 Hello, hello, everyone. My name is Laura. This is my channel, Laura's Little Library, and welcome to today's vlog. So this vlog is going to be super chill. This is my Christmas romance reading vlog. I am super excited for this. So this is not going to take place during some specific time. It's just going to kind of be about all the Christmas books that I read from now until Christmas or at least until this video goes up. I'm not going to include too much life stuff in here because it's more about the books. I am going to go get a haircut. Then I'm going to come back. I have my book club tonight, which I'm super excited about, and we actually just got our Secret Santa assignments. So I will get to then start brainstorming what book I want to get for my Secret Santa person because I need to get it before I leave Minnesota. Just kind of, I'm just kind of using this vlog as any moment that I feel like I want to vlog something or anything interesting that happens that is Christmas related or book related, as well as actually Christmas books. So like, for example, I'm getting a haircut. The interesting thing is that the reason that this is making the vlog, especially right at the beginning, it's because I am pre-filming a lot of videos before I go home. So I could be like in front of my bookshelves and with all of my books because when I go home I'm only going to take a few books home with me. Half of my videos are pre-filmed with my hair at this length, which it's not long. It's longer than I normally let it get, but that's because I had a lot of fun with braiding it. I love braiding hair, but now I'm kind of over it again. So I'm going to go get my haircut. So in some videos I will have longer hair and in some videos I will have shorter hair and that's why, because they're all pre-filmed and I did not pre-film them in order. I pre-film them based off of what material I could talk about sooner. So a lot of like plans for next year. I was able to get done first versus like wrapping up this year. I'm going to do a little bit later so that I have read more books by then. So yeah, I'm going to go take the train and get my haircut, come back, do my book club. I will catch up with you later, but that's welcome to the vlog. Welcome to the Christmas vlog. Also, I will admit that my outfit today is inspired by Wednesday Adams. When she wore the turtleneck underneath the sweater, I was like, that's such a great idea. So I'm willing to admit that. All right, bye. I'm back. It's cold and it's dark outside. Oh my goodness. I, my entire face is just frozen. I can't feel like anything. So hot cocoa to the rescue. Okay, but there are going to be a couple of things in this update. First off is very on theme with this owl because I have bookish mail to unbox. I couldn't help myself. Owl crate was having sales for like the Black Friday weekend. So Black Friday through Cyber Monday. And there were just a couple things that I really wanted. I do not do owl crate. I am not a subscriber and I'm not like a rep for them or anything like that. I would love to subscribe to owl crates or fairy loot, but that is something that I'm going to have to wait for because it is still slightly outside of my book budget for each month. I decided to get some trinkets from them. So it's not a book. It's a couple objects from their past boxes and I picked these. So yeah, I just thought I'd open it up. I thought it would be very fun because I am super excited. I basically, I saw one of these items and thought, Oh, that's kind of exactly kind of the aesthetic I want to point my shelves in the direction towards when I get new shelves and everything. Oh my goodness, all the, all the crinklies, all the crinklies. So the first thing I got was from their most recent box as of filming this. I think it was their November box. It's studying shadows and it is this adorable bento box. And so it's the Alexandrian society, just a cute little bento box. So yeah, so I basically plan on using this to like pack my lunches and I am really excited and happy. It just, it looks so cute. Anyway, so that's the household item that I got. And then the other thing is for my shelves. I got this compass banner kind of thing because I want my shelves to be bright and travel focused, like fantasy travel. And so I thought the compass was perfect. It was exactly the kind of vibe I want to go for. I might use this for a pin collection. I do have quite a few pins and things like that. So I might put them on here. But I'm just gonna hang this on my shelves. That's what I got. That's what I splurged on for myself from Owlcrate. So okay, and then the next thing I'm gonna talk about are the Christmas books that I have been reading lately. So I've already finished two books. And the first one I'm gonna talk about is Kisser Once For Me by Alison Cochran. And this is the way I read the summary was I interpreted it differently than what ended up happening. So I read the summary as this character had a one night stand fling with someone with this woman that she had fallen in love with. And then a year later, she has lost her