 Hello, hello everyone. My name is Laura. This is my channel Laura's Little Library and welcome to my February wrap up I ended up reading 12 books, which is pretty good for me I don't it's not quite as many books as I read last month But it's still a lot more books that I was expecting to read and I'm very happy with that number I think my new goal is to read somewhere between 8 to 10 books every month If I go over that great, but if I can somehow pull off reading 8 to 10 books every month I should hit my goal of 100 books pretty easily, especially because January and February I have already read way more than that. So I am really happy and really excited with that So this video is going to be split up by genre and I will have time cards down below So if you're only interested in the contemporary romance, then you can just watch that or if you're interested in the fantasy You can skip to that. I read a lot of contemporary romance I started reading contemporary romance because like it's February and Valentine's day and then I just kind of never stopped Like I read a few fantasies and that kind of reminded me that like oh, I've been really wanting to read more fantasy lately But I still kept reading a bunch of romance So we're gonna get started with the contemporary romances So the first book that I read that I owned is Happily Ever After by Elise Bryant I have been anticipating reading this book I don't remember if it was a five-star prediction, but whether I said it in a video or not in my mind I was really hoping it was going to be five stars She also just released a companion novel this past January at the end of January one true loves So I I really wanted to pick this up in preparation for that and because I loved the premise This follows a girl who just moved to a new area and her parents enrolled her in this Fancy art school so that she can concentrate on her writing. However, when she gets there She has massive writer's block And so she decides to plan this huge elaborate Happily Ever After for herself in order to inspire her to start writing again I still very much enjoyed this book. I wouldn't say it's five stars though It's like a four or four point five star like it was so close But it just it just missed the mark for me a little bit. I really liked it the characters I loved as I said like the plot and the overall idea of it. The school was really cool I love the disability rep with her brother. However, I cannot speak to the trueness of it There was there was a love triangle trope in here Which was kind of hard for me to get around because it was Love triangle all the way like she thought she made a decision But she chose the wrong one so that she tries to go back and choose the right one and like I don't like rub triangle love triangles, but I Especially don't like it when they choose and then change their mind even though there's like one clear right answer It just bothers me a lot, but that wasn't even like the main problem I just kind of found the whole book to be a little too predictable and like I don't want to say boring because I did enjoy Reading it, but I didn't joy it as much as I had hoped and there just was not quite that factor of like uniqueness or Newness that I was looking for I will say though I enjoyed how the author included Snip bits from the characters stories So she talks about like her characters and they're actually written scenes in there and I found that to be kind of fun I found the message in this to be a little repetitive, but it was it was pretty good Like I said, I love the characters I did think the end couple was very interesting like a very interesting match the love interest was just Not any like any love interest I've read before which was kind of nice and I really admired that yeah You know like I I had high expectations and I think this book fell ever so slightly short But that's probably because I went into it with high expectations But it was still a very good book like it's still a four four and a half star read So it was a good way to kick off the month then I read the a Cuban girls guide to tea and tomorrow by Laura Taylor Neeney and As you can see I took this book out from the library. It's actually do back by like tomorrow, so But this is another contemporary romance This follows a girl who just had a whole bunch of elements of life blew up in her face Her a boy that died her best friend is moving without telling her and her boyfriend just broke up with her She's feeling very defeated. She's feeling very down The only thing left for her is inheriting inheriting the bakery from her abuela, but her family decides You know, this was too much So they send her to her cousin in England to live there kind of get away and have a break She goes there and she just kind of vibes for a summer like it's it is a romance and It's baking themed, you know, she she gets to England and she's at her cousin's like hotel So she kind of takes over The bakery element of the hotel and that was so much fun and especially to read like how she brought her family's like Cuban recipes into the baking and all that fun stuff the the romance was interesting because it was like Casual, I think it was kind of like a friends to lovers, but like They still hadn't met each other before So I thought that element was very interesting. I liked it. It was the kind of thing I really liked I loved he had a mission of finding the perfect tea for her like her go-to tea And that was just so cute and so