**A Romance Novel Review: A Mixed Bag**

As I sit here with 120 pages left to go on this book, I have to say that my feelings about it have been all over the place. The first 300 pages were absolutely entertaining, and I found myself fully invested in the story. It was a fast-paced, action-packed read with lots of romance and intrigue. I was expecting a lot from this book, and I think the author delivered on many fronts.

The only issue I had at this point was that the dynamic between the characters hadn't changed much since the beginning. The author's word choice was creative and engaging, and I loved the way they wove together adjectives and descriptions to paint vivid pictures in my mind. It was like a little language lesson, where I got to learn new words and phrases that added depth and richness to the story.

But as we approached the middle of the book, something shifted for me. The plot started to feel repetitive and stagnant, and I found myself getting bored with the lack of progression. The author tried to shake things up by introducing new characters and subplots, but it didn't quite work for me. It felt like too much repetition, and I started to lose interest.

The steamy scenes that were promised throughout the book did start to get more intense, but unfortunately, they also became less enjoyable for me. The author seemed to be trying to one-up each other with increasingly ridiculous moments, which didn't resonate with me at all. I know this is just personal opinion, but it felt like the author was phoning it in by this point.

Despite my growing boredom, I did feel a glimmer of hope when we approached the final stretch of the book. The author seemed to pick up steam (no pun intended), and things started to get more interesting again. It wasn't quite enough to redeem the book for me, but it was a welcome respite from the tedium that had been plaguing me.

One thing that did strike me as odd was how much of the book felt like placeholder material. I know this is a common phenomenon in writing, where authors leave certain scenes or characters untouched until the last minute. But in this case, it felt like too much of the middle section could have been cut out to make the story more concise and focused.

And then there were the conversations. Oh dear lord, the conversations. They were some of the most cringe-worthy moments I've ever had the displeasure of reading. It was like the author was trying to pack in as many words as possible without actually making sense. I felt like I was wading through a sea of verbosity, struggling to keep up with the flow.

In the end, my feelings about this book are complicated. On one hand, I loved the first 300 pages and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves romance and fantasy. But on the other hand, the middle section was a slog, and the final act was somewhat disappointing. Overall, I'd give this book 3 stars out of 5 – not bad, but definitely not great.

**A Conclusion**

As I wrap up my thoughts on this book, I have to say that it's left me feeling a bit ambivalent. While I did enjoy certain aspects of the story, the middle section was a real slog. If you're a fan of romance or fantasy novels, I would still recommend checking this one out – but be warned: things may get repetitive and boring at times. And if you do decide to take my advice, please keep in mind that the first 300 pages are definitely worth it.

**A Final Note**

As I finish writing this article, I'm left wondering what I did wrong. Was it just a matter of expectations? Did I go into this book with too high of hopes? The more I think about it, the more I realize that every author has their strengths and weaknesses. Some books are just more enjoyable than others, even if they don't quite live up to our expectations.

And so, with that in mind, I'll give this book 3 stars out of 5 – not bad, but definitely not great. If you're a fan of romance or fantasy novels, I would still recommend checking this one out. Just be aware that things may get repetitive and boring at times. Happy reading!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everyone and welcome to the start of another reading vlog it is what is today it is exactly a week before christmas it is friday um december minus seven days from december 25th and i am starting another reading vlog for you guys today i'm excited about this one for a variety of reasons one because clay and i are gonna have a bit of a festive weekend and i'm excited to do that and document it but two the book i'm reading i think is going to be quite the good time for better or for worse um so without further ado let's just dive into the book i plan to read from hopefully beginning to end this weekend joined by sunbathing matilda here but the book is kingdom of flesh and fire by jennifer l armentrout this is of course and this is book two to the blood and ash series i think the first one's blood and ash um which is a fantasy romance centered story i read and documented the first one in a reading vlog and i feel like you guys really enjoyed that and i have been really dying to pick up the second one and vlog it as well the thing with this series is i enjoyed the first one quite a bit it was angsty it was really dramatic it had some interesting fantasy plot points but the ending of the first one was really the wild experience there and to see kind of how i guess the dominoes continue to fall based off of the first one into the second one i think it's going to be particularly wild as well i've heard that this one is just as entertaining if not more so than the first one i honestly don't even know if i'm going to like this given some of the structure of the first her context what this series about this first one or rather this series primarily centers around our main character poppy who is this sort of like pure guardian figure she's kind of kept away from society at large she can't really have friends she can't obviously have like any type of romantic partner she could barely talk to anyone she's sort of this figurehead to some sort of ritual that kind of keeps the society running throughout the first novel you kind of get a peek into the behind the scenes of the dark nations of this fantasy world and you also meet the love interest which is a character named hawk who is her guard and the first one is supposed to protect her from you know naysayers and evil doers who are trying to kidnap or kill her and destroy this like figurehead within this world obviously though he's not so great at his job because instead of guarding her he you know they kind of have like a romantic thing but plots and things begin to progress and everything is much more than what they seem i would say this is definitely like a paranormal influence fantasy novel like it has a high fantasy setting but there's also fantasy versions of vampires and werewolves within this story and kind of playing on that like ancient feud between these different paranormal figures is very much present in this it makes it for a highly dramatic entertaining time and the thing i'm really interested to see how the story progresses into this book is one how jennifer l armentrout continues to keep this romance interesting i feel like in the first one it was definitely long but towards the end she really was beginning to subvert a lot of romance tropes which made it really really fun and kind of caught me off guard at the very least so i'm curious to see how that's going to expand in this second one here uh also i feel like the politics are going to continue to expand because there's definitely sort of a rebellion kind of going on too and then lastly i feel like this story is truly going to be like enemies to lovers kind of that's like that's my anticipation and not in like the classical sense of enemies because they're like there's a misunderstanding but they truly both have like the same heart and they begin to understand each other no like truly people who have differing agendas differing political associations they despise a lot of the things that they are like each one is doing like they might have like grunting respect and understand why they're making these decisions but at the end of the day like they are enemies on a different side of a battlefield um but also can't you know still think each other's cute so i think that might be kind of the premise of this and i don't know i hope it definitely continues to kind of keep things not as typical as i'm worried it will fall into in that second book but we'll see and i'll definitely begin to vocalize that a little more about our main character poppy too i really liked her as a protagonist through the first one i think she's set up as this like soft character like you assume her to be because of this sort of guardian pure maiden trope but she's actually really capable of sure of her own opinions and things like that she's also like trained in combat um yeah overall this series is fun the first one is ridiculous like don't get me wrong but in terms of like being an entertaining romance fantasy story it delivers and i'm very curious to see how the second one continues i feel like some people hate this some people love it some people kind of fall in the middle and i'm very curious to see where i fall amongst that spectrum of feeling but anyway i'm gonna read this hopefully from beginning to end in this vlog i think it's over 600 pages long so it is it is a doozy um so we'll just we'll just wait and see but welcome to this romance steamy vlog hope you enjoy i hope i enjoy this book and let's begin it is actually friday morning and i have today off you're wondering why i've had so many pto days off it's because i didn't really take any vacation from my job this year and all of my pto expires at the end of the year like it doesn't carry over so it's like if you don't use it you lose it and gosh darn it i wasn't gonna lose it i was gonna use it so i've just been taking off like sporadic holidays and just doing you know trying to relax and read so i have my christmas cup here i'm gonna pour myself a cup of coffee but i will say because i haven't done anything obviously this year i've been using my pto to just read it's been great for vlogs like it's been very convenient to be able to i guess fit filming in um and not have to do like my corporate job at the same time so i guess cheers to that but anyway i'm gonna put my fake fireplace on and start kingdom of flesh and fire right now and uh i don't know why this is so blue but i will keep you guys posted on on the book hi everyone so i've just been sitting here reading i've read a quick 50 pages of this book and wild ride so far i think this book is gonna be even more dramatic than the first one and i think in ways that i might like more obviously when it comes to romance stories there are just certain tropes that are in play and everyone has trope preference if you will the first one definitely has more of this maiden guard protection trope um definitely more about poppy kind of like finding herself coming in her own power which was great and really entertaining obviously now she kind of already has her own like abilities i guess and in this one it's definitely a lot more about the struggle of power between two individuals that are like drawn to each other should hate each other are using each other but also it's a romance and that what i'm saying it's so dramatic so far is i'm very curious to see how this is going to evolve and if i'm going to like it it has the opportunity to be definitely problematic um as there's a sort of like forced marriage captive sort of like political pawn plot going on and there's a lot more i guess political maneuvering and like direct confrontation and like power struggle between these two characters but i do think it could be interesting as long as our main character does not like take backwards steps in her own character development and instead becomes just as confrontational as him i think it could be interesting but we'll definitely see how this evolves again i've heard really good things about the ending i know some people are really bothered about the romantic setup in this book so i'm not sure where i'll fall i mean it definitely i think is going to be ridiculous no matter which way you slice and or dice it um but we shall see i mean like this is this is like this is some classic shenanigans going on right now and i would say this book is definitely full of action and violence definitely the first one and it's continuing in this next one i'm just also curious to learn more about the politics as now we're kind of more on the rebellion side like the first one is definitely more about setting up the world and kind of how the people in power came into power and kind of like learning like what's going on behind the curtain and now we're kind of with the people who are trying to tear that down for obvious reasons because there's a lot of problematic stuff going on but that doesn't mean this sort of group doesn't have its own problems or their own political divides happening at the same time you know what i mean but yeah this should be interesting first 50 pages were definitely intriguing um definitely left off right where it you know ended in the last book and i'm just curious to see how this romance is going to be handled i just feel like it's going to be an intense clashing of wills this entire time and it's probably going to be very entertaining kind of like a cruel prince situation a card in jude situation where they like hate each other but they love each other and it's very messy i'm hoping it's that and i'm hoping there is equal power dynamics otherwise i'm not sure how i feel but you know i can only find out by reading so we shall see matilda is in her prime surrounded by blankets and being a good girl and not barking because the neighbor's dog is barking i know you want to i can see you holding it in but read 50 pages it's time for me to get another cup of coffee yes i still drink a lot of caffeine even on my days off it fuels me people also my mom just called me she lives um in a really small town and she moved there after i went to school so obviously i was born and raised in texas my mom moved back to the northeast um back to her hometown basically like once i left the nest if that's a word anyway so there's this pond here house with a bunch of ducks and it's cold now and the pond is freezing over and she's really concerned about the ducks because you know she wants to make sure they're safe and warm so she keeps calling with all these updates about these ducks anyway she's on her way to a tractor supply store to buy a 50-pound bag of a specific feed that she was recommended by like a local i don't know people who like handle the local animals so that's what she's doing today right now i'm gonna go buy 50 pounds of duck feed to help the ducks to keep them fed until the pond freezes over and that's when they officially move the ducks out of the area it literally feels like an episode of gilmore girls but this is my third update about the ducks it's a yearly thing too she's very involved um she also is involved with the deer because there's obviously people like it's a small like in the country so people like hunt them so she tries to like get all the deer to come to her yard to keep them to keep them out of danger i don't know this is my mom for you guys folks but anyway coffee i'm gonna sit down i think i'm actually gonna watch an episode of gilmore girls answer some emails and then get back to reading but my hope is to read like 200 pages of this book today before clay and i just let him hang out for the evening but that's my update for you matilda has not moved i'm about to make some lunch but i've read up to 70 pages of from flash and fire still a lot of this book left but boy oh boy this book starts out really fast i would say the pacing is a lot quicker than the first one obviously because it already has a lot of things set up i will say they are a mess this is one of the messiest relationships i have encountered in a while makes for very intriguing back and forth but oh my god this is so messy like i don't know if i want to scream at them or just keep reading but it's entertaining like is it romantic i'm not sure no actually i'd say no it's not but it's steamy and confusing and very messy but i'm gonna make lunch now all right it's grilled cheese time i've decided to use a combination of the melts cheese and then classic sharp cheddar i also have some tomato soup cant is my favorite and also unrelated my friend got me this matilda mug and it's the best well i think you should think about getting a checkup delicious combo cheese approach provides the ultimate cheesy experience if you know what i mean all right back to reading the most absurd romance i've read in a while but to be able to make it through i need coffee and and folks and candy so now i'm ready to deal with whatever shenanigans these characters throw my way because there are amenia shenanigans stepped into the other room because clay is on a call happy to report i've successfully oh i just threw a paper airplane at me because i have successfully read 150 pages of my book also happy to report my mom successfully laid the 50 pounds of duck feed too she called me gave me that update