 Hey fellow raiding warriors and welcome back to another video. Yes, I know the angling on this video is not the best And I also know that this background is nothing bookish, but I am currently at my parents house And I'll be here for another week or so and There really is no good place to film in my parents house So like I'm sorry both all the lighting really sucks But then also I only brought so many books with me and none of my parents own books They're very much audio book listeners or they get books from the library like there. There just is nothing here So I just want to first disclaimer. I know this may not be the best quality video and if my voice is really echoey That's just the room that I am in again This is the room that had the best lighting and I I just I'm throwing it out there. I know I'm sorry, but Welcome to my December wrap up Be the last wrap up video that I do in this style or format Because I'm thinking that these videos don't always Allow me to really talk about the books as in depth as I want to because if I end up reading a lot of books I don't want to make this video like a million years long So I can't sit there and talk about them as much as I want to so I'm thinking of trying out something new for my kind of review slash wrap ups I'm thinking of combining vlogs and Reviews into one video but doing it for just one book. So when I start a book I'm gonna talk about what I think about it before going into it. I'm gonna vlog Me reading it specifically Maybe if I do something fun or interesting that'll be included in the vlog But it's not a vlog of just my life or my reading life or you know, it's not like a weekly vlog It's a vlog of however long it took me to read that book my thoughts along the way And then at the end a spoiler-free review as always if there are spoilers in the review Then I will let you know beforehand either in the title of the video or I'll have a screen flash I've only ever done spoilers for a book once but that's that's not something I need to do when I talk about books so or like I can save it for When other people reach out to me and said like oh I read this book and then I could be like oh that ending though And they could be like right? So it's not something that will be brought up in videos a lot But anyway, now let's actually get into the books that I read this December I didn't quite read as many books as I wanted to but I am Okay with that like I don't feel bad about it because December was just so Busy, you know, I'm still a college student. And so you know, I had exams I had final projects. I had like wrap-up thing like I just had so much to do But I still read a few books the first book that I finished I listened to the audiobook for it and that is a song of race and ruins by Rosé and Brown I rated this book four out of five stars and here's why so this book kind of follows two different characters There is the princess who is never meant to rule until Unfortunate accidents happen and she ends up being the next in line to rule and no one expected her to take over She doesn't have the personality for it. She wasn't ever trained for it And so she in realizing this is like mm. This is not good I need to bring my mother back from the dead to fix all this and so that's her mission while on the other hand There is a boy and his will not boy There's a guy a man male character who has two sisters an older sister and a younger sister and they are trying to blend in with the people of the land because they are not the people of the land and His younger sister ends up getting kind of kidnapped I guess by a spirit by a little god or something And so he needs to kill the princess in order to get her back And so the way that he goes about doing this is by entering a competition and the competition in the book is to see So there's gonna be each competitor each representing a different Deity a different god that represents a people group and kind of an element So like there's the god of light. There's a god of fire. There's a god of water There's you know all those different things and so he Volunteers to be the champion for his deity and he enters the competition and the majority of the book Like the middle of the book just is going through the competition completing the tasks and doing our Making relationships with other characters Attempting to kill people But it was interesting because the competition is not completely like Battle-based or fighting-based which was kind of nice because you know you always think competition and the first thing that comes to your mind is like Hunger games ask or like it always has some theme to it But this was like a diverse competition, you know, it could be physical could be mental It could be artistic and so that's one thing that I really liked about this book was that the competition kind of dipped Into different elements of what competitions can be note This is also based off of West African mythology as well and it was beautiful I really liked the characters in this one I feel like they all had some degree of growth while I would have loved to see them grow more It's definitely they were not just flat or they were not just there to be there Like there was always some element of growth and personality with every character and that is something I really appreciate in books If you have a distinct character that I can pick out That's that's great. And I feel like this book had that with all of its like major characters I feel like the pacing of this good was