**A Brush with Love: A Review**

I'm sitting here with Teddy and ready to close out this vlog, which is good because I actually need to go and read some more Kindle Unlimited romances. I feel like I'm in a good mood, but I didn't end up enjoying "A Brush with Love" very much. It just didn't work well for me. I think the concept was nice - I liked Harper, I liked Dan, I liked their backstory and their respective traumas. Harper has an anxiety disorder, so if you're sensitive to that, I would recommend steering clear of this book because there is some intense on-page representation of that.

**Representation Matters**

Harper's anxiety is a significant aspect of her character, and while it's great to see representation in literature, it's also important to handle it with care. The author does a good job of portraying Harper's experiences with anxiety, but I felt like it was overwhelming at times. If you're looking for a book that tackles mental health with sensitivity, you might want to look elsewhere. On the other hand, Dan has childhood trauma, which is also on page two - like him recounting some of the things that his dad did in flashback scenes almost. I appreciated the representation here as well.

**Insta-Love and Romance**

I didn't really feel the romantic components between Harper and Dan. It was like "oh haha funny banter" kind of not really. The attraction was there, but it felt very superficial to me. I'm not saying people with anxiety aren't level-headed, because I have some symptoms of anxiety myself (which is why I appreciate a partner who can help see reason), but I do think it's nice to have someone who is not anxious if you are anxious. Dan was a little more level-headed than Harper in this regard.

**A Disappointing Read**

Ultimately, I just thought "A Brush with Love" was kind of... nothing special. It was like a long, meandering story that didn't really do much for me. I don't know if it's the audiobook or what, but this one was 12 hours long - feel necessary for the kind of story that this was. I don't want to say that you can't do a rom-com with serious topics, but I also felt like tonally, this was kind of weird.

**Tonal Discrepancies**

The dialogue and relationship between Harper and Dan was very cheesy and corny - not in a bad way, exactly, but it was just so over-the-top. At the same time, there were some really intense moments when discussing trauma, which felt jarring compared to the lighthearted banter earlier on. I think someone like Elizabeth O'Rourke does this kind of thing better, but she also has a certain humor that fits with the darker topics or traumas.

**A Recommendation**

I'm going to give "A Brush with Love" two stars. It wasn't my favorite, and I feel bad because we had four-star and three-star reviews before this one! These are books that I needed to read and wanted to read, so I definitely wanted to enjoy them more. If you're looking for a romance with serious topics, it might be worth reading, but if you're sensitive to mental health discussions or prefer lighthearted romances, you might want to skip this one.

**Summerween Vlog**

I'm getting up from my desk and taking a break because I'm out of breath. I just got up for five seconds and now I need some air! That's it from me - thank you so much for watching this video. I appreciate your support, and I hope you guys are excited to hear about my upcoming Summerween vlog. It's going to be all about reading thrillers and leaning into the spooky season (even though we're not technically in the fall season yet).

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello welcome back to my channel and welcome to the start of another weekly reading vlog starting off things in the car like i normally do it is monday and i am just really excited to be here with you i'm actually about to head into target to grab a couple of household essentials i'm trying to think of anything remotely interesting that i'm getting that i want to tell you about but honestly it's just like vitamins cat litter bar mops the uge just things i need to operate my household today i'm hoping to get two maybe three books read and i am doing some patreon reading sprints at three which is uh coming up pretty soon so i need to head into target sooner rather than later but before i do that i thought i would let you know how i am feeling about death on the nile by agatha christie i feel like that's such a random book for me to start off a vlog with and just a random book for me to be reading in general but it is for a another video that i'm doing it's for like a planned tbr secret tbr content kind of thing i'm going to talk more in depth about it in that video but i just wanted to pop in and say that i'm like actually enjoying this book which is sort of surprising me i've never read an agatha christie novel before but this one is juicy it's a little drama filled i'm only like 20 in but it is mostly about our main character lynette and lynette is an heiress she has a lot of money she ends up marrying her best friend's fiance kind of scandalous and now she's going to go on a honeymoon cruise on the nile there are a bunch of other people that are going to be on this cruise as well and i'm assuming someone's going to die and we're going to try to figure out who done it i'm assuming that lynette's probably going to be the one that's murdered and we're going to try to find out who wanted to kill her because it seems like everybody that we've heard about so far has motivation to kill this woman so i don't know i'm very excited about it i think it'll be good i don't know how much detail i'm gonna go into for this book in this video simply because i you know i'm doing a reading vlog on it but i'll definitely let you know my final thoughts i also need to read a intense shall we say romance for another reading vlog that i'm working on it's where i read your as in my subscriber favorite kindle unlimited romances but i also want to read other things today the book that i really want to read for this video and maybe i will read this during reading sprints is count your lucky stars by alexandra belfort i think i talked about this book a little bit in another weekly reading vlog but i am so excited to pick this one up it is a female female romance and it seems like these two were friends for a while they had a little bit of a romantic entanglement and then they you know after a couple of weeks like went their separate ways or like one girl kind of goes to the other girl or like went back to her boyfriend or something like that and then years later they are going to be roommates so they were roommates and all that very excited about this one so those are like three books that i'm tentatively trying to read today i didn't really tell you what the second one is but that's for me to know and you to find out later yeah i'm gonna go ahead and head into target i need to make it quick because i have sprints at three and it's already 2 15. but i'm really i'm really excited to take y'all along with me this week not as ambitious this last week for sure i don't have like that much on my to-do list except for reading but i am i am going to go to the gym that is one of my biggest things like as long as i read some books and go to the gym this week like i will feel accomplished i got my warning walk taken care of and it was like 86 degrees out so i don't know if i'm gonna be doing outdoor walks for the foreseeable future so like lifting weights is definitely something that needs to happen so i will take you to the gym if there's not too many people but uh i'm gonna go ahead and target and i'll i'll give you a little haul when we get back okay so it is about 8 22 and i am tired honestly i feel like i've done a lot today and also today has just been it's been a tiring day all around like that walk took a lot out of me this morning since it was so hot outside it just like wasn't the best start to the week but i feel like i was able to kind of turn it around to get some stuff done did my patreon reading sprints after coming back from target didn't give you a target haul because half of the things that i needed from target were just out of stock i don't know what's going on at my store but like i couldn't find really anything the only things i got were cat litter vitamins in bar mops which is i think what i told you but i had a couple of other things on my list and they just didn't have what i needed which kind of sucked so went to target did my patreon reading sprints and then hayden made us dinner which was so delicious i'm glad i finally got to get some b-roll of that it's a meal that we have i would say like once a week at this point because we're both so into it and uh we can always use a little bit more fish in our diets i don't personally eat anything other than poultry and fish i'm not a beef or pork kind of girl so it's nice to have some fish in the rotation since chicken can get a little bit boring and these fish bowls are literally so good and then i actually just picked up and finished under one roof by ali hazelwood this is one of those feminist novellas it's the last one that i had yet to read it was the first one in the series but the last one that i needed to read and it was okay like it wasn't anything special i tried to like write up a goodreads review after listening to it and like think about what i wanted to rate it and honestly i just care so little about it that i don't know what i would rate it i don't remember the names of either of our characters maybe the guy was liam but our main character ends up inheriting a house with a guy and the guy is like a lawyer or something at like a bad company for the environment and she's an environmentalist and so they like butt heads and he's also kind of mean because he doesn't want to share the house with this girl who he doesn't know eventually they you know just like wasn't very memorable i didn't feel like this one was particularly steamy either compared to the other novellas i would say this one's like in the middle between the third and the second book second book i hated third book i thought was really good and then this one i think is just like in between it was just kind of whatever i don't have any feelings towards it i'm pretty apathetic so i'm actually glad that i got to finish that one i forgot that i had it on hold for my library but i'm also glad that i got to give it back to the library so quickly i have two library cards one is local and one is for a big city and my local library everything seems to be on hold for like way longer than it needs to be i just feel good whenever i return something to library early because i'm like oh someone gets to enjoy that and like i'm sure they were waiting as long as i was so the gym i think i'm gonna skip tonight i am kind of rethinking what i said in the last vlog my whole like 885 idea which is where i would work out at 8am and 8pm five days a week well i could technically do it i definitely have the time to do it i don't know that it works super great for my schedule and my lifestyle and i also don't think it works given the heat in texas i think i'm gonna just start doing is going to the gym at 8am and then you know maybe doing a little bit of a walk and then just like lifting weights you know what i mean like get it done all at once and then be done for the day the 8pm thing kind of messes me up it's like i'll eat dinner and then i only have like an hour or so to read and then that's all the reading i get done that night i don't like that i don't like that at all so i think working out in