that shows how much the story really takes place when the party begins at like 7 p.m so it's definitely going to be a wild ride that i'm excited to dive back into also i got my us hardcover edition of malibu rising in the mail today so now i have two copies and i think i'm probably going to give the book of the month copy to my sister because she has been super excited for malibu rising as well okay let's do more reading oh my god like i said before like malibu raising has not surprised me yet and i figured out what was coming on this page i just didn't expect it to happen here and i also did not consider the gravity of what this event would mean and i'm heartbroken and i like don't want to continue reading this page oh my god i just want to clarify that face was because i'm reading from kit and she said she was going to kiss a boy and i just do not believe it okay that's the last time i'm talking about her sexuality i promise listen it's pride month i want to read about the gays for anyone watching who has not read malibu rising yet and plans to you are not ready for four o'clock and five o'clock p.m you just aren't i'm sorry you'll have to go through it the exact way that i just did and wow i feel exhausted by the pain so i haven't done much since i last vlogged i haven't read any more of malibu rising but i am on page 160 we're at 6 p.m from where i left off and i'm definitely going to read at least one more chapter before bed i feel like malibu rising has pretty short chapters or at least the way it's divided up between the present and the flashbacks they feel like short chapters which is really good to read and then with one last stop i did do a little bit of listening tonight while i did a nice light workout and now i am 36 of the way in and i have about seven hours left of the audiobook we found out just a little bit more about jane's predicament of her being stuck on the subway not like why she's that way or anything just a little bit of information about what jane's experience of being stuck on is like and honestly it's like much sadder than what i was expecting but i really liked this course of the story with august trying to help jane remember things from her past so that they can find more information to hopefully find a way to get her back home i think jane and august are really cute together i'm very intrigued to see where this story goes because this feels like one of those books that's going to end with the main couple not being together like i just don't see that happening but i feel like casey mcquisten could write a satisfying enough love story that they don't have to end up together and that's kind of what i'm hoping for i really like the audiobook and i'm enjoying my time listening so i definitely want to prioritize listening a little bit more tomorrow but we're going to do just a little bit more malibu rising reading tonight and then it shall be a new day hiya happy saturday i went to my chiropractor this morning so my body's feeling good and then i went and got my nails done and i got these really beautiful wavy rainbows on all of my nails for pride month of course and i love them so much i never get like such intense nail art and i love it these are my favorite nails i've ever gotten i have been sitting out on my deck doing just a little bit of tanning while i did some homework before and because i finished that assignment now i'm just going to finish laying out for a bit and read more of malibu rising i've got a nice midday angry orchard it is beautiful out not too hot not too windy so i'm just gonna have a good afternoon and then i will do a reading update because oh my god i listened to so much of one last stop while getting my nails done i always listen to my audiobooks when i'm getting a manicure and so much shit has happened i'm excited to update oh so i have had a really nice relaxing day i got to lay out for like two hours and i got some color which i'm feeling good about i got a ton of reading done today which is great so i figured i would do a little reading update on both one last stop and malibu rising as i get ready for a wine night with a couple of my friends so i am now 65 of the way through one last stop and i am really freaking loving this book it is definitely as good as everyone who has read it has said it is the thing about spoiler free vlogs is that it always gets harder towards the end because i want to like talk about the specific things that are happening but i don't want to spoil you we got a little bit more development on like this situation with jane with her being stuck in the subway and i like the way it's panning out so far i've really enjoyed the progression of jane and august's relationship i just think they're so cute together they complement each other well and i just wish they could have a happy ending and like i said i just i don't feel it coming i really love the side characters like myla and nico and i also like wes even though he's probably the one that i like know the least about in the story i've been very much looking forward to what casey mcquiston would do with the sex scenes in this book if there were any because red white and royal blue is known for having like great smut and i can't lie it was steamy but i would not consider it smutty because of all of the fade to black sex scenes but i'm happy to say that i feel like there has been a real improvement in that aspect in one last stop and i've thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed all of the naughty scenes and i think the other thing i wanted to talk about regarding one last stop was i really like how the relationship and not even the relationship but just like august's dedication to helping jane and like kind of her obsession with her because she really is kind of obsessed with her is um very much mirroring her mother's relationship with her missing brother i think it is a lot of what jane doesn't like about her mother is kind of being reflected in how like serious and intense she's taking on this role of helping jane and so i just thought that was a really interesting layer to add to the story i don't know why i feel like i don't have like the most thoughts on one last stop but i am like really really loving it it's a