so i thought i would pass that along but back to kingdom of flesh and fire the hot mess express continues but i'm kind of here for it i am so thoroughly entertained by the drama of the story it's just mixing together a lot of my favorite like angsty romance tropes it's definitely vibing in that guilty pleasure direction to kind of take a step back into the plot so the first one had a much more of an insular view because obviously our main character is this maiden she has been kept in like confinement and like away from everyone so she had a very limited view of the world and kind of the politics and so because of this we kind of learn everything with her as she slowly kind of discovers you know not only her place in the world but how the world is and how she decides she wants to proceed in it which as an element of the story itself i enjoy and poppy is a main character i really enjoy but within this book too which i'm really liking is that in the first one really confined to like one location one castle within the duke the queen like her kind of place within this sort of you know structure but in the second one again because it's more of a rebellion we're learning more not only about alternate groups trying to like fight for different things but also like more information about the different magical creatures that are present in this world different politics different cities different power structures like ancient bloodlines ancient magic ties all of that stuff which is just really interesting um but back to the romance i would really describe this as like i don't know maybe because i'm just watching vampire diaries so it's on the mind oh my god he's just throwing paper airplanes that is because um i'm just kind of compared to like a damon and elena or like a klaus and caroline the dynamic is definitely one now matilda's here everyone's just bothering me the dynamic is definitely like this brooding angsty super dramatic maybe like definitely a bad boy like in the damen way like he's doing like violent bad things but like he's always gonna protect you kind of thing but also combining with the fact that you don't know his motives and it all he's also perceiving like he's always gonna protect you like it's ridiculous it's not something that should exist in real life but in a fantasy paranormal setting it can be fun and entertaining um and i would just describe it as like that klaus damon thing especially with this sort of like secret past the secret information just kind of like their back and forth is good i just felt like that would be like an apt comparison and like how i would describe this romance so far like definitely cw level of angst and in no way shape or form would i say this is a shining light of an example of how a relationship should be or anything we should strive to have but in terms of it being entertaining so far so good like i don't know guys maybe this was just what i was looking for like something absurdly dramatic and overbearing and like like my my objective hat on i'm like girl this ain't what you should be looking for my vampire diaries hat on i'm like girl he is hot anyway i'm gonna uh paint my nails i think actually take a bit of a break from reading but i've read 150 pages so far so i'm feeling really good about that and i feel like i'm definitely on track to finish this this weekend matilda's being extra sassy right now but didn't read any i still need to pay my nails but i decided to edit video first and now i'm gonna paint my nails and i think watch gilmore girls i'm almost done with season three paris just got rejected from harvard my favorite episode not gonna lie i changed into pajamas i'm not gonna paint my nails i'm also trying to convince clay to get chipotle so we'll see if i'm successful in that in future clips but for now it's gilmore girls and nail painting time all right friends it's officially friday night we are making something exciting we're making some what is it mold wine i got some really cute like wine um mixes from this really cute small business i'll have a link down below but they sent some old wine i figured we'd test it out they even sent a recipe i think we're gonna have it though because it's just the two of us um but i'm we're gonna do this thing so we're gonna get started making a smaller batch because we only really want like one cup each tonight but it's just about a third of a bottle of wine it's like like a third of a cup of that little mix and then some orange juice and then you just simmer it on the stove for like 30 minutes and then you can enjoy how fun it smells amazing already so so festive and so easy and tonight friends we feast mafungo if you know you know this is the best it's such a good caribbean spot in our neighborhood so we thought we would get it tonight because honestly it's delicious and our mold wine is all done it smells so good we're enjoying it while watching some community which top tier comedy been really fun to watch and uh that's just how friday night's been going i still haven't read any more of my book i don't know where i put it oh it's over there i'm still only on page 150 but i definitely think i'll be able to get to page 200 tonight no problem but for now we're all just hanging out friends it's time for the season finale season two of the mandalorian i'm not ready i'm really sad that it's over but i'm also happy you know we got to experience it how are you feeling clay i'm feeling good trying to get trying to entice matilda to hang out with you i have i'm not trying i am enticing you can see her anyway mandalorian time until it's going wild for toys right now or rather she was i always feel terrible when she decides she's no longer interested in playing and we still throw the toy because we don't know yet anyway now we're watching the boys which is also a wild tv show but the season finale of mandalorian was so good i don't know how i'm gonna wait for the new season but i know disney is putting out all the shows in the meantime so i guess we'll just have to be patient good morning pals i am backing up apparently but i'm about to film two videos this morning i'm just getting them out of the way bright and early and then really that that's like my big to-do obviously aside from reading which i also plan to do a bunch of today but i'm going to film and then i will get coffee and then i'll check in and let you know the general plan for saturday and sunday surprised me with breakfast from our new from like a new cafe place near us um this is like an egg grilled cheese sandwich coffee and a croissant which can't live without croissants i still have one more video to film until the it's like what's going on over there um but i'm gonna eat this first and then i will film video dos can't successfully say i filmed my second video uploaded a video ate that delicious like egg omelette sandwich thing so now i'm getting a cup of coffee here we are and i'm gonna put christmas music on and read i think i'm gonna go with my matilda mug um kingdom of flesh and fire i don't know why i can't remember the title of this book i think it's because there are a lot of titles that are like something in something not that i'm mine um but they're sometimes hard to remember i guess is what i'm trying to say but i'll sit down now and do some reading i was able to read to just under 200 pages last night 190 so i'm in a good spot so i'm gonna read for like an hour i need to shoot one photo for instagram so i'll do that and then read the plan for tonight is actually clay and i rented a car because we're gonna drive around and look at christmas lights around uh a brooklyn neighborhood specifically that's really famous for having really pretty christmas lights we're just trying to think of fun festive safe things you know to keep us in the holiday mood in spirit especially because it's just him and i for christmas this year but that's the plan for this evening but before then i'm just going to do my reading so cheers friends matilda is just so cute she loves a blanket a little babushka little darth sith vibe smelly yes look at us reading together clay is almost done with his with his book which is very exciting so we get to pick out a new one this evening but i'll let you talk about your book a little later i wanted to do a quick check-in because i've passed a 250 page mark and this book is a wild ride i actually think i'm liking it more than i thought i would i was worried it was really gonna going to prey on some tropes that i personally don't like but instead it's using tropes that i am kind of a sucker for one i do feel like there has been sort of a mutual understanding throughout the entirety of this narrative which i think is important and i just appreciate being part of it there's a fake marriage trope going on which we all know and love it especially when inevitably they fall in love at the end and another thing i would say too is there's obviously still a lot of secrets being kept between both of these main characters that's part of the drama and in itself and the miscommunication that kind of dries this sort of romantic plot forward but i do feel like there is more authenticity between them um as i feel like some of their layers have been stripped away which in general i feel like i appreciate their banter and back and forth more in this book than the first one also there's more information about the magic which is cool i think probably one of my larger criticisms of this series which i mean i could say more than just one thing i mean i think like the general fantasy plot is a little flimsy and more of a backdrop which personally is fine i would say kind of a larger criticism would be how the side characters tend to be handled obviously i do feel like the two primary characters are pretty fleshed out and they're given a lot of backstory and context and their feelings and importance in the story is constant but i do feel like we've run through quite a few different side characters in that they're very important but when they're out of the picture they're out of the picture and they're not really referenced or they don't really have a lasting emotional impact which seems a little illogical given how close some of these characters are to our main character it's kind of like out of sight out of mind sort of situation um and in general i do feel like side character relationships are built pretty quickly which doesn't bother me as much because it does create good banter but sometimes a little unrealistic but a lot of this book is really unrealistic so you know it's a give and take but i'm gonna get back to reading i'm trying to get to page 300 before i take a break for the afternoon but i just wanted to give you guys some of my thoughts all right reheating our cup of coffee because honestly i can never finish a cup of coffee so i just kind of poured it in here we'll reheat matilda everyone hello i've changed into a cozier sweater jean combo headband i'm probably gonna put a hat on though um because we are off to go see the christmas lights and i'm excited to be in a car because i'm just gonna play the ever more album whilst we drive around and when we get there we'll switch to christmas music but um there's actually still a lot of snow on the ground from the snow that fell a couple days ago so that should be fun and add to the ambience and lights i'm excited this neighborhood's really famous it's called diker heights so if you're ever in new york during the holidays and you want to drive into a more southern brooklyn neighborhood you can or maybe hopefully we'll be able to get some cute clips but i am so looking forward to it we've arrived and the house is starting to get christmassy folks glamorous it's basically just streets on streets of christmas lights in this area i'm trying not to fall to my death but it's so beautiful it's also just a neighborhood we've never been to so it's just fun to explore this one is rather spectacular look there's even a christmas gazebo one of the more famous houses so extra i love it clay's getting ice cream lol all right i got ice cream too i couldn't resist snow background we're back home i'm clearly already in pajamas we ordered in some delivery and now we're gonna sit over there and watch some community maybe a christmas movie some anime we're relaxing for the rest of the evening but the houses were so much fun would recommend hello world we ordered three pasta dishes because it's cold outside pasta is delicious and why choose when you can have all three look at that homemade ricotta we are now gonna watch a classic christmas movie home alone two i feel like i normally just watch home alone so it's a good switch up plus it's set in new york i'm excited i think this movie came out the year i was born yeah 1992. i know i was like wow it's almost 30 years old i was like it's almost as old as you clay i'm an old man all right we finished home alone two which you've never seen right if i have it was very long and i think i was a kid and we both were watching it and we're like i don't know if i would show this movie to children it's incredibly violent it's it's wor it's so it's very violent but what i think is more problematic as a kids movie is that it shows an inaccurate outcome of the violence yes so like it's like a quentin tarantino movie level of violence without the like the consequences like he throws a brick from the top of a building and they're fine and it's like the problem with that is like if young kids watch this like they don't learn like the consequences of like electrical electricity and dropping heavy like it's just constant and the thing is is that i'm i'm not like i'm gonna be that parent that shelters the kid from a bunch of media but like immediate like specifically this the message seems weird like i'll show my kid like and not when they're really like i would rather my kid watch like braveheart than yes exactly because like again it's it's less like okay violence is bad yes but to me what's more problematic and hope alone too is that the violence fine glorified but it is an inaccurate representation of the outcome like you can't hold a sword cut your arm and then not all of a sudden start bleeding like that's not gonna matter i'm not gonna be shown my kid's brain heart but like by 10 years old but like i would not show my eight-year-old this movie yeah i mean it would one thing about the movie that was cool is just cool obviously living in new york and seeing yeah in the past and it's like a time capsule and it's literally the year i was born which is interesting it's like oh that's exactly what it looked like back then and a cool thing about new york which is one of america's oldest cities is it hasn't changed so much it obviously changes everything's always changing quickly but in a lot of ways it's not changing that quickly but yeah homolog is sadistic i was watching it and then i found an atlantic article after the fact i was watching it and i was like they made kevin like a mini saw anyway we've ranted almost six minutes talking about home alone too i'm sure i'll probably cut some of this out but the point is we had issues with home alone too yeah oh she can't get lost in new york as john elaine says the streets are numbered he's a 10. anyway anyway i don't know what we're gonna watch now but that was what a ride all right we are now about to watch the boys which hey maybe i would prefer my children to watch over home alone too at least it's honest with its intentions um but yeah the show is absolutely wild actually it is very good would recommend we are almost done with season two hello friends good morning i'm about to put christmas music on and read kingdom of flesh and fire by jennifer l armentrout i was able to read to page 270 between obviously friday and saturday let me flip you around and honestly i'm pleased with that i always generally do the bulk of my reading on sunday and almost 300 pages on my first two days of a weekend reading vlog i feel like is pretty solid i don't really have anything new to say about this book it is everything that i've been saying for basically it's cheesy and fun and honestly i'm liking it quite a bit as of yet um i think i am liking it more than the first one from a trope perspective and it's also not as like bad and i mean it's super messy this relationship is messy like no other but it's not bothering me so much because i do feel like there's no communication between the main characters which i think is important when it comes to messiness um but i'm going to read a bunch this sunday i tr i woke up feeling like i'm gonna have like a sunday very sunday sunday i just want to sit on this couch and not move i i like postponed any project i was planning on doing today to get ahead of anything like i don't want to do anything at all so that's the plan i'm going to watch football i'm in my fantasy league finals if anyone cares i've won three out of the last four years i'm basically a dynasty at this point um so i want to watch football but i really want to read this entire book which is pretty long i have i have over 300 pages left of this to read but i think i can definitely fly through it it's early in the morning right now um i'm literally wearing the same exact thing as i was wearing last night will i get dressed that's