the mornings is gonna work out well but i will report back and or if there's no one at the gym tomorrow like i mentioned earlier i'll you know maybe record a little bit of my workout and show you my cute workout outfits because i don't know i like to i like to dress up for the gym that's why i have my little matching sat on you can't see my shorts but they're the same color as the top so um i think that's where i'm going to leave the vlog for tonight tomorrow i'm going to put together a delightful little tbr for the rest of this vlog so we can get some stuff accomplished and also read a lot of fun stuff i think my goal for this video in terms of what i want to read is just going to be all romance all the time because i feel like the past couple of vlogs have been a little of all over the place with the genres and stuff and i've just been really craving romance so we're going to read some romance in this video probably like traditionally published contemporaries but i hope you're excited i'm excited and i'll see you brighten early tomorrow morning hello happy tuesday i got back from the gym about 30 minutes ago and i just wanted to pop in and say hello report back on my workout and then tell you about the sponsor of today's video let me just tell you working out indoors was a better idea it was maybe a big brain moment for me like i don't know why i thought walking in the mornings was a good idea i mean i do because i love the trails that i walk on usually in the mornings like they're so they're so delightful i love them but in the summer heat it's just unbearable like i just can't do it and i feel like combining both like a workout with my casual walk it was the key to success this morning and i felt really good about it i will say though did sweat more than i had anticipated i was like oh the ac is gonna solve all of my problems i hate sweating personally and it didn't solve all of those problems but something that did help that problem is the sponsor of today's video which is liquid iv i'm so excited to be working with liquid iv because they are like the solution i don't want to say to all of my problems but all of my workout related woes and or healthy lifestyle kind of goals that i've got going on so liquid iv if you are unfamiliar is an electrolyte supplement that you can add to your water to essentially like multiply the hydration you'd be getting just from a regular glass of water and they come in so many fun flavors which i personally really like i have been trying to cut back on tea and soda a little bit i found out that i am a little bit insulin resistant and i'm trying to stay away from drinks that really spike my blood sugar but the idea of just drinking plain water for the rest of my life sounds a little bit sad and boring which is where liquidity comes in for me not only do the flavors taste really good but they're also not super high in sugar so i do feel like i'm doing something good for my body and also the electrolytes in that replenish my hydration so filling my water bottle up earlier with the passion fruit flavor it was a nice delightful little treat especially as i was sweating like i said more than usual so i know that i was like replenishing my electrolytes passion fruit is a delicious flavor and it's how i started my day now though i'm going to fill up my big jug of water with the tropical punch flavor i actually haven't tried this one yet i'm really excited to give it a go i've tried the lemon lime i've tried the passion fruit i've actually tried a couple of other flavors my mom is actually a big liquid iv fan and i've tried a couple of flavors at her house but i have not tried a tropical punch yet so i'm gonna go ahead and add it to my water i only have this filled up about halfway because you're supposed to add one packet per 16 ounces of water i think i have like 20 ounces of water go ahead and shake it up okay that might be my new favorite flavor this literally tastes like my childhood i'm so excited i get to sip on this all day as i'm editing videos if you want to try look what i be for yourself you want to replenish those electrolytes get more hydration into your day you can use code chandler25 for 25 off your purchase and free shipping i'll also leave a link in the description to make it a little bit easier for you but thank you again to liquidity for sponsoring this video hello my friends it is much later it's like nearly 10 o'clock uh i didn't get to check in with y'all earlier because tuesdays are just a busy busy work day for me and i didn't have any time to read sadly i have since read a little bit i read for the past 30 minutes as i was making a thumbnail for this video and honestly i'm really excited about it i feel like i'm finally making the thumbnails that i want to make i am about 55 into a lady for duke by lexus hall i decided to pick this one back up because i'm already a little bit into this book by that i mean i'm like 55 to this book i think i was like maybe 40 or so when i picked it back up today and that seemed a little bit less intimidating than picking up something new when you know it's the end of the day i hyped this book up so much a couple of vlogs ago and i'm not saying i'm disliking it now but it is just very very slow and it is kind of too long in my opinion which is frustrating because i love the angst intention and i love the premise of this story you didn't know what this book is about about our main character viola and she basically reinvented herself after she died in a war uh she went to war as a soldier and she decided to kind of reinvent herself after she was assumed dead now her best friend or her like former best friend i guess like her best friend before the war he is kind of struggling right now and because viola and like her family and her friends are so closely intertwined with this duke's family she can't like escape her past so she ends up going to his country's state and tries to like help him recover from his ptsd and from the fact that he lost his friend and obviously there's an attention there because his friend is right next to him helping him heal he just doesn't know love the premise of the story i love the angst intention but some of that angst intention is being lost in the middle part of the book i like that the secret identity portion of the story wasn't long and drawn out i did appreciate that but i feel like some of the characters reactions to some of the things that are happening are not my favorite the duke actually while initially surprised at learning about viola's past he reacted pretty favorably he was just happy to have her back was now the one that's acting like she doesn't want a life with the duke i mean i understand like hesitancy there and like not wanting to jump into bed with a duke and just feeling hesitant to trust someone like i get it but it is frustrating and it makes for kind of a frustrating read especially at this like 50 mark i'm like we're only halfway into the book like what's gonna happen between now and then i feel like that's the kind of conflict that usually happens at like the 75 mark of a book so i just feel like a little uncertain of where we're going with things but i i do still like it it's a pleasant listening experience and it is something that's easy to kind of plug in and passively listen to while i'm making a thumbnail like i feel like i'm not missing out on much if i do miss a couple of words here and there because there's just so much and not in the way of plot just like so many words right now i think viola is trying to help the duke's younger sister like debut into society or something like that because viola is now a ladies maid or like a ladies companion not a maid a companion i don't know it's entertaining enough but i'm not blown away uh at the moment which kind of sucks i'm hoping you know i become more invested or become reinvested i guess in the next few percentages otherwise i think this is going to end up being um like a three and a half or a four star read rather than the five star that i totally thought this is going to be so that's kind of disappointing so i'm gonna go ahead and head to sleep but i will be back tomorrow to read some more books i'm hoping to finish this book between now and then between now and talking to you not between now and uh tomorrow morning but i want to finish this one off and then i want to start it on something new i really need to finish character looking stars tomorrow so maybe that's what i'll read it feels fitting to go from one queer story to another queer story i don't know if i mentioned for the last book i feel like it's kind of obvious that viola is a trans main character which we love and then encounter lucky stars it's a sapphic romance and i think both women are bisexual or maybe once bisexual once lesbian not entirely sure haven't gotten that far but so far it is kind of cute i'm like 15-ish percent in but i'll update you on both of these reads tomorrow i have a much less busy day so i'm looking forward to just like chilling out and reading some books with you when will it all end and by that i mean all of the work that i've had to do today i just want to read books and i have not had much of an opportunity to do that which sucks because i was supposed to finish four books today um i've gotten one down i have uh gotten about 30 into another and then the other two we'll see we'll see what happens you know the night's still youngish it's like 8 30 on wednesday i did finish a lady for a duke and i did end up liking it more than i said that i was also nugget does want to say hi um and pepper is obviously saying hi already so a lady for a duke was good i enjoyed it it was too long but ultimately i felt like the romance was so soft understanding egalitarian that i just couldn't help but love it i think especially in historical setting having a relationship like this amazing unparalleled just the way that it was written and the love that the characters had for each other it really had a magic that i feel like i don't see very often in romance anymore the intimate scenes were drawn out in a way that felt very like communicative and intimate and sexy i just really liked the book i don't know i thought it was great i loved our hero on heroin i love happily ever after i love the epilogue of the story so i ended up ultimately giving this book four stars i had to dock a star because i felt like it was just a little bit too long and while i did really really enjoy it there's just something missing and i don't really know how to like put that into words i think maybe i went in expecting too much from this book or i assumed going into it it would be a five star there's just something missing and i don't know how to define what that is but this is a book that i wouldn't hesitate to recommend to people and it definitely is one of the best books that i've read this year so i really really enjoyed it and i do think you should pick it up and give it a try if you are a historical romance reader i've said it in other videos but i don't think this is the like most accessible historical romance because it is very long and it does feel a little bit more plotting if you are someone who is used to something that is like really fast-paced whether it be in like a fantasy genre or in a dark romance or contemporary romance like they just they feel different and this historical definitely takes the long way to get where it wants to go yeah it's definitely not for the faint of heart if you are someone who really needs a lot of action in your romance but um like i said fantastic