 Hello, hello, my bloodsucking reading friends. Welcome to this week's video. My name is Laura and this is my channel, Laura's Little Library. Empire Week for me and my reading vlog, so this week's theme is vampires, and it is Thursday, I don't know, late afternoon, early evening. It's past five o'clock, but it's not yet six o'clock, so it's kind of that awkward time. Also, please excuse the sound of my voice because of my lack of sleep due to adjusting to a new work schedule. My throat has decided that it hates me, and so I'm not inclined to pronounce my consonants very hard. So, yeah, we're just gonna ignore that for this clip, but hopefully I will go to bed nice and early tonight and try to make up for some of that. Also, stay away from dairy products, which is extremely difficult because I love milk. Anyway, not the point. Welcome to the vlog. So I actually have quite an update for you already. So last night, Wednesday night, I read fangs. So I have four books set aside for this week, and I've already read one of them, which is kind of fun. So fangs by Sarah Anderson is almost more like a comic. It's black and white, and it's the romance of a vampire and a werewolf, and this is one of my new favorite things in the entire world. To me, it's a five-star read. It's just full of short, little happenings and a phrase that one will say to the other, and it will be just so adorable. So it's very simple, but it just lights up my world right now. Also, it's just such a beautiful book, and it kind of matches my cover Dracula, which makes me really happy. It literally took me like 20 minutes, 30 minutes to read this. It was insane. So I loved this. I thought it was adorable. Highly recommend. If you're looking for some short, cute, but still like spooky, oh my word. So I already have one book down, and it's only the first clip. And then my other update is that I did start reading Vampire's Hearts and Other Dead Things. So this is the only book I don't have an audiobook for, so this is the one I'll probably read the slowest kind of a little bit every night. I am already, how far? I'm already like 30 pages in, which is not very far, but considering today is supposed to be the first day of reading, and I haven't read yet, that's pretty far. So this book is about a girl who finds out that her father is dying of cancer. She's having a very hard time coming to terms with that. Now her and her father shared this huge love for vampires, anything and everything vampires, from classic Dracula to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even Twilight is mentioned in here, and again I'm already only 30 pages in. And in this kind of world, it's our world, but apparently at one point a vampire came out to Lauren and said, hey I'm a vampire, we're real. And then a couple others did that, and then they all went back into hiding again. So she gets the idea that, oh, if she tracks down that vampire in New Orleans, and she convinces him to bite her dad, then her dad won't die, and she can live with him forever, and that's amazing. So I'm happy to be reading it. I think it's a very interesting plot. I believe it's going to be a romance between her and the vampire. But I just love the colors of the cover, because it's a spooky book, but it doesn't look like a spooky book. So I'm currently reading this. I have two other books that I'm going to be reading. The first is the Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires. There we go. The High Grady Hendrix. I have that over audio. And then the other one is the second book in a series. So the first one is Stocking Jack the Ripper. The second one that I'm now on is Hunting Prince Dracula, and that's by Carrie Menescalco. And yeah, so I'm really excited for all of these books. I am really hoping to finish all of them this week. I'm very encouraged and uplifted from my success of last week, which was my ghost week. And if you haven't seen that, go ahead and check it out. It'll be in the spooky playlist that I have, and I will link that down below. So I'm going to get started. I also realized I never watched the movies for last week that I said I was going to. And at this point, because my throat is kind of down and I just feel really tired, I feel like if I were to pick something up and read it, I would probably fall asleep. I swear in this vlog, I'm not going to talk about how tired I am near as much. I'm going to try so hard not to. But I'm not quite in the reading mood for today, so maybe I'll read later today, just not right now. So I think I'm going to watch a spooky movie. I'll probably watch a ghost movie. So that's just going to happen, but I will let you know when I've done some reading progress, hopefully later tonight. But not too late at night because I'm going to sleep. So this is a test to see if I can match up the audio with the video and make it actually correctly match up so that I can have better audio quality in my videos. And to see if the mic really does work better from that far away or if I really need to be closer. All right. Hi guys. So it's actually Sunday. I haven't vlogged for the past two days at all because I was sick. I was not feeling very well. I was not sounding very well. It is not COVID. Do not worry. I had just been really behind on sleep and with the weather changing. I just, I caught a little something that I always, I really just had the sniffles, which I used to get like every year. So I'm fine. I'm feeling better. I'm still a little bit like, sniffily, but not near as bad. My energy is returning and I got some good sleep. So, but I also haven't really been reading, which is such a bummer