a topic of discussion but anyway i'm going to read that personally oh there they are i don't think you guys can tell i kind of missed the the strong showers before i started vlogging but it's snowing which is very exciting on to that second cup of coffee ladies and gents bagels and uh hoping that the bears make it to the playoffs friends i got 10 dressed it's basically just another version of pajamas but i feel a little bit better about myself wearing my book socks these are from modcloth i want to say yeah turtleneck flannel combo i look like i work on a farm in a lifetime christmas movie and i'm not mad about it all right i'm gonna make a bit of a coffee hot chocolate i was sent these like hot cocoa cubes i'm gonna do a white and a regular and mix it with coffee and we'll just we'll just see how it all goes here are the two cubes pour my coffee in i'm gonna mix it up i think i'm also gonna add some milk merry christmas the bears won they're football games obviously not chicago bears but i just have red zone on and i'm gonna get back to reading kingdom of flesh and fire now um yeah so that that's my update just been on the couch you know living my best life hi friends i just popped into the other room to do an update because clay is working but i just wanted to say i have only about 170 pages left of kingdom of flesh and fire and i feel like i have to start this clip off and say just as a disclaimer and a heads up to anyone who maybe hasn't started the series yet i just want to say this book is definitely adult like the steens are very steamy like please do not mistake this for why a it is not so just keep that in mind interested in picking it up and i would definitely say even the sequel is much steamier than the first one in terms of the amount of scenes present throughout it which all in all i'm finding it to be very entertaining and it's definitely escalating one thing i will say is hilarious because i feel like in the first book and even throughout this book i'm like i was always anticipating possibly the development of a classic love triangle which might happen but it might actually be a true love triangle and just more of a trio situation but we'll just see how that unfolds but i will say probably a bit of a criticism while i am liking this book probably more because i feel like the characters feel more interesting there is a lot less plot like in the first one there was a lot more exploration and discussion about like the fantasy world and the politics that you know poppy is very much involved in being the maiden and kind of like her trying to question the establishment and her like fighting there's a lot more fighting scenes and there's definitely discussions of politics but i would say at a much lesser extent than the first book a lot of this book so far has just literally been moving from like keep to keep to keep which is really just moving from like one room to one room to one room and there's some interest first discussion and some chat about like the kingdom as they are they're moving for a reason like they're trying to get to a specific destination but there isn't i would say like in general there hasn't been a lot of plot and in general i think that's fine i feel like when i picked up this series i wasn't really expecting there to be like much of a plot but because it was present in the first book i was kind of expecting it to continue on into this second book um i mean there's still definitely time for more stuff to be fleshed out and i imagine it will be it's just kind of a funny contrast i feel like this book is definitely much more romance than fantasy than the first one which is fine but um just something to keep in mind and i think a little bit of a criticism just because i feel like some of the scenes could have impaired back and if she did decide to add a bit more exploration and more political maneuverings i just feel like some meetings just happen and we're not really privy to them it could make for a more interesting book just something i felt i would bring up but yes i have 170 pages left oh man this book is something else i tell you it is it's been an interesting ride i would say i'm enjoying it but it is um a lot of angst a lot of um base desires happening in this story and just uh yeah it's definitely it's definitely stevie i guess i would say that anywho though i'm getting really close to the end of the book which is exciting because i've heard such interesting things about the ending mostly like no spoilers about and obviously it won't reveal any spoilers but just a lot of people really liked the ending so i'm excited to see how this continues to evolve i would give it the same kind of criticism and that it's maybe just a little too long like i would say the first one but i've been really entertained i've obviously read a lot of it and not a very long amount of time so that's definitely a bonus and i definitely feel like i can finish this tonight but now i'm gonna go watch gilmore girls and make some s'mores i really should make dinner but i really just feel like s'mores and i got stuff to make some more so that's where we're at i don't care what anyone says s'mores are the superior dessert treat i also don't have hershey bars but hershey kisses will do primo primo you just put this in the broiler for like four minutes next level next level matilda i mean look at this look at this bonfire in your oven people try it out hi it's me i'm sitting on the couch for the past hour watching youtube videos as one does and like the most random ones you know you just go from one to you just click and you click and you click and there's really no rhyme or reason that's what i was doing um but i did watch best dressed apartment tour and it was really really cute i won't lie she made me want a wallpaper a door but now i'm going to cook dinner it's a little later i'm going to get started i think i'm just going to make like a baked potato and some like roasted chicken and vegetables so i'm going to get the potatoes in the oven because those take the longest to cook and get this party started matilda is doing something what are you doing over there anyway i gotta go all right i have inuyasha on the background but i'm making really easy dinner roasted green beans with just chicken with pink dough parmesan seasoning and i've been cooking my baked potatoes and i'll put this in after first round of baked potato is done and i'll put some butter on the potatoes blah blah blah it should be down in about 25ish or so minutes once the potatoes are halfway cooked i then pour some butter cover them in salt so it gets nice and crispy on the outside and now i can put all of this in the oven and it'll all be done at the same time and 25 more minutes and then i get to watch in yuyasha by the way i'm really making great progress in my inuyasha watch i have like 50 eps left until i can watch the 2009 finish of the manga and i do plan on watching the new show which is very exciting but i wanted to do a rewatch before i watched that so just a little update bon appetit friends who doesn't love a good old-fashioned baked potato even though it sets off my fire alarm every time i don't know what it is with big potatoes in my firearm but it always happens hi everyone i've retreated to my final reading destination of the evening because i am going to finish this book or at least almost entirely finish this book tonight is my goal um again it's over 600 pages so i think i can do it i've got 170 pages left i've gotten distracted a lot tonight i feel like i've just been on my phone a lot watching like random youtube videos so a little off my game but i'm trying to get it back together and finish this post my hope is i'll have some final thoughts and feelings as i approach the end but nothing new to update you at this point in time but reading commences feel like i've read enough of this book to say that i'm a little bored like i think i stand by the statement of it's too long and like i can respect the seemingly endless amount of steamy scenes in this book but it just doesn't feel like anything is actually happening like it's just been like 250 pages of one scene after another after another with very little plot progression which if you're into that check this book out but for me it's just kind of like wearing my interest down because i'm just like waiting for i guess the plot to kind of bubble over because there's been kind of like chat of magic and stuff and while i definitely appreciate our two main characters and like it's been fun to like read their relationship kind of um develop through this novel i feel like we've reached like one aspect of the romance that's been kind of dragged out for a while which is like this like we're pretending to be in love but they're secretly obviously definitely in love but they just like do this pretending thing and they've just done it for like 200 pages and it's just like the first time i was like oh this is great but then the second time i was like okay third time i was like we're still doing this fourth time i'm like come on guy but yeah i mean it's good and it's entertaining and i like the magic and i do like them as characters more in this but i would say it's just like i think it's too long i think the author could have maybe cut out like 150 pages or maybe that's just me maybe you know i could just be in the small minority in this camp here but it's just this little tail end is kind of dragging a bit i mean i do feel like the ending is going to be explosive at least that's what i hear and i feel like i kind of felt the same thing with the first one where like the like the 150 pages before the final act really begins to kick off it's just a little slow but i feel like i feel it much more in this one also in general for other people who read romance novels um i've read more this year than any anywhere else in my life and the one thing i just find so entertaining too is just romance vernacular like it's so like when you really think about it like adjectives and things are just it's pretty it's pretty funny and every author has their own word choice you know creativity abound creativity abound but yeah i i have about 120 pages left of this book and i would just say like i'm the past like 100 and so pages i've been just like a little bored and the duck it's mostly because the dynamic hasn't changed it's just i just feel like we've been like stagnant i guess but i'm still liking it but i'm just being honest too matilda b-roll are you just zooming in on my face right now that's the woman i love matilda hello friends i have not very much left i'm probably they'll probably be my last check-in for tonight and i'll just do like a final wrap-up tomorrow but i'll say it's heating back up like this little chunk which was kind of boring me i've gotten through it and as i was anticipating this like little final bit here has been getting interesting again and i'm hoping for an explosive ending but we shall see hi friends just popping in to wrap up this vlog as i was able to actually finish the entirety of this book unfortunately i would say my feelings and i'm sure you noticed like throughout like the middle point of this vlog started to get more and more negative with this story so i think my overall opinion is i really enjoyed the first 300 pages i thought they were entertaining what i was expecting fast paced lots of inks lots of romance in that way and i feel like from there the middle part and then the middle end of the book things just got really repetitive there wasn't until there wasn't like any plot progression and i just personally got bored for like 200 250 pages and i also feel like because there was no plot progression how the author made things interesting or trying to make things interesting i feel like the steamy scenes just kept one upping each other which for me personally i found them less entertaining and they started to fearing more into the ridiculous for me personally obviously this is just personal opinion and experience i will say it picked up a little bit at the end um and it was more interesting i just felt like so much of this book was placeholder and like a lot of it i don't know i feel like it would have been a lot more concise if like 200 pages were cut out and also just some of the conversations were cut down and just things were a little more concise and then also just like a lot of things happened like i felt like off camera i feel like we had more action more political meetings like more stuff going on i feel like it could have been just a more fully fleshed out story um so yeah i'm kind of of two minds because i did really like the first 300 pages i was like fully entertained i was like i'm gonna love this book even more than the first one and then i kind of hit the middle and i was like oh this is starting to wear me down and then by the end i was just like ready for it to be over and while it was entertaining in the end i it couldn't save like the hundreds of pages before it so i think i'd give this like 3 stars 2.75 stars like i would still highly recommend it if you love romance and you love fantasy romance this book has a really high rating on goodreads so i feel like i'm definitely in this smaller group of reviewers who didn't absolutely love this book everything about it so if you like this genre or you're interested in this genre i would still recommend it just know going in especially in the second one it's most it's kind of like stereotypical and i guess like on the note of like i feel like in the first part of this book the reason why i loved it so much was i thought we were really going to have this like enemies to lovers like jennifer lawrence continue to kind of subvert some trope expectations and just have that level of intensity between the two characters but i do feel like we kind of just kind of had the expected tropes play out which can still be very entertaining but i would just say like it wasn't the most like unique tale but it was fun anyway i'm rambling so some good some bad overall i would say if you like romance or want to check it out i would still recommend it but yeah three stars i think i'll probably say for this and yeah anyway i hope you guys enjoyed this vlog and i will see you soon with another one soon byehi everyone and welcome to the start of another reading vlog it is what is today it is exactly a week before christmas it is friday um december minus seven days from december 25th and i am starting another reading vlog for you guys today i'm excited about this one for a variety of reasons one because clay and i are gonna have a bit of a festive weekend and i'm excited to do that and document it but two the book i'm reading i think is going to be quite the good time for better or for worse um so without further ado let's just dive into the book i plan to read from hopefully beginning to end this weekend joined by sunbathing matilda here but the book is kingdom of flesh and fire by jennifer l armentrout this is of course and this is book two to the blood and ash series i think the first one's blood and ash um which is a fantasy romance centered story i read and documented the first one in a reading vlog and i feel like you guys really enjoyed that and i have been really dying to pick up the second one and vlog it as well the thing with this series is i enjoyed the first one quite a bit it was angsty it was really dramatic it had some interesting fantasy plot points but the ending of the first one was really the wild experience there and to see kind of how i guess the dominoes continue to fall based off of the first one into the second one i think it's going to be particularly wild as well i've heard that this one is just as entertaining if not more so than the first one i honestly don't even know if i'm going to like this given some of the structure of the first her context what this series about this first one or rather this series primarily centers around our main character poppy who is this sort of like pure guardian figure she's kind of kept away from society at large she can't really have friends she can't obviously have like any type of romantic partner she could barely talk to anyone she's sort of this figurehead to some sort of ritual that kind of keeps the society running throughout the first novel you kind of get a peek into the behind the scenes of the dark nations of this fantasy world and you also meet the love interest which is a character named hawk who is her guard and the first one is supposed to protect her from you know naysayers and evil doers who are trying to kidnap or kill her and destroy this like figurehead within this world obviously though he's not so great at his job because instead of guarding her he you know they kind of have like a romantic thing but plots and things begin to progress and everything is much more than what they seem i would say this is definitely like a paranormal influence fantasy novel like it has a high fantasy setting but there's also fantasy versions of vampires and werewolves within this story and kind of playing on that like ancient feud between these different paranormal figures is very much present in this it makes it for a highly dramatic entertaining time and the thing i'm really interested to see how the story progresses into this book