 welcome back to my channel, A Reading Warrior. It is now the beginning of March and for me it's actually spring break so I'm gonna have a lot more time to make the videos and post them and I'm really looking forward to doing a lot more work with that especially since I have been super late on my other videos and I'm really sorry about that but I am gonna try and make more of an effort to be better. But that means that February is over so now I get to talk about all the romance novels that I read throughout the month of February and at the end of the video I will be talking about the contemporary novels that I will be reading or own or hope to read, you know, anything along that track. So I just want to jump right into this video and say that the first thing that I started reading and actually one of the last things that I finished reading throughout the month of February was the Twilight Saga, this book right here. I own all of them on paperback but I actually listen to them all as an audiobook which was really interesting especially since in the last book so it's Bella narrating everything all the way into the last book and then Jacob steps in and they got a new narrator and he kind of narrated a little bit of it just while Bella was kind of out of commission for a little bit. I read the books before I watched the movies not my fault though my mother actually was wanted me to watch the movies before I read the books because she didn't think they were all that great and then she watched the movies and then read the books and then thought they were great and was like oh my gosh Laura how have you not read this and I was like okay fine fine so point of the story is that I read the Twilight Saga but I had seen the movies before I had read the books and I think that definitely put me at a disadvantage with the last book. I actually I liked Twilight more than I thought I did. I think I understand that Twilight is like a turning point for the romance genre and I can definitely understand why is it kind of kicked off the whole love triangle thing and the love across species thing which I have a slight problem with but we're gonna ignore that because it's not the worst thing in the world about the series. What I really didn't like about them was just the writing style. I don't after watching the movies I really appreciated that the characters actually did have emotions more than what they did in the movies and there are a lot more twists and turns and it was a little bit more of a relationship but I did have some problems with some character developments in the third book and just the writing itself was really it was a lot creepier and a little simpler and just not quite what it could have been if the writing had been better than the books would be a lot better even coming from like a eh romance is kind of eh for me. So for most of the books I rated them 3 out of 5. The third one I rated 2 out of 5 but that's just because it was just Edward being really protective and doing things that should be red flags in a relationship and that no person should ever have to deal with with their loved one. And as regards to Team Edward versus Team Jacob after completing the series I vote for Team neither. No I think I'm glad that she stuck with Edward because I I've said this before on other videos but I like it when they just stick with the person from the beginning because you you've been together the longest you know each other in that way I think that just makes it all better plus the fact that Jake imprinted on her daughter spoiler but I think at this point everyone at least knows the basis for this series so that was a little weird and especially if can you imagine like if Bella had chosen Jacob and then so Bella and Edward never got married and never had a child and then Jake would have imprinted on who because if Renesmee is his soulmate and the only soulmate he has then he never would have imprinted you know and then it could have just been a normal relationship for the two of them but like that's just really weird to think about. So I did have some like technical issues with the saga but overall it was better than I expected it to be and so I say it was alright. I mean I definitely would recommend like the first book to like my middle school self and then the last book was I don't know I enjoyed reading the last book right now but like the middle two books I was just kind of like eh they're not the greatest and I don't think they really show what it is to be in a relationship the best that they could be or correctly but you know that's just my opinion. Let the hate comments flood in of me not loving Twilight but at least I didn't hate it. I'm gonna go ahead and move on to the next series that I read now. I just want to interject right here and say I'm so sorry for like the raspiness of my voice all of my roommates are gone for spring break and so I am home alone and I'm just kind of not talking to people a whole lot because there's no one at my work either so I'm not talking a lot but I am singing a lot to myself and my voice is getting a little raspy I am not sick but just keep that in mind throughout the rest of the video sorry. Anyway on to the next book series that I read. I read the Wolves of Mercy Falls series this is also another four book series and well before I go into that I should disclaim that I have not finished the fourth book at the time of recording this um but I kind of read that every other along with Twilight so I read Twilight and then I read Shiver and then I read the next the second one and then I read the second one of Wolves and it was really interesting to do that. I the reason I did that was because I had to be put on hold for the audiobook for the Twilight saga and so I was like I'll just take up another series while I'm doing this and then it just ended up working out that I kind of go back and forth between the two but it was interesting because at first the two series were really similar girl falls in love with guy of a different species and that's a struggle because I mean yes it's a struggle you can't exactly tell people that you're dating someone of a different species and expect them to be okay with it especially since they're all in high school yeah I think I liked this series better there was no love triangle which I really appreciate because I'm not the biggest fan of those I will tolerate them they are not my favorite um and yeah like I said they started off very similar but then they became different and they kind of branched off into their own of you know Twilight went into this love triangle everything's about Bella being human and starting in future versus um like in shiver and linger and forever and center it kind of went more of a okay those two are dating they're having a relationship they're trying to help the wolves and it's more about the mythical side of it and it really gets a