 Hello friend! Today we're gonna be doing a very exciting video and it's inspired by my favorite makeup YouTuber, Julia Adams, who does tournaments for like each category of makeup to do bronzer tournaments, blush tournaments. And today we're gonna be doing a five-star tournament. We're gonna be doing a bracket tournament of all of my five stars I've had so far this year to see what comes out on top. Now I do want to say I originally scheduled when I was planning out my videos, I scheduled this video for August. But for this bracket I wanted 16 entries to make it equal on all sides. I've just decided to go ahead and do this video now before it gets to the end of the year because I've still only had 13 five stars this year. This is what trauma looks like. We know I've been having this problem so on the bracket I have per three, my top three four point fives that probably should just be fives if I'm honest, like I kind of view them as fives. I have put those in as well and who knows, I could pick them over one of the five stars based on the vibes today. I was looking actually on my reading tracker for last year and at this point last year I had had 24 five stars. I've had 13, that's almost double. I've almost had double the five stars last year that I've had so far this year. It's been a rough year but I'm hoping some of my videos and some of my books that I'm reading towards the end of this year may emerge supreme but it's pretty heartbreaking. I'm hoping for some more five stars but with this bracket tournament as you can see we've got pairs that'll go up against each other. I think I know what will end up winning. I think I know it's my favorite book so far this year but I'm more interested to see what wins out of the other pairings. I'll give you a brief synopsis of each of the books as we go through them and what I thought of them but yeah shall we just get into it? I'm really excited. Pairing number one, we have got Legends and Lattes by Travis Bowdry versus The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson. Okay so Legends and Lattes, I mean we all know what that is. It's a cozy fantasy about awkward with a coffee shop. It was the first book I read this year and it continued my trend that I like to try and achieve of my first book year being five stars. It's very important to me. I'm very superstitious. I will not have a good year if my first book year isn't five stars. It's really is a lot of pressure. It's a conspiracy theory that I'm actually interested in. So I have to read one that I know is going to be five stars so I loved that one. I just I still have such fond memories of reading it. It is a hug of a book. I mean everyone loves it and rightly so. It is just, I don't even, it's perfection. I can't put it into words. It is a perfect book. It is lovely. It is heartwarming. It is cozy. It is meaningful. It's incredible and I wish I've read more cozy fantasy this year and like nothing has compared. You know, nothing has reached the heights of it. It set such a high barrier for me but The Weight of Blood I did really love and it was an important book for me because Tiffany Jackson has always been an author whose synopses I've loved, right? I'd read two other books from her before this and I think they'd been a two and a three. Maybe even like a two and a five. I don't know. I hadn't really loved either of them and so I said I'd give myself an ultimatum when I read The Weight of Blood because I said like if I don't love this I'm not going to read Tiffany Jackson again because it's not fair, right? It's not fair on author for me to like keep picking up this stuff if I'm not enjoying it because chances are I'm not going to enjoy the next book. You know what I mean? And this is a Carrie retelling and I just loved it. I thought the writing was wonderful. I thought it was a great YA horror. The mix media in it was great. I mean granted I have not read Carrie so I don't know what, how much I loved The Weight of Blood was like stuff that it had taken from Carrie that I was like oh my god that's so imaginative but it's something that Carrie does, do you know what I mean? But I loved it but we know what the win is gonna be and it's gonna be legends and lattes. Like I think that trend is going to continue. There's no way I'm gonna leave here. No way. So next pairing is The Burning Issue of the Day versus The Mysterious Case of the Alpeton Angels by Janice Hallett which I looked up. It still isn't out in the US. I'm sorry for all of you in the US who like I've made want to read it. I try not to talk about it too much because all of Janice Hallett's books are like a year behind publishing in the US which makes no sense to me. Anyways The Burning Issue of the Day is a Lady Hardcastle mystery. This one was with suffragettes, like one of, a suffragette or suffragists. I'm not sure which one they were but one of them was accused of murder and Lady Hardcastle and her maid flow are trying to prove that it wasn't her basically. They're trying to help them out. This is my favourite Mad Mystery series. At this point it's a series that's great for some of its parts. Like the series is a five star series to me. I love Lady Hardcastle. I love her maid flow. I love their dynamic. I love the historical setting. I kind of alternate. I feel like