is one how jennifer l armentrout continues to keep this romance interesting i feel like in the first one it was definitely long but towards the end she really was beginning to subvert a lot of romance tropes which made it really really fun and kind of caught me off guard at the very least so i'm curious to see how that's going to expand in this second one here uh also i feel like the politics are going to continue to expand because there's definitely sort of a rebellion kind of going on too and then lastly i feel like this story is truly going to be like enemies to lovers kind of that's like that's my anticipation and not in like the classical sense of enemies because they're like there's a misunderstanding but they truly both have like the same heart and they begin to understand each other no like truly people who have differing agendas differing political associations they despise a lot of the things that they are like each one is doing like they might have like grunting respect and understand why they're making these decisions but at the end of the day like they are enemies on a different side of a battlefield um but also can't you know still think each other's cute so i think that might be kind of the premise of this and i don't know i hope it definitely continues to kind of keep things not as typical as i'm worried it will fall into in that second book but we'll see and i'll definitely begin to vocalize that a little more about our main character poppy too i really liked her as a protagonist through the first one i think she's set up as this like soft character like you assume her to be because of this sort of guardian pure maiden trope but she's actually really capable of sure of her own opinions and things like that she's also like trained in combat um yeah overall this series is fun the first one is ridiculous like don't get me wrong but in terms of like being an entertaining romance fantasy story it delivers and i'm very curious to see how the second one continues i feel like some people hate this some people love it some people kind of fall in the middle and i'm very curious to see where i fall amongst that spectrum of feeling but anyway i'm gonna read this hopefully from beginning to end in this vlog i think it's over 600 pages long so it is it is a doozy um so we'll just we'll just wait and see but welcome to this romance steamy vlog hope you enjoy i hope i enjoy this book and let's begin it is actually friday morning and i have today off you're wondering why i've had so many pto days off it's because i didn't really take any vacation from my job this year and all of my pto expires at the end of the year like it doesn't carry over so it's like if you don't use it you lose it and gosh darn it i wasn't gonna lose it i was gonna use it so i've just been taking off like sporadic holidays and just doing you know trying to relax and read so i have my christmas cup here i'm gonna pour myself a cup of coffee but i will say because i haven't done anything obviously this year i've been using my pto to just read it's been great for vlogs like it's been very convenient to be able to i guess fit filming in um and not have to do like my corporate job at the same time so i guess cheers to that but anyway i'm gonna put my fake fireplace on and start kingdom of flesh and fire right now and uh i don't know why this is so blue but i will keep you guys posted on on the book hi everyone so i've just been sitting here reading i've read a quick 50 pages of this book and wild ride so far i think this book is gonna be even more dramatic than the first one and i think in ways that i might like more obviously when it comes to romance stories there are just certain tropes that are in play and everyone has trope preference if you will the first one definitely has more of this maiden guard protection trope um definitely more about poppy kind of like finding herself coming in her own power which was great and really entertaining obviously now she kind of already has her own like abilities i guess and in this one it's definitely a lot more about the struggle of power between two individuals that are like drawn to each other should hate each other are using each other but also it's a romance and that what i'm saying it's so dramatic so far is i'm very curious to see how this is going to evolve and if i'm going to like it it has the opportunity to be definitely problematic um as there's a sort of like forced marriage captive sort of like political pawn plot going on and there's a lot more i guess political maneuvering and like direct confrontation and like power struggle between these two characters but i do think it could be interesting as long as our main character does not like take backwards steps in her own character development and instead becomes just as confrontational as him i think it could be interesting but we'll definitely see how this evolves again i've heard really good things about the ending i know some people are really bothered about the romantic setup in this book so i'm not sure where i'll fall i mean it definitely i think is going to be ridiculous no matter which way you slice and or dice it um but we shall see i mean like this is this is like this is some classic shenanigans going on right now and i would say this book is definitely full of action and violence definitely the first one and it's continuing in this next one i'm just also curious to learn more about the politics as now we're kind of more on the rebellion side like the first one is definitely more about setting up the world and kind of how the people in power came into power and kind of like learning like what's going on behind the curtain and now we're kind of with the people who are trying to tear that down for obvious reasons because there's a lot of problematic stuff going on but that doesn't mean this sort of group doesn't have its own problems or their own political divides happening at the same time you know what i mean but yeah this should be interesting first 50 pages were definitely intriguing um definitely left off right where it you know ended in the last book and i'm just curious to see how this romance is going to be handled i just feel like it's going to be an intense clashing of wills this entire time and it's probably going to be very entertaining kind of like a cruel prince situation a card in jude situation where they like hate each other but they love each other and it's very messy i'm hoping it's that and i'm hoping there is equal power dynamics otherwise i'm not sure how i feel but you know i can only find out by reading so we shall see matilda is in her prime surrounded by blankets and being a good girl and not barking because the neighbor's dog is barking i know you want to i can see you holding it in but read 50 pages it's time for me to get another cup of coffee yes i still drink a lot of caffeine even on my days off it fuels me people also my mom just called me she lives um in a really small town and she moved there after i went to school so obviously i was born and raised in texas my mom moved back to the northeast um back to her hometown basically like once i left the nest if that's a word anyway so there's this pond here house with a bunch of ducks and it's cold now and the pond is freezing over and she's really concerned about the ducks because you know she wants to make sure they're safe and warm so she keeps calling with all these updates about these ducks anyway she's on her way to a tractor supply store to buy a 50-pound bag of a specific feed that she was recommended by like a local i don't know people who like handle the local animals so that's what she's doing today right now i'm gonna go buy 50 pounds of duck feed to help the ducks to keep them fed until the pond freezes over and that's when they officially move the ducks out of the area it literally feels like an episode of gilmore girls but this is my third update about the ducks it's a yearly thing too she's very involved um she also is involved with the deer because there's obviously people like it's a small like in the country so people like hunt them so she tries to like get all the deer to come to her yard to keep them to keep them out of danger i don't know this is my mom for you guys folks but anyway coffee i'm gonna sit down i think i'm actually gonna watch an episode of gilmore girls answer some emails and then get back to reading but my hope is to read like 200 pages of this book today before clay and i just let him hang out for the evening but that's my update for you matilda has not moved i'm about to make some lunch but i've read up to 70 pages of from flash and fire still a lot of this book left but boy oh boy this book starts out really fast i would say the pacing is a lot quicker than the first one obviously because it already has a lot of things set up i will say they are a mess this is one of the messiest relationships i have encountered in a while makes for very intriguing back and forth but oh my god this is so messy like i don't know if i want to scream at them or just keep reading but it's entertaining like is it romantic i'm not sure no actually i'd say no it's not but it's steamy and confusing and very messy but i'm gonna make lunch now all right it's grilled cheese time i've decided to use a combination of the melts cheese and then classic sharp cheddar i also have some tomato soup cant is my favorite and also unrelated my friend got me this matilda mug and it's the best well i think you should think about getting a checkup delicious combo cheese approach provides the ultimate cheesy experience if you know what i mean all right back to reading the most absurd romance i've read in a while but to be able to make it through i need coffee and and folks and candy so now i'm ready to deal with whatever shenanigans these characters throw my way because there are amenia shenanigans stepped into the other room because clay is on a call happy to report i've successfully oh i just threw a paper airplane at me because i have successfully read 150 pages of my book also happy to report my mom successfully laid the 50 pounds of duck feed too she called me gave me that update so i thought i would pass that along but back to kingdom of flesh and fire the hot mess express continues but i'm kind of here for it i am so thoroughly entertained by the drama of the story it's just mixing together a lot of my favorite like angsty romance tropes it's definitely vibing in that guilty pleasure direction to kind of take a step back into the plot so the first one had a much more of an insular view because obviously our main character is this maiden she has been kept in like confinement and like away from everyone so she had a very limited view of the world and kind of the politics and so because of this we kind of learn everything with her as she slowly kind of discovers you know not only her place in the world but how the world is and how she decides she wants to proceed in it which as an element of the story itself i enjoy and poppy is a main character i really enjoy but within this book too which i'm really liking is that in the first one really confined to like one location one castle within the duke the queen like her kind of place within this sort of you know structure but in the second one again because it's more of a rebellion we're learning more not only about alternate groups trying to like fight for different things but also like more information about the different magical creatures that are present in this world different politics different cities different power structures like ancient bloodlines ancient magic ties all of that stuff which is just really interesting um but back to the romance i would really describe this as like i don't know maybe because i'm just watching vampire diaries so it's on the mind oh my god he's just throwing paper airplanes that is because um i'm just kind of compared to like a damon and elena or like a klaus and caroline the dynamic is definitely one now matilda's here everyone's just bothering me the dynamic is definitely like this brooding angsty super dramatic maybe like definitely a bad boy like in the damen way like he's doing like violent bad things but like he's always gonna protect you kind of thing but also combining with the fact that you don't know his motives and it all he's also perceiving like he's always gonna protect you like it's ridiculous it's not something that should exist in real life but in a fantasy paranormal setting it can be fun and entertaining um and i would just describe it as like that klaus damon thing especially with this sort of like secret past the secret information just kind of like their back and forth is good i just felt like that would be like an apt comparison and like how i would describe this romance so far like definitely cw level of angst and in no way shape or form would i say this is a shining light of an example of how a relationship should be or anything we should strive to have but in terms of it being entertaining so far so good like i don't know guys maybe this was just what i was looking for like something absurdly dramatic and overbearing and like like my my objective hat on i'm like girl this ain't what you should be looking for my vampire diaries hat on i'm like girl he is hot anyway i'm gonna uh paint my nails i think actually take a bit of a break from reading but i've read 150 pages so far so i'm feeling really good about that and i feel like i'm definitely on track to finish this this weekend matilda's being extra sassy right now but didn't read any i still need to pay my nails but i decided to edit video first and now i'm gonna paint my nails and i think watch gilmore girls i'm almost done with season three paris just got rejected from harvard my favorite episode not gonna lie i changed into pajamas i'm not gonna paint my nails i'm also trying to convince clay to get chipotle so we'll see if i'm successful in that in future clips but for now it's gilmore girls and nail painting time all right friends it's officially friday night we are making something exciting we're making some what is it mold wine i got some really cute like wine um mixes from this really cute small business i'll have a link down below but they sent some old wine i figured we'd test it out they even sent a recipe i think we're gonna have it though because it's just the two of us um but i'm we're gonna do this thing so we're gonna get started making a smaller batch because we only really want like one cup each tonight but it's just about a third of a bottle of wine it's like like a third of a cup of that little mix and then some orange juice and then you just simmer it on the stove for like 30 minutes and then you can enjoy how fun it smells amazing already so so festive and so easy and tonight friends we feast mafungo if you know you know this is the best it's such a good caribbean spot in our neighborhood so we thought we would get it tonight because honestly it's delicious and our mold wine is all done it smells so good we're enjoying it while watching some community which top tier comedy been really fun to watch and uh that's just how friday night's been going i still haven't read any more of my book i don't know where i put it oh it's over there i'm still only on page 150 but i definitely think i'll be able to get to page 200 tonight no problem but for now we're all just hanging out friends it's time for the season finale season two of the mandalorian i'm not ready i'm really sad that it's over but i'm also happy you know we got to experience it how are you feeling clay i'm feeling good trying to get trying to entice matilda to hang out with you i have i'm not trying i am enticing you can see her anyway mandalorian time until it's going wild for toys right now or rather she was i always feel terrible when she decides she's no longer interested in playing and we still throw the toy because we don't know yet anyway now we're watching the boys which is also a wild tv show but the season finale of mandalorian was so good i don't know how i'm gonna wait for the new season but i know disney is putting out all the shows in the meantime so i guess we'll just have to be patient good morning pals i am backing up apparently but i'm about to film two videos this morning i'm just getting them out of the way bright and early and then really that that's like my big to-do obviously aside from reading which i also plan to do a bunch of today but i'm going to film and then i will get coffee and then i'll check in and let you know the general plan for saturday and sunday surprised me with breakfast from our new from like a new cafe place near us um this is like an egg grilled cheese sandwich coffee and a croissant which can't live without croissants i still have one more video to film until the it's like what's going on over there um but i'm gonna eat this first and then i will film video dos can't successfully say i filmed my second video uploaded a video ate that delicious like egg omelette sandwich thing so now i'm getting a cup of coffee here we are and i'm gonna put christmas music on and read i think i'm gonna go with my matilda mug um kingdom of flesh and fire i don't know why i can't remember the title of this book i think it's because there are a lot of titles that