book another queer book that i have started is country lucky stars i'm like 30 into this one now and is picking up which i'm liking it's interesting picking this one up in like physical format because usually when i'm listening to an audiobook it seems to go quicker he said it seems good but that book was so slow that picking up the physical i say physical the ebook copy of count your lucky stars it feels so fast-paced and like i don't want to say fun by comparison but yeah so the book is about our two main characters olivia and margo margo is a small business owner she like owns her own astrology business with one of her best friends and olivia has recently gotten divorced like i guess over the past year she is now working in wedding planning and she is planning a wedding for one of margo's friends marco and olivia used to actually have a romantic relationship or like a two-week relationship in high school margot just kind of ghosted olivia out of the blue one day and so olivia went on to kind of marry the guy that she had been messing around on i guess you could say in high school but they got divorced and now olivia is living with margot force proximity i think i mentioned all of this in lesser detail already in this vlog the story is already kind of more tension-filled than it was last time we spoke which i'm liking i'm not expecting this to be the anxious thing ever but you can definitely tell that there's some like unresolved feelings from both of the characters about their like prior relationship since it all kind of like fizzled in a way that didn't feel great to either of the characters i'll be curious to see kind of what happens and in the scene that i just read margot wasn't invited to kind of like a couple's event that her other four friends are going to they weren't trying to be malicious or anything she actually like calls them out for not inviting her which i thought was good like a good representation of friendship like if you're upset about something you should vocalize that it's clear that her singleness is something that is like starting to great on her olivia is i think maybe eventually gonna start looking for love as well i think she mentions in the book that she doesn't do casual so i guess we're gonna have a you know if they were roommate situation going on i wish i had more to share like not much has happened since i last spoke to you because i haven't gotten that much farther in the book but i am enjoying it i do think it's fun so it's something that i'm hoping to fly through tonight as i try to finish more than just this book because i really i'm behind on my video that i'm posting on sunday of this week i was like feeling so on top of it and like so on top of things it's a video where i have to read 10 subscriber favorites i've only read three so far and almost all of the books are shorter than like your typical romance which i appreciate but it's wednesday and i have to read seven books so not my brightest moment the one that i'm trying to read today is under 200 pages so i definitely think i can knock that out but i wish i had more to say and i wish i had like more exciting life things to update you on but like i have been working um i've been editing videos i've been doing nothing exciting so here i am in front of a really nice sunset honestly i'm gonna go ahead and keep reading this book i'll probably update you at 50 uh maybe without makeup on again because i've just been caring less about that lately so that was literally so funny um i just got out of my like fully supine state to pop up and tell you how i'm feeling about this book and as i was doing that my cats all jumped off the bed because i thought that i was going to feed them they're correct i will be feeding them again after this but i am 50 into cat you're lucky stars i got there quicker than i thought much like the characters in this book i am liking it it's really cute i really like margot and olivia's relationship and i think i'm really appreciating the commentary this book has on friendships and on growth and maturity and uh i don't know communicating your feelings margot has already been really supportive of olivia and has kind of guided her in the sense that like hey maybe you shouldn't be talking to your ex-husband like since he harmed you like maybe maybe you should find healthier ways to move on also have olivia being there to support marco when margo's feeling like fifth wheel you know when all of her other friends are getting married i think like her best friend got proposed to you know she's feeling a little bit weird about that because now she is the only one that's like unmarried or unrelationshipped i don't know what the word is yeah i don't know i i feel like i really haven't noticed that as like a main theme in a romance before and i do appreciate that because i feel like that's something that's not talked about enough is like the emotions that that can draw up in you especially like you know if your life has been the same way for a really long time and your friendships have been the same and they start changing like that can be really challenging i feel like that and then like toxic friendships aren't talked about enough in romance so i am appreciating that i also liked the shall we say steamy scene that occurred between our two main characters like i really i'm liking it hot in a different way than the scenes in the last book that i read equally delightful very much something i'm into is getting deja vu because it was reminding me of a scene that i read in party favors by erin mcclellan which i'm reading or which i read for a different video but like the the choreography i guess you could say of the scene reminded me so much of that so i thought that was funny also i just got a facetime like an unexpected face time for my sister so i kind of lost my train of thought completely but i'm enjoying this book and i'm excited to finish it tonight also like i keep seeing my hair in the viewfinder and i'm like do i really want to dye this like do i really want to change my hair because it's looking cute right now for once i say for once like i like this hair color it's fun you know what i'm definitely going to change my tune after i wash it tonight because my hair is a filthy uh but b i'm gonna have to the effort of styling it tomorrow and that's just not something i'm looking forward to changes are a common folks not in this vlog not in the next weekly reading vlog but in the one after that i'll show you my new hair if all goes to plan these boys are desperate for dinner which is fair enough so i'm gonna go ahead and feed them and then i will see you bright and early tomorrow morning definitely bright and early okay because i'm less busy tomorrow hello my friends happy thursday i just got lunch i decided that i was going to treat myself to a mini drive through the texas hill country and i would get myself a little fast food for a fast food picnic i like how the thumbnail for this video makes it appear as though i have a very healthy lifestyle but you know what healthy lifestyle is all about it's about balance and um i'm gonna be having like a semi-healthy meal later which i'll show you because i think hayden's making us yogurt marinated chicken bowls i don't really know what he calls it but it looks good it looks good from what i can tell it smells really good because i smelled him marinating the chicken earlier i did end up finishing count really stars last night and it was cute it wasn't everything that i wanted it to be and more i ended up giving it three stars which was kind of disappointing because i thought that this would end up being another four star read just like a lady for a duke i didn't expect it to be that caliber of like passion i guess like i didn't feel like i knew that the likelihood that i would like count your lucky stars as much as a lady for a duke was like kind of slim but anyway this i think the reason it didn't totally work for me and the reason that i don't necessarily like highly recommend this one is because it was so heavy on the more intimate moments but it was not heavy on the relationship development author relied a lot on the fact that these two girls knew each other back in the day that they were best friends that they had a little bit of romantic entanglement and while we do get to see them bring up some of those moments and bring up the fact oh i know that you you know love this food or you don't like this or whatever it wasn't enough to really ground me in their relationship and like understand why they worked well together that's what was really missing for me i didn't understand how they complemented each other definitely didn't have like puzzle piece romance vibes which kind of sucked because like i i really did expect um a little bit more from the story in the beginning but it just kind of fizzled and i felt like the conflict in the story too was just a little bit silly i mean obviously there needs to be a conflict but i felt like this one was just fabricated so that like was a conflict it didn't feel organic to the story or like something that would really happen in real life almost i don't know it just like let me down a little bit give it three stars like it wasn't bad and i feel like if you're looking for something really breezy and rom-commy i would definitely pick this one up i mean it also has like some steamy moments so if you're if you're into that and you like want that and you're looking for a good sapphic story i wouldn't not recommend this but i've heard that the first book in the series is really good so like maybe pick that one up instead of this one i mean i can't say that for sure because i haven't read that one yet but um it's just kind of my perspective as of right now i am glad that i read it i can knock that one off of my checklist for one of my list videos another book that i just started that is also for that list video is a brush with love and i won't lie i was like not really looking forward to picking this book up because while i feel like i've heard really good things about it surprisingly which i feel like i don't really ever hear best things about traditionally published contemporaries it's everybody i feel like that i've seen on goodreads for the most part gives most traditional library romances rom-coms like middling reviews like three-star reviews unless it's like emily henry or something right someone actually had good reviews but i was like do i want to read a book about dentistry like does anyone really love teeth that much and also does anyone just like love going to the dentist i kind of have an unfounded fear of the dentist which i think is like a fairly universal experience i know there's some outliers you don't have to sound off in the comments about how much you like getting your teeth cleaned but yeah i was like i don't know about all this like what's really gonna happen is it going to be like set in a dental practice but no it's about our main character harper who is in her final year of dental school and is applying to go into i think like oral surgery or something like that i don't actually know how that process works because i know that like dental is different than medical but like obviously you have to have advanced training to be able to perform dental surgery on people so anyway she's applying for that she's like very high strung she has an anxiety disorder i believe and she's not looking for love until one day she bumps into on the stairs a guy named dan dan is a first year dental student who has had to like switch careers unexpectedly