much fun like they were adorable friends But you also knew it was gonna be more but it took their time like kind of like a slow burn But it's not that long of a book so it didn't so it felt slow But then it happened soon just because it's it's a short book. I Felt like in this book every chapter ended on a cliffhanger and for contemporary That's a really interesting thing to be able to pull off, but I definitely felt like by the time I read the last page of the chapter I was like, whoa cliffhanger. I need to keep reading. I need to keep going. Oh my goodness And it very much sucked me in really great conflict resolution in this book. I love the communication It was a good ending I just felt like because so much had happened to her that we couldn't really focus on One element or another so it kind of felt like it was missing this deep overall Thing but that didn't bother me quite as much I still very much enjoyed it and I would highly recommend this if you love baking romances or if you love Cubing culture and England culture coming together and then I read somewhere between better and sweet by like in day I camp and this one Was a 2.5 star read for me. I had a lot of issues with this book I know a lot of other people did enjoy this book and I'm pretty sure it's rated pretty well on Goodreads So like this is purely personal opinion here, but this follows two main characters Our female main character. She wants to inherit her father's restaurant or open a bakery one of the two or both But she's been working at her father's restaurant for a long time and she loves it and she's like this badass Waitress who is like in charge of everything and then when she tells her parents that she hasn't actually been going to school They basically kick her out of the house and fire her from her job at the restaurant So she has to learn to live as an independent adult all of a sudden and then Xavier our male main character is An undocumented immigrant from Mexico and he lives with his abuelo And he is just trying to find his father and he ends up getting a job at Her family's restaurant and just so you know there are some trigger warnings that I would definitely look up with this book including self-harm and Undocumented immigrants so if there is anything along those lines that you're a little iffy about make sure you check the trigger Warnings to see if you are comfortable with it first. It's like a friends to lovers Except I don't think it pulled it off as well as a Cuban girls guide to tea and tomorrow It was just I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between the characters They like they didn't really start off as friends. They just kind of met each other became co-workers and then like fell in love but Like I said, they're just there wasn't any chemistry. I was not invested in their romance. I was not invested in them It's a couple. I was more focused on her individual life And that was pretty much it because I felt like the it was a dual POV And I felt like we got a lot more from her than we did from him So I feel like either it should have been more balanced and more should have been happening with Xavier or it should have Just been completely from Penn our main characters our female main characters Point of view just entirely because I feel like if it was from her point of view There could have been a way to make it so that we didn't really miss all of the details that we were getting from Xavier's point of view Because his point of view was so Small and it was not near as often and it just wasn't as interesting So I didn't like the dual POV and I didn't like the romance which were two huge elements of the book It just kind of seemed like there was a lot happening in this book And we kept getting sidetracked like this thing that happened And so we're focused on this and then oh all of a sudden this thing happened And you just completely drop this pot for a while and maybe we come back to it Maybe we don't and it just it was a lot being piled into this book that I think we took out a few elements and really dove into One or two main things themes or ideas The book could have been a lot better a lot more well-rounded and just less kind of scattered trying to hit on all these different Elements. It was like one scene that I think was supposed to be a steam scene But I can't tell because it was written poorly And what was written was just bad. It was weird. I also wasn't a super big fan of the writing I thought it was very ranty and just kind of preachy rather than like telling the story So there yeah, there were just a lot of this elements of this book that I just did not click with Like it it almost put me in a slump There were issues in this book that I wish were better addressed and then weren't And other issues I think didn't need to be addressed and then were it was just It was a lot. So for me it was a 2.5 star read Not one of my favorites But again, it's it's a food slash baking romance. So Maybe give this a try, but It just it I feel like in every way it didn't hit the mark for me. It could be very different for someone else Now this is the last contemporary romance that I own I did read more over audiobook, but I was so excited to pick this book up I went out and bought it on its release day And I was so glad that I read it in February and that is Loveboat Reunion by Abigail Hing one This came out January 25. I went to Barnes & Noble and I bought it and then I read it this month I loved this book and