because I was really excited for all these books. But it's Sunday. The week is not over yet. So at the moment I'm debating if I want to sit and read more of Vampire's Hearts and other dead things. I'm like 50 pages into this and I am really enjoying it. It's definitely a very sad beginning, but I think once I kind of, it moves into the adventure element when she actually goes to New Orleans, I think it'll pick up a little bit more and it'll pique my interest a little more. So I'm either going to sit and read that or I'm going to listen to the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. That's a name. I have started listening to this. I've just listened to like the first two chapters and I like it. Lots of Southern vibes, but also lots of book vibes. And so if I were to listen to this, I would either finish crocheting my fingerless gloves or I would clean a little bit more because that's what I do when I listen to audiobooks. But these are kind of the two books I'm currently working on. And then I do have one other Vampire book to read after these this week. So I would really love to finish all of them, but we'll see. So yeah, just a short sweet little update. So I've decided I'm going to sit here and read Vampire's Hearts and other dead things. I've actually been sitting here for a little bit reading it. I'm on a page 115 and I'm enjoying it. Also the crackling in the background is the fireplace YouTube video I have on. I've been turning that on when I'm reading a lot recently and it just sets the perfect reading atmosphere, vibe and everything. But I'm on a page 115 and I'm liking it. I'm a little nervous that it's going to be a bit of a love triangle because I went into this book assuming the romance was going to be between her and a vampire that she finds. Kind of because that's what the cover looks like. It's her and the vampire up in the corner there. But her childhood friend has come along on the trip and that wasn't planned. And they're kind of rekindling feelings that they felt for each other before everything went down. So I'm a little nervous that they're going to fall and then she's going to meet the attractive vampire and then it's going to come a love triangle. If that happens, I'm going to be really annoyed. So I'm really hoping that it doesn't happen and that either she just doesn't fall for the vampire because I'm one of those people. Most of the time I'm always on team whoever's known the person the longest. But that's just my thing. So I'm really hoping it doesn't turn into a love triangle. But right now it's really good. It's interesting. I can't decide if it's moving slowly or if I'm just too anxious to get to the end or when they're really getting onto something. But yeah, I'm going to sit here and keep reading this. I just thought I'd give some thoughts now. In the book that's kind of changing kind of the main chunk of what the middle of the book is. And I'm really happy about it. It's not at all what I was expecting. I haven't heard a lot about this book so going into it was the only things I imagined were purely from my imagination and Goodreads. But it's not what I expected and I'm really happy about it. I don't want to say what it is because I feel like 150 pages into a 300 page book is just too late. I wouldn't say it's a spoiler but I don't want to give it away. But I just got to say that the story has changed and it's become something that I didn't expect. And I'm really happy with that. That really bumps up the book for me. So this just got a lot more interesting. And I'm really happy about it. So now I really want to keep reading. It just makes me so happy. Alright, so it's Sunday night as you can probably tell. I finished reading Vampire's Hearts and Other Dead Things and it was pretty good. I'm kind of going back and forth between 3.5 star and 4 star. I feel like the book itself was solid and the writing was good that it could be a 4 star. But I really did not like the ending and I was wrong. It was kind of love triangle-y. So if you don't like that trope, maybe don't go for it. I don't like that trope and I didn't think it was going to happen. And then it did and I was very disappointed. I will say I love the setting. So it was set in New Orleans and they did a really good job of describing it and the art and the colors. The color was such a big theme in this book. It really reminded me of the Astonishing Colors of After, just in the two main themes of colors, using color as emotion and to describe things, as well as grief for losing or potentially losing a loved one. So I mean, this book is obviously very different because vampires are another big central thing. But if you don't mind vampires but you love the Astonishing Color of After, you would like this because it's the same emotion and use of color and art. I also really appreciated that it was not a typical vampire story and that what I thought of the book going in was not actually what it ended up being. It's kind of like there was that twist of, oh, so it's going to be more... So what it was, it's not a twist because it is a majority of the book. So she gets to New Orleans, she finds someone, and they have her do a bunch of tasks and take pictures to prove and then if she completes them, they will turn her into a vampire. And I appreciated that. I loved the game and I really liked how just kind of the majority of the book was. But when the actual twist came, I was kind of like, really? Was this something I was not supposed to see coming? Because I saw this coming from the beginning. It was just one of those things that, oh, it's just too easy. Even though she has to do