 And it just doesn't make sense because they should be dead. Ray Carson running away from plot holes. What's gonna happen? Gonna shoot me? I doubt it. You have to catch me first, I'm like a whippet. Hello friends, I hope you're doing well. Welcome back to another reading vlog. So usually I do themed reading vlogs but this week I'm living at this desk because my final year deadline is due and it involves a lot more work than I thought it would and I'm stressed. So I wanted just like a chill theme for this week and so I decided to read some new and upcoming releases. I find that I'm not reading new and upcoming releases often as I want to be because I do the theme vlogs and so I thought that this week it would just give me a chance to read kind of what's coming out or what is about to come out. So the first thing I'm going to be reading is The Empire of Dreams by Ray Carson. So if you don't know I've been doing a read along for the original series leading up to this. This is a companion novel to the Crown of Fire... Crown? Girl? Girl. Ha! The second one's called Crown of Embers, that's why I got mixed up, to the Girl of Fire and Thorns series and I've really enjoyed all the books so far. They've all kind of been like four stars for me, not like a new fave but really good books and this one is following a child that we know in the third book kind of eight years on and the Queen wants to adopt her and the court says no like in order for the Queen to adopt her the court has to vote on it. So she decides to go into the Royal Guard instead and be the first girl to train in the Royal Guard and I think it's basically the story of her dealing with PTSD and trauma that she had in her past life before she came into the court because she used to be a slave. The next book I'm going to be reading is actually an e-art so thank you very much to Roundham House UK for sending this to me and it is One by One by Ruth Ware. Oh my god I'm so excited to read this so if you don't know I loved The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware, it was actually the first ever reading vlog I ever did but One by One comes out in October or November I think, I think it's maybe October in the US and November in the UK and so I should have waited a little bit longer before reading it like I should have read it a bit close to the release date but I can't wait and from what I know it follows a group of people who know each other going to the ski resort and it's very isolated I think they get trapped. I think there's some mergers that's basically all I know but as soon as I heard that Ruth Ware was coming out with a new thriller and like an isolated one at that like where the characters are so insular I'm so excited. I am one of the fortunate ones. When I've been reading other books I'm like I just really want to read a thriller like I'm in such a mood for a thriller so hopefully I'll love that and then the final book I'm going to be reading is Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo so this has just come out the other day. My copy is on its way it's coming from Waterstones I paid it with it with my £10 Waterstones credit because if you don't know every £10 you spend with Waterstones you get £1 so basically every £100 you spend you earn £10 to spend you can only spend it when you earn the £10 if that makes sense it's like a stamp system and so I spent my £10 on it I paid for first-class shipping which was an extra pound so that hopefully I can get it in time for this video. Again I don't know too much about the plot I think it's about two girls whose dad died and they find out they have the same dad I think but I loved the Poe X by Elizabeth Acevedo it was again like a full star for me I hope it arrives in time but anyway without further ado let's just get into the vlog and I'm going to start The Empire of Dreams so I am just over halfway through Empire of Dreams I'm really enjoying it it's a lot of funding in the same universe same world same land whatever you want to call it but with red not with Elisa she's taken in by Elisa at the end of the third book well no throughout the third book she's like a really fun girl but she was in slavery before that Elisa buys her out of slavery and she's obviously been through some really troubled stuff and this one is dealing a lot with PTSD that red has it's flushing back between then and now then and now then and now and so we're seeing parts of her childhood before she even met Elisa that we were never aware of seeing all the stuff that she went through like seeing her mother die in front of her being branded a slave and then in the present day Elisa and Hector they attempted to adopt red but they had to have a vote on it in the court and the court voted against it there was a plot against them and they didn't it didn't happen so then red decides I'm going to go train with the royal guards I'm going to be the first girl to go and train with the royal guards and that's going to be kind of how we salvage my reputation something I'm really enjoying in this is the way that Ray Carson is managing to show that the boys will not be entirely respectful to her to red because they're not they're making snide comments but how they are also not just one note there's a lot of boys who are helping her who are looking out for her a lot of boys come to respect her more than anyone else I just think it's really interesting how we're seeing red come into her strength and be really brave she's back for her crown the bitch is back she's back for her crown yeah she's having to like protect her brother Rosario from like an assassination plot she's trying to do all these things and she's just a little girl who's been through a lot and seeing how her past effects are very interesting however I am halfway through I don't feel like a whole lot has happened but I think it is just a bit of a slower simpler book hello I actually look ill I'm so pale you haven't seen me without conceit on in a hot minute let me tell you that so I finished this like a few days ago and just realized I'd forgotten to talk to you about it I enjoyed it quite a bit I thought that