when his father passes away and his mom who owns a dental practice is like hey i need help you need to go back to school and like get a dental degree and dan's not super pleased about it so he's kind of like working through his conflicting emotions about going back to dental school and like he's trying to get into it but he doesn't love it and then we have harper who's like very passionate about it so they have very different like backgrounds and ideas of like the fun job is i guess like she is really into cleaning people's teeth like she talks about how fun it is to like scrape tartar and stuff so yeah definitely like unexpected i guess so it's like in a school setting nothing gross has happened yet which is encouraging but i'm curious to see like how this book will stand out compared to other contemporaries i've read beyond just the kind of i want to say strange like background of the characters but you know beyond the whole like dental setting how is this romance going to be really different like there was a meet cue it doesn't seem like there's any real tropes at play which can be kind of challenging for me as i try to read traditionally published romances like i kind of need tropes to keep me interested and i don't know why it's different in indie romance but like an indie romance if there's a meat cute situation i'm like okay like let's see where this leads for some reason i traditionally published romances i'm like give me a trope like i need i need to trope so i'm excited to continue to listen to this i also have to read two kindle unlimited romances for my subscriber favorite kindle video so i'm gonna be working on that today and i'll probably like pop in as i like take breaks from those books to listen to this audiobook but you know it'll probably take a while because i have so much stuff to read it was so funny i was like so on top of that video and i was like oh i'm way ahead of it like and i'm so behind now i have to read like two books a day for the next three days but it's fine it's fine and i say two books a day two books a day for that video so just a little fun behind the scenes moment with yeah the audiobook thing is going well though if you were wondering um about my like 31 audiobooks in 31 days thing i'm listening to a brush with love on audio so like that'll count for that challenge so anyway i think i am going to head back home which is going to be awesome like i'm just so excited again to like drive through the whole country like on the way back the hills from a new perspective you know because i'm like going in the opposite direction sunny day too it's beautiful i mean i'm not gonna go outside because it's like 100 degrees but i like how there's the open spice cabinet in the back yeah because hayden doesn't know how to close a cabinet hello hello i'm full we just ate it was good i will um give a link or something to the meal i like how the got just like the one flip but also i showered last night and then just like went to sleep immediately he's showing off himself i'm just saying my hair is kind of weird today because i showered and then immediately went to sleep you know and then didn't do anything with it today so that's where we're at now did you join me to put it in a braid you're the one who decided to put a camera in front of me so all right i just know that people like the hayden well the people should give better taste the food was good i feel like i should have more of a review than that but um it was good one of my not first forays into chicken thighs but i'm not normally chicken thighs kind of girl but this was good um well if you want the opinion of someone who um knows anything or cares uh i thought that it was excellent it was one of the better recipes that i've made recently in my opinion that i've you know like tried recently i would agree i think it's really good but we've been making i feel like really good stuff lately like there's not we have but there's there's been a couple that have been like not misses in terms of them being bad but misses in terms of them not being something special that i like really care to try to make again you know that's fair enough i think this week has been less of a win than last week but last week i feel like we had well i've only made this is the first like new meal that i've made this week oh yeah no that one was just not good but that was it because the other the only other thing that i made was the chicken and or the fish we made the the mushroom pasta too that we've never had before we've been making new stuff almost every day i don't know where he's going from yeah yeah that one was the little dingo kim the mushroom one was the better of the two like between that i mean they were both kind of just mediocre you like the gnocchi though because you're you're a slop girl like you like i want to be referred to as a slob girl i better keep this in here i'm gonna watch this video i'll keep it in i just here's the deal i like very like comforting foods like if it okay if it has the word fresh in it it's not a chandler food if it has butter or a gravy yeah that's pretty much it like something like comforting i mean that like a mashed potato that gnocchi meal just was gravy like it was all the consistency of gravy i love it it was homogenous it was supposed to be it was supposed to be a gnocchi like pot pie but without the pot pie crust pie portion gnocchi was going to be like the carby aspect of it it was just like it was like a roux with chicken stock and like vegetables and gnocchi and so all of it was just slop consistency and it was hot and it was like 110 degrees outside that you don't even go outside yeah but it was like 90 in my office for most of the day so i was like and then i was cooking for an hour so i was just a hot in general and then i had to eat hot slop so it was tasty uh i won't like the recipe but i enjoyed it so all right i didn't think that it was like bad it was just not the right time and place for me you know yeah but i've been enjoying our forays into cooking y'all have to let us know in the comments like if you enjoy the b-roll or if it like doesn't matter you don't care you act like i don't cook normally no i'm saying like four is into new recipes yes okay that sounds better listen you made it sound like like i'm just now trying to cook for the first time no no no no like he's a good cook he's an inconsistent cook in terms of like how often he does it and what we've been doing lately which i'm sure i thought you were gonna say in terms of quality no no no no i'm saying like i think we're doing what a lot of americans do which is finding recipes and then going to the grocery store once a week and then like making you cook for us every night instead of us getting fast food like three nights in a row because you haven't thought chicken so um that is literally the the difference in consistency of me cooking now versus the inconsistency of me cooking previously it's just that um i just remembered a thought chicken after i cook now so we just always have chicken that and i'm also like i nag you more almost i'm like hey have you done this about cooking because i'm excited to eat what you're gonna cook because i feel like historically you eat good stuff and you're good my cooking has definitely been goes through periods of like true laziness but that's what i'm saying like we've been eating kind of like boring and so i haven't been excited to like at home i'm like yeah there's no chicken thought we could just go get food yeah the problem is that like previously we weren't it's not even meal prepping it's just meal planning yeah that's what we've been doing recently is like actually like combing through pinterest and not finding like five-second crock-pot meals but like we're finding interesting things some of the chefs that i like to watch as well i'm like just getting some recipes and trying them out like shopping for those recipes as opposed to what i used to do was just go to the grocery store and be like oh we don't have any onions i'll get some onions and then like uh maybe i can do some stuff with this what's happening no pepper's under here oh can get a little a little cam on them um yeah teddy and pepper friends and foes that's fine you missed the the trout pounce and pepper just like jetted out of there thank you for listening to ice talk about food i thought this might be a nice interlude given that i've been talking about books for like 30 minutes straight don't listen to this bland slop girl so it is 8 p.m and i just finished a brush with love which was the last book that i was hoping to get accomplished for this vlog it means this is the final clip i can't believe it we were to say that since it is a thursday but i think like i mentioned at the beginning of this vlog i am going to be starting my summerween weekly reading vlog next week so um yeah this is the end of the road if you will get with me here i've got teddy and uh ready to close out the vlog which is good because i actually need to go and uh read some more kindle unlimited romances i feel like i'm seeming like i'm in a good mood i'm not not in a good mood but i didn't end up enjoying a brush with love very much it just didn't work very well it was a romance i feel like the concept was nice i liked harper i liked dan i liked their backstory and their like respective traumas i guess you could say like harper's definitely been through it she has an anxiety disorder so if you're definitely like sensitive to that i would recommend steering clear of this book because there is some like very i would say like intense on-page representation of that so like if that's not something you want to read about i would just like skip this one and then dan has childhood trauma so that is something that um is on page two like him recounting some of the things that his dad did it's like flashback scenes almost so appreciate that representation i liked their friendship but i just felt like it was very insta-lovey i didn't really feel the romantic components there it was like oh haha funny banter kind of not really it was very corny and then attraction but that was it i just didn't really feel like the actual romance there just didn't really it didn't really work it didn't feel very puzzle piecey if you will i do think the characters did i say that i do think the characters did balance each other pretty well i feel like dan was a little bit more i'm gonna say level-headed because i'm not saying people with anxiety aren't level-headed i have some symptoms of anxiety so like i get it but i do think it's nice to have a partner who is like not really anxious if you are anxious because they can maybe help you see reason at least that's been my experience anyway that was nice i guess but like ultimately i just thought this was kind of like nothing special um and it was like really long i don't know if it was just the audiobook or what but this audiobook was like 12 hours long and feel necessary for the kind of story that this was i don't know it's like i don't want to say that you can't do a rom-com with serious topics but i also felt like tonally this was kind of weird because dialogue and the relationship between harper and dan was very very corny very cheesy and yet the trauma was like pretty intense and the like harder topics are really intense i'm not saying you can't like juxtapose them but i feel like someone like elizabeth o'rourke kind of does that a little bit more skillfully in totally different kind of story but she has humor that feels like it fits with the darker topics or the