 Okay, let's talk about Hope Rides Again, the next chapter in the Obama-Biden mystery saga because, you know, what's more light-hearted than American politics? This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. Just in the interest of full disclosure, I did receive an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. You know, so I'm not being paid for this or anything. These are my real thoughts. Okay, so last year I read Hope Never Dies, which was the first book in this series. And I really liked it. You know, it's just a fun bit of just...it's stupid, yeah, but it's an actual decent mystery, and it's actually really funny. And so, yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. And then this one is pretty much the same in terms of quality. You know, you have Obama and Biden hanging out in Chicago this time, and one of their friends gets shot, so they go out and do their detective thing to investigate who shot him. And so it winds up with them going all over Chicago, meeting with gangsters and wandering through ghettos and eventually getting in shootouts and stuff. Like, it's fun. You know, it's an actual mystery. You know, it's not just gimmicky jokes and all that. There is an actual plot there, and it's not easy to see where it's gonna go immediately. And even when you set aside the whole absurdity of the plot, which is, you know, the former president and vice presidents are playing detective, even when you set that aside, there are some genuinely funny jokes in here. And so overall, yeah, it's really good. It's a lot of fun. There's an actual plot. There's actual characters. It's written in such a way where it's really easy to digest. It's not very long either. This copy I have is only like 280-some pages, so I burned through it really quick. And I think that's for the best, honestly, because, you know, a book like this, if it went on much longer, it would start to wear out its welcome, I think. And so overall, I would say the quality of this one is about on par with the first one. So if you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one. And I liked the first one, so I liked this one as well. Here's the thing though. While the quality of the book itself is still about the same, the context in which it came out is a bit different. See, last year, when the last one came out, Joe Biden was kind of just, he was just a retired politician. You know, he was just weird Uncle Joe. You know, sometimes he said some weird shit and you didn't really have a problem with him for the most part. He was just, you know, he was a retired guy. It was okay to have him be portrayed in this manner. You know, be portrayed as this tough as nails, but also kind of silly detective. But see, now, as of this recording, Joe Biden is actually running for president. You know, there's a real chance that he will become president within the next couple of years, and so you kind of have to view him through a more critical lens now. He can't just be weird Uncle Joe anymore. You have to actually look at him, and you have to look at his record as a politician, and you have to look at, like, would you be okay with this guy being in charge of stuff? And even if you're not American, you know, you should still probably at least know a little bit about the US president and all that. And so, that does take something away from this. You know, Hope Rides, again, can't just be the same fun adventure it always was. Even though it is very good at doing that, it's just the environment that it's released in is different. And so that's not something that the author or the publisher or anybody else can help. It's just that, well, you kind of have to look at the characters in a different light than you did before. And so, yeah, that did take something away from it for me, but I don't know. If you can just completely push that aside, then great, you'll probably enjoy this even more than I did. But for me, that did take a little something away. Even if I did still really like this, well, that's something that is gone and I don't think you can ever really get it back. So that's about all I have to say. This was, you know, short review, but it's a short, simple book. And if it sounds like something that you would find funny, go ahead and check it out. Like, it's just a meme in the form of a short novel. And, no, that's it. Bye. Thanks again to all my patrons, and thanks especially to Joseph Pendergraf, Desk Brennan, and Christopher Hawkins. If you'd like to get early access to videos, among other things, then consider checking out my page and donating.