now between giving these a five and a 4.5 like they the books individually may not be like a five star but the series is a five star. The audiobooks if you're gonna read these I always say if you're gonna read these read them via the audiobooks. I get the physical and the audio because I love them so much but if you want to try them out try them out with the audiobook because the audiobook narrator is incredible. The mysterious case The Abbot and Angels is a mixed media book entirely through mixed media about oh the synopsis is always so hard but basically there was a cult where people died and there was a baby and it's journalist trying to uncover the truth and trying to find out who the baby is because the baby was like put into like the care system to figure out who the baby was all these years on. And this one I think is an easy battle because I think it's gonna go to the mysterious case The Abbot and Angels because like I said the burnish day kind of gets a five star because the series is a five star not because the book is necessary. I don't know I don't know how to describe it. It's it's a softer five star. I love them dearly but it's greater than the series is greater than the sum of its parts whereas the mysterious case The Abbot and Angels was the first time I'd ever given Janice Hallett a five star and I just thought the twists and turns throughout the book were paste really well. The mixed media had a lot of variety which had been a problem for me with Janice Hallett before so the mysterious case The Abbot and Angels wins. The next pairing is interesting we've got nothing to see here by Kevin Wilson versus Snow White Learns Witchcraft by Theodora Gross. I don't know which one I'm gonna go with for this so nothing to see here. It's a weird magical realismy, fabismy book about this woman who helps out an old friend of hers by looking after the woman's stepchildren who spontaneously combust. She like moves into the house to look after these kids and the kids spontaneously combust and it's a story of found family and a story of love love transcending blood and you know really how to be there for kids who have gone through severe trauma is what the book is about and it's also this like weird like sapphic undertones to it. I have a gay bone and I need to explore that a little bit more. I really enjoyed it Snow White Learns Witchcraft is by Theodora Gross, if you know the name author of my favourite series ever, The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, the Athena Club series and this one's short stories and poems. Oh this one's okay. There was I think in this all of the short stories were like five stars I rated them individually as I went along. There was I remember one that's like it's all based on fairy tales and like you know Snow White's Sleeping Beauty. There's a sleeping beauty one where like it goes through the perspective of all the different characters and different elements within the Sleeping Beauty story that there's one from the I think the perspective of the castle. There's one from the perspective of the the thing that sleeping beauty pricks her finger on. Can't remember that. It was really interesting. The Snow White one was really interesting. I loved I loved loved loved the short stories in this and it was amazing reading more from Theodora Gross because she doesn't have any other novels other than the Athena Club series which like breaks my heart but it was really fun to read more from her but the poems were like I don't know I don't often give poems five stars so I decided to give this five stars more based on the short stories in it so I think I'm gonna have to go with nothing to see here but that's a tricky one. That's a tricky one. I think I've got to go with nothing to see here like Kevin Wilson but I'm not sure. I just think nothing to see here was you know then it's easier for me to pick that because the whole novel was five stars whereas with Snow White and Stratocraft with an anthology you're never going to give every single item in an anthology five stars you know there's going to be things you prefer to other other parts so I gave it a five star as a rating because I did love it but not everything in that was a five star so I think we've got to go with nothing to see here. Next one is Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in Equate English Verge by Maureen Johnson and J Cooper and Finley Donovan is Killing It by El Cozumano. Okay interesting one so your guide to not getting murdered in an equate English village is like a little graphic novel almost kind of taking the mick out of the murder mystery genre which I love I loved this it's so fun I'll take like 20 minutes to read if you get your hands on it and it goes through like the traditional suspects the house the locations the murder weapons and it's like making fun of it I loved it. Ah that's history. I love anything that makes fun of a genre I love murder mysteries that kind of poke fun at the murder mystery genre or think of an imaginative way to like use the the tropes that you see a lot in the genre and I just thought this was so much fun I loved it I'd love to read more stuff like this but Finley Donovan is Killing It you know is a book that you guys told me to read for years and years and years I still haven't