**A Review of "The Blood of Stars" by Chloe Gong**

I recently had the pleasure of reading "The Blood of Stars", a Shakespearean retelling set in a 1920s city. The author, Chloe Gong, has done an incredible job of weaving together classic elements with her own unique twist, creating a story that feels both familiar and fresh. I was drawn to this book from its first page, where the characters are introduced as a family: Salind is her name, followed by her cousin, Marshall, and then Benedict. The way Gong has developed these characters is truly impressive, making them feel like real people with their own distinct personalities.

One of the standout features of "The Blood of Stars" is its unique approach to fantasy. While it's being pitched as a fantasy novel, I found that the only truly fantastical element was the monster that appears throughout the story. The rest of the world-building is set in a 1920s city, which makes for an intriguing and immersive read. Gong has done a great job of creating a sense of atmosphere and setting, drawing the reader into the world she's created.

I also appreciated how "The Blood of Stars" eschews traditional fantasy tropes in favor of more subtle, nuanced storytelling. Unlike some other books in the genre, this one doesn't rely on grand, over-the-top plot twists or action scenes. Instead, it focuses on character development and emotional depth, creating a story that feels both intimate and epic.

One of my favorite aspects of "The Blood of Stars" is its ending. I was completely blown away by the subtlety and complexity of the conclusion, which felt both surprising and inevitable at the same time. It's a testament to Gong's skill as a writer that she can craft a story with such care and attention to detail.

**A Look at Chloe Gong's Writing Style**

I truly believe that "The Blood of Stars" is a standout example of a Shakespearean retelling, and it's clear that Chloe Gong has done her homework when it comes to the original play. Her writing style is engaging and accessible, making the story feel both familiar and new at the same time.

**Other Books by Chloe Gong**

While "The Blood of Stars" was my first experience with Chloe Gong's work, I have to say that I'm excited to dive into her other books as well. If you're a fan of fantasy, romance, or historical fiction, I highly recommend checking out some of her other works.

**Book Recommendations for 2020**

As someone who loves reading and discovering new authors, I'm always on the lookout for great recommendations. This year has been particularly good to me in terms of finding amazing books that I never would have discovered otherwise. Some of my favorite reads from this year include "Cemetery Boys" by Aiden Thomas, which shares some similarities with "The Blood of Stars" in terms of its blend of fantasy and romance.

**A Message from the Author**

I want to take a moment to thank Chloe Gong for writing such an incredible book. Her passion and dedication to her craft are clear on every page, and it's a joy to read something that feels so well-crafted and thoughtful. I also want to thank all of my readers who have supported me throughout this year - your comments, likes, and shares mean the world to me.

**Looking Ahead to 2021**

As we look to the new year, I'm excited to share some exciting plans for content on my channel. From morning sprints to new video series, there's always something fresh and exciting coming down the pipeline. Be sure to subscribe and follow me on all of my social media platforms to stay up-to-date on the latest news and updates.