little bit more into the mythology of the wolves in Mercy Falls and it kind of takes off from there the reason I haven't finished the fourth book with that though is that at the end of the third book the ending hold my word I was like oh my gosh I can't believe it I was like freaking out about the ending because of what happens is like I think I know it happened but I'm not 100% sure so I want to read the next book just to make sure what I think happened happened then I started the next book and the main characters aren't there so the main love line that the first three books follows those two characters are just they're gone it's focusing on these other two characters that they introduced throughout the series and their relationship which I'm conflicted about because I like those characters and I like their dynamics but I'm not sure I like that they got an entire book and I'm just not super thrilled with that idea and so I did start reading the fourth book and I was just kind of like I really want like Sam and Grace back I don't I don't want them to have especially not okay I think I don't want them to have their own book that's at the end of the Sam and Grace the main character love story I think if they were to have a book it shouldn't be tied into the series I think it should be its own standalone book rather than like kind of tacked on at the end even though it does take place after the first three books in the series um again similar with these books in terms of writing of like I enjoyed them they weren't my favorite um and each book is kind of different depending on like what happened and the new characters that were introduced and how everyone deals with that um so yeah for there you can just go on to Goodreads and see my specific ratings for this series because good my computer is not working and so I'm having a hard time getting at Goodreads right now to see what I rated them next I read red white and royal blue by Casey McQuiston did I say that right yes Casey McQuiston I did say that right I think and I gotta say I went into this book because I had heard other good things about it and I was very interested and I was very happy by the end of it so this book is about the uh president's son and the prince of England and they fall in love it's one of those enemies to lovers books which again is like another cliche but I think it really worked for this book and at first I wasn't actually aware that it was an lbgtq plus book but that honestly I don't know why but that just made it all the better I kind of liked that it was two guys because it just made the relationship better and just really rounded out the story a lot better than if it had been a guy and a girl just being like oh you know the prince fell in love with the first president's daughter or whatever no because that added a whole nother element to the book that I really appreciated and was really glad that was getting a lot of representation um in this book I loved the characters a lot um especially the main character he was okay the main character it took me a little bit to like warm up to him but then once I had man I loved him and oh my word Prince Henry has uh I just I love him and therefore I love Prince Henry and Alex and I just uh I I really did enjoy this book and it's definitely one I would recommend I rated it four out of five stars if I could have probably four point five out of five stars but Goodreads doesn't let me do that um but yeah just kind of there's the hardships of having a relationship the hardships of having a long distance relationship and then the hardships of being children of huge political um people in your country you know the president and the queen like that alone is hard and then try having a relationship with someone who has that same like struggle but in a very different way um so I just really appreciated all the different elements and everything that happens and there wasn't this and a lot of things that happens is like this huge climax and then all they find all they're gonna break up and blah blah there wasn't really that moment per se they had hard times and things you know didn't run as smoothly for them and there was miscommunication but it was very quickly like and maturely handled which I really appreciate having that in books so yeah I I loved red white and royal blue by Casey McQueenston just brightened up and it was such a funny book too like I was in the metro I was walking down a very echoey hallway and I just I just burst out laughing and you know people would look at me and be all confused because they're like what's going on isn't she listening to music no I'm listening to an audiobook sorry but like that would happen and I couldn't contain myself it was so funny they just had these great like one liners or like two liners I was like oh my gosh that's so funny I love it so much and that of course just fueled my love for the book and for the characters because anything that can get me to laugh is instantly gonna be like oh okay that that's good so again red white and royal blue by Casey McQueenston huge recommend one thing I will note though is that it is for a slightly older audience there are some scenes in there that are not for young minds who are not mature enough to handle certain content uh so I just want to throw that out there if like your parents are very picky about what you read or you're uncomfortable with things please do not read books that you're uncomfortable with just because I say I love it and I would recommend it if it's something that you pick up and you're not super comfortable reading please don't like obviously if I recommend a book for you to read it that's because I think it was a great book but we're not gonna have the same taste in books so if it makes you uncomfortable set it down there are plenty of other good books plenty of other good romance books and the seas which is actually a really interesting transition into my next book because my next book kiss quoting by Helen Huang I again I'm sorry if I say these author's names wrong I just never hear them and then I suck at pronouncing things so but yeah the kiss quoting is another one that it's like if you are uncomfortable with certain content this is has a lot of mature content in it so feel free to just not if that's not your jam or if you are a youngster here on book two just be warned okay that being said the kiss quoting was another very like interesting but good book um for this one it is about a girl who has ass burgers and so she's very sensitive to touch and to sound and so if she's in a loud room she's not very comfortable or like if someone touches her without her being prepared or giving permission that can cause huge a lot of stress for her and so it's been very hard for her to find a life partner or someone to be with because she's not always comfortable and especially because she doesn't really want to like be a