 Hello, hello everyone. My name is Laura. This is my channel Laura's Little Library and welcome to today's video This is my November wrap-up It's November, which is pretty good for me. I mean October was amazing, but that's That's a whole other thing. So Six Books was pretty good for me Um, and all of my reviews are up on Goodreads So if you want to see like a physical version of my review You can go ahead and follow me on Goodreads or become my friend And then and the link to my Goodreads is down below in the description as is all of my other book is social media So you can go ahead and follow me on there and why they're down there. Why not just click the subscribe button hit the bell? I am posting Four videos a week. Yes, you heard me right so Because of my recent little leap of absence Which is explained in my life slash book is update video that I did before the bullet journal that just went up Um, I kind of explained I had COVID and so I didn't have the energy to be filming two videos a week But now that I'm feeling much better I will be making up all the videos that I missed plus I had bonus videos planned for December anyway So I'm posting four times a week for the month of December So click subscribe and hit the bell so that you're notified every time I post because it's gonna be a lot and it's exciting But yeah, so let's Now let's just get into the video and talk about the six books that I read So the first book that I read was curses by Alicia McBride and I read this as a finishing to My Halloween reading extravaganza spooky season in October and so I had such a good reading month This was for my shape shifter week It seemed a lot like a beauty in the beast retelling I don't know if it officially is or if it just drew a lot of influence from But it's like a beauty in the beast gender swap. So the princess I believe she is a duchess and She was her mom wanted her to get married to someone and she was like no So she got cursed by a fairy to turn into a beast Until she marries either someone of her choosing or her mother's choosing by her 18th birthday 31st birthday, you know something like that and in this society curses are actually somewhat common They have found an elixir Made from a certain rare flower that can help reverse the effects of a physical curse for a short amount of time so that is our Beast and our beauty is the son of a con Family so his parents are common his siblings are common. He is a common man And he gets hired by the princess to help her figure out Who would be a good husband? Whether it's someone her mother likes or someone that she might like she's pretty certain She's not gonna like anyone so she'll just marry the best choice of her mom's choosing So her mom writes up a list and they go through all the potential suitors I thought this book was good. I rated it three out of five stars. I think it was a pretty solid book It's it's a bit of a longer one. It's a bit of a chunker So I the audio book really helped me get through this one, but I felt like there were parts that could definitely be taken out I felt like there were just kind of unimportant parts to kind of make the book shorter and a little bit of a faster read To make it a little bit more enjoyable Like there were moments where I felt like I was falling asleep or I had zoned out and then when I came back to the Nothing had changed. Like I didn't miss anything. We were still in the same scene or still doing this It's all doing that so when I can zone out and then like come back into a book and feel like I didn't miss anything That to me just says that it's either really slow-paced or things can be cut because it couldn't keep my attention Really, I loved I love the characters in this It's really fun because she's kind of part of this support group of other cursed people So you could kind of see it wasn't a strong a bond is like found family But you could definitely see the relationship between Then as a commonality of being cursed and I thought the curses themselves were really unique I wish we had dove in a little bit more into the Fantastical of the world whether it be the curses or magic in general or where the fairies came from I felt like we could have had a little bit more background on that and a little bit more world building rather than just easy politics It was a very interesting ending. I will say that but Honestly, so I mentioned how I really like the characters Especially our main male lead. He's a favorite. I love him, but honestly my most favorite character of all Hob the cat the cats will always get me the cats will always be my favorite characters if they're Mentioned for more than like once in the book or like Once a couple times on a page, you know, so yeah, I thought it was just a solid book it I read it all the way through. I Enjoyed moments of it. I really enjoyed the characters. I kind of liked the plot, but it wasn't It wasn't super unique But it wasn't super Not necessarily predictable, but just You know, it wasn't too generic, but it wasn't too unique. So it was kind of it was a solid It was a three-star book. I also read sweet and bitter magic And this is by Adrian Thule and again continuation from October This was one of my witchy books and oh, I loved this book. I loved it so much I don't I didn't write down what I rated it. So I can't tell you what it was Hold please. I See what I rated it. I rated this five out of five stars. I loved it So this follows two different women two different witches technically one is Tamron