all these things, it was just like... Nah. So I don't know, that may have gotten a little bit spoilery and I'm sorry, but I just, I don't want people, I don't want you guys to get your hopes up if you want to read it for what I thought it was. So it was a solidly written book, it was an interesting story, but I just couldn't get past the ending and parts of it and especially like just little character things. But yeah, it's still solid read. I now have two books down and I have two more to go. I have a really exciting thing that I'm doing tonight. So the Dead End Hayride is an event in Minnesota and I believe it's actually one of the top 10 scariest attractions in the United States. So we are gonna do that tonight. I probably won't film it because I don't think I can. I don't think they would appreciate me filming. But that is my spooky, scary slash fall activity and I'm gonna do that and it's gonna be really fun. And then hopefully when I get back and won't be too late, I can make some progress in the Southern Book Club's guide to studying vampires. Like I said, I started the audiobook for this. I'm only like half an hour in, I'm like two chapters in. So I would love to listen to this and make some progress on it, but also I need to make sure I'm having a decent sleep schedule. So we'll see if after the hayride I am actually up for it. This one got smudged. Anyway, it is Sunday late at night. We are home and about an hour into the Southern Book Club's guide to studying vampires. I'm gonna end here. I like it. I think the audiobook is going to be very helpful. Just, it really sets the atmosphere a little bit better I think with the whole Southern accent thing. So, I'm enjoying it. I'm getting a few good little laps here and there. But yeah, I'm going to go to bed. I just wanted to update you, Dad, and show you a little bit of makeup. So, alright, good morning. It is Tuesday morning and I have done little bits of listening here and there of the Southern Book Club's guide to studying vampires. I'm two and a half hours in and I've got just over 11 hours left. So it's a long audiobook and I can't make it go any faster, which is kind of annoying. But, oh well. So my top priority is going to be reading this book. I mean, I'm a little nervous that I won't get it done on time just because of how long it is. But I have a few plans later in the day. Anyway, so I just took my shower and actually I got a new mug. And it's not bookish themes if I wanted to share it with you guys. It's cat themed. My mother-in-law gave this to me and I love it so much. So I'm drinking apple cider out of it this morning for the fall vibes. It feels like a very academic mug. So it feels like it could be like a dark academia with apple cider in it. So, that's just me. But yeah, I'm going to try and focus on the Southern Book Club's guide. We just met who I think is the vampire, I'm pretty sure. And it's very interesting. It is quite slow. We're already like, how many chapters in am I? Yeah, I'm eight chapters in and we're just kind of meeting who I think is the vampire. And there are clues if you know things about vampires. But the main characters still have no idea that there's anything wrong with him. So it is moving quite slow. I'm enjoying it, but I'm really hoping it starts to pick up soon. Because while I've enjoyed the beginning, I think it's getting to a point where because it's been so slow for so long, I need it to pick up or I'm just going to have a hard time with it. So that's kind of where I'm at. There's a little part of me that wants to start reading Hunking Prince Dracula just to see how long that would take if I would finish it first. But we'll see. I'll just kind of keep going throughout my day and I will keep you updated. It's a little bit later in Tuesday. And I have been listening to the Southern Book Clubs guys playing vampires all day. Well all day-ish. I've been doing other things. But I'm a little over halfway through and I'm enjoying it. I find it where I want to keep listening and I want to keep consuming the story but it just feels so slow at times. You know, it'll be like this big event happens and then it'll dip into a lull and then another event will happen and then it'll dip into another lull and I just feel like a lot of the book could be cut out to make it more fast-paced and to make it more interesting. But I love the characters. I love the setting and the backdrop and everything that's happening. I feel like we're just starting to get into a turning point where I'm hoping the book will not only pick up but it will really get into the slaying vampires part. But we will see. It's kind of like there's a lot happening but at the same time nothing is happening. I feel really weird describing it that way but I don't know how else to describe it. But I am enjoying it. I think this was a really good pick. And I'm glad I'm reading it before the Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendricks because I heard that that book is much better than this one is. So it's a good thing I'm starting off with this one and then enjoying it so that when I read Final Girl Support Group I can fully enjoy that. So that's the plan. I've also read the first chapter of Hunting Prince Dracula just because it's been so long since I've read Stocking Jack the Ripper. Yeah, I'm hoping to get through this mostly tomorrow. I'm probably going to try and finish this before I dive too deep into this. But yeah, that's the plan. There are two medium-sized books that I believe I can finish in the next day and a half. We'll see. Okay, so it's one o'clock on Wednesday and I finished my hot cocoa