**Conclusion**

As I come to the end of this year, I want to take a moment to reflect on everything that's happened. It's been an incredible journey, and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to share it with all of you. Until next time, when I'll be back with more bookish content and excitement, thank you for being part of this community - I couldn't do it without you!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's the way this is my third time filming this video because i cannot get it right what else do i have wait i forgot hello greeting friends welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new my name is melanie and today i bring you the best books of 2020. all my favorite books of 2020 top 13 books to read however you want to call it there's so many ways we can call this but essentially i'm going to be talking about all the favorite books that i read this year it was honestly super hard but easy at the same time to narrow down all of these books at first i had a list of 10. there were a few that were left behind and thankfully this is my third time filming this video so at this point i know exactly what i want to do how i want to do it and i've changed the format a little bit so that this is almost like a tier rank situation because i'm gonna be walking you through all the way from 13 to one so what is my top favorite book of the year if you have any guess as to what my favorite book of the year is gonna be please let me know down below because i am really interested to see if you guys know okay because i'll be talking about certain books over and over again and i just really want to know are you guys paying attention before we even start i do want to say i don't know how many other books i will read before the year is over there's still a few more days to the year so there will be a tier ranking all of the books that i read in 2020 at the beginning of january so just stay tuned you know that is coming very very soon if you have yet to subscribe to my channel don't forget to do so down below for more bookish content i constantly upload videos that i i'm sure you do not want to miss phone calls book reviews reading vlogs what else do i do i'd be all over the place okay this is a chaotic time over here so i'm sure you won't want to miss any of that i am also sprinting throughout the week every friday particularly and i may sprinkle in there some other days of the week the way y'all are gonna be so happy because starting from this week actually i'm gonna start sprinting in the morning i don't know if every friday will be in the morning but i do know i will be switching it up and doing morning sprints as well i just loved having breakfast with you and reading with you it was definitely the best of times and you can also follow me on all my social medias they are always linked down below i have a twitter goodreads instagram and an amazon wishlist and yeah without a further ado let's get right started into the video take your guesses okay i want to hear your guess down in the comments don't be juicy the way i'm just gonna be peeping these comments as this video goes up i want to know your guess okay let's get started and we'll start with number 13. and number 13 okay lucky number 39 is it really a looking number i feel like it's associated with like not so many lucky things but lucky number 13 okay we have redwater royal blue by casey bequest now when i first came up with this list this book was not originally there i did give this book a four out of five stars when i read this this book is definitely one of my favorite romances dare i say of all time in this book we follow the first son of the united states alex clerman diaz as he has this rivalry enemy relationship with prince henry from the united kingdom and they have had this ongoing view during years once they make a public display of that feud and the cameras and the media all catch that both of their pr teams come together they come up with a plan to try and calm down that wave of media and to make them pretend to have a friendship very very publicly that suddenly starts turning into a lot a lot more between these two political figures i just loved everything about this book i think the dialogue like the banter in here was done so incredibly well and if you know me i just love those character dynamics when the dialogue feels realistic and that banter is just thing after thing i just love reading that especially in romances i feel like banter is definitely one of the things that need to be executed really really well especially with that trope of hate to love and in here that is so so perfect and the side characters are also really well developed like everyone shines in their own right the parental relationships in here are just immaculate as well like the way that alex gets along with his parents i absolutely loved there is also that element of political escapism because in this book we have the first the first female president of the united states so it's also again escapism there is also something that i love reading about in books particularly romances and i don't think i find that quite enough is that dynamic of like email exchange like text messages like very steamy like very provocative that is in this book but it also has a way of being like so beautiful like there are so many quotes that i got from this book and the romance is also like hella steamy okay this was definitely a hard one to rank but i think as i was staring at books like i just knew exactly where to place them but this one came at number 12. it is still very much a five star i love the heck out of this book and i will recommend it left and down right and i'm talking about the poppy war by rf kwong in this book we follow rin who is a peasant girl and reign has honestly been just like a means to an end throughout her entire life she has constantly been abused in her household because she is an orphan and so to escape that life she prepares herself very heavily to take the empire-wide test to find youth for different military academies except that rin aces the keju and she actually gets into the synagogue which is the most elite academy in all of the empire and when poor rin gets there she is now targeted by her peers because of her race her gender and her poverty so she can never truly escape that cruelty that she had back home but once she is there she realizes that she possesses the ancient art of shamanism which is forbidden in this world and there is one particular god that is trying to claim her which is the phoenix except this god is very vengeful and is always looking for bloodshed and with a third poppy we're approaching rin is truly one of the only only hopes they have at winning but again that god is truly messing with everything this book is a mix between historical fiction and then fantasy i think rf guang really threw this out of the park not only does it paint the picture of war so incredibly well it doesn't sugar coat anything it is very straightforward in its writing it is truly meant to depict how cruel war can be and how it affects the mind of a human being and it was so fascinating to see that journey of every single character in this book because all of these characters have amazing character arcs this is inspired on the events of the rape of nan king so just beware of that there are a lot of trigger warnings in this book i will leave them down below in the description i also have an entire reading vlog spoiler free dedicated to the entire trilogy which the third book came out this year and if you want to watch that i will also leave that linked down below but i think one of my favorite parts of this book which i know wasn't a lot of people's favorites was the training aspect in the academy i just absolutely love seeing characters progress seeing them train and i think out of the three books this one particularly chapter 21 which is the heaviest one truly shows you how horrific war is and it truly shows you a side of history that hasn't been outwardly spoken for many many years and that has hurt a lot of people so everything about this book is just 10 out of 10. at number 11 and i didn't think this book was gonna be like so low in the rank list because most of these the majority of these except for red white and royal blue if i'm not mistaken are five stars i didn't expect this book to be 11. i thought this was going to be higher but when i compared to other books those books definitely shine a lot more than this one but at number 11 i have the invisible life of addy larue by v.e schwab this book definitely hit me very very hard because and i've talked about this before like it's not a secret one of my biggest fears is i was very very young has always been to die without making a real impact in the world whether it was being remembered or like making something significant to make a change i've always been super afraid of that and i think the premise of this book really called to me in that sense because addy as a character is one that fears that as well so in this book we do follow again addy larue who lives in the 1700s and she is living a life that she does not want to live she is being forced to marry she truly does not want to do that and so she makes a faustian bargain with a god that answers after dark that she has been warned against countless of times and once she makes that deal for immortality so that she could live her life freely as she wanted he grants her the deal but she doesn't realize it comes with a catch the catch is that she will never be remembered by anyone that she speaks to and it won't be until 300 years later in a very small hidden bookstore in new york city that for the first time she is remembered by a boy called henry not a boy a man and i just adored the heck out of this book i think there is such it's not completely lyrical but i do think there is a lyrical aspect to this writing that resonated with me because it was so beautiful and again the story of addie and the concept of not being remembered and the way that ve schwab just painted that picture in this book there were so many quotes that just they impacted me so much i was just crying because in a way i felt like in a way i also needed to hear those words from someone one of my favorite parts of the book was definitely seeing the god that answers after dark lou goose i just loved seeing him i would have loved to see a lot more of him in this book though his scenes were some of the ones that shown the most i genuinely think his dynamic with addie was really compelling and on the other end of things we have henry henry is very soft-spoken henry just wants to be loved he just wants to be appreciated and again his dynamic with addy was just these two people were meant to find each other to show exactly what they could have exactly what they could be this book is very character driven the plot solely depends on addie to happen if it's not for addie this block literally would not exist at number 10 another book that i thought would be higher on my list when i saw it i was like i mean it's top 10 but it can't be higher because i have other books and my top five percentile and my number 10 is actually scythed by neil schusterman another book that just became one of my all-time favorites this year this is like a light sci-fi meets dystopia in a world where hunger is no longer a thing they've defeated war they've defeated death people can no longer die of natural causes and the only way that people can die is if a scythe actually cleans them and glean is the word that they use for killing essentially for taking a life and sites are these very special figures that are elected actually kind