are like something in something not that i'm mine um but they're sometimes hard to remember i guess is what i'm trying to say but i'll sit down now and do some reading i was able to read to just under 200 pages last night 190 so i'm in a good spot so i'm gonna read for like an hour i need to shoot one photo for instagram so i'll do that and then read the plan for tonight is actually clay and i rented a car because we're gonna drive around and look at christmas lights around uh a brooklyn neighborhood specifically that's really famous for having really pretty christmas lights we're just trying to think of fun festive safe things you know to keep us in the holiday mood in spirit especially because it's just him and i for christmas this year but that's the plan for this evening but before then i'm just going to do my reading so cheers friends matilda is just so cute she loves a blanket a little babushka little darth sith vibe smelly yes look at us reading together clay is almost done with his with his book which is very exciting so we get to pick out a new one this evening but i'll let you talk about your book a little later i wanted to do a quick check-in because i've passed a 250 page mark and this book is a wild ride i actually think i'm liking it more than i thought i would i was worried it was really gonna going to prey on some tropes that i personally don't like but instead it's using tropes that i am kind of a sucker for one i do feel like there has been sort of a mutual understanding throughout the entirety of this narrative which i think is important and i just appreciate being part of it there's a fake marriage trope going on which we all know and love it especially when inevitably they fall in love at the end and another thing i would say too is there's obviously still a lot of secrets being kept between both of these main characters that's part of the drama and in itself and the miscommunication that kind of dries this sort of romantic plot forward but i do feel like there is more authenticity between them um as i feel like some of their layers have been stripped away which in general i feel like i appreciate their banter and back and forth more in this book than the first one also there's more information about the magic which is cool i think probably one of my larger criticisms of this series which i mean i could say more than just one thing i mean i think like the general fantasy plot is a little flimsy and more of a backdrop which personally is fine i would say kind of a larger criticism would be how the side characters tend to be handled obviously i do feel like the two primary characters are pretty fleshed out and they're given a lot of backstory and context and their feelings and importance in the story is constant but i do feel like we've run through quite a few different side characters in that they're very important but when they're out of the picture they're out of the picture and they're not really referenced or they don't really have a lasting emotional impact which seems a little illogical given how close some of these characters are to our main character it's kind of like out of sight out of mind sort of situation um and in general i do feel like side character relationships are built pretty quickly which doesn't bother me as much because it does create good banter but sometimes a little unrealistic but a lot of this book is really unrealistic so you know it's a give and take but i'm gonna get back to reading i'm trying to get to page 300 before i take a break for the afternoon but i just wanted to give you guys some of my thoughts all right reheating our cup of coffee because honestly i can never finish a cup of coffee so i just kind of poured it in here we'll reheat matilda everyone hello i've changed into a cozier sweater jean combo headband i'm probably gonna put a hat on though um because we are off to go see the christmas lights and i'm excited to be in a car because i'm just gonna play the ever more album whilst we drive around and when we get there we'll switch to christmas music but um there's actually still a lot of snow on the ground from the snow that fell a couple days ago so that should be fun and add to the ambience and lights i'm excited this neighborhood's really famous it's called diker heights so if you're ever in new york during the holidays and you want to drive into a more southern brooklyn neighborhood you can or maybe hopefully we'll be able to get some cute clips but i am so looking forward to it we've arrived and the house is starting to get christmassy folks glamorous it's basically just streets on streets of christmas lights in this area i'm trying not to fall to my death but it's so beautiful it's also just a neighborhood we've never been to so it's just fun to explore this one is rather spectacular look there's even a christmas gazebo one of the more famous houses so extra i love it clay's getting ice cream lol all right i got ice cream too i couldn't resist snow background we're back home i'm clearly already in pajamas we ordered in some delivery and now we're gonna sit over there and watch some community maybe a christmas movie some anime we're relaxing for the rest of the evening but the houses were so much fun would recommend hello world we ordered three pasta dishes because it's cold outside pasta is delicious and why choose when you can have all three look at that homemade ricotta we are now gonna watch a classic christmas movie home alone two i feel like i normally just watch home alone so it's a good switch up plus it's set in new york i'm excited i think this movie came out the year i was born yeah 1992. i know i was like wow it's almost 30 years old i was like it's almost as old as you clay i'm an old man all right we finished home alone two which you've never seen right if i have it was very long and i think i was a kid and we both were watching it and we're like i don't know if i would show this movie to children it's incredibly violent it's it's wor it's so it's very violent but what i think is more problematic as a kids movie is that it shows an inaccurate outcome of the violence yes so like it's like a quentin tarantino movie level of violence without the like the consequences like he throws a brick from the top of a building and they're fine and it's like the problem with that is like if young kids watch this like they don't learn like the consequences of like electrical electricity and dropping heavy like it's just constant and the thing is is that i'm i'm not like i'm gonna be that parent that shelters the kid from a bunch of media but like immediate like specifically this the message seems weird like i'll show my kid like and not when they're really like i would rather my kid watch like braveheart than yes exactly because like again it's it's less like okay violence is bad yes but to me what's more problematic and hope alone too is that the violence fine glorified but it is an inaccurate representation of the outcome like you can't hold a sword cut your arm and then not all of a sudden start bleeding like that's not gonna matter i'm not gonna be shown my kid's brain heart but like by 10 years old but like i would not show my eight-year-old this movie yeah i mean it would one thing about the movie that was cool is just cool obviously living in new york and seeing yeah in the past and it's like a time capsule and it's literally the year i was born which is interesting it's like oh that's exactly what it looked like back then and a cool thing about new york which is one of america's oldest cities is it hasn't changed so much it obviously changes everything's always changing quickly but in a lot of ways it's not changing that quickly but yeah homolog is sadistic i was watching it and then i found an atlantic article after the fact i was watching it and i was like they made kevin like a mini saw anyway we've ranted almost six minutes talking about home alone too i'm sure i'll probably cut some of this out but the point is we had issues with home alone too yeah oh she can't get lost in new york as john elaine says the streets are numbered he's a 10. anyway anyway i don't know what we're gonna watch now but that was what a ride all right we are now about to watch the boys which hey maybe i would prefer my children to watch over home alone too at least it's honest with its intentions um but yeah the show is absolutely wild actually it is very good would recommend we are almost done with season two hello friends good morning i'm about to put christmas music on and read kingdom of flesh and fire by jennifer l armentrout i was able to read to page 270 between obviously friday and saturday let me flip you around and honestly i'm pleased with that i always generally do the bulk of my reading on sunday and almost 300 pages on my first two days of a weekend reading vlog i feel like is pretty solid i don't really have anything new to say about this book it is everything that i've been saying for basically it's cheesy and fun and honestly i'm liking it quite a bit as of yet um i think i am liking it more than the first one from a trope perspective and it's also not as like bad and i mean it's super messy this relationship is messy like no other but it's not bothering me so much because i do feel like there's no communication between the main characters which i think is important when it comes to messiness um but i'm going to read a bunch this sunday i tr i woke up feeling like i'm gonna have like a sunday very sunday sunday i just want to sit on this couch and not move i i like postponed any project i was planning on doing today to get ahead of anything like i don't want to do anything at all so that's the plan i'm going to watch football i'm in my fantasy league finals if anyone cares i've won three out of the last four years i'm basically a dynasty at this point um so i want to watch football but i really want to read this entire book which is pretty long i have i have over 300 pages left of this to read but i think i can definitely fly through it it's early in the morning right now um i'm literally wearing the same exact thing as i was wearing last night will i get dressed that's a topic of discussion but anyway i'm going to read that personally oh there they are i don't think you guys can tell i kind of missed the the strong showers before i started vlogging but it's snowing which is very exciting on to that second cup of coffee ladies and gents bagels and uh hoping that the bears make it to the playoffs friends i got 10 dressed it's basically just another version of pajamas but i feel a little bit better about myself wearing my book socks these are from modcloth i want to say yeah turtleneck flannel combo i look like i work on a farm in a lifetime christmas movie and i'm not mad about it all right i'm gonna make a bit of a coffee hot chocolate i was sent these like hot cocoa cubes i'm gonna do a white and a regular and mix it with coffee and we'll just we'll just see how it all goes here are the two cubes pour my coffee in i'm gonna mix it up i think i'm also gonna add some milk merry christmas the bears won they're football games obviously not chicago bears but i just have red zone on and i'm gonna get back to reading kingdom of flesh and fire now um yeah so that that's my update just been on the couch you know living my best life hi friends i just popped into the other room to do an update because clay is working but i just wanted to say i have only about 170 pages left of kingdom of flesh and fire and i feel like i have to start this clip off and say just as a disclaimer and a heads up to anyone who maybe hasn't started the series yet i just want to say this book is definitely adult like the steens are very steamy like please do not mistake this for why a it is not so just keep that in mind interested in picking it up and i would definitely say even the sequel is much steamier than the first one in terms of the amount of scenes present throughout it which all in all i'm finding it to be very entertaining and it's definitely escalating one thing i will say is hilarious because i feel like in the first book and even throughout this book i'm like i was always anticipating possibly the development of a classic love triangle which might happen but it might actually be a true love triangle and just more of a trio situation but we'll just see how that unfolds but i will say probably a bit of a criticism while i am liking this book probably more because i feel like the characters feel more interesting there is a lot less plot like in the first one there was a lot more exploration and discussion about like the fantasy world and the politics that you know poppy is very much involved in being the maiden and kind of like her trying to question the establishment and her like fighting there's a lot more fighting scenes and there's definitely discussions of politics but i would say at a much lesser extent than the first book a lot of this book so far has just literally been moving from like keep to keep to keep which is really just moving from like one room to one room to one room and there's some interest first discussion and some chat about like the kingdom as they are they're moving for a reason like they're trying to get to a specific destination but there isn't i would say like in general there hasn't been a lot of plot and in general i think that's fine i feel like when i picked up this series i wasn't really expecting there to be like much of a plot but because it was present in the first book i was kind of expecting it to continue on into this second book um i mean there's still definitely time for more stuff to be fleshed out and i imagine it will be it's just kind of a funny contrast i feel like this book is definitely much more romance than fantasy than the first one which is fine but um just something to keep in mind and i think a little bit of a criticism just because i feel like some of the scenes could have impaired back and if she did decide to add a bit more exploration and more political maneuverings i just feel like some meetings just happen and we're not really privy to them it could make for a more interesting book just something i felt i would bring up but yes i have 170 pages left oh man this book is something else i tell you it is it's been an interesting ride i would say i'm enjoying it but it is um a lot of angst a lot of um base desires happening in this story and just uh yeah it's definitely it's definitely stevie i guess i would say that anywho though i'm getting really close to the end of the book which is exciting because i've heard such interesting things about the ending mostly like no spoilers about and obviously it won't reveal any spoilers but just a lot of people really liked the ending so i'm excited to see how this continues to evolve i would give it the same kind of criticism and that it's maybe just a little too long like i would say the first one but i've been really entertained i've obviously read a lot of it and not a very long amount of time so that's definitely a bonus and i definitely feel like i can finish this tonight but now i'm gonna go watch gilmore girls and make some s'mores i really should make dinner but i really just feel like s'mores and i got stuff to make some more so that's where we're at i don't care what anyone says s'mores are the superior dessert treat i also don't have hershey bars but hershey kisses will do primo primo you just put this in the broiler for like four minutes next level next level matilda i mean look at this look at this bonfire in your oven people try it out hi it's me i'm sitting on the couch for the past hour watching youtube videos as one does and like the most random ones you know you just go from one to you just click and you click and you click and there's really no rhyme or reason that's what i was doing um but i did watch best dressed apartment tour and it was really really cute i won't lie she made me want a wallpaper a door but now i'm going to cook dinner it's a little later i'm going to get started i think i'm just going to make like a baked potato and some like roasted chicken and vegetables so i'm going to get the potatoes in the oven because those take the longest to cook and get this party started matilda is doing something what are you doing over there anyway i gotta go all right i have inuyasha on the background but i'm making really easy dinner roasted green beans with just chicken with pink dough parmesan seasoning and i've been cooking my baked potatoes and i'll put this in after first round of baked potato is done and i'll put some butter on the potatoes blah blah blah it should be down in about 25ish or so minutes once the potatoes are halfway cooked i then pour some butter cover them in salt so it gets nice and crispy on the outside and now i can put all of this in the oven and it'll all be done at the same time and 25 more minutes and then i get to watch in yuyasha by the way i'm really making great progress in my inuyasha watch i have like 50 eps left until i can watch the 2009 finish of the manga and i do plan on watching the new show which is very exciting but i wanted to do a rewatch before i watched that so just a little update bon appetit friends who doesn't love a good old-fashioned baked potato even though it sets off my