pretty good. It had a faster ending which normally I enjoy But sometimes it can be really hard to enjoy fast ending if you don't always comprehend Everything that's going on like I found myself like I listened to the audio book But then I would have to go back to the physical book and kind of reread or kind of rethink about things and let them sink in before I could finish finishing the book So I felt like the ending was just a little fast But other than that it was pretty good. The thing about this book is that there was some Elements actions in here that I was like, oh, I bet this is gonna happen and then it did But sometimes there's always a twist to it or I didn't get all of it We're like, you know, there would there were surprises. So it was it was a good balance of Yes, the reader can probably guess what's going on But also I'm not calling the entire book because calling the entire book is boring I know and it gets frustrating, you know, I know it's gonna happen. So just hurry up and happen already But not calling anything Like I enjoy those but I just feel like I don't read a lot of those anymore And so it's it's exciting But it's also you get that you get that sense of like pride and happiness when you call something in your book You're like, oh, I bet it's gonna be this and then you read a little bit longer and then it is and you're like Oh, I so knew it and you get all excited and then something else right after happens that you didn't see coming And so you're just like but I didn't see that coming and so I feel like this book did a really good job of balancing of predictability and Being unpredictable and it was the perfect amount for me So that's that's why I gave this book four out of five stars because there wasn't anything about it that I Really didn't like like I said, I wish the characters could have been a little more like they could have had more growth Like they were developed, but they didn't have a lot of growth Especially the main male character like I think Malik could have had a little more Um But yeah, so I gave it four out of five stars. I really enjoyed it. Yeah Yeah, it's good enough for me The next book that I ended up finishing was mirror mirror by Jen Calanita I don't have the dust jacket with me because I brought it from Minnesota And I don't want to bring dust jackets on books when I travel with them because I am so afraid that they're gonna get Ripped a little bit or teared or like something is gonna happen because I do love this dust jacket So it's it's still it's mirror mirror But you know The plain black version. Sorry this book. I gave a three out of five stars It was not my favorite twist detail that I read so the twist was what if the queen poisoned the prince instead of snow white And that twist really did not come into play until the last 50 pages maybe even less So I feel like the whole book wasn't based off the twist But the book was still different than the original story and that's one thing that kind of frustrated me I was just kind of like, you know, if you're gonna put a twist on the book and you're gonna write the book differently Then the twist needs to be the reason like, you know Like I just feel like for the whole point of the book is the twist But for the twist to be at the end and have The middle of the book would be different than the original There is no reason for the middle of the book to be different than the original Because there's nothing to twist it, you know And if that is supposed to be the twist is oh the well the middle the thing that was different is the twist One no, it wasn't Because it wasn't and two make that more known in the The description or in the twist, you know, just it just didn't make sense to change the story before the whole point Of the story being different actually comes into play. Sorry if that's not super clear But if you read the book, I hope you understand Um, but it's still a strong three out of five stars because it was like a well written book I liked the characters. I really appreciated what they did with the whole Birds thing because, you know, all the disney princesses are like saying beautifully and all the birds come tweeting about especially with snow white I really like how they handled it as her mother had an aviary So snow has a passion for birds and knows about birds because of that. I thought that was a very clever like Way to make this fantastical like fairytale thing still be involved but still have it be more realistic I really liked that. I also loved how the author handled the apple and I don't just mean Like oh the evil queen had an apple and that's what she poisoned with. I was like, no There was a reason it was apples and it was because of snow's mom Developing a new variety of apple and that's how they got to the kingdom like and the thing about this book is that half of it was The evil queen growing up and her life with her sister And then what's happening in modern day as snow Was attempted to be killed and then ends up running away finding the doors blah blah blah So it was really cool to see Where the evil queen comes from why she is the way she is and then also what happened with snow's Mother what truly happened there and how it all worked because I mean we all know that like She was killed and then the evil queen in chance Snow's father and that's how she becomes queen, but you never knew more about her Before that and so it was really interesting to see their relationship and the Terror that the evil queen has in her