of like at random like you you do have to be worthy in some way like you need to have your morals really straight in order to get into this dom and once you are chosen you are actually introduced to the scythome where you need to train for a month with a scythe so in this book in particular we follow sitra and rowan who are our main characters as they are both invited into the cytome for their apprenticeship i think in particular the themes that neil shusterman manages to pack into this book there are themes of war and humanity and race and poverty and corruption it was so interesting to read about a scenario in such a futuristic world as to what would happen if we ever asked humanity as society got to a point where death is no longer a thing and our government looks different because in this world they are being ruled by the thunderhead which is this sentient being computer type thing and it was just so interesting to look at all of those elements and kind of reflect into what would actually happen in real life if this were a thing it was also incredibly fascinating to see some of these characters and how they are morally gray because the job actually presents itself to be morally gray at one point or another so i just found this completely just fascinating all around next up book number nine we actually have an adult romance a contemporary adult situation and the way i knew this book was gonna be in this list way before i even started booktube because i actually read this book before i started my channel this year and it is actually all your perfect by colleen hoover the way this book completely shattered me like it destroyed me in all your perfects we follow quinn and graham who are a married couple they've been married for years and at the point where the book starts their marriage is basically in shambles except that they are trying to fix it they just don't know exactly how to get to that point where they were before oh my god the amount of tears i let out reading this book was absolutely unreal i actually adored the way that the book was set up we do get chapters in the past and then we get chapters present time so we get to see queen and graham as they meet and we get that timeline all the way up to where they are now it was so interesting to read about that and we also i don't think i've ever read a book like that where we start with the characters being in their early 20s all the way up to like their early mid 30s i think this book in particular really made me think about the dynamic of marriage and relationships and the way that nothing is really black or white and how this book talks about communication and partnership and companionship was just written in such a beautiful way i found that there was almost like a poetic element to this book here's the thing queen as a main character was super frustrating to read about because this book does include that miscommunication trope and it was so frustrating to see from her perspective and how she was not communicating with graham but at the same time it was understandable due to all the things that she was going through there are some trigger warnings in here for miscarriage and infertility that is one of the bigger themes addressed in this book there is also infidelity so just be aware of all of those before you go into this book that book is just perfect okay all your perfects at number eight we actually have the poet x by elizabeth and in this book we follow sio mara battista who has grown up in a very sheltered life so yomada has grown up in a very religious family who doesn't allow her to do much to explore much outside of the community that she lives in outside of her parents beliefs particularly her mom her mom is the more strict one but once her school opens a slam poetry club she actually realizes the power of warts through poetry and she refuses to stay silent after joining this club i have talked about this book before many many times i don't think i'll ever shut up about this book either this book truly made me feel seen so much in literature i don't think i've ever read a book like that it just made me bawl my eyes out from page five like i was just weeping at how personal this book felt i felt like so many parts of this book were written for me to me and the way that elizabeth acevedo also narrates this book just makes it hit even harder this book really talks a lot about being a woman and how you navigate systems doing that and it has a lot of familial dynamics it is not that strong in its plot though i would say this was very character driven in comparison to other works by elizabeth but i think that's what made it hit harder because it is very character-driven and you are very much inside siomara's head and this is a story about finding yourself and finding your own voice and that journey with xiomara was stunning at number seven also another book i thought this was going to be my all-time favorite book of this year and it was actually heavy knocked down by some of my later reads i was not expecting that at all and i don't think any of you were either i don't know if you're ready for me to put this at number seven because it is actually cemetery boys by ayden thomas so take your guesses right now as to what's gonna be my number one because i know a lot of you must have said cemetery boys and in cemetery boys we follow yadriel who is a trans boy and a brujo and his family is having a really hard time embracing his gender and embracing him and accepting him as a brujo so in order to prove himself as a real brujo he partners up with his cousin maritza to raise the ghost of a dead family member but instead yadriel being real honest because that's the only reason he ends up summoning the ghost of the school's resident bad boy called julian diaz who actually has no idea that he's dead he doesn't know that he died and he is not that willing to go back to the dead because he needs maritza and adriel to help him find out exactly how he died why he died when he died so he can go back to the dead peacefully i adored the way that ayden thomas grabbed latinx culture and implemented that in the story particularly quinceaneras like i never really thought about how quinceaneras would be incorporated in a more fantastical setting and i say that very loosely because although this is a fantasy it's still a set kind of like in the urban contemporary world so definitely for fantasy readers who are just starting out this is a great way to start so again the way that he grabs that and just warped it in a way to fit his story was fantastic i was definitely not expecting that and i loved that the way that he grabbed mexican culture in general and included that in this book to fit ghosts and brujics and just everything to do with el dia de los muertos everything was just so well done in this book this book was also incredibly atmospheric like the cemetery that this book takes place in the house in which they live the food that they were preparing i definitely felt myself there it was so crazy how atmospheric this book was it's also super short it's a very quick read but the character dynamics in this book actually shines so much the banter again which is something that i love between maritza and julian in particular they were just incredible together like the way they were just cracking me up and making me laugh left and right the romance was also incredibly well paced for such a short amount of time because i do think this book takes place within a span of three days or a week i can't remember it takes place during dia de los muertos so most definitely the romance was done exceptionally well not only that the plot was at the end i kind of saw it coming but not the way it happened so overall just a fantastic read i just had to include this next book in here because this book the ending truly messed me up it was the way that i was always right about the plot twist and they just deterred me from it only to confirm it at the end of the second book and at number six we have the vanishing stare by maureen johnson this is the second installment in the truly devious series in truly devious we follow stevie bell who loves true crime she is in love with agatha christie in love with sherlock holmes she yearns to one day be like them to be like those stories that have been written for years that are so fantastic in the true crime community and one day she receives an invitation to ellingham academy which is this very prestigious academy that only invites the best of the best at their fields to study there all expenses paid they don't need to pay for anything not only that they provide every resource that these students need and stevie actually agrees to attend this school primarily because of one thing 80 years in the past a case was opened a crime happened however it has never been solved and it revolves around the founder of this academy called mr ellingham when his daughter and wife were kidnapped and murdered stevie agrees to go here because she is determined to find out exactly what happened 80 years in the past this book just rioted every wrong that there was in book one in this book we start out and there's a tone of that character dynamic a ton of that banter just a ton of those characters that i started falling in love with in book one the way nate and stevie are just so friendly but their chemistry is just fantastic and their banter and their dialogue i just i really want nate and stevie to get together then we have david who i was so mad about throughout the entirety of the book because david in this book really showed us how cruel he can be there is something about david that still to this day does not convince me he's just so self-centered and selfishly despised david in this book and then towards the middle of the book onwards it was really about that plot incorporating those character dynamics plot twists at the end i really was not expecting that due to the ending of truly devious but the way my theory was correct all damn long and they really made me doubt myself they really made me down my theory only to prove me right at the end of this book i was going berserk on a live stream reading this i just love how this book moves between past and present and we truly sometimes get to see stuff before stevie does so it's almost like stevie get there you're almost there and it's oh my god such a thrilling ride because it's almost when you're like watching horror movies and you know the killer is right there and you're just like run girl run that is how i felt with stevie we're gonna get into the juicy section of this video now we're talking about the top five percent the top five percentile we're talking about the top five books that i read this year all of these books emotionally destroyed me i was distraught so you'll see a common theme of freak out tears and just emotions with all of these books because i'm about to go crazy talking about these can you guess what number five is take your places people take your vet at number five we have a kingdom of flesh and fire by jennifer l armentrout this is a part of the from blood and ash series where we follow poppy who is a maiden and poppy was chosen by the gods from the womb to fulfill this destiny this role as the maiden a figure that is connected to every single ascension in the kingdom this ascension is very much mysterious to everyone but the king and queen nobody truly knows what happens in the ascension only that is mandatory only that poppy is connected and only that they look at poppy almost in this god-like glowing holy way and therefore they cannot speak to her they cannot address her they cannot touch her approach her poppy is off limits to