solid book super enjoyable great characterization i love casey mcquisten's writing it's just an all-around fabulous time i'm definitely interested to see where like the climax of the story is or just kind of like what more conflict will look like because most of the book has been pretty cutesy like oh there's this cute girl august has a crush on on the subway and she's so cool and like let's watch them fall in love and something's got to happen where like august doesn't see jane for like a couple of days or weeks or something or like they have a fight like there's obviously going to be some conflict so i'm just like interested to see how that's going to pan out and then we have malibu rising and i am on page like 319 of malibu rising so i'm like very much close to being done i have read almost all of part two while i was reading outside and shit is really hitting the fan like so much stuff has happened and i'm really enjoying it again like i i love it so much i love both of these books so much and they were the perfect pairing to pick for this reading vlog while i think that malibu rising is like fantastic i think it is a beautifully written book and everything is executed well it's very character based and the characters are super interesting like the riva family will definitely be one of my favorite literary families for a long time to come but comparing it to daisy jones and the six and evelyn hugo which are of course two of my like all-time favorite books it doesn't really stand up like i truly love malibu rising so much it's definitely going to be making it on my favorites of the year list and it's not just that like evelyn and daisy are two of like my favorite books of all time and i think they are like two of the greatest books i've ever read there's something about malibu rising that is just like missing that the other two books have that this one doesn't there's just like more excitement in both of the stories and i don't know if it has to do with the fact that like this book is set in one day because like there are so many flashbacks to multiple different characters it's definitely got like the same tone and feel to it but it's just not as like grand as the other two stories maybe that's a good way for me to put it and like i said before like malibu rising hasn't really surprised me there's been like a couple of things that like maybe i just didn't put a lot of thought into but nothing entirely unexpected and it's not that i feel that the other two books had like a lot of plot twists because i don't feel like that's what taylor jenkins reads books are for but the other two just had like something special about them and i do think malibu raising is still special but just in a different way don't let my critiques fool you it is such a freaking good book oh the one other thing that i wasn't super happy with is i felt the pacing of the party has been kind of off like the hours were going by quickly and as i was reading i just like wanted more content and plot to it i do like the point i'm currently at in the story i feel like there has been some really good growth and while i keep saying that like nothing is shocking me i have no clue how this book is gonna end so i feel like that is going to be the big shocker i have one win going down and one win going up oh also um i'm not going to say what i was right about because some people would consider it a spoiler but just know i was right i was right i was right i was right i was right i definitely think i'm going to finish malibu rising if not tonight or like before i go out with my friends uh definitely tomorrow so i added some gems to match my green cargo pants so my makeup is done and i'm going to continue listening to one last stop while i get my hair done and i will check in with y'all later hello it is sunday and i mostly spent today like cleaning up my rooms packing because i'm about to head out to jake's and filming i filmed like a 50 book haul my biggest book haul ever so i'll link that below if you haven't watched it yet but oh my gosh i'm exhausted like my feet have never hurt from filming before but they hurt now i have not listened to any more of one last stop because i have like an hour long drive so i knew i was going to get a lot of listening in but this morning while i was eating lunch i did finish malibu rising honestly though i feel like i don't have a lot to comment on at the end of this book that's not like a bad thing it's just that most of the stuff i'd want to talk about are spoilery and i just feel like this book has been pretty consistent throughout like the way that i felt about this book from start to finish has been the same and i think that's a really good thing i loved malibu rising i'm gonna give it 4 out of five stars because it did not blow me away but it was a really satisfying and enjoyable story like i thoroughly enjoyed every second of this story i think the only thing i can say about the ending of this book is that mcriba is an ass like that is it mick riva is an ass that is the tagline of malibu rising i would say that malibu rising really fulfilled my expectations for it if being just like a touch less than what i expected it was really good i had a great time glad i read it so now i'm heading out to jake's and i'm gonna be spending most of the week at his because this weekend we are going to a wedding in baltimore which is going to be so fun and a nice little weekend away so i'm going to listen to more of one last stop while i drive and i will check in later when i'm at jake's so the next episode on mercury retrograde is kicking my ass in this reading vlog i actually was not able to drive to jake's long story short i've been having a lot of car trouble with it turning on and like stopping while i'm driving so did not feel safe driving stakes so he had to drive an hour to me just to pick me up to drive me an hour to his house that face was siri reading me a text in my ear pods that was from michael that said happy hump day and it was just very unexpected luckily my car's in the shop it's all getting fixed we got to jake safely so olive's okay i have not started another physical book to read yet because i've been pretty busy with school and work and whatnot but i have