heart between being corrupted by the mirror And her love for her sister and just wanting to protect her younger sister as she has had to do her entire life So that was really cool. I really it was really nice to kind of get that background On both of those characters one thing though that did bother me was that when it came to the dwarves It was really just Grumpy like some of the other dwarves would have like a line or two But grumpy seemed to be the leader He seemed to be the one coming up with the plans and the ideas and helping to know like it was grumpy Who was kind of taking charge of everything which was Personally not my favorite thing I completely understand the choice and I can see how other people would love it, but it's like it's grumpy His name is grumpy. He's called grumpy for a reason. Why is grumpy acting not so grumpy and doing things like I just I wish that another dwarf had stepped up to be more of the um Of the leader of the group or the one coming up with the ideas or at least made it more diversified throughout the door So like each of them did something Helpful rather than just grumpy does this grumpy says this grumpy does that Oh doc adds in a comment and then we're back to grumpy like I was I was like What is this even grumpy? like One thing I will say that I wish I had more of those like so as I said earlier I really loved the background on the evil queen and Her sister's knows mom However, I still wish there was more background on the mirror because when the evil queen finds the mirror It's the evil queen finds the mirror And then their journey together beings there is nothing about The mirror itself where it came from or any other information of it other than like what we see of it through the Evil queen so that was another thing that I kind of wished had a little more and I mean it was a smaller book you know, it's only like Not even 350 pages. So I definitely think there is room For there to be a little bit more just a little more background on the mirror itself That would have been really cool but The only other thing I wish that this book had was a little more emotional depth outside of the evil queen Like I said, there was a lot going on with the evil queen But that that was it like snow didn't really have many emotions the prince didn't really do much her father Had some emotion. That was pretty cool. But like Yeah, just another little tidbit to add in there So that's why I rated it three out of five stars because it was a well written book I liked it There were some certain things that they took from the fairy tale that they incorporated really well Like I said with the apples and the birds But there were just some things that were kind of lacking that I really wanted More from from this especially in regards to the twist I just I wish that that wasn't something that happened and then got resolved within like 20 30 pages within the last 50 pages of the book Especially if that's going to be such a major part of the theme of the book and all the other books like I just think it could have been done a little bit better But it was still a good book I would still recommend it especially if you love all the other disney twisted tales Or if you're interested in anything like that, I would still recommend it So There we go Second book that I finished Then the third and final book that I finished was Star Daughter by Shweta Thakura So I listened to the audiobook of this all the way up until chapter 27 And then I finished the book reading it because The audiobook was due back at the library But that was a very interesting thing for me to do was to start off listening to it I'm really glad I started listening to it and then went to reading for it, especially for some of the names I'm not going to lie. Every time I said Charumati, I'm pretty sure Like if I had just read it all the way through I would have been like Char Charumat Charumati And just had to like slowly read it every single time I read the book But that's that's just because I am not used to Hindu South Asian names. And so that's on me. Nothing on the book. I love this book. Okay, just I recommend if you're not very familiar with South Asian culture or mythology or Hindu mythology Listen to the audiobook because it's gonna be a lot more helpful to get you through it faster than if you're reading it being like Cha like trying to sound everything out, but I gave this book five out of five stars Let me explain so First off was because I want to be more open to giving books five out of five stars because I have such a like A book needs to be actually perfect in order to get a five out of five star rating That's just not really a thing. That's not very possible. I shouldn't hold books to that kind of standard So i'm starting off my year technically. I finished this like january two So just but we're including it in the wrap up because this is where it belongs so First finish of the year of 2021 that i'm including in the december wrap up got a five out of five stars And that is because this book itself is a work of art This book talks like the prose is done so beautifully of the whole concept Of this girl being the daughter of star and mortal Is is beautiful and it's very elegant like everything about the stars was elegant So it's about this girl who knows she's half star and there are elements of herself that she has to hide To hide that she's half star in the mortal world. And so You know, she does that and then one day she ends up getting in a fight with