fire alarm every time i don't know what it is with big potatoes in my firearm but it always happens hi everyone i've retreated to my final reading destination of the evening because i am going to finish this book or at least almost entirely finish this book tonight is my goal um again it's over 600 pages so i think i can do it i've got 170 pages left i've gotten distracted a lot tonight i feel like i've just been on my phone a lot watching like random youtube videos so a little off my game but i'm trying to get it back together and finish this post my hope is i'll have some final thoughts and feelings as i approach the end but nothing new to update you at this point in time but reading commences feel like i've read enough of this book to say that i'm a little bored like i think i stand by the statement of it's too long and like i can respect the seemingly endless amount of steamy scenes in this book but it just doesn't feel like anything is actually happening like it's just been like 250 pages of one scene after another after another with very little plot progression which if you're into that check this book out but for me it's just kind of like wearing my interest down because i'm just like waiting for i guess the plot to kind of bubble over because there's been kind of like chat of magic and stuff and while i definitely appreciate our two main characters and like it's been fun to like read their relationship kind of um develop through this novel i feel like we've reached like one aspect of the romance that's been kind of dragged out for a while which is like this like we're pretending to be in love but they're secretly obviously definitely in love but they just like do this pretending thing and they've just done it for like 200 pages and it's just like the first time i was like oh this is great but then the second time i was like okay third time i was like we're still doing this fourth time i'm like come on guy but yeah i mean it's good and it's entertaining and i like the magic and i do like them as characters more in this but i would say it's just like i think it's too long i think the author could have maybe cut out like 150 pages or maybe that's just me maybe you know i could just be in the small minority in this camp here but it's just this little tail end is kind of dragging a bit i mean i do feel like the ending is going to be explosive at least that's what i hear and i feel like i kind of felt the same thing with the first one where like the like the 150 pages before the final act really begins to kick off it's just a little slow but i feel like i feel it much more in this one also in general for other people who read romance novels um i've read more this year than any anywhere else in my life and the one thing i just find so entertaining too is just romance vernacular like it's so like when you really think about it like adjectives and things are just it's pretty it's pretty funny and every author has their own word choice you know creativity abound creativity abound but yeah i i have about 120 pages left of this book and i would just say like i'm the past like 100 and so pages i've been just like a little bored and the duck it's mostly because the dynamic hasn't changed it's just i just feel like we've been like stagnant i guess but i'm still liking it but i'm just being honest too matilda b-roll are you just zooming in on my face right now that's the woman i love matilda hello friends i have not very much left i'm probably they'll probably be my last check-in for tonight and i'll just do like a final wrap-up tomorrow but i'll say it's heating back up like this little chunk which was kind of boring me i've gotten through it and as i was anticipating this like little final bit here has been getting interesting again and i'm hoping for an explosive ending but we shall see hi friends just popping in to wrap up this vlog as i was able to actually finish the entirety of this book unfortunately i would say my feelings and i'm sure you noticed like throughout like the middle point of this vlog started to get more and more negative with this story so i think my overall opinion is i really enjoyed the first 300 pages i thought they were entertaining what i was expecting fast paced lots of inks lots of romance in that way and i feel like from there the middle part and then the middle end of the book things just got really repetitive there wasn't until there wasn't like any plot progression and i just personally got bored for like 200 250 pages and i also feel like because there was no plot progression how the author made things interesting or trying to make things interesting i feel like the steamy scenes just kept one upping each other which for me personally i found them less entertaining and they started to fearing more into the ridiculous for me personally obviously this is just personal opinion and experience i will say it picked up a little bit at the end um and it was more interesting i just felt like so much of this book was placeholder and like a lot of it i don't know i feel like it would have been a lot more concise if like 200 pages were cut out and also just some of the conversations were cut down and just things were a little more concise and then also just like a lot of things happened like i felt like off camera i feel like we had more action more political meetings like more stuff going on i feel like it could have been just a more fully fleshed out story um so yeah i'm kind of of two minds because i did really like the first 300 pages i was like fully entertained i was like i'm gonna love this book even more than the first one and then i kind of hit the middle and i was like oh this is starting to wear me down and then by the end i was just like ready for it to be over and while it was entertaining in the end i it couldn't save like the hundreds of pages before it so i think i'd give this like 3 stars 2.75 stars like i would still highly recommend it if you love romance and you love fantasy romance this book has a really high rating on goodreads so i feel like i'm definitely in this smaller group of reviewers who didn't absolutely love this book everything about it so if you like this genre or you're interested in this genre i would still recommend it just know going in especially in the second one it's most it's kind of like stereotypical and i guess like on the note of like i feel like in the first part of this book the reason why i loved it so much was i thought we were really going to have this like enemies to lovers like jennifer lawrence continue to kind of subvert some trope expectations and just have that level of intensity between the two characters but i do feel like we kind of just kind of had the expected tropes play out which can still be very entertaining but i would just say like it wasn't the most like unique tale but it was fun anyway i'm rambling so some good some bad overall i would say if you like romance or want to check it out i would still recommend it but yeah three stars i think i'll probably say for this and yeah anyway i hope you guys enjoyed this vlog and i will see you soon with another one soon byehi everyone and welcome to the start of another reading vlog it is what is today it is exactly a week before christmas it is friday um december minus seven days from december 25th and i am starting another reading vlog for you guys today i'm excited about this one for a variety of reasons one because clay and i are gonna have a bit of a festive weekend and i'm excited to do that and document it but two the book i'm reading i think is going to be quite the good time for better or for worse um so without further ado let's just dive into the book i plan to read from hopefully beginning to end this weekend joined by sunbathing matilda here but the book is kingdom of flesh and fire by jennifer l armentrout this is of course and this is book two to the blood and ash series i think the first one's blood and ash um which is a fantasy romance centered story i read and documented the first one in a reading vlog and i feel like you guys really enjoyed that and i have been really dying to pick up the second one and vlog it as well the thing with this series is i enjoyed the first one quite a bit it was angsty it was really dramatic it had some interesting fantasy plot points but the ending of the first one was really the wild experience there and to see kind of how i guess the dominoes continue to fall based off of the first one into the second one i think it's going to be particularly wild as well i've heard that this one is just as entertaining if not more so than the first one i honestly don't even know if i'm going to like this given some of the structure of the first her context what this series about this first one or rather this series primarily centers around our main character poppy who is this sort of like pure guardian figure she's kind of kept away from society at large she can't really have friends she can't obviously have like any type of romantic partner she could barely talk to anyone she's sort of this figurehead to some sort of ritual that kind of keeps the society running throughout the first novel you kind of get a peek into the behind the scenes of the dark nations of this fantasy world and you also meet the love interest which is a character named hawk who is her guard and the first one is supposed to protect her from you know naysayers and evil doers who are trying to kidnap or kill her and destroy this like figurehead within this world obviously though he's not so great at his job because instead of guarding her he you know they kind of have like a romantic thing but plots and things begin to progress and everything is much more than what they seem i would say this is definitely like a paranormal influence fantasy novel like it has a high fantasy setting but there's also fantasy versions of vampires and werewolves within this story and kind of playing on that like ancient feud between these different paranormal figures is very much present in this it makes it for a highly dramatic entertaining time and the thing i'm really interested to see how the story progresses into this book is one how jennifer l armentrout continues to keep this romance interesting i feel like in the first one it was definitely long but towards the end she really was beginning to subvert a lot of romance tropes which made it really really fun and kind of caught me off guard at the very least so i'm curious to see how that's going to expand in this second one here uh also i feel like the politics are going to continue to expand because there's definitely sort of a rebellion kind of going on too and then lastly i feel like this story is truly going to be like enemies to lovers kind of that's like that's my anticipation and not in like the classical sense of enemies because they're like there's a misunderstanding but they truly both have like the same heart and they begin to understand each other no like truly people who have differing agendas differing political associations they despise a lot of the things that they are like each one is doing like they might have like grunting respect and understand why they're making these decisions but at the end of the day like they are enemies on a different side of a battlefield um but also can't you know still think each other's cute so i think that might be kind of the premise of this and i don't know i hope it definitely continues to kind of keep things not as typical as i'm worried it will fall into in that second book but we'll see and i'll definitely begin to vocalize that a little more about our main character poppy too i really liked her as a protagonist through the first one i think she's set up as this like soft character like you assume her to be because of this sort of guardian pure maiden trope but she's actually really capable of sure of her own opinions and things like that she's also like trained in combat um yeah overall this series is fun the first one is ridiculous like don't get me wrong but in terms of like being an entertaining romance fantasy story it delivers and i'm very curious to see how the second one continues i feel like some people hate this some people love it some people kind of fall in the middle and i'm very curious to see where i fall amongst that spectrum of feeling but anyway i'm gonna read this hopefully from beginning to end in this vlog i think it's over 600 pages long so it is it is a doozy um so we'll just we'll just wait and see but welcome to this romance steamy vlog hope you enjoy i hope i enjoy this book and let's begin it is actually friday morning and i have today off you're wondering why i've had so many pto days off it's because i didn't really take any vacation from my job this year and all of my pto expires at the end of the year like it doesn't carry over so it's like if you don't use it you lose it and gosh darn it i wasn't gonna lose it i was gonna use it so i've just been taking off like sporadic holidays and just doing you know trying to relax and read so i have my christmas cup here i'm gonna pour myself a cup of coffee but i will say because i haven't done anything obviously this year i've been using my pto to just read it's been great for vlogs like it's been very convenient to be able to i guess fit filming in um and not have to do like my corporate job at the same time so i guess cheers to that but anyway i'm gonna put my fake fireplace on and start kingdom of flesh and fire right now and uh i don't know why this is so blue but i will keep you guys posted on on the book hi everyone so i've just been sitting here reading i've read a quick 50 pages of this book and wild ride so far i think this book is gonna be even more dramatic than the first one and i think in ways that i might like more obviously when it comes to romance stories there are just certain tropes that are in play and everyone has trope preference if you will the first one definitely has more of this maiden guard protection trope um definitely more about poppy kind of like finding herself coming in her own power which was great and really entertaining obviously now she kind of already has her own like abilities i guess and in this one it's definitely a lot more about the struggle of power between two individuals that are like drawn to each other should hate each other are using each other but also it's a romance and that what i'm saying it's so dramatic so far is i'm very curious to see how this is going to evolve and if i'm going to like it it has the opportunity to be definitely problematic um as there's a sort of like forced marriage captive sort of like political pawn plot going on and there's a lot more i guess political maneuvering and like direct confrontation and like power struggle between these two characters but i do think it could be interesting as long as our main character does not like take backwards steps in her own character development and instead becomes just as confrontational as him i think it could be interesting but we'll definitely see how this evolves again i've heard really good things about the ending i know some people are really bothered about the romantic setup in this book so i'm not sure where i'll fall i mean it definitely i think is going to be ridiculous no matter which way you slice and or dice it um but we shall see i mean like this is this is like this is some classic shenanigans going on right now and i would say this book is definitely full of action and violence definitely the first one and it's continuing in this next one i'm just also curious to learn more about the politics as now we're kind of more on the rebellion side like the first one is definitely more about setting up the world and kind of how the people in power came into power and kind of like learning like what's going on behind the curtain and now we're kind of with the people who are trying to tear that down for obvious reasons because there's a lot of problematic stuff going on but that doesn't mean this sort of group doesn't have its own problems or their own political divides happening at the same time you know what i mean but yeah this should be interesting first 50 pages were definitely intriguing um definitely left off right where it you know ended in the last book and i'm just curious to see how this romance is going to be handled i just feel like it's going to be an intense clashing of wills this entire time and it's probably going to be very entertaining kind of like a cruel prince situation a card in jude situation where they like hate each other but they love each other and it's very messy i'm hoping it's that and i'm hoping there is equal power dynamics otherwise i'm not sure how i feel but you know i can only find out by reading so we shall see matilda is in her prime surrounded by blankets and being a good girl and not barking because the neighbor's dog is barking i know you want to i can see you holding it in but read 50 pages it's time for me to get another cup of coffee yes i still drink a lot of caffeine even on my days off it fuels me people also my mom just called me she lives um in a really small town and she moved there after i went to school so obviously i was born and raised in texas my mom moved back to the northeast um back to her hometown basically like once i