trauma or whatever so it's just okay this wasn't my favorite which is fine i think i would give this like two stars i i feel kind of bad because we had a four star and then a three star and then a two star but these are books that i needed to read and wanted to read well i definitely wanted to read a lady for a duke and other two books i was reading for this list video um i do i do recommend country lucky stars it was fine it just like wasn't my fave but you should pick up a lady for a dude because that was special there's just like not a lot of books out there like that that have that like magical essence and i feel like you need to pick it up so i'm so out of breath i literally just got up for five seconds and i just like i can't maintain a steady breathing rate but uh that's it from me i hope you guys are excited and looking forward to my summerween vlog i'm very excited to get to sit down and read some thrillers and just lean into the spooky season not that it is the spooky season but i'm gonna pretend like it is like everyone else will be doing it's also pretty fitting since i am getting my hair redone soon like in a very fall sort of sense flash a picture right here of what i'm thinking there's not very many people watch these so like it'll still be a surprise for the vast majority of you so yeah i'm planning on cutting my hair too short and dyeing it really dark because it's just giving me all the fall vibes and i'm just ready for fall so that's why i'm like doing this in july rather than waiting until september which is that i was originally planning on doing this hair but i think it'll be nice too with the summer heat to like not have all of this anyway thank you so much for watching this video i appreciate your support so much i love you so much and until next time youhello welcome back to my channel and welcome to the start of another weekly reading vlog starting off things in the car like i normally do it is monday and i am just really excited to be here with you i'm actually about to head into target to grab a couple of household essentials i'm trying to think of anything remotely interesting that i'm getting that i want to tell you about but honestly it's just like vitamins cat litter bar mops the uge just things i need to operate my household today i'm hoping to get two maybe three books read and i am doing some patreon reading sprints at three which is uh coming up pretty soon so i need to head into target sooner rather than later but before i do that i thought i would let you know how i am feeling about death on the nile by agatha christie i feel like that's such a random book for me to start off a vlog with and just a random book for me to be reading in general but it is for a another video that i'm doing it's for like a planned tbr secret tbr content kind of thing i'm going to talk more in depth about it in that video but i just wanted to pop in and say that i'm like actually enjoying this book which is sort of surprising me i've never read an agatha christie novel before but this one is juicy it's a little drama filled i'm only like 20 in but it is mostly about our main character lynette and lynette is an heiress she has a lot of money she ends up marrying her best friend's fiance kind of scandalous and now she's going to go on a honeymoon cruise on the nile there are a bunch of other people that are going to be on this cruise as well and i'm assuming someone's going to die and we're going to try to figure out who done it i'm assuming that lynette's probably going to be the one that's murdered and we're going to try to find out who wanted to kill her because it seems like everybody that we've heard about so far has motivation to kill this woman so i don't know i'm very excited about it i think it'll be good i don't know how much detail i'm gonna go into for this book in this video simply because i you know i'm doing a reading vlog on it but i'll definitely let you know my final thoughts i also need to read a intense shall we say romance for another reading vlog that i'm working on it's where i read your as in my subscriber favorite kindle unlimited romances but i also want to read other things today the book that i really want to read for this video and maybe i will read this during reading sprints is count your lucky stars by alexandra belfort i think i talked about this book a little bit in another weekly reading vlog but i am so excited to pick this one up it is a female female romance and it seems like these two were friends for a while they had a little bit of a romantic entanglement and then they you know after a couple of weeks like went their separate ways or like one girl kind of goes to the other girl or like went back to her boyfriend or something like that and then years later they are going to be roommates so they were roommates and all that very excited about this one so those are like three books that i'm tentatively trying to read today i didn't really tell you what the second one is but that's for me to know and you to find out later yeah i'm gonna go ahead and head into target i need to make it quick because i have sprints at three and it's already 2 15. but i'm really i'm really excited to take y'all along with me this week not as ambitious this last week for sure i don't have like that much on my to-do list except for reading but i am i am going to go to the gym that is one of my biggest things like as long as i read some books and go to the gym this week like i will feel accomplished i got my warning walk taken care of and it was like 86 degrees out so i don't know if i'm gonna be doing outdoor walks for the foreseeable future so like lifting weights is definitely something that needs to happen so i will take you to the gym if there's not too many people but uh i'm gonna go ahead and target and i'll i'll give you a little haul when we get back okay so it is about 8 22 and i am tired honestly i feel like i've done a lot today and also today has just been it's been a tiring day all around like that walk took a lot out of me this morning since it was so hot outside it just like wasn't the best start to the week but i feel like i was able to kind of turn it around to get some stuff done did my patreon reading sprints after coming back from target didn't give you a target haul because half of the things that i needed from target were just out of stock i don't know what's going on at my store but like i couldn't find really anything the only things i got were cat litter vitamins in bar mops which is i think what i told you but i had a couple of other things on my list and they just didn't have what i needed which kind of sucked so went to target did my patreon reading sprints and then hayden made us dinner which was so delicious i'm glad i finally got to get some b-roll of that it's a meal that we have i would say like once a week at this point because we're both so into it and uh we can always use a little bit more fish in our diets i don't personally eat anything other than poultry and fish i'm not a beef or pork kind of girl so it's nice to have some fish in the rotation since chicken can get a little bit boring and these fish bowls are literally so good and then i actually just picked up and finished under one roof by ali hazelwood this is one of those feminist novellas it's the last one that i had yet to read it was the first one in the series but the last one that i needed to read and it was okay like it wasn't anything special i tried to like write up a goodreads review after listening to it and like think about what i wanted to rate it and honestly i just care so little about it that i don't know what i would rate it i don't remember the names of either of our characters maybe the guy was liam but our main character ends up inheriting a house with a guy and the guy is like a lawyer or something at like a bad company for the environment and she's an environmentalist and so they like butt heads and he's also kind of mean because he doesn't want to share the house with this girl who he doesn't know eventually they you know just like wasn't very memorable i didn't feel like this one was particularly steamy either compared to the other novellas i would say this one's like in the middle between the third and the second book second book i hated third book i thought was really good and then this one i think is just like in between it was just kind of whatever i don't have any feelings towards it i'm pretty apathetic so i'm actually glad that i got to finish that one i forgot that i had it on hold for my library but i'm also glad that i got to give it back to the library so quickly i have two library cards one is local and one is for a big city and my local library everything seems to be on hold for like way longer than it needs to be i just feel good whenever i return something to library early because i'm like oh someone gets to enjoy that and like i'm sure they were waiting as long as i was so the gym i think i'm gonna skip tonight i am kind of rethinking what i said in the last vlog my whole like 885 idea which is where i would work out at 8am and 8pm five days a week well i could technically do it i definitely have the time to do it i don't know that it works super great for my schedule and my lifestyle and i also don't think it works given the heat in texas i think i'm gonna just start doing is going to the gym at 8am and then you know maybe doing a little bit of a walk and then just like lifting weights you know what i mean like get it done all at once and then be done for the day the 8pm thing kind of messes me up it's like i'll eat dinner and then i only have like an hour or so to read and then that's all the reading i get done that night i don't like that i don't like that at all so i think working out in the mornings is gonna work out well but i will report back and or if there's no one at the gym tomorrow like i mentioned earlier i'll you know maybe record a little bit of my workout and show you my cute workout outfits because i don't know i like to i like to dress up for the gym that's why i have my little matching sat on you can't see my shorts but they're the same color as the top so um i think that's where i'm going to leave the vlog for tonight tomorrow i'm going to put together a delightful little tbr for the rest of this vlog so we can get some stuff accomplished and also read a lot of fun stuff i think my goal for this video in terms of what i want to read is just going to be all romance all the time because i feel like the past couple of vlogs have been a little of all over the place with the genres and stuff and i've just been really craving romance so we're going to read some romance in this video probably like traditionally published contemporaries but i hope you're excited i'm excited and i'll see you brighten early tomorrow morning hello happy tuesday i got back from the gym about 30 minutes ago and i just wanted to pop in and say hello report back on my workout and then tell you about the sponsor of today's video let me just tell you working out indoors was a better idea it was maybe a big brain moment for me like i don't know why i thought walking in the mornings was a good idea i mean i do because i love the trails that i walk on usually in the mornings like they're so they're so delightful i love them but in the summer heat it's just unbearable like i just can't do it and i feel like combining both like a workout with my casual walk it was the key to success this morning and i felt really good about it i will say though did sweat more than i had anticipated i was