it dealt with trauma really really well however it did feel a bit weird for the book to be so stationary it's pretty much just in one place in a very enclosed place at that because the guards the trainee guards aren't allowed to leave the place that they're living at very often when the other three books in the original series were very much traveling books so you're constantly moving from place to place to place so it was like polar opposites in that regard and that was a bit weird to be reading I gave it four stars because I felt like I couldn't give it a three star but then we did the live and I think the other girls didn't love it quite as much Nicole definitely gave it two stars and I wasn't discussing with them I was like oh I felt like it dealt with PTSD really well and they were like hang on it's to do with PTSD I was like yeah it says so in the back and I think I had read the bit in the back the authors acknowledgments before reading the book and so maybe that's how I knew but they were like we had no idea that it was that she was suffering with PTSD because it's never spelled out and it's not particularly clear then the final nail on the coffin which resulted in me lowering this to like a 3.5 was that we realized and I don't want to spoil anything for the original books but basically a character a character comes back at the end very integral to the plot that we've known before but we thought was dead and when I was reading it I was just glossed over who exactly they were but in the first book they die and then one character says from another one they're dead aren't they and the other character says yes I think so and then we just never hear of them again I thought she died I thought she died too yes hang on the army breaks the I'm on Wikipedia so like this may not be this may not be trustworthy but the army breaks through the palace of defense and kills she's dead how do you make the mistake isn't all thought and then when we read the end of this book it actually looked like nothing happened and I saw other storyline happens as to how they left and how why they weren't in the rest of the books and it just doesn't make sense because they should be dead Ray Carson running away from plot tells what's gonna happen gonna shoot me I doubt it you have to catch me first I'm like a whip it because oh it's choking me up I'm so upset I am lowering it to a 3.5 I don't think this is the kind of book I'm gonna remember or think about much further than like a couple weeks away I mean I finished it like two days ago and I'm already kind of like on the details and then I have started one by one on my iPad I'm only like 3% in or something like that I'm not far in oh the the sun is coming out on us today I am nervous because it feels very very very similar to the hunting party by Lucy Foley now if you know me you know I love the guest list by Lucy Foley I didn't like the hunting party by her and it was set like a remote kind of ski lodge wilderness lodge with a bunch of rich people and that oh my god this lighting is ridiculous it's redone say that shit again say it again it's just full of rich people with rich people problems it felt like to me and this seems like very much the same we're following a kind of app called snoop the the people who work at an app are on like a corporate trip there and it's basically a music app where you can listen to what you can see what everyone is listening to at the time who you follow so like if Beyonce had it you could see what Beyonce was listening to and listen to it alongside her in real time and so they've gone to this lodge and there's like a woman and a man who run the running of the lodge like there's an hunting party and I'm worried about that however it does seem like there is a normal one in the group someone who used to work at the company and left but has come on the trip as well and she seems like she has it together a bit from what I can tell so far which is what I thought the hunting party was missing they were all just annoying they were all just horrible people whereas with the guest list you had again a bunch of rich people who didn't like but there was one normal person within that group and so I feel like if we have that in this it will make it easier for me to read and enjoy my god she's she's really cute and like the lettering is is raised don't you love the color scheme like the color scheme is actually killing it and the girls are so beautiful hang on let me focus it right isn't it like just so beautifully done in terms of the book holy shit oh my god excuse me it's so good I'm just past 50% at the way in and essentially you do I think I've said this but you do find out right the beginning that four people are dead I don't want to spoil anything obviously I'm 50% of the way through and it's an arc as well so like not a lot of people have reviewed it I think that's difficult I've never done this before where like I've not heard anyone else speak about it and so you kind of are able to judge what you can speak about by what everyone else is speaking about but things are happening very gradually and it's building a suspense even more each time it's gotta get a sip of water they are snowed in they're stuck in this chalet with each other and I love the isolation of it I really love when murder mysteries are completely isolated your your cast of characters are completely you know on their own I don't know who to trust I really don't know who to trust and even the people who you think you can trust have got secrets you know I said we're kind of reading from the two most normal people's uh points of view but there's definitely aspects of them that means I can't trust them which is great because like I feel like it just adds a whole other dimension to it oh they're all just starting I feel like it hasn't happened yet but I feel like they're all going to start turning on each other and Ruth Ware is just doing something to me I need to read all her other books now because wow I am so proud of her I could cry and here we go yo it could easily be a five star like this could easily be a new thing a book so I think I even