and she Has this dark mysterious past that got her like exiled from the coven And now she's to that first so that she can't feel love or like joy or really any of the positive emotions mostly love um And so she is living in the village just doing little things for people But instead of paying her money she takes love from people so that she can feel and Then we also follow run and she lives with her father who is not doing well And then a plague comes upon the land and she's like oh, no, my father's not gonna do this I'm secretly a witch. I never went to the coven, but I should have So now I gotta figure out how to stop the plague to save my father so she ends up teaming up with Tamron and They they go on this hilarious adventure to try and find the witch who has started the plague Oh my gosh First off the banter any book that has banter as good as this is just going to be a four-star book Most likely and so I love the banter between the characters. I love the relationship I thought it was so interesting a grumpy sunshine trope I should mention and this was definitely the book that I was like Grumpy sunshine Because I loved it so much in this book She's grumpy because she can't feel love and she is sunshine Just because it's who she is and I loved it I loved their relationship and there were so many twists and turns in the plot There are a couple times where I was like it could be like this or it could be this or it could be that and then I know and then it ended up being something else and I was like, oh my goodness That is amazing there you it you would figure out this one big twist and you'd be like oh, okay Oh my gosh, and then you and then another twist will come along and you'd be like yep Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. That makes sense. That's coming. Yep And it just kept going that way and so The characters were great. The plot was great. I liked the world building Yeah, I just five out of five stars. I very much enjoyed this I also read this on a plane when I was traveling So the fact that I was in captured and loving the story as much as I was is Pretty interesting because if I'm reading while I'm traveling there's a pretty good chance that I'm gonna have a harder time with the book either Because I'm forcing myself to sit down and read it from beginning to end because I have nothing else to do in the airport or You know I get distracted by other things in the airport and then I lose track of the book And then I have to start over and then it just becomes a whole thing, but Yeah, I read this all the way through. I could not put it down such a page turning. I loved it It's a five out of five star book for me And then I read seasons of the storm by Al Cosimano and I rated this four out of five stars It's another slightly chunkier book that I read the audiobook for this which was very nice because they had Two people for the two point of views that we follow. Although. I think sometimes we follow Multiple point of views we mostly stick between the two main characters, but they only have the two narrators So that got a little confusing, but that's an audiobook thing We wouldn't have that issue with the actual book. So this follows the idea that Chronos runs the seasons with real people So what happens is when someone dies they're given the choice to die or they could be turned into a season and So what that looks like is that there are people seasons all Across the world embodying the four seasons. So our main character Jack He is one of the winters and he's working in like a certain region of the States and He and you know the better you do then you can get promoted to going to a different region Like oh, he might get promoted to going to Alaska because that's it would be nicer for him However the cycle of the seasons change By the next season coming in hunting and killing the current season And it's that cycle so Jack comes and kills the full person and the spring person comes and kills Jack So that's kind of the premise of the story and that's what intrigued me to pick up the book There is another book coming out that I would like to read I don't know if it's just going to be a duology or if there will be more I kind of hope it's just a duology But basically what happens is that the four seasons so four people Decide that they don't want to live this life of perpetual Hunting killing dying rebirth So they decide to break out and see what happens what I found to be it's also a love story So it's a love story between Jack our winter and Floor our spring and you start the book with them already in love like they haven't told each other that they love each other But we the audience already know that I thought it was very interesting to start the book with them already in love I kind of wish we could see a little bit more of them falling for each other rather than just being like I like this person I don't know how to deal with that, but I wish there was a little bit more about the same time It's a thick book. I don't think the book should have been any longer and So it's because they love each other, which is not allowed they want to break out and We have a wonderful found family in this story I loved how the four seasons came together and each season person also has a handler There's so much to this world I feel like I keep forgetting little elements until I'm like spitting them at you Each person also has a handler who stays behind and it's like the guy in the chair who's like They're coming they're on this street