The Exciting World of Books: A Collection of Recent Picks

As I sat down to discuss my recent book picks with you, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. The thrill of discovering new authors, characters, and storylines is always a highlight for me, and this time was no exception. In this article, I'll be sharing the books that caught my attention, from romance to sci-fi, and everything in between.

My journey began with the author Helen Hong's latest release, "The Bride Test". This book has received rave reviews, and I was eager to dive into its captivating narrative. The story follows a young man who claims to have no feelings, focusing instead on logic and reason. However, his mother takes matters into her own hands and finds him a mail-order bride, which sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads to the main character learning about each other and falling in love. I was particularly drawn to this book because it features two characters with autism, which I believe is an amazing representation of neurodiversity.

As I delved deeper into my browsing, I stumbled upon another book by Helen Hong, "The Kiss Quotient". This author has gained a significant following for her unique perspective on romance and relationships, and I was excited to explore more of her work. With the main character's background being one of complicated past experiences, I anticipate that this book will delve into deeper topics like love, relationships, and personal growth.

My next stop was the World War II era, where Kate Quinn's "The Huntress" takes center stage. The story revolves around a young woman who joins an all-female air force regiment to hunt down Nazis during the war. I was drawn to this book because of its unique female-centered storyline and the kick-butt main character. With its blend of action, adventure, and historical fiction, I'm confident that this book will be an exciting read.

In another thrilling installment, Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's "Aurora Rising" promises to deliver a sci-fi series like no other. As a fan of the Illuminae Chronicles, I was eager to dive into their new creation. The story follows a group of space cadets, including a cocky diplomat, a sociopath scientist, an alien warrior with anger issues, and Aurora – who has been asleep for 200 years. Together, they must work together to save the galaxy from unknown threats. With its blend of humor, combat, and sci-fi elements, I'm confident that this book will be an epic adventure.

Finally, I have a special treat in store – Christine Riccio's debut novel "Again But Better". As a fan of moderating authors in my community, it was an honor to meet Christine, and I was thrilled to receive a signed copy of her book. The story follows Shane, a shy and quirky young woman who embarks on a new journey to London with the hopes of making friends, falling in love, and trying new experiences. With its relatable protagonist, humor, and travel elements, this book promises to be the perfect summer read.

