 is June 1, and it's about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, and I'm about to start reading for the Olympic Games read-a-thon. As a reminder, I am in Apollo's cabin. I am a daughter of Apollo, and so I will be following those challenges. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I already released my TBR, and so you can go ahead and check out that, and I'll have all the details, including a link in the description to the original video for this entire read-a-thon. So you can go ahead and look at that video and then check that out. But first, I'm gonna get started with the first couple books that I will be reading. So for the beginning of this read-a-thon, the first prompt, as I said in my TBR, is follow the prompt music to my ears, listen to an audiobook, and as I said for that I will be listening to The Winner's Curse, and this is by Maria Rutotsky. I'm probably gonna say that wrong many times, and I apologize if I am saying this wrong, which I probably am. So I'm going to start this as an audio, but the thing is that while I do really enjoy listening to audiobooks, I do need some physical book to get reading, and because of that I'm also gonna get started on the second prompt of this, which is read a book that makes you happy, and for that I chose The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. And so I'm gonna start reading this probably tonight. I'm gonna go ahead and get started with both of these books, this one as an audio and this one as physical to just really get a jump start on this month-long read-a-thon. So I will update you guys when I have finished one of these. Hey guys, so it is June 14, and it's about 5 30 o'clock at night, and I can finally say that I finished a book. I don't know why I do this, but I do this for every read-a-thon. I will start right away, and I'll work very slowly, and it just takes me a while. So like we're two weeks into the read-a-thon, and I just finished my first book. I'm hoping to pick up the reading in the last half of the month, but for now I am making progress. So I finished listening to The Winter's Curse by Marie Rutotsky. I hope I said that right, and this was for the very first prompt music to my ears, listen to an audiobook. So I listened to this as an audiobook. So this book is about an empire where a group of people conquered another group of people and have turned them into their slaves, and it follows the general's daughter, and she kind of goes to the market one day, and she goes to the slave market, and she sees the slave, and she for some strange reason just has to buy him. So she buys him, and she takes him to her home to be her slave, and they kind of form a connection by playing a game called Byton's Thing, but they've only played it like two or three times. Then really that's all the summary I can give without spoiling a lot of it, just because at any point after that, and I feel like I'm starting to spoil the book, but there isn't much else that's done in the beginning, the thing about this world is that her people, it kind of reminded me a lot of Sparta, because it doesn't matter if you're male or female, by the age of 20, she has to either enlist in the army or get married. And just the mentality of her people is a very spartan mentality, you know, you fight because you're warrior and you're tough, and the slaves were not able to beat you and therefore unworthy. So that's what the book is about. And I gotta say, I had heard some kind of reviews about it, like people thought it could have been better, but it wasn't. And so I didn't go into it with super high hopes. And I really have to agree with a lot of people. I rated it two out of five stars, but I really, it's a higher two, like I really struggled with between two and three. Just because I felt like this book had no meat to it and had no substance, it was very surface level, simple plot, you know, it just, I wish it had gone in depth more with the characters, with the plot, with the world building, you know, it just seemed very simple straightforward. And so just kind of lacked that emotional tie because there was no depth to any of the characters or anything like that. I wish, like I said, I wish the characters were more fleshed out, but I also wish their relationships were a little more fleshed out because we have the main romance, which just kind of went from like zero fifty a hundred, you know, like there wasn't much there, but also the main character and her best friend Jess. I loved her best friend, but she did not get a lot of time in the book and they really didn't get a lot between the two of them, and I felt like Jess, the friend, was a very nice, good character that could have been fleshed out more, but then Kestrel was a bad friend, and there was like no reason for it, and so I was like, I was super bummed about that. The ending of the book wasn't actually that bad, like there's this whole event that happened right before the end, and I felt like that was pretty unnecessary, but then like the very end of it was like, okay, that's interesting. That's a little different. That keeps me intrigued, so I might read the second one, but again I'm not gonna promise anything because this is a read-a-thon, and I don't want to be adding extra books on top of the nine that I'm gonna do, but like it really didn't seem super interesting until that very ending point, and I feel another thing was that everyone was telling her she's gonna be something, or she is something. She's an advocate for the slaves, or you know, she is the general's daughter and she's gonna provide information, but then she just wasn't anything. I felt like she wasn't an advocate for the slaves, but she also wasn't helping her people at all either, so I just felt like there was so much like, oh she's caught in the middle of everything, she's gonna make a difference, and really she wasn't doing anything, she was just sitting there petting herself, so that was kind of sad, but yeah. I've been making progress on the Invisible Library, which was the prompt for the second challenge of read a book that I think will make me happy. I'm slowly working through that one, and I think it's because I think it's gonna make me happy, so I want it to last, but again that's not how readathons work, like I should be reading it and getting it done, so I can move on to the next book because I'm really excited for that, but that's just not quite how I'm doing it, and it's kind of a bummer, but I did start my other book because I'm going to listen to it as an audiobook. It's