like oh the ac is gonna solve all of my problems i hate sweating personally and it didn't solve all of those problems but something that did help that problem is the sponsor of today's video which is liquid iv i'm so excited to be working with liquid iv because they are like the solution i don't want to say to all of my problems but all of my workout related woes and or healthy lifestyle kind of goals that i've got going on so liquid iv if you are unfamiliar is an electrolyte supplement that you can add to your water to essentially like multiply the hydration you'd be getting just from a regular glass of water and they come in so many fun flavors which i personally really like i have been trying to cut back on tea and soda a little bit i found out that i am a little bit insulin resistant and i'm trying to stay away from drinks that really spike my blood sugar but the idea of just drinking plain water for the rest of my life sounds a little bit sad and boring which is where liquidity comes in for me not only do the flavors taste really good but they're also not super high in sugar so i do feel like i'm doing something good for my body and also the electrolytes in that replenish my hydration so filling my water bottle up earlier with the passion fruit flavor it was a nice delightful little treat especially as i was sweating like i said more than usual so i know that i was like replenishing my electrolytes passion fruit is a delicious flavor and it's how i started my day now though i'm going to fill up my big jug of water with the tropical punch flavor i actually haven't tried this one yet i'm really excited to give it a go i've tried the lemon lime i've tried the passion fruit i've actually tried a couple of other flavors my mom is actually a big liquid iv fan and i've tried a couple of flavors at her house but i have not tried a tropical punch yet so i'm gonna go ahead and add it to my water i only have this filled up about halfway because you're supposed to add one packet per 16 ounces of water i think i have like 20 ounces of water go ahead and shake it up okay that might be my new favorite flavor this literally tastes like my childhood i'm so excited i get to sip on this all day as i'm editing videos if you want to try look what i be for yourself you want to replenish those electrolytes get more hydration into your day you can use code chandler25 for 25 off your purchase and free shipping i'll also leave a link in the description to make it a little bit easier for you but thank you again to liquidity for sponsoring this video hello my friends it is much later it's like nearly 10 o'clock uh i didn't get to check in with y'all earlier because tuesdays are just a busy busy work day for me and i didn't have any time to read sadly i have since read a little bit i read for the past 30 minutes as i was making a thumbnail for this video and honestly i'm really excited about it i feel like i'm finally making the thumbnails that i want to make i am about 55 into a lady for duke by lexus hall i decided to pick this one back up because i'm already a little bit into this book by that i mean i'm like 55 to this book i think i was like maybe 40 or so when i picked it back up today and that seemed a little bit less intimidating than picking up something new when you know it's the end of the day i hyped this book up so much a couple of vlogs ago and i'm not saying i'm disliking it now but it is just very very slow and it is kind of too long in my opinion which is frustrating because i love the angst intention and i love the premise of this story you didn't know what this book is about about our main character viola and she basically reinvented herself after she died in a war uh she went to war as a soldier and she decided to kind of reinvent herself after she was assumed dead now her best friend or her like former best friend i guess like her best friend before the war he is kind of struggling right now and because viola and like her family and her friends are so closely intertwined with this duke's family she can't like escape her past so she ends up going to his country's state and tries to like help him recover from his ptsd and from the fact that he lost his friend and obviously there's an attention there because his friend is right next to him helping him heal he just doesn't know love the premise of the story i love the angst intention but some of that angst intention is being lost in the middle part of the book i like that the secret identity portion of the story wasn't long and drawn out i did appreciate that but i feel like some of the characters reactions to some of the things that are happening are not my favorite the duke actually while initially surprised at learning about viola's past he reacted pretty favorably he was just happy to have her back was now the one that's acting like she doesn't want a life with the duke i mean i understand like hesitancy there and like not wanting to jump into bed with a duke and just feeling hesitant to trust someone like i get it but it is frustrating and it makes for kind of a frustrating read especially at this like 50 mark i'm like we're only halfway into the book like what's gonna happen between now and then i feel like that's the kind of conflict that usually happens at like the 75 mark of a book so i just feel like a little uncertain of where we're going with things but i i do still like it it's a pleasant listening experience and it is something that's easy to kind of plug in and passively listen to while i'm making a thumbnail like i feel like i'm not missing out on much if i do miss a couple of words here and there because there's just so much and not in the way of plot just like so many words right now i think viola is trying to help the duke's younger sister like debut into society or something like that because viola is now a ladies maid or like a ladies companion not a maid a companion i don't know it's entertaining enough but i'm not blown away uh at the moment which kind of sucks i'm hoping you know i become more invested or become reinvested i guess in the next few percentages otherwise i think this is going to end up being um like a three and a half or a four star read rather than the five star that i totally thought this is going to be so that's kind of disappointing so i'm gonna go ahead and head to sleep but i will be back tomorrow to read some more books i'm hoping to finish this book between now and then between now and talking to you not between now and uh tomorrow morning but i want to finish this one off and then i want to start it on something new i really need to finish character looking stars tomorrow so maybe that's what i'll read it feels fitting to go from one queer story to another queer story i don't know if i mentioned for the last book i feel like it's kind of obvious that viola is a trans main character which we love and then encounter lucky stars it's a sapphic romance and i think both women are bisexual or maybe once bisexual once lesbian not entirely sure haven't gotten that far but so far it is kind of cute i'm like 15-ish percent in but i'll update you on both of these reads tomorrow i have a much less busy day so i'm looking forward to just like chilling out and reading some books with you when will it all end and by that i mean all of the work that i've had to do today i just want to read books and i have not had much of an opportunity to do that which sucks because i was supposed to finish four books today um i've gotten one down i have uh gotten about 30 into another and then the other two we'll see we'll see what happens you know the night's still youngish it's like 8 30 on wednesday i did finish a lady for a duke and i did end up liking it more than i said that i was also nugget does want to say hi um and pepper is obviously saying hi already so a lady for a duke was good i enjoyed it it was too long but ultimately i felt like the romance was so soft understanding egalitarian that i just couldn't help but love it i think especially in historical setting having a relationship like this amazing unparalleled just the way that it was written and the love that the characters had for each other it really had a magic that i feel like i don't see very often in romance anymore the intimate scenes were drawn out in a way that felt very like communicative and intimate and sexy i just really liked the book i don't know i thought it was great i loved our hero on heroin i love happily ever after i love the epilogue of the story so i ended up ultimately giving this book four stars i had to dock a star because i felt like it was just a little bit too long and while i did really really enjoy it there's just something missing and i don't really know how to like put that into words i think maybe i went in expecting too much from this book or i assumed going into it it would be a five star there's just something missing and i don't know how to define what that is but this is a book that i wouldn't hesitate to recommend to people and it definitely is one of the best books that i've read this year so i really really enjoyed it and i do think you should pick it up and give it a try if you are a historical romance reader i've said it in other videos but i don't think this is the like most accessible historical romance because it is very long and it does feel a little bit more plotting if you are someone who is used to something that is like really fast-paced whether it be in like a fantasy genre or in a dark romance or contemporary romance like they just they feel different and this historical definitely takes the long way to get where it wants to go yeah it's definitely not for the faint of heart if you are someone who really needs a lot of action in your romance but um like i said fantastic book another queer book that i have started is country lucky stars i'm like 30 into this one now and is picking up which i'm liking it's interesting picking this one up in like physical format because usually when i'm listening to an audiobook it seems to go quicker he said it seems good but that book was so slow that picking up the physical i say physical the ebook copy of count your lucky stars it feels so fast-paced and like i don't want to say fun by comparison but yeah so the book is about our two main characters olivia and margo margo is a small business owner she like owns her own astrology business with one of her best friends and olivia has recently gotten divorced like i guess over the past year she is now working in wedding planning and she is planning a wedding for one of margo's friends marco and olivia used to actually have a romantic relationship or like a two-week relationship in high school margot just kind of ghosted olivia out of the blue one day and so olivia went on to kind of marry the guy that she had been messing around on i guess you could say in high school but they got divorced and now olivia is living with margot force proximity i think i mentioned all of this in lesser detail already in this vlog the story is already kind of more tension-filled than it was last time we spoke which i'm liking i'm not expecting this to be the anxious thing ever but you can definitely tell that there's some like unresolved feelings from both of the characters about their like prior relationship since it all kind of like fizzled in a way that didn't feel great to either of the characters i'll be curious to see kind of what happens and in the scene that i just read margot wasn't invited to kind of like a couple's event that her other four friends are going to they weren't trying