I knew I was going to love this book. So this is a sequel slash companion novel to Loveboat Taipei We follow two characters from Loveboat Taipei and this happens after that summer And it's a reunion in Taipei So again, it's a dual pov We've got Sophie and we've got sand Xavier. I almost said zander zander's the other book Xavier is this book Ha ha and this I love this book. I think I think it's still a 4.5 star read though I'm not sure if I'm gonna give it five stars But oh my goodness this this book it lifted me out of a sour mood It was fast paced and there was It had a few things happening, but I just loved where it was going We had the Asian female in stem rep which was amazing and I definitely think we need more of it I loved Sophie and like her character growth from the first book Continuing on into this book and I loved it I like that we got to see a lot more of Xavier and his backstory and just kind of Allow him to grow More and kind of have a little more focus then in the first book and their romance. I loved it. It was amazing So cute. I would say this is a glamorous book. This was definitely a fancy beautiful sequel That just it got me so excited So Sophie is gone to Dartmouth and she has to impress her professor with her project and She wants to do something fashion based because that's where her interest lies and the professor is just kind of being a jerk and being like Now she enlists Xavier's help when he is told by his father that he is not going to get his trust fund and needs to repeat and actually graduate His senior year and graduate high school So they end up flying to Taipei for the moon festival Which is amazing and then that kind of tumbles into a whole bunch of people going back to Taipei for the moon festival Hence it's a love boat reunion and it's super cool I still feel like my thoughts on this book aren't super cohesive other than I just I really loved a lot When I finished reading this book, I didn't feel like it was a five star Looking back now, I'm not quite sure how to put into words why it isn't a five star like I feel there are a few elements that could have been done a little better, but Yeah, I honestly might change this to a five star because it was It was exactly what I wanted and like I didn't know that I wanted this but it was exactly what I wanted I very much enjoyed the first book and I think the more Hype this book got coming out the more I got excited for it and it definitely lived up to that So I I do think it was probably better than the first book slightly so Then I kind of did something a little crazy, which is not something I normally do I so I got the audiobook for the bromance book club by lisa k. Adams And I read it and I loved it. It was amazing. I think I gave it five out of five stars I was so excited So then I got the second book read that one liked it gave it three stars It wasn't my favorite. I liked the first one a lot better got the third one Read it Loved it four out of five stars. It's my second favorite and I'm currently listening to the fourth one and reading it and loving it and we'll probably finish it very soon and I am anticipating the fifth one being released in november Yes, so I I read almost all of them. I'm currently reading the last one and I first heard about the series. I thought oh, that's interesting That could be a fun one to read and then for a while I was like, oh, I don't know It might not be my cup of tea and then I was like, oh, no, this definitely sounds amazing Like men coming together to read romance novels to better the relationship with their own Like girlfriends wives girls that they like. Yeah, that sounds amazing. So I picked up the first one I loved it. It's it's much more than just men coming together and reading a book They are breaking down toxic masculinity and they are helping each other be who they want to be and like Trying to better society by bettering themselves and it just got so much deeper than I expected it to And I loved it. I was so Glad it was such a funny book though, too. Like I found all four of them to be pretty funny But like the first one and the third one were hilarious They were so funny also Really good steam in each of them Very good. I just I love the character growth and the learning to communicate in the first one So in the first one, we have Gavin who is just who is a major league baseball player And who as a wife who wants a divorce and they have two little girls and he is heartbroken He had also found out that she had been freaking it in bed, which was very hard on both of them It's a what I loved that this book deals with the complexity of marriage As well as like romance and raising a family and having careers and it just it just touched my heart Like I there was nothing about that book that I didn't like Because at first I didn't like Gavin too much But he had a lot of character growth and I am very glad for it And just the bromance book club in general I just loved and then the second one Undercover romance. I give it 3.5 stars. I didn't like that one near as much I felt like we did not get near as much of the reading the romance novel Like it was kind of at the beginning they bought a book And then the book was completely ignored until the end when it was grand gesture time But even then it wasn't super related to the specific book that they were reading So I kind of felt like it went a little off the rails just a little bit Um, but there was also a lot going on In that book and we