and that's not the only thing that I finished though. I also finished the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendricks and I'm thinking I'm going to give this 3.5 stars or on Goodreads All Market as 4 stars. I enjoyed it. I thought it was very unique. I loved the characters. It very much made me want to sit here and be a part of a book club and drink white wine and discuss books once a month. But there were just a few things that I had a hard time with. Just mostly how slow it was and how I felt like someone to the book could have been taken out. And it took them a very long time to come to the conclusion of Vampire even though the main character started reading a bunch of books. But once she started doing that it was never talked about until the very end of the book. I think the title, The Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, I think it's a great catchy title but I think it made me think there's going to be more emphasis on slaying the vampire. There was going to be a longer time in the book that the book club thought he was a vampire and they were all going to be on the same page about it and that they were going to come up with different plans or ideas and I just thought there was going to be more of an emphasis on the actual slaying vampires part and not just trying to get the book club on the same page. But I enjoyed it. There are definitely some trigger warnings in here to look out for. Ear horror, rape, and obviously some violence because you're slaying a vampire but I just want to make sure that is mentioned. It was a good ending though. The actual slaying of it was good and was interesting. I think the whole point of view of it being from a bunch of housewives, southern housewives was something I loved. I didn't think it would be something that I loved but it was. As in they would talk about how busy they are but how their husbands assume they sit home and do nothing all the time and I thought it was really interesting to get that perspective. The time jumps and accompanying with it was also very interesting because there was like three years later right in the middle of the book and so I didn't know if I liked that or not but it was definitely written in that unique kind of way where it spanned over a lot of time and I admire that risk. I think the idea of doing a time jump was cool but I don't think it was executed to the best it could have been but yeah so overall I really liked it especially again as a vampire story I enjoyed it so that's what I have to say about this one and then I have one more book to read and that is Hunting for Dracula I'm going to start reading that as soon as I finish this clip but one more thing I want to say I bought a new sweater so I went to Target and just bought this long sleeve tea and I love it because I don't have a lot of long sleeve teas just in general but it's bats it's just a sweater of bats so I thought that was perfect for this week vampire bats you know so I thought it would be perfect and I love it very much because I used to have halloween clothing but then I grew out of them as I got bigger so now I'm starting to build up a small collection again so I just wanted to point that out because I thought I was being clever alright now let's get started on that next book with a new cup of cocoa alright so it's Wednesday night and I'm going to end this vlog here I came so close to finishing Hunting for Dracula I've got just under an hour pretty much about an hour left in the audiobook to listen to this I would love to still finish listening to it tonight but I need to get this vlog edited and uploaded for tomorrow so I'm just going to end it out here I'm almost done with this I'll probably give final thoughts tomorrow when I start the witches vlog but I am very much enjoying this I think the romance between our main character and Thomas is I love it so much I'm really enjoying the plot and the mystery I don't know who it is yet I have theories, the character has theories but at the same time I just feel like I have no idea but yeah I'm really liking it, I really like the setting this is kind of the perfect book to read I think between fall and winter because it starts off at the beginning of the year and it ends right before Christmas so I think this was a really good time to read it and yeah I don't know what I'm going to read it yet obviously because I'm not done but I think it could be one of the best vampire books I read this week but yeah, so thank you all so much for watching, as I said I will start next week's vlog which is the last vlog and it is witches themed feel free to subscribe, hit the bell to be notified of when I upload which is every Thursday but also bonus videos on Tuesday I am also debating on trying to keep doing 2 videos every week just in general, seeing if I can pull that off I also recently hit 100 subscribers which is really exciting for me and kind of insane so thank you all so much for being here and supporting the channel I will do a Q&A video maybe doing 10 questions answering 10 questions for 100 subscribers so if you have any questions for me, comment them down below and maybe I will choose them to be in my Q&A video otherwise comment down below if you've read any of these books I would love to chat with you about anything bookish I will also have all my social media linked down below as it is all bookish themed that way you can keep a little more detailed eye on books at different times and like this video if you liked it or if you're a fan of the empire books and yeah, I will see you all in the next video but until then, I wish you a happy spooky reading