to be malicious or anything she actually like calls them out for not inviting her which i thought was good like a good representation of friendship like if you're upset about something you should vocalize that it's clear that her singleness is something that is like starting to great on her olivia is i think maybe eventually gonna start looking for love as well i think she mentions in the book that she doesn't do casual so i guess we're gonna have a you know if they were roommate situation going on i wish i had more to share like not much has happened since i last spoke to you because i haven't gotten that much farther in the book but i am enjoying it i do think it's fun so it's something that i'm hoping to fly through tonight as i try to finish more than just this book because i really i'm behind on my video that i'm posting on sunday of this week i was like feeling so on top of it and like so on top of things it's a video where i have to read 10 subscriber favorites i've only read three so far and almost all of the books are shorter than like your typical romance which i appreciate but it's wednesday and i have to read seven books so not my brightest moment the one that i'm trying to read today is under 200 pages so i definitely think i can knock that out but i wish i had more to say and i wish i had like more exciting life things to update you on but like i have been working um i've been editing videos i've been doing nothing exciting so here i am in front of a really nice sunset honestly i'm gonna go ahead and keep reading this book i'll probably update you at 50 uh maybe without makeup on again because i've just been caring less about that lately so that was literally so funny um i just got out of my like fully supine state to pop up and tell you how i'm feeling about this book and as i was doing that my cats all jumped off the bed because i thought that i was going to feed them they're correct i will be feeding them again after this but i am 50 into cat you're lucky stars i got there quicker than i thought much like the characters in this book i am liking it it's really cute i really like margot and olivia's relationship and i think i'm really appreciating the commentary this book has on friendships and on growth and maturity and uh i don't know communicating your feelings margot has already been really supportive of olivia and has kind of guided her in the sense that like hey maybe you shouldn't be talking to your ex-husband like since he harmed you like maybe maybe you should find healthier ways to move on also have olivia being there to support marco when margo's feeling like fifth wheel you know when all of her other friends are getting married i think like her best friend got proposed to you know she's feeling a little bit weird about that because now she is the only one that's like unmarried or unrelationshipped i don't know what the word is yeah i don't know i i feel like i really haven't noticed that as like a main theme in a romance before and i do appreciate that because i feel like that's something that's not talked about enough is like the emotions that that can draw up in you especially like you know if your life has been the same way for a really long time and your friendships have been the same and they start changing like that can be really challenging i feel like that and then like toxic friendships aren't talked about enough in romance so i am appreciating that i also liked the shall we say steamy scene that occurred between our two main characters like i really i'm liking it hot in a different way than the scenes in the last book that i read equally delightful very much something i'm into is getting deja vu because it was reminding me of a scene that i read in party favors by erin mcclellan which i'm reading or which i read for a different video but like the the choreography i guess you could say of the scene reminded me so much of that so i thought that was funny also i just got a facetime like an unexpected face time for my sister so i kind of lost my train of thought completely but i'm enjoying this book and i'm excited to finish it tonight also like i keep seeing my hair in the viewfinder and i'm like do i really want to dye this like do i really want to change my hair because it's looking cute right now for once i say for once like i like this hair color it's fun you know what i'm definitely going to change my tune after i wash it tonight because my hair is a filthy uh but b i'm gonna have to the effort of styling it tomorrow and that's just not something i'm looking forward to changes are a common folks not in this vlog not in the next weekly reading vlog but in the one after that i'll show you my new hair if all goes to plan these boys are desperate for dinner which is fair enough so i'm gonna go ahead and feed them and then i will see you bright and early tomorrow morning definitely bright and early okay because i'm less busy tomorrow hello my friends happy thursday i just got lunch i decided that i was going to treat myself to a mini drive through the texas hill country and i would get myself a little fast food for a fast food picnic i like how the thumbnail for this video makes it appear as though i have a very healthy lifestyle but you know what healthy lifestyle is all about it's about balance and um i'm gonna be having like a semi-healthy meal later which i'll show you because i think hayden's making us yogurt marinated chicken bowls i don't really know what he calls it but it looks good it looks good from what i can tell it smells really good because i smelled him marinating the chicken earlier i did end up finishing count really stars last night and it was cute it wasn't everything that i wanted it to be and more i ended up giving it three stars which was kind of disappointing because i thought that this would end up being another four star read just like a lady for a duke i didn't expect it to be that caliber of like passion i guess like i didn't feel like i knew that the likelihood that i would like count your lucky stars as much as a lady for a duke was like kind of slim but anyway this i think the reason it didn't totally work for me and the reason that i don't necessarily like highly recommend this one is because it was so heavy on the more intimate moments but it was not heavy on the relationship development author relied a lot on the fact that these two girls knew each other back in the day that they were best friends that they had a little bit of romantic entanglement and while we do get to see them bring up some of those moments and bring up the fact oh i know that you you know love this food or you don't like this or whatever it wasn't enough to really ground me in their relationship and like understand why they worked well together that's what was really missing for me i didn't understand how they complemented each other definitely didn't have like puzzle piece romance vibes which kind of sucked because like i i really did expect um a little bit more from the story in the beginning but it just kind of fizzled and i felt like the conflict in the story too was just a little bit silly i mean obviously there needs to be a conflict but i felt like this one was just fabricated so that like was a conflict it didn't feel organic to the story or like something that would really happen in real life almost i don't know it just like let me down a little bit give it three stars like it wasn't bad and i feel like if you're looking for something really breezy and rom-commy i would definitely pick this one up i mean it also has like some steamy moments so if you're if you're into that and you like want that and you're looking for a good sapphic story i wouldn't not recommend this but i've heard that the first book in the series is really good so like maybe pick that one up instead of this one i mean i can't say that for sure because i haven't read that one yet but um it's just kind of my perspective as of right now i am glad that i read it i can knock that one off of my checklist for one of my list videos another book that i just started that is also for that list video is a brush with love and i won't lie i was like not really looking forward to picking this book up because while i feel like i've heard really good things about it surprisingly which i feel like i don't really ever hear best things about traditionally published contemporaries it's everybody i feel like that i've seen on goodreads for the most part gives most traditional library romances rom-coms like middling reviews like three-star reviews unless it's like emily henry or something right someone actually had good reviews but i was like do i want to read a book about dentistry like does anyone really love teeth that much and also does anyone just like love going to the dentist i kind of have an unfounded fear of the dentist which i think is like a fairly universal experience i know there's some outliers you don't have to sound off in the comments about how much you like getting your teeth cleaned but yeah i was like i don't know about all this like what's really gonna happen is it going to be like set in a dental practice but no it's about our main character harper who is in her final year of dental school and is applying to go into i think like oral surgery or something like that i don't actually know how that process works because i know that like dental is different than medical but like obviously you have to have advanced training to be able to perform dental surgery on people so anyway she's applying for that she's like very high strung she has an anxiety disorder i believe and she's not looking for love until one day she bumps into on the stairs a guy named dan dan is a first year dental student who has had to like switch careers unexpectedly when his father passes away and his mom who owns a dental practice is like hey i need help you need to go back to school and like get a dental degree and dan's not super pleased about it so he's kind of like working through his conflicting emotions about going back to dental school and like he's trying to get into it but he doesn't love it and then we have harper who's like very passionate about it so they have very different like backgrounds and ideas of like the fun job is i guess like she is really into cleaning people's teeth like she talks about how fun it is to like scrape tartar and stuff so yeah definitely like unexpected i guess so it's like in a school setting nothing gross has happened yet which is encouraging but i'm curious to see like how this book will stand out compared to other contemporaries i've read beyond just the kind of i want to say strange like background of the characters but you know beyond the whole like dental setting how is this romance going to be really different like there was a meet cue it doesn't seem like there's any real tropes at play which can be kind of challenging for me as i try to read traditionally published romances like i kind of need tropes to keep me interested and i don't know why it's different in indie romance but like an indie romance if there's a meat cute situation i'm like okay like let's see where this leads for some reason i traditionally published romances i'm like give me a trope like i need i need to trope so i'm excited to continue to listen to this i also have to read two kindle unlimited romances for my subscriber favorite kindle video so i'm gonna be working on that today and i'll probably like pop in as i like take breaks from those books to listen to this audiobook but you know it'll probably take a while because i