got a lot more from the female main character's point of view It's a little more evenly matched versus the first one was a little bit more to help Gavin and it was still Dual pov and I liked it But this one was just so much more focused on the woman that it just kind of seemed a little weirdly balanced It didn't feel much like a bromance book club when it was her Story as well or as much so for the second one Look up triggers of like sexual assault and uh sexual harassment the workplace just Should be said like there were just a few moments in this book I struggled with a little bit like the plot being a little slow And the romance when it first kicked off I wasn't as super into I thought was a little boring and then it picked up But as in the second one as well as in the third one it does kind of seem to follow a trend of Okay, how do I fix this? Is it even working? Oh, it works. Oh something bad happens grand gesture and both characters realize that They've made mistakes and should have been better and they both come together for a grand gesture And then they live happily ever after so it's it is quite repetitive in that way I kind of wish that there was a little bit of deviance there but also I don't care that much because I like it. I like the grand gesture I just think it's funny that in all three books. It's always been both main characters Realizing that they made mistakes and needing to talk to each other rather than just like one of them made a mistake One of them needs to apologize So it's it's definitely a much more interesting and healthy way to present relationships And then the third one is the crazy stupid bromance and this one was four out of five This one is hardcore friends to lovers and normally I'm not the biggest fan of friends to lovers, but I loved it in this book I thought their friendship was adorable and then their romance was amazing And I just wanted more of the happiness together. I feel like they didn't have a lot of happy were together In the book because when they did get together romantically They they weren't together for long when the huge like oh my goodness So-and-so didn't trust me or so-and-so didn't do this and then by the time they made up It was like the end of the book So I wish we had seen a little bit more of their romantic relationship rather than like completely their friendship, but It was still so sweet and precious It did a little better job of sticking closer to Reading a book, but even then like I wish I'd been just a little bit more Like the first one just had a lot of it and it worked for that one And so I think it kind of set the mood for the rest of the series But the rest of the series is a little different with this one. Also, there were some elements Same trigger warnings is in the first one or in the second book um, but I wish they had dove into that a little bit more just in terms of how that has affected Her and her future relationships rather than just like oh it's something in her past She dealt with it now. She helps others, but like it didn't actually Do much For her specifically. So now I'm reading the fourth one isn't it romantic and I'm super excited to read this I think it's going to be a little bit more like the first one and I think it's going to be One of my favorites of the series That is all of the contemporary romance. Like I said, I read a lot of contemporary romance Really once I got on that bromance book club cake. I just kind of kept going so So now we're going to move on to fantasy and the first one I'm going to start off with is a fantasy romance because I thought it'd be a good transition And that is for the wolf by hannah witton This is a five star book. I love it. It's a perfect Probably not do I care not at all why because this is exactly what I wanted when I didn't know that I wanted it I have a whole reading vlog devoted to this book. So I will have that linked up here Somewhere I never remember what side it's on But this was my blind date book that I did earlier in february and so I did a whole reading vlog on it So you can see a lot of my thoughts there. There's a full review there. So I'll just be brief here Basically, so it's a five star read. It's not perfect The magic system seemed a little complicated and it took me a while to like Catch on But I still loved it. I loved the characters. I love the storytelling influences on each of these with the main love interest being the beast Um, oh, I should explain what this is about. So in this world there is this magical forest and When there are two daughters born the first one is for the throne to become the queen And the second one is to be sacrificed to the beast or the wolf in the woods in hopes that one day Their five kings their gods will return from the woods. They will continue to protect the the country Um, so we follow the second daughter red as she goes into the woods and she learns that things are not at all What they seem I love the love interest. He was so protective Like the chemistry in this book was really good This is definitely a book that I would want to reread and it's even at some point made me think about annotating and tabbing Which is not something I've ever done and something I always assumed I would never want to do But this book is changing my mind because there were so many pages and passages That I knew that I would just want to flip back to and reread and just go all over again I just love the side characters. I love the chemistry between the main