run or you can hide in that place like there's someone in the chair telling them what to do So it's really really at the aid of them except the handlers get sent away recently or pretty soon after them getting out So I was kind of like Bummed that half of the found family went away and was gone for majority of the book It was still pretty good It wasn't really fast the beginning and I kind of wish it hadn't been quite as fast because like I said there is so much To this world to understand that I felt like it was all kind of thrown at me And then once they got out of it then it really slowed down And so I felt like the pacing was just a little off. It was too fast at the beginning too slow in the middle I did love the ending to this book, which is why I'm excited to pick up the next one seasons of chaos I thought it was a pretty good ending But I wish there was just a little bit more to the magic and everything like it's very seasonal Which is why I think this is a good book to read between seasons. So like right now from fall to winter Although it did snow this morning. So like very much Transitioning into winter. I'm sorry if you can hear our neighbors baby crying in the background I thought it was just all a four out of five star. I liked the premise. I liked the found family and like the characters I just feel like it was the pacing was just a little too off And there are a few things that were kind of hard to keep up with but it was a pretty good way And next up I read volumes five and six of hordemia here I'm holding volume four because I don't own volumes five and six But it is a manga that follows two main characters. It's a friends to lovers the female she She is a popular girl who secretly has anger management issues But she also has to look after her little brother as her parents are always away on business While our male main character He has a lot of tattoos and piercings that nobody knows about because he has to hide them for school Everyone views him to be very dark and very gloomy. So it's their unlikely friendship that leads to a romance and I love it so much I like how as we're getting deeper into the manga We are meeting more characters and learning their backstories and I'm just overall enjoying it and loving it as I have been Moving on I read deal with the devil by kit rocker and I gave this two out of five stars so this is an a pop apocalyptic book it's the idea that everything has burned and now there's this big company that kind of monitors everything and Yeah, I Had a hard time with this one. So two out of five stars like I said The world building was pretty difficult to understand Because we were just kind of plopped right at the beginning of the book and not given much Explanation and the explanation we did get was kind of confusing And so by the time I had figured out what the world was like I was already like more than halfway through the book and then at that point I was behind on the plot because plot also did not make much sense to me either So it follows two crews. We've got both of them are like X Tech core and tech core is the company that like rules everything or something and so the The crew full of guys is like ex-super-soldier and the crew full of girls are like super smart also ex-soldier types and they the One crew is Given a task to do something and so they need to involve the other crew But I don't understand because they they can't tell each other exactly what's happening So I don't understand how they actually came together and agreed to work this job together Like I don't I don't understand because it seemed like there wasn't any common ground that they were working towards I Also had a hard time with the pacing of this book It seemed to like I don't know it seems good at the beginning But then it just kind of slowed down But then like an event would happen like I don't know it was just really weird I had a hard time keeping track with it The plot was kind of all over the place the romance. I did not like I did not feel any chemistry between The two main people that the romance was between because we go back and forth between POVs and The romance between those characters Fells super flat for me. I didn't like it. I didn't get it. There was no chemistry However, the romance between the side characters. I loved but obviously we didn't get very much of it because they were the side characters But I was like that's the relationship that I like this month. Not that great Yeah, I had so I had a hard time with that I just I didn't like the romance. I didn't like the plot the characters were okay Also from the description of this book My I thought it was going to be like these Librarians who are saving books. That's kind of the description that it gave me and What it ended up happening was not that we didn't get the whole feeling of them being by librarians until the epilogue and that's because like they do more than just save books like they also They also provide for the community in any way that they can so a lot of times that involves like getting organic food like actually healthy natural food for the community which is really cool, but I just felt like there wasn't enough like Mention of their caring for books that actually made much of a difference. So I was kind of let down by that Maybe and later books in the series that has more of a it's a more part of the book But I'm not interested in continuing with the series. So I'm putting the series down I give it two out of five stars. It just wasn't