left the nest if that's a word anyway so there's this pond here house with a bunch of ducks and it's cold now and the pond is freezing over and she's really concerned about the ducks because you know she wants to make sure they're safe and warm so she keeps calling with all these updates about these ducks anyway she's on her way to a tractor supply store to buy a 50-pound bag of a specific feed that she was recommended by like a local i don't know people who like handle the local animals so that's what she's doing today right now i'm gonna go buy 50 pounds of duck feed to help the ducks to keep them fed until the pond freezes over and that's when they officially move the ducks out of the area it literally feels like an episode of gilmore girls but this is my third update about the ducks it's a yearly thing too she's very involved um she also is involved with the deer because there's obviously people like it's a small like in the country so people like hunt them so she tries to like get all the deer to come to her yard to keep them to keep them out of danger i don't know this is my mom for you guys folks but anyway coffee i'm gonna sit down i think i'm actually gonna watch an episode of gilmore girls answer some emails and then get back to reading but my hope is to read like 200 pages of this book today before clay and i just let him hang out for the evening but that's my update for you matilda has not moved i'm about to make some lunch but i've read up to 70 pages of from flash and fire still a lot of this book left but boy oh boy this book starts out really fast i would say the pacing is a lot quicker than the first one obviously because it already has a lot of things set up i will say they are a mess this is one of the messiest relationships i have encountered in a while makes for very intriguing back and forth but oh my god this is so messy like i don't know if i want to scream at them or just keep reading but it's entertaining like is it romantic i'm not sure no actually i'd say no it's not but it's steamy and confusing and very messy but i'm gonna make lunch now all right it's grilled cheese time i've decided to use a combination of the melts cheese and then classic sharp cheddar i also have some tomato soup cant is my favorite and also unrelated my friend got me this matilda mug and it's the best well i think you should think about getting a checkup delicious combo cheese approach provides the ultimate cheesy experience if you know what i mean all right back to reading the most absurd romance i've read in a while but to be able to make it through i need coffee and and folks and candy so now i'm ready to deal with whatever shenanigans these characters throw my way because there are amenia shenanigans stepped into the other room because clay is on a call happy to report i've successfully oh i just threw a paper airplane at me because i have successfully read 150 pages of my book also happy to report my mom successfully laid the 50 pounds of duck feed too she called me gave me that update so i thought i would pass that along but back to kingdom of flesh and fire the hot mess express continues but i'm kind of here for it i am so thoroughly entertained by the drama of the story it's just mixing together a lot of my favorite like angsty romance tropes it's definitely vibing in that guilty pleasure direction to kind of take a step back into the plot so the first one had a much more of an insular view because obviously our main character is this maiden she has been kept in like confinement and like away from everyone so she had a very limited view of the world and kind of the politics and so because of this we kind of learn everything with her as she slowly kind of discovers you know not only her place in the world but how the world is and how she decides she wants to proceed in it which as an element of the story itself i enjoy and poppy is a main character i really enjoy but within this book too which i'm really liking is that in the first one really confined to like one location one castle within the duke the queen like her kind of place within this sort of you know structure but in the second one again because it's more of a rebellion we're learning more not only about alternate groups trying to like fight for different things but also like more information about the different magical creatures that are present in this world different politics different cities different power structures like ancient bloodlines ancient magic ties all of that stuff which is just really interesting um but back to the romance i would really describe this as like i don't know maybe because i'm just watching vampire diaries so it's on the mind oh my god he's just throwing paper airplanes that is because um i'm just kind of compared to like a damon and elena or like a klaus and caroline the dynamic is definitely one now matilda's here everyone's just bothering me the dynamic is definitely like this brooding angsty super dramatic maybe like definitely a bad boy like in the damen way like he's doing like violent bad things but like he's always gonna protect you kind of thing but also combining with the fact that you don't know his motives and it all he's also perceiving like he's always gonna protect you like it's ridiculous it's not something that should exist in real life but in a fantasy paranormal setting it can be fun and entertaining um and i would just describe it as like that klaus damon thing especially with this sort of like secret past the secret information just kind of like their back and forth is good i just felt like that would be like an apt comparison and like how i would describe this romance so far like definitely cw level of angst and in no way shape or form would i say this is a shining light of an example of how a relationship should be or anything we should strive to have but in terms of it being entertaining so far so good like i don't know guys maybe this was just what i was looking for like something absurdly dramatic and overbearing and like like my my objective hat on i'm like girl this ain't what you should be looking for my vampire diaries hat on i'm like girl he is hot anyway i'm gonna uh paint my nails i think actually take a bit of a break from reading but i've read 150 pages so far so i'm feeling really good about that and i feel like i'm definitely on track to finish this this weekend matilda's being extra sassy right now but didn't read any i still need to pay my nails but i decided to edit video first and now i'm gonna paint my nails and i think watch gilmore girls i'm almost done with season three paris just got rejected from harvard my favorite episode not gonna lie i changed into pajamas i'm not gonna paint my nails i'm also trying to convince clay to get chipotle so we'll see if i'm successful in that in future clips but for now it's gilmore girls and nail painting time all right friends it's officially friday night we are making something exciting we're making some what is it mold wine i got some really cute like wine um mixes from this really cute small business i'll have a link down below but they sent some old wine i figured we'd test it out they even sent a recipe i think we're gonna have it though because it's just the two of us um but i'm we're gonna do this thing so we're gonna get started making a smaller batch because we only really want like one cup each tonight but it's just about a third of a bottle of wine it's like like a third of a cup of that little mix and then some orange juice and then you just simmer it on the stove for like 30 minutes and then you can enjoy how fun it smells amazing already so so festive and so easy and tonight friends we feast mafungo if you know you know this is the best it's such a good caribbean spot in our neighborhood so we thought we would get it tonight because honestly it's delicious and our mold wine is all done it smells so good we're enjoying it while watching some community which top tier comedy been really fun to watch and uh that's just how friday night's been going i still haven't read any more of my book i don't know where i put it oh it's over there i'm still only on page 150 but i definitely think i'll be able to get to page 200 tonight no problem but for now we're all just hanging out friends it's time for the season finale season two of the mandalorian i'm not ready i'm really sad that it's over but i'm also happy you know we got to experience it how are you feeling clay i'm feeling good trying to get trying to entice matilda to hang out with you i have i'm not trying i am enticing you can see her anyway mandalorian time until it's going wild for toys right now or rather she was i always feel terrible when she decides she's no longer interested in playing and we still throw the toy because we don't know yet anyway now we're watching the boys which is also a wild tv show but the season finale of mandalorian was so good i don't know how i'm gonna wait for the new season but i know disney is putting out all the shows in the meantime so i guess we'll just have to be patient good morning pals i am backing up apparently but i'm about to film two videos this morning i'm just getting them out of the way bright and early and then really that that's like my big to-do obviously aside from reading which i also plan to do a bunch of today but i'm going to film and then i will get coffee and then i'll check in and let you know the general plan for saturday and sunday surprised me with breakfast from our new from like a new cafe place near us um this is like an egg grilled cheese sandwich coffee and a croissant which can't live without croissants i still have one more video to film until the it's like what's going on over there um but i'm gonna eat this first and then i will film video dos can't successfully say i filmed my second video uploaded a video ate that delicious like egg omelette sandwich thing so now i'm getting a cup of coffee here we are and i'm gonna put christmas music on and read i think i'm gonna go with my matilda mug um kingdom of flesh and fire i don't know why i can't remember the title of this book i think it's because there are a lot of titles that are like something in something not that i'm mine um but they're sometimes hard to remember i guess is what i'm trying to say but i'll sit down now and do some reading i was able to read to just under 200 pages last night 190 so i'm in a good spot so i'm gonna read for like an hour i need to shoot one photo for instagram so i'll do that and then read the plan for tonight is actually clay and i rented a car because we're gonna drive around and look at christmas lights around uh a brooklyn neighborhood specifically that's really famous for having really pretty christmas lights we're just trying to think of fun festive safe things you know to keep us in the holiday mood in spirit especially because it's just him and i for christmas this year but that's the plan for this evening but before then i'm just going to do my reading so cheers friends matilda is just so cute she loves a blanket a little babushka little darth sith vibe smelly yes look at us reading together clay is almost done with his with his book which is very exciting so we get to pick out a new one this evening but i'll let you talk about your book a little later i wanted to do a quick check-in because i've passed a 250 page mark and this book is a wild ride i actually think i'm liking it more than i thought i would i was worried it was really gonna going to prey on some tropes that i personally don't like but instead it's using tropes that i am kind of a sucker for one i do feel like there has been sort of a mutual understanding throughout the entirety of this narrative which i think is important and i just appreciate being part of it there's a fake marriage trope going on which we all know and love it especially when inevitably they fall in love at the end and another thing i would say too is there's obviously still a lot of secrets being kept between both of these main characters that's part of the drama and in itself and the miscommunication that kind of dries this sort of romantic plot forward but i do feel like there is more authenticity between them um as i feel like some of their layers have been stripped away which in general i feel like i appreciate their banter and back and forth more in this book than the first one also there's more information about the magic which is cool i think probably one of my larger criticisms of this series which i mean i could say more than just one thing i mean i think like the general fantasy plot is a little flimsy and more of a backdrop which personally is fine i would say kind of a larger criticism would be how the side characters tend to be handled obviously i do feel like the two primary characters are pretty fleshed out and they're given a lot of backstory and context and their feelings and importance in the story is constant but i do feel like we've run through quite a few different side characters in that they're very important but when they're out of the picture they're out of the picture and they're not really referenced or they don't really have a lasting emotional impact which seems a little illogical given how close some of these characters are to our main character it's kind of like out of sight out of mind sort of situation um and in general i do feel like side character relationships are built pretty quickly which doesn't bother me as much because it does create good banter but sometimes a little unrealistic but a lot of this book is really unrealistic so you know it's a give and take but i'm gonna get back to reading i'm trying to get to page 300 before i take a break for the afternoon but i just wanted to give you guys some of my thoughts all right reheating our cup of coffee because honestly i can never finish a cup of coffee so i just kind of poured it in here we'll reheat matilda everyone hello i've changed into a cozier sweater jean combo headband i'm probably gonna put a hat on though um because we are off to go see the christmas lights and i'm excited to be in a car because i'm just gonna play the ever more album whilst we drive around and when we get there we'll switch to christmas music but um there's actually still a lot of snow on the ground from the snow that fell a couple days ago so that should be fun and add to the ambience and lights i'm excited this neighborhood's really famous it's called diker heights so if you're ever in new york during the holidays and you want to drive into a more southern brooklyn neighborhood you can or maybe hopefully we'll be able to get some cute clips but i am so looking forward to it we've arrived and the house is starting to get christmassy folks glamorous it's basically just streets on streets of christmas lights in this area i'm trying not to fall to my death but it's so beautiful it's also just a neighborhood we've never been to so it's just fun to explore this one is rather spectacular look there's even a christmas gazebo one of the more famous houses so extra i love it clay's getting ice cream lol all right i got ice cream too i couldn't resist snow background we're back home i'm clearly already in pajamas we ordered in some delivery and now we're gonna sit over there and watch some community maybe a christmas movie some anime we're relaxing for the rest of the evening but the houses were so much fun would recommend hello world we ordered three pasta dishes because it's cold outside pasta is delicious and why choose when you can have all three look at that homemade ricotta we are now gonna watch a classic christmas movie home alone two i feel like i normally just watch home alone so it's a good switch up plus it's set in new york i'm excited i think this movie came out the year i was born yeah 1992. i know i was like wow it's almost 30 years old i was like it's almost as old as you clay i'm an old man all right we finished home alone two which you've never seen right if i have it was very long and i think i was a kid and we both were watching it and we're like i don't know if i would show this movie to children it's incredibly violent it's it's wor it's so it's very violent but what i think is more problematic as a kids movie is that it shows an inaccurate outcome of the violence yes so like it's like a quentin tarantino movie level of violence without the like the consequences like he throws a brick from the top of a building and they're fine and it's like the problem with that is like if young kids watch this like they don't learn like the consequences of like electrical electricity and dropping heavy like it's just constant and the thing is is that i'm i'm not like i'm gonna be that parent that shelters the kid from a bunch of media but like immediate like specifically this the message seems weird like i'll show my kid like and not when they're really like i would rather my kid watch like braveheart than yes exactly because like again it's it's less like okay violence is bad yes but to me what's more problematic and hope alone too is that the violence fine glorified but it is an inaccurate representation of the outcome like you can't hold a sword cut your arm and then not all of a sudden start bleeding like that's not gonna matter i'm not gonna be shown my kid's brain heart but like