job. She's down on her lock. She doesn't have a lot of money. And her landlord, the landlord at the coffee shop that she works at, makes this fake dating arranged marriage kind of agreement with her. So she's gonna go to the winter cabin with his family for Christmas, convince them that they're dating. They're gonna get married. She's gonna get his inheritance. Life will be grand. Then the woman that she fell in love with the previous year is his sister. I still thought she was gonna end up with him. I still thought that it was going to be like fake dating turned to like, you know, real actual interest in each other. And then that was going to be an interesting like thing thrown in there. But that's not what it was at all. It was her getting back together with his sister, which works out fine because he was actually interested in someone else in the book. It's a three out of five stars for me. I liked our main character a lot. I could relate to her because she had anxiety and she is bisexual. And the Christmas vibes in this book were amazing. They were so Christmassy. Like they're at this giant winter cabin and all they're doing all week long are Christmassy activities. So decorating cookies, taking pictures, singing Christmas carols, snowball fights, skiing, hot chocolate, all of the Christmas vibes are here. I just, I thought that for her to be engaged to this guy, even if it's fake, they still should have spent some actual time together or had any conversations with each other to make it convincing or to even just get to know each other better to make it convincing. So I was quite thrown off at that. That being said, the romance between her and the sister was cute. It was pretty good. There were some moments where I was like, mm, there are other moments where I was like, Oh my gosh, this is adorable. I finished this one great Christmasy book. I would still recommend it. I think I just went into it thinking the wrong thing. I would still very much recommend this book. And then the other book that I read is a very merry bromance by Lucy K Adams. I bought this book and I immediately read it and I read it so quickly. Guys, this is so good. I love the bromance book club. If you follow my channel, you know that I love the bromance book club. And so this is the newest one and it's Christmas themed and it really did not disappoint. So this follows Colton, who is the country singer of the group. And he ends up falling for this lawyer who her work is more focused on actually helping people. But because a lot of it is people may not be able to afford great lawyers. She doesn't really make a lot of money. She is very much a Grinch versus he is like a Christmas elf. So it's grumpy sunshine. It warms my heart. And honestly, just like, so the romance was great. I love the romance. I like the steam scenes. I like how it all played out. I love the Christmas aspects. But really what hit me hardest in this book was seeing all the characters from the series, like characters in previous books, all coming together for Christmas, like for the holidays. It was just so much fun to read. And it just felt like a cozy family. Because you know, we've been getting to know each of these characters in this friend group for five books now. And so to see them all come together for a cozy Christmas was just amazing. And I have to say, so I was the only critique I have with Alyssa K Adam bromance book club books, was the fact that they do follow the same format of, you know, majority of the book fall in love third act breakup grand gesture. And so this book still follows that format, but the grand gesture she actually did a little differently than normal. And I appreciate it. Again, it still followed the same timeline, but I appreciated that there was some uniqueness. It was like a recognition to yeah, I'm doing the same thing over and over again. Which now that there has been this difference, I'm perfectly happy her continuing to do the same thing over and over again, because it does work. It is fun to read. It is nice. Five out of five stars. Now I have two more Christmas books kind of lined up. So I purchased two Christmas books recently. However, there I don't have them yet. So one of them is a cat cafe Christmas. And hopefully that'll be here next week. I'm really excited for it. It's a vet who opens up a cat cafe and like, it's a romance. I love cats. I like cafes. And I like Christmas. So I figured it would be a pretty good book for me to read. I was really excited when I saw it. And then the other book I got a while back, but I sent it to my parents house. I regret that decision. So I got window shopping by Tessa Bailey. And this is a much more smuddier romance for Christmas time. I know some people didn't like it quite as much, but I very much enjoyed her other book, my killer vacation. So I'm going to give window shopping a try. And so those are the next two that I have like on the docket I'm going like obviously I'm going to read them. But there are so many Christmas books that I want to read. And there are just so many Christmas books in general. Until those, I need