 Also, in case anyone was wondering, I did get the second dose of the vaccine today. So in two weeks, I will be, I will be fully vaccinated. So that means when I finally go back home, I can go and visit my family without having to wear masks or social distance because they're all already vaccinated and it's been after two weeks. So yay! Yeah, that's what that is, don't worry. Now we're going to read, for real. Welcome back to the channel today or welcome if you're new here. If you are new here, please consider clicking the subscribe button down below to be a part of the, to be a part of our reading army. But I am super excited for today's video slash, yeah, today's video because I will be reading a book that was recommended to me by a subscriber in the comments on one of my videos way back when and I'm really happy that I finally have the time to do this. And it's actually, as I'm filming this, it is Saturday and I have spring break next week and I'm really, really happy and excited for it. So the book that was recommended to me by one of the subscribers was Rising Dragons and this is by Brian Davis and yes, I've already picked out which bookmark I'm going to use in the vlog because I am, I like it when my bookmarks match the book. So I'm really excited to start reading this. I'm hoping to read this book. It, it's not too thick, you know, it's like just over 300 pages, it's got big font. I think it's going to be a bit of an easier read. I'm really excited to read it, start the series. I'm hoping to read this and then one other pretty thick, chunky book over spring break. But this is going to be the focus of this vlog is going to be a reading and review of this and that's what's going to go up during spring break. So let's get right into reading this puppy. Yeah, it's 400 pages long and I am enjoying it. So the idea of it is slow at the beginning, just kind of getting into the plot, like was introducing the idea of these kids being dragons pretty slowly and like that was fine. But I'm still waiting for like the main tension of, okay, so what, what does that mean? How does that create like a story? But I think I'm just on the verge of getting to the point where you see where the real danger is with the principle. But I also wish that they hadn't introduced the principle as a bad guy this early on. I wish that he had kept him in a little bit more of an uncertain like, is he good? Is he bad? But I like what they're doing with the teacher, Mr. Hamilton, I think that's going to be really fun and interesting. So I'm hoping to get a lot more reading done of this today. However, I did just schedule a bunch of appointments for today. And this is my only day of spring break where I'm not working. So that's why I was able to schedule all these appointments. Like I have a haircut appointment and then I have two apartment tours to do after the hair appointment, which is this afternoon. So I I'm going to have a pretty busy afternoon, but there are things like, you know, me to get done. So hopefully before I leave for my hair appointment, I can I really want to do some cleaning and then do some reading. I mean, I would love to ideally I would love to finish it today. Do some reading now as it's 10 30 in the morning and my hair appointment isn't until like two. But I have to leave at one because I don't have the car and I'll be walking and I'm nervous that I'm going to get lost and get late. So like I've got a couple of hours to do some reading. And then I and then I always like to read before bed. I and like I could also 100% do some reading after the tours. The tours are going to go that light like I'll do tours and it'll be dinner. So my point is, is like, theoretically, if I focus hard enough, I can finish this book today and I would love to do so. But I'm also going to have a bit of a busier day. And I also want to clean the apartment, which can take some time. Maybe I'll look for it on audiobook. Anyway, that's your Monday morning update. Like I said, this vlog is really only going to go until I finish the book rather than being like a whole week long vlog or a spring break vlog. And hopefully I'll start filming another one like immediately after this. So I'll catch up with you guys later after I've done some reading. Hopefully before I leave for my hair appointment, but otherwise it could just be way late tonight. So see you in a couple of seconds whenever that may be. So it is Thursday, the day that this video is supposed to be going up. But it is not. I've been a little busy. I've been trying to get some other things done and I haven't been prioritizing reading as much as I was hoping to. But I got the audiobook for raising jargons so that as I'm like walking around and doing things, I can keep reading. Except so the audiobook is really cool because that's a full cast of characters. But I realized that as I was well, first off, the chapters of the audiobook are completely off to what the chapters are in the book. So when I thought I was starting at like chapter six, it was way earlier in the book that it was starting. So I had to find my actual place. I was at like chapter nine or something, according to the audiobook. And I realized that because that threw me off. So I was like, OK, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to