her dad And she accidentally burns him with her star fire that's kind of in her And so then she has to go to the heavens find her mom and ask for help as only a star's blood Can heal her father. She tried her blood But no, it has to be a full star's blood to fully heal her father But when she gets there and she finds Her mom and her grandma and her grandpa and all these family members that she's always wanted to meet Next thing she knows she's their champion for a competition And she's not exactly sure she really wants to do that She kind of just wants to save her dad and get back to earth and just see her mom So it was just such a beautiful book just describing the heavens and what they wore and what they ate and it was just all beautiful Um, just know that if you are not familiar with hindu mythology I would say just keep your mind open because I don't think you necessarily need to go and look things up about the mythology in order to understand Because when it lists a certain god or goddess, it'll say patron goddess of music, etc But otherwise if it doesn't give that description, it's really not that important to the book to the plot to the story Also, there were so many stories told in this book that were just all so Like beautiful and emotional and just like oh, it strikes you it really does It strikes you with this elegance. And then it's the whole idea of how the stars are Portrayed and it really comes through well in the book And that was just such a wonderful break to what I have been reading Like it was just so different than anything else I've read in this month I specifically focused on fairy tales and mythologies. So like that was pretty big And I think that's definitely why I got such a higher rating. But that being said on the whole Idea of this book just being a piece of art There are some moments that like art are led up into interpretation or are kind of hard to Understand there was there would be like a moment or two when it would be talking about her Singing and I was thinking that she was like actually singing when I think it was singing into The song that flows through all stars, which is something different Which is a really cool concept that I actually understood. So like well done on that author Um But then all of a sudden it'd be like she never sung and so there were just a few moments That was kind of confusing on what was actually happening But you know if you just read over it again, or you just keep reading it will eventually become clear I loved the main character she tells best friend Mina I loved her thought she was such a great character And I really admired she told to like she was a character that I actually Like felt like I knew about who was very emotional and I I admired that about her Um, I did like all the other characters. Everyone had their own Umf to them, which was greatly appreciated. So yeah, that's really what I thought about this book It is my first and only five out of five star read And great characters great plot elegant beautiful writing So many little stories in here with the big main story that it just It it fulfilled me. It made me very happy. So Seriously, I would highly recommend this Whether or not, you know a lot about south asian or hindu mythology or culture just seriously just read it Okay, I just have one more quick thing to kind of talk about before I end the video I am currently Reading conceal don't feel by Jen Kalanita. This is another disney twisted tales. This is based off of frozen The twist is what if Anna and Elsa never knew each other? Um, I'm only on page 50 so far I don't like the idea of the twist like going into it. I was like, oh, I don't really like this twist But it's a short book and I want to read all of them. So I'm reading it anyway But then within the first 50 pages I think I know what they mean with the twist and where they're going with it And I think I appreciate it more than what I initially thought I think it's more Anna still is Elsa's sister She was just given a way to be raised by a different family to protect both her and Elsa If that's the case, I'm all for it. If not, I hate the twist just saying So yeah, I'm currently reading this I'm hoping to get it finished very quickly so that I can Move on to some of the other books that I have That I want to read sooner. So I am thinking I'm not really wanting to do much of a Month tbr or like film any tbr videos. I kind of just want to read whatever books I'm feeling like at the time and whatever I have on my shelf So I'm not really going to be filming a lot of tbrs Just like I'm not going to be filming like official wrap-ups. So just keep an eye out for that But yeah, that's why I'm trying to finish conceal Don't feel as quickly as possible because there's another book that I just really want to read right now and just Try my new idea of adding of combining vlog and wrap-up for one book into one video I'm really anxious to start that Process so yeah, and that is the end of this video Please comment down below if you've read any of these books or you have any similar books that you'd like to read I really enjoyed reading fairy tale slash mythology. I loved it so much Like the video if obviously you liked it and subscribe to my channel I will be posting every thursday and hopefully it's gonna be a lot of fun Especially this next coming year as I'm kind of getting the channel put together a little bit more a little bit better So follow me on that journey by subscribing and I wish you all a happy reading