absolutely everyone in the kingdom and so to ensure the day of her ascension the king and queen actually assign her a royal guard by the name of hot flynn and when she meets hawk he starts feeling things that she'd never felt before this is a new adult fantasy romance and oh my god this second book first off the writing in here just by far improved from the first one right off the bat you can see how poppy's voice matured in this book which is one of my favorite things to read about like i just want to see that character progression and it was very much present in the kingdom of flesh and fire we also get a lot of world expansion in this book that we didn't particularly see in book one since this book is being told in first person we are only seeing what poppy is figuring out as she goes so in this book ashley learns more info we are trust deeper into this world and it was so very fascinating to see jennifer l armentrout just grab all of these common creatures and themes in paranormal or supernatural or fantasy books and warp them in a way to make it her own and to just fit her own story the steam in this book is out of this world i just love how poppy fits in with these set of characters way better than book one just you find yourself caring for these characters or at least i did a lot more this time around plot twist at the end of this book was absolutely insane like i was not expecting that at all i had guessed that plot twist but not in the way that it was delivered in this book we also get castile and castile will be the end of me castile is so smooth and he is just straightforwardly honest and he just has so much sex appeal and power the battle scenes oh my god this one line that castile tells poppy still more people than me and make me feel incompetent princess the way i didn't know i needed that line ever i also have a reading vlog up for from blood and ash and kingdom of flesh and fire both the books spoiler free leave a link down below i know you want to check it out so i'll link that at number four we have probably one of the books that left me the most broken this year it is actually by the empty space behind me empire of storms by sarah j maas the fifth book in the throne of glass series i finished this damn book and i stared at my wall for a straight hour i wish i was kidding i was balling my eyes out on the couch and then i transferred myself to my room i just laid in bed and i just stared at my bookshelf i was like what should i pick up next next time i sent somebody a voicemail i can't remember who it was i was like wait it's been an hour since i finished this damn book and this particular book in the series ah damn i just want to punch it over and over again i just miss mass did that this mask really came from my heart tugged it out of my chest stomped on it and then walked away happily strolling manon and dorian let me just start there two characters that i truly had not cared for for the entirety of the series and then i'm out here being like okay manondorian i love y'all like both separately and together and just like the dynamics with both of these characters dorian truly went through some scarring just dramatic events in queen of shadows and the way that he is handling himself here i don't think we're truly seeing dorian at his speak i think he is truly gonna shine in kingdom of ash like he should and then manon is truly someone that i hadn't cared about before like manon i think in this book in particular first off the plot twist with manon was not expected at all there is a certain level of vulnerability to anon because she truly does care particularly for the 13 and for a lead too she is out here caring okay showing some sort of humanity for somebody who doesn't have a heart and then of course we have aelin and rowan who in this book just stuck at my heartstrings oh my god miss mass really did the same thing that she did in aquaman at the end with this book and i was not ready for that oh my god the desperation and the way that rowan just pulled through in this book and did his own thing and he shined in his own right right at the end just the way that rowan constantly thinks that he cannot offer anything because he has nothing left to give he goes around at the end and he does that look the ending of this book i just thinking about it it makes me want to cry it was one of the best endings that i've read about because i was really not expecting that i was just i was not okay the battle scenes in this book were all so incredible i think the action scenes like the battle scenes in this book i've worked out the best out of any of the other books it felt so dynamic and fast-paced and entertaining but it was also so stressful because the stakes were so high for everyone and then we also have adeon and lasandra melisandre in this book lisandra really be out here doing the most in this book okay the way that lisandra just quickly climbed up the ranks and has become one of the most important characters in the series and now that we're in the top three if you couldn't already guess by the empty spot behind me can you guess what number three is it's actually crescent city house of earth and blood also by miss mass because miss mass literally took over my 2020 and she said you're gonna read all of my books this year there is a whole reread vlog spoiler free for this book this book hit harder the second time around i will say i did read this book earlier in the year but the way that i just sobbed even harder the second time around like i already knew everything that was gonna happen but i definitely do think it's one of those books that is meant to be reread you catch all of those subtle foreshadowings all of those little hints you fall in love with the characters even harder and in this book we follow bryce quinlan who is hafee and half human and she truly leads what looks like the perfect life she has the job has the friends she is a party girl the socialite she also gets all the men left and right they would literally bow at her feet but once a tragedy ravages the city bryce finds herself in the midst of a murder investigation alongside han athlar who is a fallen angel and they must work together to try and solve this very big mystery that is making this city fall apart at the seams i really do think this is miss mass's most ambitious work to date this book is jam-packed with world building however the world building is not hard to follow in the slightest out of all of her books i think this is the best one in terms of character dynamics and how the characters are constructed to not only complement each other so well but to again stand on their own two feet regardless of the fact if they are side characters or main characters i truly found myself so attached to these characters so quickly and i don't think that's ever happened in any other book their romance was really well paced in this book it was not insta lovey it was not rushed at all it is almost like sprinkled onto the story it is not the focal point of this story it is a very minimal subplot i think the story is more about companionship and friendship and that's what truly shines with crescent city is that aspect of friendship between bryce and danica who really have just this indestructible bond that i have never seen in any fantasy book out there and i'm just really excited to see how this whole series will continue i think the ending in particular was one of the things that just completely shattered me i was sobbing because again the power of friendship in this book is just out of this world the mystery in this book was also not that easy to figure out i think there was one point in the story where i was like oh i think this is where it's going and even then i wasn't quite sure i think it's easier to see where the story is going in regards to that foreshadowing the second time around reading when you're reading for the first time you truly do not see it coming like it's very hard to catch it so i'm just i'm just over the moon excited about this book and every book to follow in this series and again i do have a spoiler-free reading vlog on this okay people now we're down to the top two books of the year i don't know if y'all at this point in time know what my top two books are going to be at number two i have a book that i was not expecting to love and the way that this book turned around for me so quickly right from the start was absolutely insane and i am talking about tower of dawn by sarah j maas the way i was not expecting to love this book like in the slightest in this book we follow the perspective of chaol he is a very prominent character towards the beginning of the series and he does get his own arc in this book like this is kale's time to shine and shine he did and we follow kale after the events of queen of shadows that is where we start this book at in fact when we start this book we are kind of a little bit behind to where empire of storms ended so it kind of does have that crossed plot line because this does happen a little bit before the ending of the previous book pale has always been a character that i didn't particularly enjoy because of his nature he was in this love triangle with dorian and selena and it was just not enjoyable in my opinion it was very much forced then we enter this book and he is actually in this weird relationship with nesrin because kale was very toxic and very rude to nestorium he definitely did not appreciate her it was all about that release almost just to have somebody there for the sake of having somebody there and when we get to this book we truly see kale in a very vulnerable just shut down state very different to where he started and irene was truly chaos redemption like the way that irene just was out there telling kale things straight as they were she was telling him left and right and these two people became a unit the companionship the camaraderie the love the dynamic between these two characters was one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen this is truly a story about healing and finding your place in a world that is so vast and complicated and cruel and just unkind and how it just takes a little bit of patience to find that one person who is going to compliment you the most and not only that but the plot twist in this book yo the word hadn't even theorized about that plot twist all of these characters are so well established by now that i truly just don't question them at all and when that plot was drawn right at the end i wanted to chuck this book out the damn window because i was really not expecting that in the darn slightest that plot twist messed me up and then on the other hand with nestorian we have sartac and the way sartak was always there for nesrin when she needed him the most was also such a beautiful dynamic i feel nesrina parts was not being that useful but towards the end nezrin was the one really pulling through for these people everything about this book was just stunning and then at number one we have i think by now it must be obvious but maybe not for all of you these violin delights by chloe gong a book that quickly climbed up the ranks because of how good it is it is a shakespearean retelling a romeo and juliet retelling set in 1920 shanghai where we follow rivaling gangs the white flowers and the scarlet gang with their rival heirs roma and juliet as they have of course a lot of history and a lot of past running to catch up with them not only that we also have a monster on the loose trying to annihilate everything in its path and these two will have to set that rivalry and those guns aside in order to partner up and figure out exactly what this creature is that is killing