have so much stuff to read it was so funny i was like so on top of that video and i was like oh i'm way ahead of it like and i'm so behind now i have to read like two books a day for the next three days but it's fine it's fine and i say two books a day two books a day for that video so just a little fun behind the scenes moment with yeah the audiobook thing is going well though if you were wondering um about my like 31 audiobooks in 31 days thing i'm listening to a brush with love on audio so like that'll count for that challenge so anyway i think i am going to head back home which is going to be awesome like i'm just so excited again to like drive through the whole country like on the way back the hills from a new perspective you know because i'm like going in the opposite direction sunny day too it's beautiful i mean i'm not gonna go outside because it's like 100 degrees but i like how there's the open spice cabinet in the back yeah because hayden doesn't know how to close a cabinet hello hello i'm full we just ate it was good i will um give a link or something to the meal i like how the got just like the one flip but also i showered last night and then just like went to sleep immediately he's showing off himself i'm just saying my hair is kind of weird today because i showered and then immediately went to sleep you know and then didn't do anything with it today so that's where we're at now did you join me to put it in a braid you're the one who decided to put a camera in front of me so all right i just know that people like the hayden well the people should give better taste the food was good i feel like i should have more of a review than that but um it was good one of my not first forays into chicken thighs but i'm not normally chicken thighs kind of girl but this was good um well if you want the opinion of someone who um knows anything or cares uh i thought that it was excellent it was one of the better recipes that i've made recently in my opinion that i've you know like tried recently i would agree i think it's really good but we've been making i feel like really good stuff lately like there's not we have but there's there's been a couple that have been like not misses in terms of them being bad but misses in terms of them not being something special that i like really care to try to make again you know that's fair enough i think this week has been less of a win than last week but last week i feel like we had well i've only made this is the first like new meal that i've made this week oh yeah no that one was just not good but that was it because the other the only other thing that i made was the chicken and or the fish we made the the mushroom pasta too that we've never had before we've been making new stuff almost every day i don't know where he's going from yeah yeah that one was the little dingo kim the mushroom one was the better of the two like between that i mean they were both kind of just mediocre you like the gnocchi though because you're you're a slop girl like you like i want to be referred to as a slob girl i better keep this in here i'm gonna watch this video i'll keep it in i just here's the deal i like very like comforting foods like if it okay if it has the word fresh in it it's not a chandler food if it has butter or a gravy yeah that's pretty much it like something like comforting i mean that like a mashed potato that gnocchi meal just was gravy like it was all the consistency of gravy i love it it was homogenous it was supposed to be it was supposed to be a gnocchi like pot pie but without the pot pie crust pie portion gnocchi was going to be like the carby aspect of it it was just like it was like a roux with chicken stock and like vegetables and gnocchi and so all of it was just slop consistency and it was hot and it was like 110 degrees outside that you don't even go outside yeah but it was like 90 in my office for most of the day so i was like and then i was cooking for an hour so i was just a hot in general and then i had to eat hot slop so it was tasty uh i won't like the recipe but i enjoyed it so all right i didn't think that it was like bad it was just not the right time and place for me you know yeah but i've been enjoying our forays into cooking y'all have to let us know in the comments like if you enjoy the b-roll or if it like doesn't matter you don't care you act like i don't cook normally no i'm saying like four is into new recipes yes okay that sounds better listen you made it sound like like i'm just now trying to cook for the first time no no no no like he's a good cook he's an inconsistent cook in terms of like how often he does it and what we've been doing lately which i'm sure i thought you were gonna say in terms of quality no no no no i'm saying like i think we're doing what a lot of americans do which is finding recipes and then going to the grocery store once a week and then like making you cook for us every night instead of us getting fast food like three nights in a row because you haven't thought chicken so um that is literally the the difference in consistency of me cooking now versus the inconsistency of me cooking previously it's just that um i just remembered a thought chicken after i cook now so we just always have chicken that and i'm also like i nag you more almost i'm like hey have you done this about cooking because i'm excited to eat what you're gonna cook because i feel like historically you eat good stuff and you're good my cooking has definitely been goes through periods of like true laziness but that's what i'm saying like we've been eating kind of like boring and so i haven't been excited to like at home i'm like yeah there's no chicken thought we could just go get food yeah the problem is that like previously we weren't it's not even meal prepping it's just meal planning yeah that's what we've been doing recently is like actually like combing through pinterest and not finding like five-second crock-pot meals but like we're finding interesting things some of the chefs that i like to watch as well i'm like just getting some recipes and trying them out like shopping for those recipes as opposed to what i used to do was just go to the grocery store and be like oh we don't have any onions i'll get some onions and then like uh maybe i can do some stuff with this what's happening no pepper's under here oh can get a little a little cam on them um yeah teddy and pepper friends and foes that's fine you missed the the trout pounce and pepper just like jetted out of there thank you for listening to ice talk about food i thought this might be a nice interlude given that i've been talking about books for like 30 minutes straight don't listen to this bland slop girl so it is 8 p.m and i just finished a brush with love which was the last book that i was hoping to get accomplished for this vlog it means this is the final clip i can't believe it we were to say that since it is a thursday but i think like i mentioned at the beginning of this vlog i am going to be starting my summerween weekly reading vlog next week so um yeah this is the end of the road if you will get with me here i've got teddy and uh ready to close out the vlog which is good because i actually need to go and uh read some more kindle unlimited romances i feel like i'm seeming like i'm in a good mood i'm not not in a good mood but i didn't end up enjoying a brush with love very much it just didn't work very well it was a romance i feel like the concept was nice i liked harper i liked dan i liked their backstory and their like respective traumas i guess you could say like harper's definitely been through it she has an anxiety disorder so if you're definitely like sensitive to that i would recommend steering clear of this book because there is some like very i would say like intense on-page representation of that so like if that's not something you want to read about i would just like skip this one and then dan has childhood trauma so that is something that um is on page two like him recounting some of the things that his dad did it's like flashback scenes almost so appreciate that representation i liked their friendship but i just felt like it was very insta-lovey i didn't really feel the romantic components there it was like oh haha funny banter kind of not really it was very corny and then attraction but that was it i just didn't really feel like the actual romance there just didn't really it didn't really work it didn't feel very puzzle piecey if you will i do think the characters did i say that i do think the characters did balance each other pretty well i feel like dan was a little bit more i'm gonna say level-headed because i'm not saying people with anxiety aren't level-headed i have some symptoms of anxiety so like i get it but i do think it's nice to have a partner who is like not really anxious if you are anxious because they can maybe help you see reason at least that's been my experience anyway that was nice i guess but like ultimately i just thought this was kind of like nothing special um and it was like really long i don't know if it was just the audiobook or what but this audiobook was like 12 hours long and feel necessary for the kind of story that this was i don't know it's like i don't want to say that you can't do a rom-com with serious topics but i also felt like tonally this was kind of weird because dialogue and the relationship between harper and dan was very very corny very cheesy and yet the trauma was like pretty intense and the like harder topics are really intense i'm not saying you can't like juxtapose them but i feel like someone like elizabeth o'rourke kind of does that a little bit more skillfully in totally different kind of story but she has humor that feels like it fits with the darker topics or the trauma or whatever so it's just okay this wasn't my favorite which is fine i think i would give this like two stars i i feel kind of bad because we had a four star and then a three star and then a two star but these are books that i needed to read and wanted to read well i definitely wanted to read a lady for a duke and other two books i was reading for this list video um i do i do recommend country lucky stars it was fine it just like wasn't my fave but you should pick up a lady for a dude because that was special there's just like not a lot of books out there like that that have that like magical essence and i feel like you need to pick it up so i'm so out of breath i literally just got up for five seconds and i just like i can't maintain a steady breathing rate but uh that's it from me i hope you guys are excited and looking forward to my summerween vlog i'm very excited to get to sit down and read some thrillers and just lean into the spooky season not that it is the spooky season but i'm gonna pretend like it is like everyone else will be doing it's also pretty fitting since i am getting my hair redone soon like in a very fall sort of sense flash a picture right here of what i'm thinking there's not very many people watch these so like it'll still be a surprise for the vast majority of you so yeah i'm planning on cutting my hair too short and dyeing it really dark because it's just giving me all the fall vibes and i'm just ready for fall so that's why i'm like doing this in july rather than waiting until september which is that i was originally planning on doing this hair but i think it'll be nice too with the summer heat to like not have all of this anyway thank you so much for watching this video i appreciate your support so much i love you so much and until next time you\n"