Angel Mage by Garth Nix, and so I've started listening to that, and that is for the prompt of read a book that starts with A, and I am enjoying that, so I think I'll finish that one pretty quickly, and then I can hopefully pick up the pace on the Invisible Library so that I can continue on to the rest of the books in this challenge, and especially so because I want to do the Hogsmeade challenge, or readathon, by Book Roast, because like I, as you know, I have done my owls, and I'm going to do my noots, but there is there is a Hogsmeade challenge coming up here, and like I think it's from like June 22 to June 28, and so with that we can, well I'll go more detail of that, but that is adding more books onto my TBR than what I was expecting for this month, but I'm gonna try and correlate it so this book goes towards the Hogsmeade challenge and the Olympic Games challenge, so that's really what I'm trying to do, but it's it's a lot, so yeah I don't have too much for this update. My thoughts were pretty clear and simple just like the book was. It's June 21st, and it's a little after 10 o'clock, and I am still reading the Invisible Library. I think my thing with this book is that I'm expecting to like it so much, and I am enjoying it so much. I'm almost halfway that I don't want it to end, so I'm reading it really really slowly, like I've got like two audiobooks almost done before I finish this one physical book after 21 days, so it's going super slowly, but I'm really hoping to pick it up in the next day or so, so I can start doing what I always do in these read-a-thons and reading like a book a day and just barely making it. So honestly, I don't have much of an update. I'm really enjoying this. I'm almost done with Angel Mage by Garth Nix, which is the book to cover the prompt of a book that starts with A, and I'm listening to that as an audiobook, so that's the only way I'm getting these down apparently. So yeah, that's really all the update I have. Angel Mage is good, like I really like the concept in the world-building, but it's not always the easiest to understand, like you really have to be super invested in the story to pick up all the details and everything that happens, and I haven't always been that, so it's been a little confusing for me because of that. Yeah, hopefully I'll definitely start picking up the pace soon, slash maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. But yeah, I am gonna start the Hogsmeans read-a-thon. That'll probably be a separate video just because my computer has been really picky with its amount of content that I've been uploading to it, so that'll probably be a separate video, but it's gonna tie into this one quite a bit. So I'm gonna finally sit down and do some reading and hopefully not have it be where I have to read a book a day, because some of these books are really long, so we'll see. I'm gonna say goodbye for now and I'll update you when I finished a book or possibly more. It is Wednesday the 24th and I'm sitting here on my couch. I just got a bunch of reading done. I actually finished a book and I got up to get my next book and then this flufferdoodle right here decided to stay on my spot, but now I'm back. I finally finished The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, and this fulfilled my challenge of reading a book that I thought would make me happy and it did. I think it didn't make me as happy as I was hoping, but I still liked it in the end and I think that was because I chose this book because it was about books and the library and going out on missions to get books for the library and I love those kinds of books. I love that kind of reading, so I thought that it would kind of fulfill that joy, but I found the majority middle part of it to be more about the murder rather than like finding the book, you know? So like it was good and it was fulfilling, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but it was still really good. I rated it 4 out of 5 stars. I liked the characters. I liked how the characters really stayed true to themselves except for Kai. He was kind of back and forth a little bit and I was kind of confused on his character, but I dealt with that and it was okay. Yeah, so this book was about this woman named Irene who works for the library, the Invisible Library, and basically she goes out and retrieves books from different alternate worlds to help keep balance between chaos and order within all these different alternate worlds. It's a very intricate world building in terms of how it's all set up, but the world that they were in for like most of the book, I just had a really hard time picturing because it was like how it described what the women had to wear, but then like it had advanced technology, but it still seemed very Victorian and it was just kind of confusing and I had a hard time like getting one image of London that they were supposed to be in kind of set throughout the book, but I still enjoyed it. The plot was interesting. Yeah, it took me a very long time to read it and I think it's because it did dip in the middle for me a bit and I was really hoping that that wasn't the case. I was like no if I just if I go through it slowly or I don't pressure myself too much then I'll get it done but I'll like it more and it'll be at a better pace for me and really it just took me forever to read it. So right now it is just about 10 o'clock and it's almost dark outside. Like it wasn't dark outside like 10-15 minutes ago like the sun is kind of setting so I'm gonna start the tiger curse. This is the one to fulfill the prompt of my prediction to be a five star and as I said before I don't know if it's necessarily gonna be a five star but I do think it is going to be the highest rated book, the book I will most like of the ones that I chose for the TBR for this month. So I will start that but if it does get darker out and I'm still up I might switch to kill the queen because this is what I'm reading for the prompt to honor Artemis and that was to read when it's dark outside. We'll see how late I end up staying and how much of each I read. I have finished, I finished three books so I finished three of the five prompts so these are my last two books for the month if I'm just doing the basics for Apollo that I need to do but I would really like to do some of the extra activities so I'm hoping to get these two books finished before the end of the month so I can have some time to try and fulfill some of the other activities so that's my update for now and I will catch up with you guys once I am I