read along as I listen for a little bit just to make sure everything's OK. And I realized that they are skipping lines or that the text is slightly different or that things are in a different order. And I was like, I can't do this. I can't deal with the fact that knowing that whatever I'm listening to might not be like the same as the actual book. So I gave up on the audiobook very quickly because I just there's too much anxiety of like, what if I miss something? It's not the actual book. Oh, my word. No. So that's why it's taken me a little bit longer to get through this book. But so this video might be going up really late on Thursday, maybe on Friday. We'll see. But I have made progress since then. I'm over halfway now. And I think I had a hard time. I had to put it down for a little bit because it was very info dumpy, which I don't dislike info dump dumpy. I actually I got something I don't mind in books. Unlike a lot of people, I actually love sitting down and like listening to this is what the world is like, this is what the characters like, whatever. But it was info dumpy and it was like not confusing, but it just didn't quite grab my attention in the same way I was hoping it would. And it just kind of felt like at a standstill, you know, like they're on the plane. Nothing is happening. They're just on the plane. And I just felt like it was a little slow. It had slowed down a bit. But I've kept reading and it's picked up and it's feeling a lot more like other middle grades I read when I was younger, like slight maximum ride vibes, but I'm enjoying it. So hopefully I will finish it very soon. But for now, we are going to play a game. And it's a game based off of penguins and we're going to have a blast. So oh my goodness, this is so cute. And bow ties. Are you serious? You should get its name. Also, just by the way, this is the game. It's Zooliwood. Zollywood. Zollywood. It's spelled like zoo, though. Yeah, but it's Zollywood. Zollywood, Zollywood, whatever. This is the penguin game we're about to play. Yeah, in case you hadn't noticed, especially in my other videos back my older ones where I had just the one shelf next to it's our board gaming shelf and we have a bunch of board games. So like make sense, right? Anyway, I'll check up with you guys later after I've done some actual reading. Now sit down, finish reading the book and immediately edit this vlog and hopefully get it posted before I have to go to work in a few hours. So I have been reading since the last update. I am two chapters, well, two and a half chapters from the end. I'm on page 320 out of 370. So I've got the last 50 pages left. It should be a breeze because like it's middle grade. It's very easy writing. It's big like big font, but I'm just at I'm at another lull in the story. I'm not a fan of the pacing. So I'm going to sit here, read the book, give my final thoughts. So sorry, this is going up late. It's just I thought spring break was going to be a time where I could sit down, maybe do some pre filming and really just kind of enjoy my hobbies of reading and filming and writing. And that has not happened at all. I'm a little sad, but like. Work gives me money and I need money to buy books, so I guess it'll be OK. All right, now I'm going to shut up and I'm going to read. I'll see you in two seconds with my final thoughts. OK, two seconds later. So I finished the book. I finished Raising Dragons. It is can't see three o'clock on Friday. So hopefully in the next hour or two, I will have this video edited and up, but I finished the first book and I'm giving it 3.5 stars. I liked it. It's not necessarily I wish I had read this earlier in life. Like, I think I would have loved this in middle school. But for right now, it's not something that I am immediately going to pick up the next book for or I'm putting out the top of my priority list. It's something where, like, if I'm in the mood for dragons or middle grade, maybe I'll pick it up. Like, I'm not saying no to the series, but I'm not saying yes right now. I thought the pacing of this book was difficult because I felt like it would be like a scene and then a lull for a little bit and then it'd be a scene and then it would lull for a little bit and then it would be a scene and it and it made it really hard to just keep reading because once I reached a lull, I wanted to put it down and do something else. But I knew that if I got through the lull, it would pick up again for another scene. And so it was just kind of it was like a medium pace. And that wasn't necessarily like my favorite thing. I wish it was a little faster paced. I wish we could cut out some of those lulls. I wish it could be a little more intense, like I know it's middle grade, but like it just didn't feel like there was tension the entire time. All right, I'm experimenting with a new ring light that I bought in order to help with the lighting of this. Anyway, a couple of things about some of the characters. I wish that they had done more with the principle because very quickly you realize that the principle is a bad guy, but it isn't almost immediate. It's like he knows what's going on and then you almost immediately learn that he's the bad guy. And I wish that there had been a little