to look for another Christmas book to read. I'm going to see what I can get because yeah, I think because if today is Monday, but the book isn't supposed to come until next Monday, and then I won't get to window shopping until the week after that, I need something to read this week. So I'm going to look around, see what my library has, and probably start reading it. But before that, or yeah, before that, I have my book club meeting tonight. We are going to discuss this vicious grace. Oh, that also reminds me that I need to not forget to look at pay attention to my secret Santa at the book club to kind of see what books she has read. And what books she may or may not already own and things like that kind of what her home library looks like. Our book club book for January is going it's it's a Christmas read. And I wasn't like super excited for it. So I'll see. I'll look for it. And if the library has it, then I'll read it. If not, then I probably won't. But anyways, that is the plan now I'm going to go to book club. And I am going to find a new Christmasy book to start while I wait for my two others. Okay, goodbye. Okay, it is a Christmas miracle, because today is Tuesday. And look what I got. A cat cafe Christmas. I was expecting that this wouldn't come. Oh, no, it got a little ripped. Oh, it's because I got it through the mail. Of course, there's some damage. I wasn't expecting to get this until next Monday. And then I got an email saying I was going to get it on Thursday. It's Tuesday. And look, it's here. I'm so happy and so excited. So I have started to read this I'm only 60 pages in but I am liking it a lot so far. Also, just need to point out I have a cat bookmark, which is perfect for this. I don't know why but I think this is my new favorite spot to update the vlog from. Anyway, we follow our two main characters. One is a vet and she and her best friend have opened the cat cafe. And they have foster cats, well they have cats up for adoption. And then our other main character, he works for this big marketing firm. And the book starts off like within the first chapter, the first 10 pages, they met each other because they published an ad for her cat cafe and argued with each other because he is not an animal person. He does not care for animals, not cats, dogs, nothing, no. And so she's like your terrible person. But he's found a cat in the house that he is renovating. So that's kind of why they keep running into each other is because there's a cat, there's a kitten that needs to be saved. And he's gonna get so attached to this kitten. I'm so excited for it. And he's gonna become a lover of that specific cat. And then they're gonna be adorable because it's opposites attract. It's not quite enemies to lovers, but they don't get along. But because they have opposite feelings towards pets. So I still like it though because I love enemies to lovers. And I like their chemistry so far. I am gonna go to bed. Oh, but the other thing I wanted to mention is at the beginning of every chapter, they introduce a cat, they've got a little cat drawing and they have like the name, the breed of cat. And like, it's like, it's a little sentence to try and get you to adopt the cat, which is just adorable. And I love it. So yeah, that is the update. This is my next Christmas read. Hi now. So I'm home and I'm a little snuggled up because I'm cold. And I have not finished a cat cafe Christmas yet. But I decided that I wanted to take a break and read window shopping. I am really enjoying cat cafe Christmas. I just I want to read this because it's shorter and I kind of want to get that like feeling of completion and motivation back to keep reading because I've had a lot going on the past couple days we drove 10 hours home and then five hours the next day to Canada and then five hours the next day back from Canada. So I've just been really busy. And it's the last week before Christmas. So I just want to read something short to get me back into Christmas. I'm excited for some muddy Christmas. It's been a while. So I have started reading window shopping. I am not quite 50 pages in. I'm a little hesitant about it because our characters are just kind of going real quick like the story started really fast, which I appreciated. But now the characters are doing and saying things that I'm like, we're not ready for this. And now I'm going to start wrapping my Christmas presents because we have almost all of them and I need to wrap them. So that's what I'm going to do now. And apparently Tella is going to help me. We have adopted two cats. Hey Tella. Are you ready to help me wrap some presents? Yeah. Taka, since when did you get in here? So if you hear the sizzling in the background, I think my dad's making bacon for dinner. So hi update. Merry Christmas. Also happy new year. So it's January and I fully meant for this vlog to go up like before slash around Christmas. And I just didn't happen. I didn't read near as much as I was hoping to and it just got super busy and family came into town and it was a whole thing. So this is going to be the end of the vlog. I am going to