As I concluded my discussion of these recent book picks, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement for the stories that lie ahead. From romance to sci-fi, and everything in between, there's something on this list for everyone. Whether you're a fan of light-hearted reads or deeper explorations, I'm confident that one (or more) of these books will capture your attention.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi guys it's regan and welcome to my may book haul and this video is being sponsored in part by epic reads now for the month of may i feel like i have quite the like solid collection of new books to show off i feel like i have things from so many different genres so many things i'm pumped to pick up for this summer um but it's also not like too big so i feel like it's very achievable like everything i picked up i'm like i plan on reading in the next couple of months so without further ado let's go ahead and dive right into the book haul the first book i have to show off is nocturna by maya motein this is a super exciting new y fantasy release which i cannot wait to dive in before i even talk about the synopsis i feel like we all have to admire this incredible cover look at these end pages look at this tile work i'm obsessed this is a latinx inspired fantasy story where we follow two main characters a face-changing thief and a risk-taking prince who basically have to team up to put back the evil power they accidentally unleash we follow our main character finn who basically views magic as two things one a knife to hold under the chin of anyone who she feels like taking anything from and a disguise that she shrugs on easily just like if it were a cloak she is a very amazing thief who also is a face changer basically she can take on the appearance of anyone she so wishes so much so she honestly can't even remember what her own face looks like we also follow a prince who after the untimely death of his older brother is now first in line to the throne he feels like he's never going to live up to his brother's legacy and riddled with grief is determined to figure out a way to bring his brother back and now these two unlikely characters team up to basically save the world as we know it i love a dual perspective story of two unlikely characters crossing paths i particularly think the face changing face shifting element of this book sounds so cool as well as a latinx inspired fantasy setting i just feel like that's going to offer so much rich setting so yes i am so pumped to have this in my possession can't wait to read it also cinda williams chima my fave of all time blurb at the back so i trust her with everything in my life so this is the first book i have to show off to you guys next book i have is the missing of the clutter loon this is book two to the mirror visitor series and this is by christelle davos this is a french translated fantasy series where i read the first one at winter's promise last winter loved it so much one of the most unique fantasy novels i have read in a very long time and it ended on quite the like bang so i can't wait to pick the sequel up but basically this follows our main character who lives on this like spiral floating land in the sky let's call it and her dream is honestly to live an unremarkable life she runs and is the curator of a museum within her town and she has two very interesting abilities one is that she can touch objects and basically see their whole past and who has owned them and why and their feelings involved in the object which makes her a great museum curator and two she can travel through mirrors however at the beginning of the first book her family basically marries her off to a very far away kingdom to a very powerful figure there and she's dropped in the middle of their politics it's honestly so dark and desperate but i love the main character so much because i feel like she is the perfect example of being like quiet and more reserved but that doesn't make her weak like she's so strong um and she's willing to like stand up for herself and do what's right for herself but that doesn't necessarily mean she has to be like loud and boisterous so i just feel like she is like a new and different type of main character we don't often stumble across in fantasy and i just loved reading her so much in the first one i also loved the twists and turns of the court so pumped to have the second book in my hand and to read it soon this book i have to show off is city upstairs by robert jackson bennett this is the book i picked up in austin while i was visiting uh and i got it from book people which is like my favorite place on the planet but this is a book i actually feel like i've definitely bought before and somehow totally misplaced but i'm excited to have it in my possession again because i read foundry side by robert jackson bennett uh last year loved it so much so now i feel like i need to read all of his books i honestly don't know too much of what this is about um but it is basically about a city who once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world and they enslaved and brutalized millions until divine protectors were killed so now this really like powerful city has fallen and we follow our main character shara who officially is like a diplomat like involved in politics within this new world but unofficially she is one of the most powerful spies and that just sounds honestly incredible i love robert jackson bennett's writing loved the other book i read by him and this is i believe a completed trilogy so hoping i read the first one i love it and i just marathon through the rest of them plus i just think he writes like sleuthing really well because there's an element of that in foundry's side so pumped for this next i have my two books i bought from book of the month the first one is upheaval by jared diamond this is the guy who also wrote uh guns germs and steel which is very famous non-fiction novel but this is about like turning points for nations in crisis basically evaluating a lot of different points in history where things like teetered so closely on success and how that could possibly have defined a nation this is a really uh famous painting so like you know i i'm always on the quest of trying to read more nonfiction constantly failing but i feel like this might be a really good place to start i actually read what told me on this book was actually the review on book of the month someone wrote it and was like i am a girl who loves to read like why a contemporary romance so you wouldn't think this book was really made for me but i read it and devoured it and completely was obsessed with it so i just thought that really like piqued my interest because i'm almost like intimidated by non-fiction in some ways and worried i won't be captured in the narrative but it just seems like this would be really um captivating and obviously it has really good reviews this guy's super famous so i picked this up and i really am going to try to read this this summer mark my words and then i also grabbed the bride test by helen hong this is the same author who wrote the kiss quote that came out last year uh which i believe is super popular and i saw that she released a new book of some book of the month so i decided to grab it and give it a try within both of the books this author has put out i believe both of her main characters have autism which i think is really awesome representation and i've read really good things about how it is represented within these two books this follows