huge thing she doesn't like all around telling people because you know she wants to be a normal human being she wants to be treated like everybody else which is really sweet and I completely understand like the want to just be normal like everyone else but it's really hard when things like that can make it tricky and people don't always know about it like I didn't know very much about ass burgers before reading this book like I knew it was a thing but I think it was really good for me to read from someone else's perspective with that so basically this book is she hires an escort to help her and then he just kind of never stops helping her and that's that's the book I really don't know how else to mention it I mean obviously each character has their own backstory of how they kind of intertwine but there wasn't a huge cast of characters or like there were other characters but they played very small parts like it was always just um the girl and the guy and like their families but even then like their families didn't always play a huge part so I kind of wish that there was more of other characters for me to fall in love with because you know I mean Stella and Michael were great but I feel like there should have been more around them rather than like just Stella and Michael this was a book I rated three out of five stars I believe and it was the last romance novel that I read in the month of February um and so yeah I would say it was a pretty like decent book it was well written and the concept was good but I never really got super okay I got attached to Stella and a little bit to Michael but like but I would like to read more of her books in the future possibly but yeah so in total I read The Twilight Saga all four books um The Wolves of Mercy Falls I read three of the four books in the series oh laundry three of the four books in the series and then I read two more yeah two more outside of that and so I read a total of nine nine books over the month of February again a lot of these were audiobooks so that is how I read so many books um as for romance as a genre overall my perspective of it has definitely changed it's not as cheesy as I grew up thinking it was but that also could just be I grew up reading Sarah Dessen and I just thought that was the cheesiest thing ever and I was like oh my gosh they're all the same like which is not true especially now that I'm older and I can handle like more different kinds of content in my books but that being said sometimes I don't really like the amount of content that some of these books has and I'm not a huge fan of like super cheesy things still so like I think the romance genre is fine again it's not my favorite if a really good book like if a really good romance book comes out and it gets a lot of buzz I'll read it but I'm not gonna go out and look for another romance book to read because that's what I want to read you know so that would have to be my conclusion for what I thought of the romance genre overall again I tried to pick out different kinds of books so like Twilight is pivoting changing for a romance but then also reading LGBTQ plus book which ended up being my favorite book that we read that I read who's we I'm me I go by she her her pronouns it's just me over here um and then also just yeah so different kinds of books but so my view of the genre has increased but not enough to like tip it over the edge like it did with historical fiction of I'm gonna go out and seek more because yeah so before I end this video I'm gonna talk ever so slightly about upcoming here in March especially over the spring break and the genre I have chosen for March is contemporary because I have read no contemporary like and it's a very popular genre especially here on booktube and so I was like huh why not just dip my toes in and see what everybody is talking about plus I do have one contemporary book on my shelf and now one contemporary book I have not read so this is the chance for me to get to read it and that book is everything everything by Nicola Yoon this was recently made into no her other book the sun is also star was recently made into a movie this one might be a movie actually I don't know I think the other one was made into a movie this this one but yeah this is the one that I have I bought it because I wanted to give contemporary a chance I wanted to give this author a chance and that's the essentially the entire motivation I have for this entire month was I want to read I want to read this one book so I'm going to read contemporary and I think this book obviously follows falls under the romance category as well but I figured I'll put it in March just so I have more time and then I can also read just other contemporary books so yeah I'm intrigued by this I will be finding other contemporary books to read as well I am also scouring booktube for recommendations so if you have any recommendations on good contemporary reads please put them down below because I need those um but yeah otherwise I'm just kind of gonna ask around look at my library ask my librarians watch videos on booktube and see what other contemporary novels that I come up with I think are interesting I would like to read and I will hopefully do a better job of getting these videos up on time anyway so that's all I have to say about this coming month honestly I'm hoping to read a few more books I mean my goal is kind of reading four books a month obviously I'm probably gonna do more than that just because audiobooks are my best friend um but I would like to read four physical books maybe one book a week and so that's why I'm really excited that I brought this along with me to college to read it so yeah with that I'm gonna say hey again if you have any comments for me regarding romance novels regarding contemporary or any other genre I don't really care just go ahead and put that down in the comments below feel free to like the video if you like my critiques or you are interested um click subscribe if you want to follow me along this journey of reading different genres every month and yeah if it's a new genre for you and you want to get my advice for it I will happily give it otherwise like I will always take your advice as well um so yeah feel free to share this with your friends if you know anyone who also is like hmm I'm not so sure about this genre or oh my gosh I love this genre I just want to hear more of it I can't get enough feel free to send this over to them as well and I hope you guys have a wonderful spring break well I mean by the time this comes out yeah no I hope you guys have a wonderful spring break or if you have midterms I hope those are going well I just finished my midterms and I'm on spring break but I know other people this is their midterm week and so spring break is like oh so far away even though it's only a week away um but yeah to you guys I say good luck and happy reading and happy spring