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Big same on My Brilliant Friend -- I wanted to love it and I didn't HATE it but I also feel like I wanted it to be more than it was? I kept meaning to go back but have not and at this point it has been so many years that I would have to reread the first book. THAT BEING SAID: I *loved* the adaptation on HBO. I think the perspective shift worked better for me? IDK, I think the book's many fans will yell at me for this but I would put this in my adaptation-better-than-the-book category, though it's been years since I have read or watched so. (And this isn't so much a dig on the book as it is praise of the adaptation!) Also yay Convenience Store Woman!! I remember loving Graceling, but I don't remember if/what else I read? Based on the number of correct opinions expressed in this video, I feel like I gotta dive back into that series.

Still can't believe you finished Blood of Hercules. Thank you for your service

looking forward to your blood of hercules vlog!!! this book fried all my leftover braincells, -5 stars!! lololol

I loved Convenience Store Woman. Having lived in Japan I could clearly picture the store and hear employees shout Hajimemashite. I want to be Keiko’s friend.

i love your roooooom the setup is so cute !!!

Finally catching up to this video and I love how much of what you say is essentially that the writing in One of Our Kind isn't good enough to actually say something meaningful.

loved convenience store woman!! thanks for the vid :)

When you said horror and black utopia to describe this book I knew it wasn’t about to be good. Plus, she genre hopped and I didn’t trust her writing enough to do that.

I haven't read this book but everything you said was so interesting. I especially liked the part about satire and how it eventually needs to have a point - a moral to the story, you could say. That the author needs to have an opinion on the topic. I felt the exact same way about Yellowface by R. F. Kuang and you really helped me put words to why I felt disappointed by that book.

the way i screamed when i saw this vid!!

I actually really enjoyed this book I do agree on the caricatures

I'm late to the party, but I just finished this book last night. I kept putting it off to read other things, and then I just decided to buckle down and read it. And you articulated so much of what I thought about this book. Who lives for 300 years and accomplishes next to nothing? Who the heck was Addie beyond being a woman with wanderlust and seven unique looking freckles on her face (which Schwab talked about ad nauseum)? You would have thought those freckles had special powers the amount of times she talks about them and how much they inspired people. How in the world do things work with Luc? She didn't even ask him any questions about what the heck he does, how he came to be, etc... how can you be in love with someone that you know next to nothing about? The story would have been more interesting if she spent her lifetimes trying to find answers about Luc and figuring out how to undo her curse (Estell can't be the only person in the world who knows about the old Gods) - then at least there would be a plot and sense of purpose for all of her wandering. And her and Henry would have been better off as friends. When I finished this book, I was like "huh" - I felt basically nothing (except being annoyed that it was nearly 450 pages long; this story could have been told in 300 pages or less). And I truly disliked the last page where she basically talks about making Luc regret ever being with her. At least the writing was pretty.

super excited to hear your review on one of our kind!!!

there is in fact a book called whisky business by Elliot Fletcher lmao

I also had and read an ARC of One Of Our Kind and I was like...Nicola...girl...this should've stayed in the drafts! I was so intrigued by the premise but it ended up like a word soup of 2020 twitter trending topics and stats about race. I left a long, ranty 1-star review on GR. Would love to hear your thoughts though! I also agree with you, We Do This was poorly organized and felt super long for such a small book.

I don't have that many 5-star reads either. For me 5 stars are for books that I consider perfect in every way, no room for improvement. Here's the full list for 2024 so far: Reeds in the Wind by Grazia Deledda, Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergej Djačenko (a reread), All Your Children Scattered by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse, and a picture book I got as an ARC, Amu Nowruz and His Violets by Hadi Mohammadi and Nooshin Safakhoo

As much as I wanted to put down One of Our Kind, I just couldn’t. I couldn’t turn away from the train-wreck. I would thoroughly enjoy your review because I think I was too harsh in my review. My first ever 1-star book.

I'd love to hear spoilery thoughts on One of Our Kind since I DNFed it. I've heard it goes in a...controversial direction.

Excellent video

Highly recommend Indigo by Beverly Jenkins

There is a reason Beverly Jenkins is known as The Queen. I love her style of giving education on history while delivering a good love story at the same time. ❤

I love historical fiction but never been into a lot of romances, but Im open to the idea now. I've heard that Beverly Jenkins writes good romance novels, but i just cant do the mass paperbacks! I cant wait to hear your thoughts.