everyone in their gangs and how to solve it this book had a lot of things that i genuinely really enjoy in books first off that political intrigue in here was immaculate like the vibes were just outstanding from the sounds of it from what i've heard on the media this political landscape is very much accurate to how it looked like back in the 1920s so that was fascinating to read about not only that but the romance in here was also incredible because although it is not the main aspect of the book truly because for the majority of the book these two people are not even together we just have inklings of that past and we have those flashbacks and then a little bit of progress the chemistry between these two characters although we don't really get to see them a lot in the past was just so palpable throughout the entirety of the book and when that happens yo you've got my heart because it's really really hard to write characters that have chemistry but you don't show their relationship as it was the monster in here was also disgusting like i was genuinely just like nauseated it was just not pretty like it was really really bad and roma is a soft boy like yo the way roma like is so infatuated and so in love with juliet and then juliet is really the badass of this relationship she'll be pulling out the guns and the nights and she's ready to kill she is ready to slaughter and i am just oh my god i absolutely loved that about this book i love seeing the girl being the stronger figure who is ready for anything and just has to pull through even for this guy and then every other side character in here i think we have rosalind is her name the cousin and then we have marshall and benedict all of them just the characters in here were like great i just i loved this book so much i'm really not out here reading a lot of shakespeare retellings like retellings in general but i think i genuinely loved the way that this stood on its own like yes it grabbed the original story but the way that it grabbed a lot of cliches and a lot of classical elements of the story and warped it in a way that it was almost like jabbing at it and made it its own i truly do have to commend chloe gong for that the bloodshed and the gangs it was all just so so interesting to read about i also think this book very much like cemetery boys is very light on the fantasy aspect it is being pitched as a fantasy however i do think the only fantastical element of this is truly the monster beside that everything is pretty much set in a 1920s city so i think it's definitely super easy to get into this if you want to get into fantasy if you don't know where to start i don't know if this is supposed to be like a series or a duology i'm not quite sure but this is the first book in a series so definitely a good place to start to immerse yourself in something fantasy but not overwhelming and with tons of world building definitely the place to go to and the ending of this book threw me off a loop because it's not the most wild of endings it's not like tower of dawn it's not like empire of storms it's so subtle like the ending of this book is so subtle but it still shakes you to the damn core i was just sitting there being like this cannot just end like this and those are all the books that i have for you guys today those are my best books of 2020. all my favorite reads of this year comment down below what were some of your favorites that you read this year i am always looking for like new recommendations and honestly some of you guys have been recommending incredible books like i always say so leave down below what were some of your favorite books and if you reached the end of the video let's leave some sword emojis down below because i feel like all of the books in my top five revolves around swords or some sort of medieval weapon so leave down below some sword emojis and if you have yet to subscribe to my channel don't forget to do so down below for more bookish content i am constantly uploading videos that i am sure you do not want to miss i am already planning out the content for 2021 and you all are not even ready for this lineup of content okay i am also sprinting throughout the week primarily on fridays which again i'm gonna be trying out the morning sprints so more of you can join me you can also follow me on all my social medias which are always linked down below i have an instagram twitter goodreads and an amazon wishlist in case you want to support me and my channel and give me a book i am 100 sure this is gonna be the last video of 2020. i cannot believe it's the end of the year y'all i cannot believe this is gonna be my last video of 2020. so this is gonna be the last video of the year and like i always say i just need to give you guys a huge thank you for everything that you have done for all of the support you guys are the absolute sweetest human beings out there every like every comment every subscribe every share every just sweet interaction that you guys have with me all of the dms i appreciate that to no end to know that my content is doing some good and that you guys are enjoying it and i am truly here for you guys for what you want to watch for what content you are seeking so i am just super excited to be here and to have created this little corner where we could just be ourselves scream loudly and proudly that we are readers and to just have the tons of fun that we usually have and all of the chaoticness so i just really need to say one last time a huge huge thank you to all of you because you guys have truly made my 2020 incredible in a year where everything was uncertain where everything was dark and just scary and you guys were truly the best thing one of the best things to come out of this year i just needed to throw in a huge thank you again for all that you do for all of the support just for everything because you guys are unmatched on the internet and yeah that is it for today i hope you enjoyed it and the next time i'll be seeing you is on friday january 1st 2021 i love you guys so much and i will see you on the next one bye guysit's the way this is my third time filming this video because i cannot get it right what else do i have wait i forgot hello greeting friends welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new my name is melanie and today i bring you the best books of 2020. all my favorite books of 2020 top 13 books to read however you want to call it there's so many ways we can call this but essentially i'm going to be talking about all the favorite books that i read this year it was honestly super hard but easy at the same time to narrow down all of these books at first i had a list of 10. there were a few that were left behind and thankfully this is my third time filming this video so at this point i know exactly what i want to do how i want to do it and i've changed the format a little bit so that this is almost like a tier rank situation because i'm gonna be walking you through all the way from 13 to one so what is my top favorite book of the year if you have any guess as to what my favorite book of the year is gonna be please let me know down below because i am really interested to see if you guys know okay because i'll be talking about certain books over and over again and i just really want to know are you guys paying attention before we even start i do want to say i don't know how many other books i will read before the year is over there's still a few more days to the year so there will be a tier ranking all of the books that i read in 2020 at the beginning of january so just stay tuned you know that is coming very very soon if you have yet to subscribe to my channel don't forget to do so down below for more bookish content i constantly upload videos that i i'm sure you do not want to miss phone calls book reviews reading vlogs what else do i do i'd be all over the place okay this is a chaotic time over here so i'm sure you won't want to miss any of that i am also sprinting throughout the week every friday particularly and i may sprinkle in there some other days of the week the way y'all are gonna be so happy because starting from this week actually i'm gonna start sprinting in the morning i don't know if every friday will be in the morning but i do know i will be switching it up and doing morning sprints as well i just loved having breakfast with you and reading with you it was definitely the best of times and you can also follow me on all my social medias they are always linked down below i have a twitter goodreads instagram and an amazon wishlist and yeah without a further ado let's get right started into the video take your guesses okay i want to hear your guess down in the comments don't be juicy the way i'm just gonna be peeping these comments as this video goes up i want to know your guess okay let's get started and we'll start with number 13. and number 13 okay lucky number 39 is it really a looking number i feel like it's associated with like not so many lucky things but lucky number 13 okay we have redwater royal blue by casey bequest now when i first came up with this list this book was not originally there i did give this book a four out of five stars when i read this this book is definitely one of my favorite romances dare i say of all time in this book we follow the first son of the united states alex clerman diaz as he has this rivalry enemy relationship with prince henry from the united kingdom and they have had this ongoing view during years once they make a public display of that feud and the cameras and the media all catch that both of their pr teams come together they come up with a plan to try and calm down that wave of media and to make them pretend to have a friendship very very publicly that suddenly starts turning into a lot a lot more between these two political figures i just loved everything about this book i think the dialogue like the banter in here was done so incredibly well and if you know me i just love those character dynamics when the dialogue feels realistic and that banter is just thing after thing i just love reading that especially in romances i feel like banter is definitely one of the things that need to be executed really really well especially with that trope of hate to love and in here that is so so perfect and the side characters are also really well developed like everyone shines in their own right the parental relationships in here are just immaculate as well like the way that alex gets along with his parents i absolutely loved there is also that element of political escapism because in this book we have the first the first female president of the united states so it's also again escapism there is also something that i love reading about in books particularly romances and i don't think i find that quite enough is that dynamic of like email exchange like text messages like very steamy like very provocative that is in this book but it also has a way of being like so beautiful like there are so many quotes that i got from this book and the romance is also like hella steamy okay this was definitely a hard one to rank but i think as i was staring at books like i just knew exactly where to place them but this one came at number 12. it is still very much a five star i love the heck out of this book and i will recommend it left and down right and i'm talking about the poppy war by rf kwong in this book we follow rin who is a peasant girl and reign has honestly been just like a means to an end throughout her entire life she has constantly been abused in her household because she is an orphan and so to escape that life she prepares herself very heavily to take the empire-wide test to find youth for different military