our main character who basically claims he has no feelings he's not really interested in like connecting with anyone he's very like focused and logical and isn't really interested in exploring like romance in any capacity his mother then takes matters in her own hand goes to vietnam and finds him the perfect mail-order bride which enters in our other main character both of these characters have really complicated backgrounds and i basically believe this is about them like learning about each other ultimately falling in love heard really great things about this author's works um i think this book itself sounds really interesting um i feel like it's gonna delve into deeper topics like obviously it's gonna be light-hearted it's romance and etc but i also feel like she's adding a lot of dynamic real life things to her characters that provide like additional elements to the story that makes it really interesting so i'm excited to have this i also think i'm gonna try to pick up the kiss quotant as well as i've heard that one is like the favorite book ever um but i am happy to have this the next book i picked up this month is the huntress by kate quinn i actually heard my co-workers talking about this book and it just really sounded super interesting the only thing i really heard was it's about a woman in world war ii who basically is a is a nazi hunter but a woman involved in this like all women air force regiment that only bombs at night just sounds really interesting it sounds like a cool female-centered story so i don't know the synopsis really sold me so i picked it up without really reading much more into the fact that the main character sounded super uh kick butt next novel i picked up was aurora rising by amy kaufman and jay kristoff i will always pick up any book these two put out i loved their illuminae chronicles so i'm really excited that they've put out a new um sci-fi series and this is a story basically about a group of space cadets working together but basically there's like the space academy and it's their graduating class star pupil of this graduating class tyler is pumped to put together his like dream team however some extenuating circumstances basically makes him only able to pick from like the very bottom the dregs of the academy and it it's very disappointing to him so his new team is now comprised of as follows a cocky diplomat with a black belt and sarcasm a sociopath scientist with the fondness for shooting her bunkmates an alien warrior with anger management issues and worst of all aurora who basically has been in a sleep for the past 200 years and has just recently woken up so she's very behind on the times so she he considers her worst of all but they have to work together likely have to save the galaxy i'm sure it's gonna be full of amazing combat lots of humor and i just cannot wait so this is definitely something i'm gonna be picking up very soon the very last book i have to show off today is again but better by christine riccio i was lucky enough to actually moderate one of christine's stops uh in new jersey and it was so much fun so i have a signed copy which i think is very special hello but this is christine's debut novel i read it i personally really really enjoyed it it follows our main character shane who's shy quirky and honestly hasn't had the best success at making friends in college but she views her study abroad as a new start so when she travels to london she has plans to make new friends hopefully fall in love and just try a bunch of new things this is a story that's super endearing hilarious and honestly in my opinion very relatable um it's just like the perfect summer contemporary read it has lots of elements of travel and humor and fun so yeah super excited to have this very special copy in my collection alrighty guys those are all of the books i picked up this may let me know down below some books you've got recently as i would love to know and i'll see you guys soon with another video soon goodbyehi guys it's regan and welcome to my may book haul and this video is being sponsored in part by epic reads now for the month of may i feel like i have quite the like solid collection of new books to show off i feel like i have things from so many different genres so many things i'm pumped to pick up for this summer um but it's also not like too big so i feel like it's very achievable like everything i picked up i'm like i plan on reading in the next couple of months so without further ado let's go ahead and dive right into the book haul the first book i have to show off is nocturna by maya motein this is a super exciting new y fantasy release which i cannot wait to dive in before i even talk about the synopsis i feel like we all have to admire this incredible cover look at these end pages look at this tile work i'm obsessed this is a latinx inspired fantasy story where we follow two main characters a face-changing thief and a risk-taking prince who basically have to team up to put back the evil power they accidentally unleash we follow our main character finn who basically views magic as two things one a knife to hold under the chin of anyone who she feels like taking anything from and a disguise that she shrugs on easily just like if it were a cloak she is a very amazing thief who also is a face changer basically she can take on the appearance of anyone she so wishes so much so she honestly can't even remember what her own face looks like we also follow a prince who after the untimely death of his older brother is now first in line to the throne he feels like he's never going to live up to his brother's legacy and riddled with grief is determined to figure out a way to bring his brother back and now these two unlikely characters team up to basically save the world as we know it i love a dual perspective story of two unlikely characters crossing paths i particularly think the face changing face shifting element of this book sounds so cool as well as a latinx inspired fantasy setting i just feel like that's going to offer so much rich setting so yes i am so pumped to have this in my possession can't wait to read it also cinda williams chima my fave of all time blurb at the back so i trust her with everything in my life so this is the first book i have to show off to you guys next book i have is the missing of the clutter loon this is book two to the mirror visitor series and this is by christelle davos this is a french translated fantasy series where i read the first one at winter's promise last winter loved it so much one of the most unique fantasy novels i have read in a very long time and it ended on quite the like bang so i can't wait to pick the sequel up but basically this follows our main character who lives on this like spiral floating land in the sky let's call it and her dream is honestly to live an unremarkable life she runs and is the curator of a museum within her town and she has two very interesting abilities one is that she can touch objects and basically see their whole past and who has owned them and why and their feelings involved in the object which makes her a great museum curator and two she can travel through mirrors however at the beginning of the first book her family basically marries her off to a very far away kingdom to a very powerful figure there and she's dropped in the middle of their politics it's honestly so dark and desperate but i love the main character so much because i feel like she is the perfect example of being like quiet and more reserved but that doesn't make her weak