do a decent size reading update and just recap. All right, kisser ones for me. And I liked it. I think I had the wrong idea going into it. And if I had the right idea, I might have enjoyed it more. But honestly, this was pretty middle of the road. Seen so many other people love this book, but I thought it was okay. Like a like a three stars. I had a very merry bromance. Lisa K Adams bromance book club adored it five stars. So happy. Perfect for the Christmas time. I did also finish window shopping by Tessa Bailey. This I am giving it two stars. So here's the thing. I read my killer vacation by Tessa Bailey. And I don't know if it was a good thing if I read it before this one or not, because I loved my killer vacation. But this came out before it and I did not love this near as much. I I don't know if it reading my killer vacation first where the writing was better. And I was I just thought the characters and the chemistry and the dynamics and everything like that, which is better in that book, which made this book seem worse by contrast. But also, if I had read this book first, I don't know if I would have picked up my killer vacation because I wouldn't have wanted to put myself through another book like this again. But so now I think I will give Tessa Bailey a chance for her like really steamy, short, like novella books if if they sound interesting to me. So my issue with this one was the lack of growth and chemistry between the characters. Like I feel like it was super insta love and like I appreciated how fast it started. The story started, but then it just kind of slowed down from there. And I as I kept reading, I became less and less invested in it. And I just the characters were repetitive. And there's very little new offered in this book. And the really probably the biggest thing that got me was the amount of like, they make out in a car. And then he still wonders if she's interested in him. And I'm like, dude, what do you think? She was just on your lap for like however long. And you're still questioning if she even likes you. So like that bothered me. I mean, the festive vibes were kind of there. But like, I don't know. It was just I had too high expectations going into this. Even the steam was just not as good. Like I just I wasn't excited for it. So yeah, it was kind of a bummer. But I did like the uniqueness of the career choice of our character. And I feel like I would have liked the dynamics between them had I like it because it's very grumpy sunshine. But he is the sunshine. And he gets like, unsunshiny in bed, which I feel like I would have liked if I felt more of his sunshine this when he wasn't there just to have more of that character contrast, but also just would have made more sense if we had just gotten more from him, you know, anyway, yeah, so that's what I thought of this book. And then finally, the last book that I was going to read was a cafe Christmas by Cody Gary. And I am part way into this, I'm like a third of the way into this. And I'm going to finish it. Like this is my top priority right now is to finish this book, because I am actually enjoying this quite a bit. So we're just passing by Thanksgiving right now. And the cats are adorable. I want more cats. Like, they met. And first thing they did was argue, but then it kind of just turns to banter, which I love. I love that I love that it's kind of just turns to banter where like, their friends but not but are and they're starting to like each other. I love it. And it's and it's amazing to see him because he's a little grumpy. He's a little grumpy. And he finds this kitten in his house. And it's just adorable to read about him interacting with this tiny orange fluffball demon cat. I love it so much. So I am going to keep reading this. But I'm not going to keep the vlog going because it's a Christmas vlog and I want it to be done. So that is the plan. There we go. We'll be posting a lot of videos in January because I have so many videos filmed. I just hadn't found the time to edit them. So I will be prioritizing editing these videos. So subscribe because videos will just hopefully be going up left and right after this one. Like I said, subscribe, hit the bell to be notified. I'm gonna try and stick to my regular posting of Sundays and Wednesdays. But like if a video is ready, I'm probably just gonna put it up the next morning. I have social media linked down below where you can follow me there and see the updates on what I'm reading and what I think of it and other just life things. I'm doing a lot of baking while I'm home. So that's fun. Also give this video a thumbs up if you liked it, comment down below. If you continue to read Christmas books after Christmas, like if you don't finish a book or you really wanted to read a book and didn't get to it, are you gonna, are you gonna read it right after Christmas or are you gonna like force yourself to stop and wait till next year? Like what do you do with your leftover Christmas books? I want to know. Anyway, thank you all very much for watching and until I see you all in the next video, I wish you happy reading!