prefer it to the turn of the key I loved it I'm giving it five stars okay let me explain I don't I can't say anything about the plot obviously I look I look you can tell I don't have a good sleep anyway um the baddie is revealed about 75 percent of the way in and I figured out who was going to be about 50 percent of the way in and just like literally just after I checked in with you last and when I figured it out I was like oh but I hope it's not because I really don't want it to be there I'm like I I think that'll really annoy me and then the time between that realization and then it being revealed like she slowly worked you over to the idea of you being okay with it being them and like you being like oh yeah this is this is dope you know in the end kind of half the way that the tension built and how ominous it was was brilliant there was a really great mix between on-the-edge suspense moments where kind of like nothing's happened and you feel like you're always you're always teetering on the edge of like something big happening and then like action it was this is a this is a new favorite this is a new favorite I have to own it when it comes out oh my god you guys put it on your want to read right now pre-order it I don't care I'm gonna go pre-order it your volume levels are up here it needs to be brought down to here I think Ruth wears writing in this is absolutely incredible I need to read all of Ruth wears other stuff now um I think I want to read either the woman the woman in cabin 10 next or the death of mrs west away so let me know which of those you prefer but I cannot wait for this to come out I think it is brilliant I think it's so good this setting the isolation that the characters are in unable to get help unable to speak to anyone the mistrust within the group and the way that you don't trust anyone I loved it I'm giving it five stars I want you all to go and put it on your want to read and maybe we'll read it all together again when it comes out because it was so so so so good anyway I'm going to go start clap when you land now these are Mickey Mouse ears the reason I have more than about to take part in Karras's Disney quiz um I'm loving this I think I prefer this to the Poe X by quite a long way the only thing I don't think it's going to be a five star I my guess is that it's going to be like a four point five star because I feel like because Elizabeth Acevedo's books are told in verse they read so fast and so they feel quite short and so it feels like there's not a lot of plot and like I'm over halfway through and we're still kind of just up to what the blurb says so I feel like these books aren't focused on plot they're very much focused on character feelings and I'm enjoying that but like I I think that means I can't give it a five star as much as I enjoy it being much more focused on the characters past and how the characters are feeling in this kind of like one moment I do need a bit of plot I do need a bit of intrigue for a book to be a five star but the way that we're seeing these two girls deal with grief deal with the loss of their father deal with the troubles of being a woman in their own respective countries learning who they are in relation to this man who they know now lied to them about their identity about his life is so brilliantly done and there's so many lines in here that I just stand out to me oh my god it's making my chest hurt talking about this I think the characters are really different in a really understated way it's very subtle how they're so different to each other final thoughts on Clap When You Land I'm gonna give it four stars there was a point when I thought this was gonna be a 4.5 stars but I think that the ending felt very rushed I read Jess's review and I'll link her channel down below I love her channel where she said on Goodreads that it feels like the story never really moves along from what you find out in the blurb and I think that is definitely true it is much more a story of how they deal with this one event emotionally and so I don't think that's a bad thing but like I would have liked a bit more plot I would have liked just a little bit a little bit something more I gotta have more I gotta have more I wanted more of an exploration of their lives together of them getting to know each other and I didn't really get that the writing is beautiful like some of the most beautiful writing in this some some of the lines in this just stand out and stick with you but in terms of like oh I liked when this happened I liked how this happened there's not really that it's just like feeling you are like you are in these characters heads like you've never felt like that before if that makes sense so whilst I I love that aspect of it I definitely admire that aspect of it there are some ways in which I just wish more had happened so I could tell you about it and like how I felt about it a lot of the characters feel um complex relationships in this towards the girls dad because they all had very complex relationships with him and I think that's explored very well there's so much that's explored so well and and that that tension that like contrast that is it dichotomy is that the word I'm looking for but that like push and pull between your love for this person and recognizing that they they did wrong to people is a very interesting thing that's explored in this book so if you've been eyeing this up I would definitely recommend that you'll fly through it it's a super quick read and it's brilliant but just know going into it that there's not a lot of plot like not much happens so as long as you're okay with that then I would definitely recommend picking it up so there we have it I hope you enjoyed going through all these new and upcoming releases with me let me know if you'd like a video like this again soon sometime in the future and there are a lot of books coming out I'm excited about because I'd like just get to them you know sometimes I feel like I put them off so yeah I hope you enjoyed this video thank you ever so much for watching till the end I'm surprised that you did and I will see you very soon in another one bye