like she's so strong um and she's willing to like stand up for herself and do what's right for herself but that doesn't necessarily mean she has to be like loud and boisterous so i just feel like she is like a new and different type of main character we don't often stumble across in fantasy and i just loved reading her so much in the first one i also loved the twists and turns of the court so pumped to have the second book in my hand and to read it soon this book i have to show off is city upstairs by robert jackson bennett this is the book i picked up in austin while i was visiting uh and i got it from book people which is like my favorite place on the planet but this is a book i actually feel like i've definitely bought before and somehow totally misplaced but i'm excited to have it in my possession again because i read foundry side by robert jackson bennett uh last year loved it so much so now i feel like i need to read all of his books i honestly don't know too much of what this is about um but it is basically about a city who once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world and they enslaved and brutalized millions until divine protectors were killed so now this really like powerful city has fallen and we follow our main character shara who officially is like a diplomat like involved in politics within this new world but unofficially she is one of the most powerful spies and that just sounds honestly incredible i love robert jackson bennett's writing loved the other book i read by him and this is i believe a completed trilogy so hoping i read the first one i love it and i just marathon through the rest of them plus i just think he writes like sleuthing really well because there's an element of that in foundry's side so pumped for this next i have my two books i bought from book of the month the first one is upheaval by jared diamond this is the guy who also wrote uh guns germs and steel which is very famous non-fiction novel but this is about like turning points for nations in crisis basically evaluating a lot of different points in history where things like teetered so closely on success and how that could possibly have defined a nation this is a really uh famous painting so like you know i i'm always on the quest of trying to read more nonfiction constantly failing but i feel like this might be a really good place to start i actually read what told me on this book was actually the review on book of the month someone wrote it and was like i am a girl who loves to read like why a contemporary romance so you wouldn't think this book was really made for me but i read it and devoured it and completely was obsessed with it so i just thought that really like piqued my interest because i'm almost like intimidated by non-fiction in some ways and worried i won't be captured in the narrative but it just seems like this would be really um captivating and obviously it has really good reviews this guy's super famous so i picked this up and i really am going to try to read this this summer mark my words and then i also grabbed the bride test by helen hong this is the same author who wrote the kiss quote that came out last year uh which i believe is super popular and i saw that she released a new book of some book of the month so i decided to grab it and give it a try within both of the books this author has put out i believe both of her main characters have autism which i think is really awesome representation and i've read really good things about how it is represented within these two books this follows our main character who basically claims he has no feelings he's not really interested in like connecting with anyone he's very like focused and logical and isn't really interested in exploring like romance in any capacity his mother then takes matters in her own hand goes to vietnam and finds him the perfect mail-order bride which enters in our other main character both of these characters have really complicated backgrounds and i basically believe this is about them like learning about each other ultimately falling in love heard really great things about this author's works um i think this book itself sounds really interesting um i feel like it's gonna delve into deeper topics like obviously it's gonna be light-hearted it's romance and etc but i also feel like she's adding a lot of dynamic real life things to her characters that provide like additional elements to the story that makes it really interesting so i'm excited to have this i also think i'm gonna try to pick up the kiss quotant as well as i've heard that one is like the favorite book ever um but i am happy to have this the next book i picked up this month is the huntress by kate quinn i actually heard my co-workers talking about this book and it just really sounded super interesting the only thing i really heard was it's about a woman in world war ii who basically is a is a nazi hunter but a woman involved in this like all women air force regiment that only bombs at night just sounds really interesting it sounds like a cool female-centered story so i don't know the synopsis really sold me so i picked it up without really reading much more into the fact that the main character sounded super uh kick butt next novel i picked up was aurora rising by amy kaufman and jay kristoff i will always pick up any book these two put out i loved their illuminae chronicles so i'm really excited that they've put out a new um sci-fi series and this is a story basically about a group of space cadets working together but basically there's like the space academy and it's their graduating class star pupil of this graduating class tyler is pumped to put together his like dream team however some extenuating circumstances basically makes him only able to pick from like the very bottom the dregs of the academy and it it's very disappointing to him so his new team is now comprised of as follows a cocky diplomat with a black belt and sarcasm a sociopath scientist with the fondness for shooting her bunkmates an alien warrior with anger management issues and worst of all aurora who basically has been in a sleep for the past 200 years and has just recently woken up so she's very behind on the times so she he considers her worst of all but they have to work together likely have to save the galaxy i'm sure it's gonna be full of amazing combat lots of humor and i just cannot wait so this is definitely something i'm gonna be picking up very soon the very last book i have to show off today is again but better by christine riccio i was lucky enough to actually moderate one of christine's stops uh in new jersey and it was so much fun so i have a signed copy which i think is very special hello but this is christine's debut novel i read it i personally really really enjoyed it it follows our main character shane who's shy quirky and honestly hasn't had the best success at making friends in college but she views her study abroad as a new start so when she travels to london she has plans to make new friends hopefully fall in love and just try a bunch of new things this is a story that's super endearing hilarious and honestly in my opinion very relatable um it's just like the perfect summer contemporary read it has lots of elements of travel and humor and fun so yeah super excited to have this very special copy in my collection alrighty guys those are all of the books i picked up this may let me know down below some books you've got recently as i would love to know and i'll see you guys soon with another video soon goodbye\n"