my thing Like I don't have anything against apocalyptic books I would love to read more of them, but this one just wasn't it All right, then the last book that I read at November I finished it right at the end of the month was the nature of witches by Rachel Griffin and this I rated I Rated it four out of five stars Personally, I enjoyed the book a lot. I can see how it would be like a 3.5 star read But purely because I enjoyed it so much. I'm giving it four out of five rather than just three point five so this book follows the idea that there are witches and Witches draw their powers from like certain seasons. So like spring witches summer witches autumn witches and winter witches and they deal a lot with the weather and kind of the nature of the earth so because This book deals a lot with climate change and the fact that humans are Destroying the planet causing climate change and causing all these counter-traffical things that happen And these witches are doing their best to kind of counterbalance that Because they don't have enough witches what is happening is that witches who are not in their season are helping out And because they're not in their season, they're being depleted and they are dying So they're losing their magic and they're dying And that's That's bad So the actual So that's kind of like all the background happening But we actually follow a girl who is an ever-witch and that means that she doesn't draw her magic just from one season She is strong all year round and she can draw from all four seasons But she's had a very hard time with her magic She it has killed the ones that she loves before and so she hates her magic She wishes she could get rid of it. She she just has a hard time with it. And so the plot of the book is her training and her learning how to use her magic and how and her figuring out how to like actually like her magic and That just kind of is the plot of the book. It's it's the idea that if she can if she can If she can harness her power and like control it then she can help with the issue of Which is being depleted out of their season But like that there isn't much Towards the end of the book like you don't get that at the end of the book the end of the book is her actually Like liking her magic so I feel like you know There wasn't too much plot to this book and normally I'm a plot driven reader Not a character driven reader, but I didn't mind it and that's mostly because of the atmosphere So the book is set at a school for witches who are learning how to use their magic and it starts off Transitioning into fall and the book ends Transitioning into fall and so it takes over the course of the year each season is just so beautiful and like the description of the nature And of the magic and of the different witches who like come into their season like it's a beautifully written book with the seasons. I Think it's perfect to read in autumn in full time for that reason but yeah, and then there's also this major Subplot of romance between our main character and the person who is training her and I liked the romance like I think it was fine What I went one thing I also really liked about the book was the growth that our main character goes through Because I didn't like her much at the beginning But she she grew a lot and then because of that she grew to like I grew to like her like Basically partway through the book the character just gets a spine and starts like actually living as an independent human being and I I appreciated that I I'm glad that that was the route that the author took. I think it was a good thing Our main character also has a pet cat whom I love The cat's name is nox as an equinox and I thought that was one of the best things ever But yeah, so it really was just an atmospheric pretty book um But one thing I will say though So the ending like I won't I won't do spoilers I don't do spoilers much on this channel. And if I do I'll let you know But I will say that the ending did not make a lot of sense to me It seemed like something happened in the ending And then there were no consequences of it or like something bad happened But ended up like not being bad or like just nothing came of it So I got really confused by the ending So if you've read this book, please like comment down below if you have because I want to talk about that ending I want to understand it better because it just made no sense. Um Like I said, I won't spoil it so Uh, but yeah, I I think enjoyment wise it was a 4.5 Star no, it was a four star read But I think the book itself really is more of a 3.5 stars. Um But yeah, like like I didn't read through it very quickly like I wanted to finish it But it just took me a while to read because I just felt like there was no plot There was nothing that we were working towards other than her training Which obviously took an entire year it takes a while which made for a little bit of a slower read, but So those are all six books that I read in the month of november Thank you so much for watching this video. If you liked it, give it a thumbs up Otherwise, I will remind you to subscribe because I am posting four videos Every week this december and so that's pretty exciting. Um, so you want to hit the bell so that you're notified and you don't miss any of them and Yeah, otherwise follow me on my social media down below and Yeah, comment below if you've read any of these what your thoughts were what books you read november And yeah, until I see you all in the next video. I wish you happy reading