have a better game plan or I'm farther into a book and I have something to say. Also I totally forgot to like mention that I also finished Angel Mage by Garth Nix today. I finished that audiobook way earlier today and I was like yes I got one book done today maybe I can do another and then yeah I did another so that was also a good one I believe I gave that three out of five stars no I gave it four out of five stars because I really enjoyed the world building the ending seemed kind of rushed and it was very quick and it seems like such a simple six that it took like one slightly creative mind to come up with when like this person's causing all this destruction and like fear in the hearts of all these people and it's like all you needed to do is this but other than that I really loved the characters each of the four main characters had such strong distinct personalities from each other and yet they work together so well some of the transitions was in the book were a little foggy so I kind of had a hard time like following along with those and kind of keeping up plus I wish there was a little more description of like the world itself like I had a harder time picturing places in my head but otherwise I thought it was like a really enjoyable book I just love the concept so much so I finished listening to Angel Mage which was fulfilling the prompt of reading a book that starts with a so I have finished the winners curse I finished the second book the invisible or then I finished Angel Mage which accomplished the third prompt that was also accomplished by format of audiobook but then I went back and I finished the second prompt and that was the invisible library so I've completed the first three prompts now so there we go all right now I'm gonna go back to reading I feel better though it's 2 30 in the morning of Sunday June 28 I have not gone to bed because I finished Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep I read the first chapter two nights ago and then last night I stayed up until three o'clock reading the first half of the book and then tonight I finished up or I finished the book and it's 2 30 I started reading at like 11 so there I've gotten four out of my five required readings for Team Apollo done why do I do this to myself why do I torture myself like this I don't know but I'm a good maybe a third almost a third of the way through Tiger's Curse by Cullen Hoke so I will definitely get this done tomorrow even if I have to stay up late like this again I will get it done so that I will at least complete all the challenges for my cabin and all of the requirements for the readathon I will be able I will be able to do some of the extras I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do them all because there are only a couple days left in this readathon so I don't know if I can read four and a half bucks one of them will be an audiobook one of them is 72 pages and is mostly pictures so I feel pretty good I'll get those done but then the other two are both like 400 plus pages like it's the toll and before she ignites which are both pretty big books so I would not count on that but I again I can't start those until I finish the Tiger Curse so there's my late night update for you guys I will talk more about what I thought about Kill the Queen either in the morning or just flat out at the end of the video when I kind of do a generic overall this is what I thought of this book and this book and this book because I want to go to bed now so goodnight hey everyone it is July 2 and that means that the Olympic Games readathon is officially over and it has been since the last day of June and I am now going to film this wrap-up so yeah I finished more books than the last update you got I just never really had time to film or I was too tired because I would either finish them late at night or I would finish them and then I'd move on to something else in my life so I'm just gonna go ahead and do a full kind of wrap-up more the overview on some of the other books that I read that I haven't really filmed about so let's get started with the first book that I read and finished was the Winner's Curse and I listened to this from the audiobook prompt and I'm actually almost done listening to the sequel not because I like it because I feel bad about starting series and not finishing them so I did finish the Winner's Curse and then the second book that I finished was actually Angel Mage and this one I also listened to as an audiobook it's by Garth Nix but I read this one to fulfill the prompt of read a book that starts with a so then I finished the book for the second prompt the Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman I read this for the prompt of read a book that will make you happy I enjoyed this book I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I was hoping I just feel like there was a lot more mystery of the murder rather than like really pursuing the book or getting to know the library or the magic behind all of it so I was a little disappointed but still made me very happy because it was it was still a good book like it was still a good book it just took me forever to get into it I think that was because I was afraid that either wasn't going to be as good as I was hyping it up to myself to be or because I didn't want it to end because it's a book about books and those make me happy so that's why I chose it for the prompt then the fourth book for the fourth prompt I read was Tiger's Curse by Colleen Hoke I'm very sorry for bad pronunciation I read that because for the prompt of read a book you think will be the highest rated that well a five star rating or the highest rating that you give I didn't think it would be a five star read I but I read it because I thought it was going to be the highest book that I rated off of the entire TBR and actually I rated this three out of five stars which I was kind of bummed about because for the first half of the book it was great there was a very few issues about it like I felt the main character Kelsey she gets a temporary job working at a circus where she meets this tiger and she kind of grows attached to the tiger because it's a white tiger and tigers are cool I can't blame her then this man approaches her and he is like I want to take you to India and you're gonna help me break the curse of this tiger and she agrees to go along and so it's their adventure of trying to break the curse and it is a series so it was not completed at the end of this book but I felt like Kelsey turned 18 at the beginning of the book but