read the sequel but I own the next one and I loved Finley Donovan is Killing It it's my kind of book and you all knew it would be you know it's fun ridiculous I loved the drama of it I cannot wait to continue in the series I think Finley Donovan is Killing It has got to win because again it just feels more major you know oh Flippity Jim okay I think the next pairing is the most difficult one of these initial pairings we've got the T-Dragon Festival by K. O'Neill versus The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz I can't I can't make this decision please I can't make this decision these are up there as some of my favourite books of the year these might even be like my second third favourite book so yeah I don't know how I'm supposed to decide oh I don't know so the T-Dragon Festival you guys know is a graphic novel part of a graphic also is that I love where you're following these T-Dragons you can like brew tea and following these characters who live in the towns with them and this was just beautiful beautiful graphic novel I loved it so much her novel is always really inclusive there's a character in this so I think his death and the whole village has learned sign language to be able to communicate with them I just love what these stories say I love their messaging I just love they're my favourite graphic novels I love Heartstuff as well let me not get it myself but I do love them and The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz is wackadoo I know it's wackadoodle time okay it's wackadoodle time it's wackadoodle time it is wackadoodle time The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz is about these women who go to this like prestigious writing retreat and shit starts occurring I don't even know where to stop this one um it's very controversial it's not high enough rating to be nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards which is very heartbreaking by the way guys I said this on my um Instagram story yesterday but the other night I had a dream about the Goodreads Choice Awards like nominees being announced and uh and it was like really obscure books for the mystery thriller category it was like books I'd never heard of and I'd never felt such panic but the one book that was nominated that I had heard of was The Last Devil to Die by Rich Los Men and I was like well at least now anyways that it was like a crazy dream it was so vivid anyways this okay this is so tricky because I feel so defensive of The Writing Retreat because it's got such low rating everyone hated it um but I loved it I think it's genius I think it's incredible um but I love The Tea Dragon series it's like how do I choose I'm gonna go with The Writing Retreat because I don't remember the entire plot of The Tea Dragon the festival like I can't remember all the elements of the plot and so as much as I love it I feel like The Writing Retreat I have a better memory of it so I feel like that one has got to go ahead that was horrible that was like heart crushing next pairing is The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer Smith and Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson okie dokie so The Unsinkable Greta James is a contemporary which I loved so much it's about this woman whose mum has recently died and her parents are booked to go on this cruise together and she kind of goes in her mum's place and it's to do with her grief for her mother it's to do with her dad's grief for her mother she's also famous like a famous singer and it's a famous fame whatever but I was more interested in the grief aspect of it and I bawled like multiple times like sobbing, sobbing, sobbing I'd be crying like it really got me I thought it was subtly poignant but like also it's not you know this is this is one of the five stars I feel hesitant to recommend because it is like a fairly simple book I don't think everyone's gonna love it but like it hit me it got me on the day that I needed it you know um Her Majesty's Royal Coven is about a witchy coven well witches it's about witches it's about the governmental like department of witches but it's also just about this group of witchy friends who grew up together and were following all their different lives in this storyline and I think I've got to put forward Her Majesty's Royal Coven because I would more widely recommend it to people you know what I mean I I'd more widely recommend that people pick that one up I'm more confident in my in my recommendation of it but I loved the writing I love the plot there's a there's a whole route that this book goes down that I don't talk about because I think it should be you should you should go into this book not really knowing about it it's I wouldn't call it a spoiler but I think you're reading experience would be much better if you don't I didn't know it was going to go down that route in that direction so but yeah I loved it next one okay so we've got a last five star which is Emma by Jane Austen I haven't spoken to you guys about this because I just read it at the start of October and it was for my patreon book club so I spoke about it over there I did a discussion live show and a reading vlog over there but you guys weren't I haven't spoken to about it I kept it a secret and we got the first of our four point five stars which