academies except that rin aces the keju and she actually gets into the synagogue which is the most elite academy in all of the empire and when poor rin gets there she is now targeted by her peers because of her race her gender and her poverty so she can never truly escape that cruelty that she had back home but once she is there she realizes that she possesses the ancient art of shamanism which is forbidden in this world and there is one particular god that is trying to claim her which is the phoenix except this god is very vengeful and is always looking for bloodshed and with a third poppy we're approaching rin is truly one of the only only hopes they have at winning but again that god is truly messing with everything this book is a mix between historical fiction and then fantasy i think rf guang really threw this out of the park not only does it paint the picture of war so incredibly well it doesn't sugar coat anything it is very straightforward in its writing it is truly meant to depict how cruel war can be and how it affects the mind of a human being and it was so fascinating to see that journey of every single character in this book because all of these characters have amazing character arcs this is inspired on the events of the rape of nan king so just beware of that there are a lot of trigger warnings in this book i will leave them down below in the description i also have an entire reading vlog spoiler free dedicated to the entire trilogy which the third book came out this year and if you want to watch that i will also leave that linked down below but i think one of my favorite parts of this book which i know wasn't a lot of people's favorites was the training aspect in the academy i just absolutely love seeing characters progress seeing them train and i think out of the three books this one particularly chapter 21 which is the heaviest one truly shows you how horrific war is and it truly shows you a side of history that hasn't been outwardly spoken for many many years and that has hurt a lot of people so everything about this book is just 10 out of 10. at number 11 and i didn't think this book was gonna be like so low in the rank list because most of these the majority of these except for red white and royal blue if i'm not mistaken are five stars i didn't expect this book to be 11. i thought this was going to be higher but when i compared to other books those books definitely shine a lot more than this one but at number 11 i have the invisible life of addy larue by v.e schwab this book definitely hit me very very hard because and i've talked about this before like it's not a secret one of my biggest fears is i was very very young has always been to die without making a real impact in the world whether it was being remembered or like making something significant to make a change i've always been super afraid of that and i think the premise of this book really called to me in that sense because addy as a character is one that fears that as well so in this book we do follow again addy larue who lives in the 1700s and she is living a life that she does not want to live she is being forced to marry she truly does not want to do that and so she makes a faustian bargain with a god that answers after dark that she has been warned against countless of times and once she makes that deal for immortality so that she could live her life freely as she wanted he grants her the deal but she doesn't realize it comes with a catch the catch is that she will never be remembered by anyone that she speaks to and it won't be until 300 years later in a very small hidden bookstore in new york city that for the first time she is remembered by a boy called henry not a boy a man and i just adored the heck out of this book i think there is such it's not completely lyrical but i do think there is a lyrical aspect to this writing that resonated with me because it was so beautiful and again the story of addie and the concept of not being remembered and the way that ve schwab just painted that picture in this book there were so many quotes that just they impacted me so much i was just crying because in a way i felt like in a way i also needed to hear those words from someone one of my favorite parts of the book was definitely seeing the god that answers after dark lou goose i just loved seeing him i would have loved to see a lot more of him in this book though his scenes were some of the ones that shown the most i genuinely think his dynamic with addie was really compelling and on the other end of things we have henry henry is very soft-spoken henry just wants to be loved he just wants to be appreciated and again his dynamic with addy was just these two people were meant to find each other to show exactly what they could have exactly what they could be this book is very character driven the plot solely depends on addie to happen if it's not for addie this block literally would not exist at number 10 another book that i thought would be higher on my list when i saw it i was like i mean it's top 10 but it can't be higher because i have other books and my top five percentile and my number 10 is actually scythed by neil schusterman another book that just became one of my all-time favorites this year this is like a light sci-fi meets dystopia in a world where hunger is no longer a thing they've defeated war they've defeated death people can no longer die of natural causes and the only way that people can die is if a scythe actually cleans them and glean is the word that they use for killing essentially for taking a life and sites are these very special figures that are elected actually kind of like at random like you you do have to be worthy in some way like you need to have your morals really straight in order to get into this dom and once you are chosen you are actually introduced to the scythome where you need to train for a month with a scythe so in this book in particular we follow sitra and rowan who are our main characters as they are both invited into the cytome for their apprenticeship i think in particular the themes that neil shusterman manages to pack into this book there are themes of war and humanity and race and poverty and corruption it was so interesting to read about a scenario in such a futuristic world as to what would happen if we ever asked humanity as society got to a point where death is no longer a thing and our government looks different because in this world they are being ruled by the thunderhead which is this sentient being computer type thing and it was just so interesting to look at all of those elements and kind of reflect into what would actually happen in real life if this were a thing it was also incredibly fascinating to see some of these characters and how they are morally gray because the job actually presents itself to be morally gray at one point or another so i just found this completely just fascinating all around next up book number nine we actually have an adult romance a contemporary adult situation and the way i knew this book was gonna be in this list way before i even started booktube because i actually read this book before i started my channel this year and it is actually all your perfect by colleen hoover the way this book completely shattered me like it destroyed me in all your perfects we follow quinn and graham who are a married couple they've been married for years and at the point where the book starts their marriage is basically in shambles except that they are trying to fix it they just don't know exactly how to get to that point where they were before oh my god the amount of tears i let out reading this book was absolutely unreal i actually adored the way that the book was set up we do get chapters in the past and then we get chapters present time so we get to see queen and graham as they meet and we get that timeline all the way up to where they are now it was so interesting to read about that and we also i don't think i've ever read a book like that where we start with the characters being in their early 20s all the way up to like their early mid 30s i think this book in particular really made me think about the dynamic of marriage and relationships and the way that nothing is really black or white and how this book talks about communication and partnership and companionship was just written in such a beautiful way i found that there was almost like a poetic element to this book here's the thing queen as a main character was super frustrating to read about because this book does include that miscommunication trope and it was so frustrating to see from her perspective and how she was not communicating with graham but at the same time it was understandable due to all the things that she was going through there are some trigger warnings in here for miscarriage and infertility that is one of the bigger themes addressed in this book there is also infidelity so just be aware of all of those before you go into this book that book is just perfect okay all your perfects at number eight we actually have the poet x by elizabeth and in this book we follow sio mara battista who has grown up in a very sheltered life so yomada has grown up in a very religious family who doesn't allow her to do much to explore much outside of the community that she lives in outside of her parents beliefs particularly her mom her mom is the more strict one but once her school opens a slam poetry club she actually realizes the power of warts through poetry and she refuses to stay silent after joining this club i have talked about this book before many many times i don't think i'll ever shut up about this book either this book truly made me feel seen so much in literature i don't think i've ever read a book like that it just made me bawl my eyes out from page five like i was just weeping at how personal this book felt i felt like so many parts of this book were written for me to me and the way that elizabeth acevedo also narrates this book just makes it hit even harder this book really talks a lot about being a woman and how you navigate systems doing that and it has a lot of familial dynamics it is not that strong in its plot though i would say this was very character driven in comparison to other works by elizabeth but i think that's what made it hit harder because it is very character-driven and you are very much inside siomara's head and this is a story about finding yourself and finding your own voice and that journey with xiomara was stunning at number seven also another book i thought this was going to be my all-time favorite book of this year and it was actually heavy knocked down by some of my later reads i was not expecting that at all and i don't think any of you were either i don't know if you're ready for me to put this at number seven because it is actually cemetery boys by ayden thomas so take your guesses right now as to what's gonna be my number one because i know a lot of you must have said cemetery boys and in cemetery boys we follow yadriel who is a trans boy and a brujo and his family is having a really hard time embracing his gender and embracing him and accepting him as a brujo so in order to prove himself as a real brujo he partners up with his cousin maritza to raise the ghost of a dead family member but instead yadriel being real honest because that's the only reason he ends up summoning the ghost of the school's resident bad boy called julian diaz who actually has no idea that he's dead he doesn't know that he died and he is not that willing to go back to the dead because he needs maritza and adriel to help him find out exactly how he died why he died when he died so he can go back to the dead peacefully i adored the way