characters. I love the magic system I love the spooky forest the atmosphere the vibes were there. They were on point. They were amazing This is an amazing book to read probably during like fall spooky season But also like winter I am so excited For this is a duology and I'm so excited for the second book to come out in june I will be picking that up as soon as I can So then I also read it ends in fire and this is by andrew schwarz And how I like to describe this is politically angry harry potter I've got a main character who is a wizard and both of her parents were killed by an evil wizard And so she runs away. She becomes a rebel then she goes to the magic school To be and they get sorted and she wants to take the school down from within Um, so they get sorted into the house. There's this big game that they play and she Yeah, like you see where the harry potter vibes come in a little bit I do say the magic system is different and I like it I like the idea that they have to carve into the world Their spells rather than just waving the wand around It's a little bit more like needs to work and need to practice There is queer romance in here represented though I believe her main character is by and that was really cool to see there is a love triangle, but it didn't go Too far Like it got a little of triangle sat there for a hot minute and then Like she chose someone and so it was fine. It wasn't like a huge thing in the book So I could deal with it. It was fine. The dual timeline was done really well in this I enjoyed both perspectives of her past and the current happening Especially when that allows us to see the relationship she had with her Sister and everything that was going on there. Yeah, otherwise. I just felt like It just kind of happened and there were parts that were boring and parts that were slow and like it was just an average book, you know, it's a three out of five star read Maybe I'd recommend it, but probably not. There are better books out there. Definitely. Also, it's just it's It is a standalone fantasy So it like it has that going for it, but even like the ending I found to be just kind of like Okay, there are some loose ends here. It's not quite a plot hole, but like Okay, though it wasn't super thrilled. I'm glad I read it just because it was on my shelf But if I didn't already own it I I don't know if I would a dnf did or if I just would a Not I wouldn't need to buy it, but it was a three out of five stars. It was it was fine It was okay. I listened to the audiobook for the 10,000 doors of january This is by alex iharu and I gave this four out of five stars I definitely see how other people gave it five out of five stars. It was a beautiful story It was beautifully written. It was very much a storytelling style book But for me it was a four out of five star our main character Lives with this big rich man while her father works for the rich man and her mother disappeared years and years ago And she really wants to go out and go on these adventures with her father, but that can't happen She she figures out that there are doors that lead to other worlds It is a portal fantasy a lot more happening and there's a lot more at stake than that This book kind of follows pretty much the entire life of our main character like it starts when she's younger and it kind of Goes through as she's older which At first I was a little annoyed at but then I understood why it needed to be done and I thought it was fine It's just a very artsy magical book the ending was very quick Like there was a lot going on and it just kind of quickly wrapped up and then it was done The villain was he was a good villain But I wish he had been a little more unique Or that there had been something different done with this book than what we've seen in so many other books Because I feel like this book itself just seemed so beautiful and unique and interesting That for it to have such a basic major element in it just kind of seemed out of place Yeah, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's interested in portal fantasy or like fantasy and adventures Uh, I very much enjoyed it. It captured me from beginning to end. I listened to it all in one day It was it was great. I would recommend and then I finally read a Psalm of storm and silence by rosanne a brown This is the second book in a duology the first one Oh, please So it's the second book to a song oppressive ruin and like I said, it's duology So it's only the two so I finished it. I actually finished something how wonderful, right? I rated it 3.5 out of 5 stars. I was not Super happy with it, but also like it finished the series. It was fine I liked the characters and I like how deep the book went it definitely dove into each character a little bit better And to kind of the very deepness of their mind and their actions But I it kind of had the same thing as as uh between somewhere between bitter and sweet where there was just so much going on That you couldn't keep track of it all and then it felt like some elements were forgotten And then when it came to the ending certain parts were wrapped up super quickly And just the whole ending was just trying to finish The series and it was very difficult to read something that was just trying to finish So I wasn't super impressed by it. I I kind of had a little bit higher expectations For it. Yeah, there were just some phrases in there that there was repetition in it And there was some phrases that were repeated To be the