bit more of like a gray area where they didn't know that he was a bad guy or didn't quite know all that he knew and what that would mean. I really wish that that had been kept on a little bit longer rather than like part of a chapter. I really liked the other teacher, Mr. Hamilton. I think he was my favorite character, either him or the cat. But really, I think Mr. Hamilton was my favorite character. I had I had issues with Billy's mom because she did not act very much like a mom. Like she just she seemed to be the female character that all she did was sit there and cry and ask questions rather than like be a parent, take charge, protect your child, something like. And that was the other thing. It's like at the very beginning of the book, I was like, oh, yes, Billy had always been more mature than other kids. Sure, fine. But I wish either throughout the book, he had grown into that maturity a little bit or he wouldn't be more mature than his parents. Like I feel like with all the kids in this book, they were always the ones leading everything when it's like, no, Billy's friend's dad is actually a lawyer and knows what's going on. So he should take charge because this one he does. He has knowledge in this area. He knows what to do. But no, it was always the kids leading for it. And it just didn't quite seem very realistic. Again, something middle school me probably would not have picked up on or cared about. But like college level means like. I just, I wish it was a little more realistic in that way. Also, every time a dragon spoke in this book, all I can think of was John Hurt from the Merlin TV show, because I grew up watching that with my family. And so every time a dragon talks, I would always have that echo with John Hurt. He just narrated all the dragon parts for me. It was great. I will say though, I am glad that the parents were as involved as they were. So many books, it's just the parents are always in the dark or they're not a part of anything. Or they're, they're keeping the secrets from the parents and blah, blah, blah. But like in this book, the parents were very much involved in what was going on, whether they knew everything that was going on or not. They were very much involved in what was, what was happening. And I appreciated that because that was a little bit different. So I appreciated that. And then the last thing I'm going to say is I liked Bonnie a lot, but it was really, really weird. So they're in middle school, but it was really weird because Billy is sitting there like Bonnie is a sister and Bonnie is like, I'm like your sister. And then both of them are just kind of like, do I like you are? Oh, she's so pretty or she's so like, like beginnings of attraction was happening, but they both kept insisting on, oh, they're closer than siblings. And it was just like, that's a little weird. I had a little harder of a time digesting that specifically. But yes, so thank you so much to that subscriber who suggested this book to me. I am very glad I read it. I haven't read a lot of dragon based things, which is such a bummer because I love dragons. Like I've read Aragon and oh, what was that one where the cover is like a green dragon's got a tear the fire within and dragon rider and maybe one more book about dragons, but that's like it. So I'm really glad that I'm continuing like reading books about dragons. If you guys have read this comment down below with your thoughts and opinions, I would love to continue the conversation down in the comments. Otherwise, just feel free to comment on anything that seemed interesting about this book. If you would read it, if not, if you want me to read more middle grade, I'm so up for it. If you have any more recommendations, let me know because I will read them. I love getting recommendations from you guys. I'm so excited. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed the video. I am going to tell you what the next book I'm going to be doing a vlog reading on is going to be in sentence because I'm going to pick it up essentially once this video is up on YouTube and I'm super excited to read it. So that book is Wild Cat by JP Harker. I'm excited to read this. I'm a little scared just because it's quite chunky, but I'm really excited. It's the first book also in a series, and I believe it has some kind of Celtic mythology and strewn within it, which makes me super excited because I love my Irish heritage and just Celtic culture and everything. So I am going to start reading this chunky book. Hopefully I can fly through it. But I mean, school's about to start up next week again. So we'll see. But this will be my next reading vlog that I will feature. So stay tuned for that. Thank you all so much for watching this video. I hope you had fun. Like I've been saying, comment down below literally anything bookish related and I would love to chat with you. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up and feel free to subscribe if you haven't already. I normally post videos every Thursday. This week, it didn't quite happen, but if I don't post it on Thursday, there will be one on Friday for sure. But I post videos every week, so there will always be new content. And yeah, I will see you all in my next video. And I wish you all happy reading.