that ayden thomas grabbed latinx culture and implemented that in the story particularly quinceaneras like i never really thought about how quinceaneras would be incorporated in a more fantastical setting and i say that very loosely because although this is a fantasy it's still a set kind of like in the urban contemporary world so definitely for fantasy readers who are just starting out this is a great way to start so again the way that he grabs that and just warped it in a way to fit his story was fantastic i was definitely not expecting that and i loved that the way that he grabbed mexican culture in general and included that in this book to fit ghosts and brujics and just everything to do with el dia de los muertos everything was just so well done in this book this book was also incredibly atmospheric like the cemetery that this book takes place in the house in which they live the food that they were preparing i definitely felt myself there it was so crazy how atmospheric this book was it's also super short it's a very quick read but the character dynamics in this book actually shines so much the banter again which is something that i love between maritza and julian in particular they were just incredible together like the way they were just cracking me up and making me laugh left and right the romance was also incredibly well paced for such a short amount of time because i do think this book takes place within a span of three days or a week i can't remember it takes place during dia de los muertos so most definitely the romance was done exceptionally well not only that the plot was at the end i kind of saw it coming but not the way it happened so overall just a fantastic read i just had to include this next book in here because this book the ending truly messed me up it was the way that i was always right about the plot twist and they just deterred me from it only to confirm it at the end of the second book and at number six we have the vanishing stare by maureen johnson this is the second installment in the truly devious series in truly devious we follow stevie bell who loves true crime she is in love with agatha christie in love with sherlock holmes she yearns to one day be like them to be like those stories that have been written for years that are so fantastic in the true crime community and one day she receives an invitation to ellingham academy which is this very prestigious academy that only invites the best of the best at their fields to study there all expenses paid they don't need to pay for anything not only that they provide every resource that these students need and stevie actually agrees to attend this school primarily because of one thing 80 years in the past a case was opened a crime happened however it has never been solved and it revolves around the founder of this academy called mr ellingham when his daughter and wife were kidnapped and murdered stevie agrees to go here because she is determined to find out exactly what happened 80 years in the past this book just rioted every wrong that there was in book one in this book we start out and there's a tone of that character dynamic a ton of that banter just a ton of those characters that i started falling in love with in book one the way nate and stevie are just so friendly but their chemistry is just fantastic and their banter and their dialogue i just i really want nate and stevie to get together then we have david who i was so mad about throughout the entirety of the book because david in this book really showed us how cruel he can be there is something about david that still to this day does not convince me he's just so self-centered and selfishly despised david in this book and then towards the middle of the book onwards it was really about that plot incorporating those character dynamics plot twists at the end i really was not expecting that due to the ending of truly devious but the way my theory was correct all damn long and they really made me doubt myself they really made me down my theory only to prove me right at the end of this book i was going berserk on a live stream reading this i just love how this book moves between past and present and we truly sometimes get to see stuff before stevie does so it's almost like stevie get there you're almost there and it's oh my god such a thrilling ride because it's almost when you're like watching horror movies and you know the killer is right there and you're just like run girl run that is how i felt with stevie we're gonna get into the juicy section of this video now we're talking about the top five percent the top five percentile we're talking about the top five books that i read this year all of these books emotionally destroyed me i was distraught so you'll see a common theme of freak out tears and just emotions with all of these books because i'm about to go crazy talking about these can you guess what number five is take your places people take your vet at number five we have a kingdom of flesh and fire by jennifer l armentrout this is a part of the from blood and ash series where we follow poppy who is a maiden and poppy was chosen by the gods from the womb to fulfill this destiny this role as the maiden a figure that is connected to every single ascension in the kingdom this ascension is very much mysterious to everyone but the king and queen nobody truly knows what happens in the ascension only that is mandatory only that poppy is connected and only that they look at poppy almost in this god-like glowing holy way and therefore they cannot speak to her they cannot address her they cannot touch her approach her poppy is off limits to absolutely everyone in the kingdom and so to ensure the day of her ascension the king and queen actually assign her a royal guard by the name of hot flynn and when she meets hawk he starts feeling things that she'd never felt before this is a new adult fantasy romance and oh my god this second book first off the writing in here just by far improved from the first one right off the bat you can see how poppy's voice matured in this book which is one of my favorite things to read about like i just want to see that character progression and it was very much present in the kingdom of flesh and fire we also get a lot of world expansion in this book that we didn't particularly see in book one since this book is being told in first person we are only seeing what poppy is figuring out as she goes so in this book ashley learns more info we are trust deeper into this world and it was so very fascinating to see jennifer l armentrout just grab all of these common creatures and themes in paranormal or supernatural or fantasy books and warp them in a way to make it her own and to just fit her own story the steam in this book is out of this world i just love how poppy fits in with these set of characters way better than book one just you find yourself caring for these characters or at least i did a lot more this time around plot twist at the end of this book was absolutely insane like i was not expecting that at all i had guessed that plot twist but not in the way that it was delivered in this book we also get castile and castile will be the end of me castile is so smooth and he is just straightforwardly honest and he just has so much sex appeal and power the battle scenes oh my god this one line that castile tells poppy still more people than me and make me feel incompetent princess the way i didn't know i needed that line ever i also have a reading vlog up for from blood and ash and kingdom of flesh and fire both the books spoiler free leave a link down below i know you want to check it out so i'll link that at number four we have probably one of the books that left me the most broken this year it is actually by the empty space behind me empire of storms by sarah j maas the fifth book in the throne of glass series i finished this damn book and i stared at my wall for a straight hour i wish i was kidding i was balling my eyes out on the couch and then i transferred myself to my room i just laid in bed and i just stared at my bookshelf i was like what should i pick up next next time i sent somebody a voicemail i can't remember who it was i was like wait it's been an hour since i finished this damn book and this particular book in the series ah damn i just want to punch it over and over again i just miss mass did that this mask really came from my heart tugged it out of my chest stomped on it and then walked away happily strolling manon and dorian let me just start there two characters that i truly had not cared for for the entirety of the series and then i'm out here being like okay manondorian i love y'all like both separately and together and just like the dynamics with both of these characters dorian truly went through some scarring just dramatic events in queen of shadows and the way that he is handling himself here i don't think we're truly seeing dorian at his speak i think he is truly gonna shine in kingdom of ash like he should and then manon is truly someone that i hadn't cared about before like manon i think in this book in particular first off the plot twist with manon was not expected at all there is a certain level of vulnerability to anon because she truly does care particularly for the 13 and for a lead too she is out here caring okay showing some sort of humanity for somebody who doesn't have a heart and then of course we have aelin and rowan who in this book just stuck at my heartstrings oh my god miss mass really did the same thing that she did in aquaman at the end with this book and i was not ready for that oh my god the desperation and the way that rowan just pulled through in this book and did his own thing and he shined in his own right right at the end just the way that rowan constantly thinks that he cannot offer anything because he has nothing left to give he goes around at the end and he does that look the ending of this book i just thinking about it it makes me want to cry it was one of the best endings that i've read about because i was really not expecting that i was just i was not okay the battle scenes in this book were all so incredible i think the action scenes like the battle scenes in this book i've worked out the best out of any of the other books it felt so dynamic and fast-paced and entertaining but it was also so stressful because the stakes were so high for everyone and then we also have adeon and lasandra melisandre in this book lisandra really be out here doing the most in this book okay the way that lisandra just quickly climbed up the ranks and has become one of the most important characters in the series and now that we're in the top three if you couldn't already guess by the empty spot behind me can you guess what number three is it's actually crescent city house of earth and blood also by miss mass because miss mass literally took over my 2020 and she said you're gonna read all of my books this year there is a whole reread vlog spoiler free for this book this book hit harder the second time around i will say i did read this book earlier in the year but the way that i just sobbed even harder the second time around like i already knew everything that was gonna happen but i definitely do think it's one of those books that is meant to be reread you catch all of those subtle foreshadowings all of those little hints you fall in love with the characters even harder and in this book we follow bryce quinlan who is hafee and half human and she truly leads what looks like the perfect life she has the job has the friends she is a party girl the socialite she also gets all the men left and right they would literally bow at her feet but once a tragedy ravages the city