message and to get the point across but there were also some phrases that were repeated in there And it kind of felt weird like it may have been an editing mistake I think there was a plot hole by the ending so I'm not going to spoil it But like there was something that just didn't ever resolve or and things that Where something should have happened and didn't so I think there was a plot hole by the end Which was kind of sad. There was just so much going on that I couldn't really be attached or root for anything And but like it was a solidly written book and it did technically wrap everything up and it was just kind of a lot so Like I still recommend the duology overall and I still think it was a good book but I definitely think it could have been written a little better and then finally The last book that I read this month So I had seen like one or two people pick this up And give their reviews of it and I thought It's not normally the kind of book that I read but maybe I'll give it a chance So that was the spells of iron and bone and this is the first in the tarot academy series By sarah piper and I gave it two out of five stars. I was not super pleased So if it ends in fire was politically angry harry potter tarot academy is horny harry potter Because it's it's it's a similar idea. You've got an orphan girl Who goes to school now granted she's a little bit older and she was about to be arrested For something because magic is not allowed. So like that was different, but she gets to a school There's another sorting system, but it's based on the tarot cards, which was really cool Take down the dark wizard and get better at magic and have a bunch of sacks on the way But she had no boundaries. She had no types She just kind of did anyone and everyone that she could but it never came to fruition Which was really really weird Like they were always interrupted or it never like ended like there wasn't Full relationship or anything or not even a relationship, but like They were just always interrupted and it was just so weird I also felt like our main character was like two op from the beginning because like not only is she Spirit gifted because she actually fits into all the houses, but she also has a familiar She can also dream cast and she's also connect like For the first book they just gave her way too many abilities and way too much like Oh, you can do this and you're special because of this and I just wish it had been spaced out a little bit more in the series I also did not like the multiple pov I felt like we had our female main character and then every few chapters There would be a short chapter of this male character and then this male character and then this male character And it just it wasn't steady and I didn't see Much of a reason of why they did different povs because literally we could have gained all the information We needed through her and her pov, especially if her family was going to fly her around and like Have her find things out like I just don't understand why that was there. It wasn't needed Also, the audiobook for this was terrible because the the narrator did not pronounce names the same way throughout the book Like he started saying awnee and then annie and and he would switch back and forth between awnee and annie Why that was so confusing and so unnecessary. It's the same person at the very beginning We are told how the name is pronounced. It was like, oh, it's awnee because it was on so Is the name and then like throughout the rest of the book He goes back and forth between calling this human awnee and annie and it was like Bra, have you read this book? And I just I didn't like how he narrated it I didn't like how he did certain character voices and it just felt very disconnected and very weird So like the audiobook itself It was probably would have been better if if I had physically read it because I didn't like the audiobook But I still think that there were a lot of things Like that just didn't happen plot wise or character wise that still would have kept the star the star rating pretty low I don't know if i'm going to continue on with this series because I was not drawn in enough By the plot to keep going and this steam was not good enough for me to want to keep going either So I honestly might just say okay, I read the first book I'll I'll watch other people's reviews of Later books in the series to see if it gets better to see if it would be something I'm more interested in but honestly at the moment There is nothing that makes me want to continue this series. Yeah, I believe that's all 12 books that I read Let me just flip through all my reviews here a second. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm Yep So those are the top books that I read this month It was amazing and a lot of fun and I thank you all so much for watching if you've made it to this point Don't forget to comment down below Let me know some of your favorites or least favorite reads of the month Otherwise, all of my bookish social medias are in the description below. You can follow me there I will follow you back And you can get more details on my reviews Um, otherwise like this video if you liked it make sure to subscribe I post on sundays and wednesdays this video may be a little late on sunday, but I will always try to post on sundays and wednesdays So hit the bell to be notified for when I do finally post Um, but otherwise I will see you all in the next video, but until then I wish you happy reading