by 10 years old but like i would not show my eight-year-old this movie yeah i mean it would one thing about the movie that was cool is just cool obviously living in new york and seeing yeah in the past and it's like a time capsule and it's literally the year i was born which is interesting it's like oh that's exactly what it looked like back then and a cool thing about new york which is one of america's oldest cities is it hasn't changed so much it obviously changes everything's always changing quickly but in a lot of ways it's not changing that quickly but yeah homolog is sadistic i was watching it and then i found an atlantic article after the fact i was watching it and i was like they made kevin like a mini saw anyway we've ranted almost six minutes talking about home alone too i'm sure i'll probably cut some of this out but the point is we had issues with home alone too yeah oh she can't get lost in new york as john elaine says the streets are numbered he's a 10. anyway anyway i don't know what we're gonna watch now but that was what a ride all right we are now about to watch the boys which hey maybe i would prefer my children to watch over home alone too at least it's honest with its intentions um but yeah the show is absolutely wild actually it is very good would recommend we are almost done with season two hello friends good morning i'm about to put christmas music on and read kingdom of flesh and fire by jennifer l armentrout i was able to read to page 270 between obviously friday and saturday let me flip you around and honestly i'm pleased with that i always generally do the bulk of my reading on sunday and almost 300 pages on my first two days of a weekend reading vlog i feel like is pretty solid i don't really have anything new to say about this book it is everything that i've been saying for basically it's cheesy and fun and honestly i'm liking it quite a bit as of yet um i think i am liking it more than the first one from a trope perspective and it's also not as like bad and i mean it's super messy this relationship is messy like no other but it's not bothering me so much because i do feel like there's no communication between the main characters which i think is important when it comes to messiness um but i'm going to read a bunch this sunday i tr i woke up feeling like i'm gonna have like a sunday very sunday sunday i just want to sit on this couch and not move i i like postponed any project i was planning on doing today to get ahead of anything like i don't want to do anything at all so that's the plan i'm going to watch football i'm in my fantasy league finals if anyone cares i've won three out of the last four years i'm basically a dynasty at this point um so i want to watch football but i really want to read this entire book which is pretty long i have i have over 300 pages left of this to read but i think i can definitely fly through it it's early in the morning right now um i'm literally wearing the same exact thing as i was wearing last night will i get dressed that's a topic of discussion but anyway i'm going to read that personally oh there they are i don't think you guys can tell i kind of missed the the strong showers before i started vlogging but it's snowing which is very exciting on to that second cup of coffee ladies and gents bagels and uh hoping that the bears make it to the playoffs friends i got 10 dressed it's basically just another version of pajamas but i feel a little bit better about myself wearing my book socks these are from modcloth i want to say yeah turtleneck flannel combo i look like i work on a farm in a lifetime christmas movie and i'm not mad about it all right i'm gonna make a bit of a coffee hot chocolate i was sent these like hot cocoa cubes i'm gonna do a white and a regular and mix it with coffee and we'll just we'll just see how it all goes here are the two cubes pour my coffee in i'm gonna mix it up i think i'm also gonna add some milk merry christmas the bears won they're football games obviously not chicago bears but i just have red zone on and i'm gonna get back to reading kingdom of flesh and fire now um yeah so that that's my update just been on the couch you know living my best life hi friends i just popped into the other room to do an update because clay is working but i just wanted to say i have only about 170 pages left of kingdom of flesh and fire and i feel like i have to start this clip off and say just as a disclaimer and a heads up to anyone who maybe hasn't started the series yet i just want to say this book is definitely adult like the steens are very steamy like please do not mistake this for why a it is not so just keep that in mind interested in picking it up and i would definitely say even the sequel is much steamier than the first one in terms of the amount of scenes present throughout it which all in all i'm finding it to be very entertaining and it's definitely escalating one thing i will say is hilarious because i feel like in the first book and even throughout this book i'm like i was always anticipating possibly the development of a classic love triangle which might happen but it might actually be a true love triangle and just more of a trio situation but we'll just see how that unfolds but i will say probably a bit of a criticism while i am liking this book probably more because i feel like the characters feel more interesting there is a lot less plot like in the first one there was a lot more exploration and discussion about like the fantasy world and the politics that you know poppy is very much involved in being the maiden and kind of like her trying to question the establishment and her like fighting there's a lot more fighting scenes and there's definitely discussions of politics but i would say at a much lesser extent than the first book a lot of this book so far has just literally been moving from like keep to keep to keep which is really just moving from like one room to one room to one room and there's some interest first discussion and some chat about like the kingdom as they are they're moving for a reason like they're trying to get to a specific destination but there isn't i would say like in general there hasn't been a lot of plot and in general i think that's fine i feel like when i picked up this series i wasn't really expecting there to be like much of a plot but because it was present in the first book i was kind of expecting it to continue on into this second book um i mean there's still definitely time for more stuff to be fleshed out and i imagine it will be it's just kind of a funny contrast i feel like this book is definitely much more romance than fantasy than the first one which is fine but um just something to keep in mind and i think a little bit of a criticism just because i feel like some of the scenes could have impaired back and if she did decide to add a bit more exploration and more political maneuverings i just feel like some meetings just happen and we're not really privy to them it could make for a more interesting book just something i felt i would bring up but yes i have 170 pages left oh man this book is something else i tell you it is it's been an interesting ride i would say i'm enjoying it but it is um a lot of angst a lot of um base desires happening in this story and just uh yeah it's definitely it's definitely stevie i guess i would say that anywho though i'm getting really close to the end of the book which is exciting because i've heard such interesting things about the ending mostly like no spoilers about and obviously it won't reveal any spoilers but just a lot of people really liked the ending so i'm excited to see how this continues to evolve i would give it the same kind of criticism and that it's maybe just a little too long like i would say the first one but i've been really entertained i've obviously read a lot of it and not a very long amount of time so that's definitely a bonus and i definitely feel like i can finish this tonight but now i'm gonna go watch gilmore girls and make some s'mores i really should make dinner but i really just feel like s'mores and i got stuff to make some more so that's where we're at i don't care what anyone says s'mores are the superior dessert treat i also don't have hershey bars but hershey kisses will do primo primo you just put this in the broiler for like four minutes next level next level matilda i mean look at this look at this bonfire in your oven people try it out hi it's me i'm sitting on the couch for the past hour watching youtube videos as one does and like the most random ones you know you just go from one to you just click and you click and you click and there's really no rhyme or reason that's what i was doing um but i did watch best dressed apartment tour and it was really really cute i won't lie she made me want a wallpaper a door but now i'm going to cook dinner it's a little later i'm going to get started i think i'm just going to make like a baked potato and some like roasted chicken and vegetables so i'm going to get the potatoes in the oven because those take the longest to cook and get this party started matilda is doing something what are you doing over there anyway i gotta go all right i have inuyasha on the background but i'm making really easy dinner roasted green beans with just chicken with pink dough parmesan seasoning and i've been cooking my baked potatoes and i'll put this in after first round of baked potato is done and i'll put some butter on the potatoes blah blah blah it should be down in about 25ish or so minutes once the potatoes are halfway cooked i then pour some butter cover them in salt so it gets nice and crispy on the outside and now i can put all of this in the oven and it'll all be done at the same time and 25 more minutes and then i get to watch in yuyasha by the way i'm really making great progress in my inuyasha watch i have like 50 eps left until i can watch the 2009 finish of the manga and i do plan on watching the new show which is very exciting but i wanted to do a rewatch before i watched that so just a little update bon appetit friends who doesn't love a good old-fashioned baked potato even though it sets off my fire alarm every time i don't know what it is with big potatoes in my firearm but it always happens hi everyone i've retreated to my final reading destination of the evening because i am going to finish this book or at least almost entirely finish this book tonight is my goal um again it's over 600 pages so i think i can do it i've got 170 pages left i've gotten distracted a lot tonight i feel like i've just been on my phone a lot watching like random youtube videos so a little off my game but i'm trying to get it back together and finish this post my hope is i'll have some final thoughts and feelings as i approach the end but nothing new to update you at this point in time but reading commences feel like i've read enough of this book to say that i'm a little bored like i think i stand by the statement of it's too long and like i can respect the seemingly endless amount of steamy scenes in this book but it just doesn't feel like anything is actually happening like it's just been like 250 pages of one scene after another after another with very little plot progression which if you're into that check this book out but for me it's just kind of like wearing my interest down because i'm just like waiting for i guess the plot to kind of bubble over because there's been kind of like chat of magic and stuff and while i definitely appreciate our two main characters and like it's been fun to like read their relationship kind of um develop through this novel i feel like we've reached like one aspect of the romance that's been kind of dragged out for a while which is like this like we're pretending to be in love but they're secretly obviously definitely in love but they just like do this pretending thing and they've just done it for like 200 pages and it's just like the first time i was like oh this is great but then the second time i was like okay third time i was like we're still doing this fourth time i'm like come on guy but yeah i mean it's good and it's entertaining and i like the magic and i do like them as characters more in this but i would say it's just like i think it's too long i think the author could have maybe cut out like 150 pages or maybe that's just me maybe you know i could just be in the small minority in this camp here but it's just this little tail end is kind of dragging a bit i mean i do feel like the ending is going to be explosive at least that's what i hear and i feel like i kind of felt the same thing with the first one where like the like the 150 pages before the final act really begins to kick off it's just a little slow but i feel like i feel it much more in this one also in general for other people who read romance novels um i've read more this year than any anywhere else in my life and the one thing i just find so entertaining too is just romance vernacular like it's so like when you really think about it like adjectives and things are just it's pretty it's pretty funny and every author has their own word choice you know creativity abound creativity abound but yeah i i have about 120 pages left of this book and i would just say like i'm the past like 100 and so pages i've been just like a little bored and the duck it's mostly because the dynamic hasn't changed it's just i just feel like we've been like stagnant i guess but i'm still liking it but i'm just being honest too matilda b-roll are you just zooming in on my face right now that's the woman i love matilda hello friends i have not very much left i'm probably they'll probably be my last check-in for tonight and i'll just do like a final wrap-up tomorrow but i'll say it's heating back up like this little chunk which was kind of boring me i've gotten through it and as i was anticipating this like little final bit here has been getting interesting again and i'm hoping for an explosive ending but we shall see hi friends just popping in to wrap up this vlog as i was able to actually finish the entirety of this book unfortunately i would say my feelings and i'm sure you noticed like throughout like the middle point of this vlog started to get more and more negative with this story so i think my overall opinion is i really enjoyed the first 300 pages i thought they were entertaining what i was expecting fast paced lots of inks lots of romance in that way and i feel like from there the middle part and then the middle end of the book things just got really repetitive there wasn't until there wasn't like any plot progression and i just personally got bored for like 200 250 pages and i also feel like because there was no plot progression how the author made things interesting or trying to make things interesting i feel like the steamy scenes just kept one upping each other which for me personally i found them less entertaining and they started to fearing more into the ridiculous for me personally obviously this is just personal opinion and experience i will say it picked up a little bit at the end um and it was more interesting i just felt like so much of this book was placeholder and like a lot of it i don't know i feel like it would have been a lot more concise if like 200 pages were cut out and also just some of the conversations were cut down and just things were a little more concise and then also just like a lot of things happened like i felt like off camera i feel like we had more action more political meetings like more stuff going on i feel like it could have been just a more fully fleshed out story um so yeah i'm kind of of two minds because i did really like the first 300 pages i was like fully entertained i was like i'm gonna love this book even more than the first one and then i kind of hit the middle and i was like oh this is starting to wear me down and then by the end i was just like ready for it to be over and while it was entertaining in the end i it couldn't save like the hundreds of pages before it so i think i'd give this like 3 stars 2.75 stars like i would still highly recommend it if you love romance and you love fantasy romance this book has a really high rating on goodreads so i feel like i'm definitely in this smaller group of reviewers who didn't absolutely love this book everything about it so if you like this genre or you're interested in this genre i would still recommend it just know going in especially in the second one it's most it's kind of like stereotypical and i guess like on the note of like i feel like in the first part of this book the reason why i loved it so much was i thought we were really going to have this like enemies to lovers like jennifer lawrence continue to kind of subvert some trope expectations and just have that level of intensity between the two characters but i do feel like we kind of just kind of had the expected tropes play out which can still be very entertaining but i would just say like it wasn't the most like unique tale but it was fun anyway i'm rambling so some good some bad overall i would say if you like romance or want to check it out i would still recommend it but yeah three stars i think i'll probably say for this and yeah anyway i hope you guys enjoyed this vlog and i will see you soon with another one soon bye\n"