bryce finds herself in the midst of a murder investigation alongside han athlar who is a fallen angel and they must work together to try and solve this very big mystery that is making this city fall apart at the seams i really do think this is miss mass's most ambitious work to date this book is jam-packed with world building however the world building is not hard to follow in the slightest out of all of her books i think this is the best one in terms of character dynamics and how the characters are constructed to not only complement each other so well but to again stand on their own two feet regardless of the fact if they are side characters or main characters i truly found myself so attached to these characters so quickly and i don't think that's ever happened in any other book their romance was really well paced in this book it was not insta lovey it was not rushed at all it is almost like sprinkled onto the story it is not the focal point of this story it is a very minimal subplot i think the story is more about companionship and friendship and that's what truly shines with crescent city is that aspect of friendship between bryce and danica who really have just this indestructible bond that i have never seen in any fantasy book out there and i'm just really excited to see how this whole series will continue i think the ending in particular was one of the things that just completely shattered me i was sobbing because again the power of friendship in this book is just out of this world the mystery in this book was also not that easy to figure out i think there was one point in the story where i was like oh i think this is where it's going and even then i wasn't quite sure i think it's easier to see where the story is going in regards to that foreshadowing the second time around reading when you're reading for the first time you truly do not see it coming like it's very hard to catch it so i'm just i'm just over the moon excited about this book and every book to follow in this series and again i do have a spoiler-free reading vlog on this okay people now we're down to the top two books of the year i don't know if y'all at this point in time know what my top two books are going to be at number two i have a book that i was not expecting to love and the way that this book turned around for me so quickly right from the start was absolutely insane and i am talking about tower of dawn by sarah j maas the way i was not expecting to love this book like in the slightest in this book we follow the perspective of chaol he is a very prominent character towards the beginning of the series and he does get his own arc in this book like this is kale's time to shine and shine he did and we follow kale after the events of queen of shadows that is where we start this book at in fact when we start this book we are kind of a little bit behind to where empire of storms ended so it kind of does have that crossed plot line because this does happen a little bit before the ending of the previous book pale has always been a character that i didn't particularly enjoy because of his nature he was in this love triangle with dorian and selena and it was just not enjoyable in my opinion it was very much forced then we enter this book and he is actually in this weird relationship with nesrin because kale was very toxic and very rude to nestorium he definitely did not appreciate her it was all about that release almost just to have somebody there for the sake of having somebody there and when we get to this book we truly see kale in a very vulnerable just shut down state very different to where he started and irene was truly chaos redemption like the way that irene just was out there telling kale things straight as they were she was telling him left and right and these two people became a unit the companionship the camaraderie the love the dynamic between these two characters was one of the most beautiful things i've ever seen this is truly a story about healing and finding your place in a world that is so vast and complicated and cruel and just unkind and how it just takes a little bit of patience to find that one person who is going to compliment you the most and not only that but the plot twist in this book yo the word hadn't even theorized about that plot twist all of these characters are so well established by now that i truly just don't question them at all and when that plot was drawn right at the end i wanted to chuck this book out the damn window because i was really not expecting that in the darn slightest that plot twist messed me up and then on the other hand with nestorian we have sartac and the way sartak was always there for nesrin when she needed him the most was also such a beautiful dynamic i feel nesrina parts was not being that useful but towards the end nezrin was the one really pulling through for these people everything about this book was just stunning and then at number one we have i think by now it must be obvious but maybe not for all of you these violin delights by chloe gong a book that quickly climbed up the ranks because of how good it is it is a shakespearean retelling a romeo and juliet retelling set in 1920 shanghai where we follow rivaling gangs the white flowers and the scarlet gang with their rival heirs roma and juliet as they have of course a lot of history and a lot of past running to catch up with them not only that we also have a monster on the loose trying to annihilate everything in its path and these two will have to set that rivalry and those guns aside in order to partner up and figure out exactly what this creature is that is killing everyone in their gangs and how to solve it this book had a lot of things that i genuinely really enjoy in books first off that political intrigue in here was immaculate like the vibes were just outstanding from the sounds of it from what i've heard on the media this political landscape is very much accurate to how it looked like back in the 1920s so that was fascinating to read about not only that but the romance in here was also incredible because although it is not the main aspect of the book truly because for the majority of the book these two people are not even together we just have inklings of that past and we have those flashbacks and then a little bit of progress the chemistry between these two characters although we don't really get to see them a lot in the past was just so palpable throughout the entirety of the book and when that happens yo you've got my heart because it's really really hard to write characters that have chemistry but you don't show their relationship as it was the monster in here was also disgusting like i was genuinely just like nauseated it was just not pretty like it was really really bad and roma is a soft boy like yo the way roma like is so infatuated and so in love with juliet and then juliet is really the badass of this relationship she'll be pulling out the guns and the nights and she's ready to kill she is ready to slaughter and i am just oh my god i absolutely loved that about this book i love seeing the girl being the stronger figure who is ready for anything and just has to pull through even for this guy and then every other side character in here i think we have rosalind is her name the cousin and then we have marshall and benedict all of them just the characters in here were like great i just i loved this book so much i'm really not out here reading a lot of shakespeare retellings like retellings in general but i think i genuinely loved the way that this stood on its own like yes it grabbed the original story but the way that it grabbed a lot of cliches and a lot of classical elements of the story and warped it in a way that it was almost like jabbing at it and made it its own i truly do have to commend chloe gong for that the bloodshed and the gangs it was all just so so interesting to read about i also think this book very much like cemetery boys is very light on the fantasy aspect it is being pitched as a fantasy however i do think the only fantastical element of this is truly the monster beside that everything is pretty much set in a 1920s city so i think it's definitely super easy to get into this if you want to get into fantasy if you don't know where to start i don't know if this is supposed to be like a series or a duology i'm not quite sure but this is the first book in a series so definitely a good place to start to immerse yourself in something fantasy but not overwhelming and with tons of world building definitely the place to go to and the ending of this book threw me off a loop because it's not the most wild of endings it's not like tower of dawn it's not like empire of storms it's so subtle like the ending of this book is so subtle but it still shakes you to the damn core i was just sitting there being like this cannot just end like this and those are all the books that i have for you guys today those are my best books of 2020. all my favorite reads of this year comment down below what were some of your favorites that you read this year i am always looking for like new recommendations and honestly some of you guys have been recommending incredible books like i always say so leave down below what were some of your favorite books and if you reached the end of the video let's leave some sword emojis down below because i feel like all of the books in my top five revolves around swords or some sort of medieval weapon so leave down below some sword emojis and if you have yet to subscribe to my channel don't forget to do so down below for more bookish content i am constantly uploading videos that i am sure you do not want to miss i am already planning out the content for 2021 and you all are not even ready for this lineup of content okay i am also sprinting throughout the week primarily on fridays which again i'm gonna be trying out the morning sprints so more of you can join me you can also follow me on all my social medias which are always linked down below i have an instagram twitter goodreads and an amazon wishlist in case you want to support me and my channel and give me a book i am 100 sure this is gonna be the last video of 2020. i cannot believe it's the end of the year y'all i cannot believe this is gonna be my last video of 2020. so this is gonna be the last video of the year and like i always say i just need to give you guys a huge thank you for everything that you have done for all of the support you guys are the absolute sweetest human beings out there every like every comment every subscribe every share every just sweet interaction that you guys have with me all of the dms i appreciate that to no end to know that my content is doing some good and that you guys are enjoying it and i am truly here for you guys for what you want to watch for what content you are seeking so i am just super excited to be here and to have created this little corner where we could just be ourselves scream loudly and proudly that we are readers and to just have the tons of fun that we usually have and all of the chaoticness so i just really need to say one last time a huge huge thank you to all of you because you guys have truly made my 2020 incredible in a year where everything was uncertain where everything was dark and just scary and you guys were truly the best thing one of the best things to come out of this year i just needed to throw in a huge thank you again for all that you do for all of the support just for everything because you guys are unmatched on the internet and yeah that is it for today i hope you enjoyed it and the next time i'll be seeing you is on friday january 1st 2021 i love you guys so much and i will see you on the next one bye guys\n"