I really need to re-read the entire Graceling series, for all I talk about how much I love Bitterblue and Winterkeep

I haven’t read Graceling and Fire since high school, and I don’t think I ever read Bitterblue. This is really tempting me to do a reread/continue the series

I gave None of This is True a 2.5 for the same reason, the writing was so consumable and I needed to know what was happening but I hate the discourse and the victim blaming. Edit: I also have to say that I actually liked Court of Wanderers. It had some pacing issues, but I REALLY liked the wrap up of Remy's family issues and finding out what happened with his mother. There was a lot of politics and those scenes were kind of slow, but I think it wrapped it up really well. Rin Chupeco includes a lot of commentary on colonialism in their work and the second book has a lot of that.

The intro took me straight to Infinity War..Why is Addie La Rue

i'd really appreciate a specific review for the sword of kaigen. i'd really like to here your thoughts, since most ppl only rave about it. it'd be nice to get a new perspective on it

That is the most beautiful edition of the Earthseed duology that I have ever seen!

I also really loved the Past Is Red. A couple months on I'm like... what exactly happened? It didn't stick as hard as Palimpsest but I remember the vibes were great 😂

Bitter is one of my favorite books. If I made a list of 100 books to read before you die, Bitter would be in the Top 10.

Fighting everyone who says Miles is like Nick

Happy to see your face in my subscriptions again 🥰

Loved that you posted this video on James Baldwin’s birthday and his book is a 5 star read. ❤

I adore Miles as well! 😊 And I completely agree with you - we should have had his POV as well - that would have been amazing!💖

You’re so right a romantasy by NK Jemisin is a definite need now💙 Martyr is one of my favorite reads of the year💛

I'm back, I've read it, and ....dawg. I could NOT with Ruying's constant "science trumps magic" whinging cause GIRL, YOU MEAN TECHNOLOGY? PLANES AND GUNS AND MISSILES ARE NOT SCIENCE, they're advanced technology! I couldn't believe this girl, who was raised by Pangulings and IN Pangu, would be so Rome-pilled as to believe there's no point in trying to rebel??????????????????

Wasn’t this the book that the racist white woman review bombed on an alt with the complaint that the publishing company spent half a million on it. It sounds like with all of the colonization apologizing that she would have liked it.

I read this book at the recommendation of a friend, and it kind of reminds me of the Casca series by Barry Sadler, The story of the man who killed Jesus, a Roman centurion, now cursed to live forever.

That's exactly what I felt after reading this book. I was expecting too much because the premise of the book was making the deal with the devil. But everything (the romance, the characters)about this book was underwhelming.

"Keep commenting, it's only making me stronger..." 😂😂😂😂 As a fan of Red Rising I love this so much 😂

I feel bad for the artist who made the book cover. 😭 its such a beautiful artwork but the story is just shitty 😭😭

The early reveal of the next book title and how all the review will effect the next book is a completely valid concern. To be honest, as a writer, if hear and read so much resistance for the couple I wanted to end up together, I can't promise that I'll keep them together... in fact I might just stop writing the next book, 😂 but I don't think that will happen to this author. She's traditionally published and for sure already signed a contract for a series. Sad though, the cover is gorgeous ❤

This is such an in-depth, balanced, and nuanced take on To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods. Subscribed!

This book was something…I still I dunno what…but something.

I dnf it before the romance bc I was so bored of her monologuing the whole time. From all the reviews and videos, I believe that her writing wasn't great and she relied too much on tropes to sell her book and of course it doesn't meet people's expectations. I feel like if you have to spoil your second book due to the backlash then your first book wasn't great. People told me about the time skip and felt she shouldn't have done that. I understand her premise and felt she needed to hit all those tropes and be YA or romantasy but romance is more of the focus than fantasy so she didn't do a good job writing the romance and the fantasy/world building. If she didn't make the romance the focus and focus on the rebellion plot then maybe it will be better.

girl, I know you probably want the videos to be a certain length, but you gotta protect your peace DNF them mo fos! If all else fails, just be like okay I'll do a second celeb book club pick or like start one or something. Just my two cents that you didn't ask for. I'm a huge supporter of DNF-ing even if it makes for a short video. <3

I quite agree that authors shouldn't go on goodreads for our own sanity lol! Edit: My jaw dropped at Unit 731, blimey, i didn't expect that to be mentioned

I could see the reylo vibes (in a bad way) imagine looking at unit 731 and being like "my love interest works there <3" lmaowtf

I totally agree with you about the world building in new fantasy/romantasy. It's definitely why I've been skipping or DNFing books just for being fantasy at this point. They're all just SO character-centric that I'm like "what about anything else???" and all the characters all seem to be the same??

Instead of reading this trash read jwqs - the chinese webnovel It's translated and a proper enemy to romance story...