been listening to more of one last stop and i am like 86 or 89 of the way in i think i am definitely encroaching on the climax of the story which is going to be this big event to raise money for a restaurant and then my airpod is falling out and also we've reached a point where we are like trying to figure out how we are going to save jean and send her back and so things are heating up and i am very excited to see where they go i feel like i said in the beginning that like i felt like i knew where the ending of the story was going to be but i don't think that's correct anymore so i'm interested to see what's actually gonna happen good morning it has been a hot minute since i last vlogged but i thought i would catch you up to speed so i'm not sure if i mentioned but i spent the week at jake's and then we went to baltimore for a wedding on friday and it was really lovely it was honestly just like really nice to spend a weekend away and do something different and because my dad lives in delaware which is so close to baltimore we stopped at his house and spent the night there i don't talk a lot about my dad on my channel because he lives so far away and i don't see him frequently but i talk to him like every day and we have a great relationship so it was just really lovely to spend some quality time with him and jake and now i am just taking a walk up the block to get some duncan for breakfast for everyone because we all know a hoe loved dunkin i haven't said that in my videos in a while it's because we're in a pandemic and i haven't been outside but for some quick updates before my hands are filled with donuts bagels and drinks so sunny i can't see i am 97 of the way done with one last stop and i have thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed my timing in this book i actually think that i'm gonna give it five out of five stars because i just can't find any flaws with it i've absolutely loved it there was one twist in this book that really did catch me off guard i wasn't expecting and i just feel like the whole story has been written so well i'm super pleased with the way that things have turned out with like the whole time travel type thing of where jane is stuck in the present day like i feel like casey mcqueston did a really good job of explaining it all and making it still feel realistic even if it has this supernatural twist and although i still have 20 minutes left the ending is definitely not what i expected when starting this book and i love when a book can surprise me like that so i'm just really happy with the way that the story is wrapping up i feel like we just have like the final moments for the story of jane in august and i'm excited to look forward to and now i'm gonna go get some duncan and eat breakfast and spend time with my boyfriend and my dad and hopefully some point soon i will finish one last stop and i will give you the final final thoughts on this reading vlog so i'm exhausted from a relaxing but fun-filled and exciting weekend i never finished my vlogs on time the last clip is always like three months after the rest of the vlog so i really wanted to make sure that i filmed and finished this vlog tonight but today jake and i went to philadelphia on the way home from my dad's and it was such a nice time we went to reading terminal market and got tons of food and sweets for lunch and then like dessert afterwards and then we stood outside the magic gardens which is just like this beautiful like gallery art insulation thing you have to visit when you go to philly but they were sold out for today so we didn't get to go inside it was still cool to hang around that area and then we made it home and i unpacked like so much of my stuff from a week away and i'm just feeling really good about going into a new creek tomorrow to finish off my thoughts of malibu rising by taylor jenkins read and one last stop by casey mcquisten malibu rising is definitely a new favorite of mine i think i'm gonna settle on a four out of five rating because compared to other tilla jenkins read books it's not my favorite favorite but i love this story so much i'm very connected to the characters it has great characterization and writing beautiful setting and world building it's just amazing i have so many good things to say about it i can't wait to reread it and i think i mentioned before that i'm going to malibu this summer which i'm really really excited to i'm definitely going to appoint doom and i'm going to live my malibu rising dreams and it's going to be fantastic super happy i read this one definitely fulfilled my expectations and then with one last stop i don't have much more to end on because i feel like i've kind of been wrapping up my thoughts but one last stop is gonna get a five out of five rating for me i thought it was absolutely fantastic i think i'd like it even more than red white and royal blue which is saying something because i loved that book it's funny heartwarming heartbreaking talks about a lot of important topics like race as jane is chinese so there's like so much chinese immigrant and like chinese american influence in this story jane being a lesbian august being bisexual and having some really interesting relationships with her roommates and friends as well as her mother and her past super well-rounded great read could not recommend this one enough i think that anyone who likes contemporary books should read one last stop it is definitely worth all the hybrid is getting right now but that concludes this reading vlog and i had so much fun reading both of these books and filming my experience for you guys this was definitely like the greatest pairing of books that i could choose for a reading vlog inspired by my most anticipated books of the year i definitely would like to film more reading vlogs just casual random ones like this coming up because they really motivate me to read and i feel like you guys enjoy them as well so in the comments below let me know what you liked about this reading vlog your favorite parts what you thought about either of the books that i read i just want to connect and hear more from you all but that was it for this video thank you all so much for watching and i'll see you soon for a new one bye\n"