I still feel like she acted like a 14 year old like she acted well below what her age was which you don't always see in books like I always feel like characters act above their age because I have to but for her I just felt like she acted more childish than young adult-ish I guess and then there was this one line that got me a little bit like at the beginning of the book and that's so the tiger's curses this man was cursed to be a tiger but he has 24 minutes of the day with Kelsey to be human but then throughout the second half of the book is when it started to decline for me personally because I felt like people were causing drama for the sake of drama not because of actual things and they started to make relationships and actions more complicated than they needed to be just for the sake of being complicated and a lot of that also stemmed from a lack of communication which if you guys know I hate it when conflict is stemmed purely for lack of communication so when a lot of the conflict that doesn't come from the main plot of the book is from a lack of communication or doing dramatic things just to be dramatic and keep writing it started to go down for me and it started to become less interesting and more annoying to read like as the book went on I started to dislike Kelsey as like again for the first half maybe two-thirds of the book I thought she was a great character you know good protagonist yeah I can get behind her and I can get behind her and read but then she just started to decline and it really just kind of made me be like oh no I don't know if I want to keep reading about Kelsey so that that's why I rated it three out of five stars because I thought like the first half of it was great but then the second half it just started kind of going downhill for me personally moving up so then the last challenge that I fulfilled I did manage to film a little bit of previously and it was the last of the five required challenges for my cabin and that was to read a book honoring Artemis and I chose to do Artemis's prompt of reading a book only at night or when it's dark outside and so for that I read Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep and I enjoyed it I had a few like a major problems with it but overall I thought it was just fine good read I would be intrigued to continue reading the trilogy there are two more books after it that I know of that I would I would be okay with reading if I had the time to devote to that which I I could but we'll see and then so I finished all of the five challenges that I had to but then I had four prompts to choose from for some bonus challenges for this read-a-thon and I was able to get two out of the four of those done I was hoping to do all four but in the back of my head I knew I wasn't gonna get all four so I was hoping to do at least three I only did two one was Archery and that was read a book under the 200 pages and for that I read the Tea Dragon Society and I loved it so much that I made my mom read it immediately after and then I made my dad read it immediately after it's just a cute story it's by Katie O'Neill it's just such a cute story about you know these dragons and you like harvest leaves off their horns to make tea but like you gotta care for them and it was just adorable that's all I can say and the artwork was beautiful and amazing too and then the last book that I finished I literally just sat there and listened to the audiobook all the way through until like 3 in the morning it was just sitting in my bed with the lights off listening to the audiobook being like I want to finish I want to get this done and that was the Queen of Nothing and this was for the climbing wall I was to read the next book in a series so this is the third book in the trilogy by Holly Black the air folk trilogy and I as soon as this came out I had read both of the previous books and I was so excited to read this and then I just never bought it so I never read it no like a day or so ago like the last night of the read-a-thon I just sat there and listened to this audiobook and I gotta say it was a good ending to the trilogy I liked the ending it was a very satisfying ending I feel like it was just kind of a of kind of a lighter book you know not quite super complicated plot or not as much trickery as in the previous books but I mean it's also just a shorter book and it was kind of the ending so I really didn't mind it I I kind of want to read all three books again one right after another because there was so much time and space between the second one and the third one I really did enjoy it and I I would highly recommend the trilogy because all three books in the trilogy were amazing and especially like the last one like for it being short and kind of a lighter read I thought it was great I'm debating on making a video just reviewing each of the three books in the trilogy and then the trilogy overall so if you're interested in seeing that more specific to the air folk trilogy for Holly Black then leave a comment down below saying yes I would love to watch like a more in-depth review of the trilogy as a whole or of each individual book because that's something I've been more interested in doing lately and there were two books like I said that I did not get to and one was before she ignites I did start reading this I'm literally a chapter into it so I barely started reading it so we'll see and then the other one which was one I really didn't expect to read but it would have been nice if I could have but I wasn't going to was a toll by Neil Schusterman because this thing is thick it is big it is huge and for a read-a-thon and especially with how little time I left myself after I finished the first five books I knew it wasn't gonna happen but I'm just so excited to finish this trilogy so this would be honestly another trilogy that I've been sitting here like okay I want to film a video of the trilogy as a whole in each independent book just like doing a more in-depth review of because I really enjoyed this trilogy and I really want to talk about it more so I'm bummed that I didn't get to it but hopefully those will be two books I get to soon but as June is over my fantasy reading is over that is the end of this video please comment click subscribe like the video and do all that jazz if you want to keep following me during my year-long journey of exploring different genres and reading different genres or if you're as excited for the reading rush coming up as I am because I am so excited for that and with that I will leave you with a happy reading