is the house of good bones now you would think I would just immediately pick the five star but not necessarily so Emma has become one of my favorite classics it was a soft five star in that I was like I don't know if this is like five star five star but it's like a five star classic for me I loved it it is about a girl called Emma who's like meddling in romantic affairs around her and it's very interesting because it's kind of Jane Austen's version of an unlikable narrator unlikable main character um which is a very interesting choice for her to have made and it's made me obsessed with Jane Austen like I'm ready to fall down the Jane Austen rabbit hole I've been watching Jane Austen documentaries I want to read Jane Austen like non-fiction I'm obsessed now house of good bones by T. King Fisher I loved as well it's a horror book about a woman who returns home and her mother is acting weird and like acting like her old racist grandma like there was weird stuff going on in the house but I have got to go with the five star which is Emma I loved it I was so shocked by how much I loved it it's funny it's funny Jane Austen's funny she's like a comedian she said let me write some jokes I loved it and then our final two which are 4.5 stars but like really on another day these would be five stars you know what I mean all of these 4.5s I really should just have given them all five stars we've got the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and a Mexican Gothic by Silva Rene Garcia Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires you've probably heard of both these they're both kind of horror-esque Southern Book Club's guide is about this group of mums who run a book club and maybe a vampire moves into town and maybe they have to like kill him this is kind of what the title tells you but like I loved the look at I think it's in the 1990s and the look at a woman's role and the role of a mother in this time the expectations on them it definitely examines that a lot and in Mexican Gothic you guys know hang on spoilers we're following a character Noremi is that her name whose cousin has married this guy and she's getting bad vibes so she decides to go visit her cousin where she's now living with that guy's family and it's a horror and it's creepy and it's weird I think I'm gonna go with the Southern Book Club's Guide this is like out of all my 4.5s of the year the one that should have been a five star I think I read it a little bit broken up but I think if I'd read it like the whole way through unbroken and a bit quicker I think it absolutely would have been a five star okie dokie now these like we're gonna speed up a little bit now because I don't have to give you the synopsis should we speed it up a little bit okay oh legends and lattes versus a mysterious case the aptan angels um it's gonna be legends and lattes it's not really difficult is it I love mysterious case of an angels but legends and lattes it just did something to me I can't wait to reread it and reread it and reread it I can't wait for book shops and bone dust to come out guys already got pre-ordered but I probably won't read it this year before the end of the year um which is like rude but but I am um I'm really excited for it I'm a bit nervous because it is a prequel and I sometimes struggle with prequels because I feel like nothing is going to shock me because if anything shocking were to have happened I would have known about it in the other book you know what I mean so I am a bit nervous about that but legends and lattes next pairing nothing to see here by Kevin Wilson versus Finley Donovan is killing it this one is tricky this one is tricky nothing to see here is a book that I feel like I can recommend to like a lot of people in my life like it's probably the book out of all of these here that I feel like I can recommend to my mom to my boyfriend's mom to like grandparent like a friend like I feel like it's a book that's very widely recommendable so that's in its favor but Finley Donovan is more my kind of book I think it's doing more of what I love and I think it's examining the genre that I love and tropes that I love a bit more so I think I'm gonna go which Finley Donovan is killing it that's what I'm gonna go with okie dokie oh look it's like it's like mirrored because they followed the same path okay the writing retreat versus Her Majesty's Royal Coven again Her Majesty's Royal Coven is the one I would recommend more widely I think I gotta go with the writing retreat here I just I feel so defensive of her I just think she deserves the world and everything more I just I don't understand well I do understand why everyone hates it but I don't I'm an acquired taste you don't like me acquire some taste I just loved it I just think oh it's so wonderful it just is crazy and it's weird and it's wacky and it's like I always picked pitched it as Catherine House meets Bunny it's got the kind of female relationship weird kind of like dependent strange dynamic relationship female relationship of Bunny and it's got the weirdness and the unsettling and the like claustrophobia and like not everything kind of making sense of Catherine House so I would rightly recommend it and then we've got Emma versus something but Clubs Guys and Vampires this one's tricky this one could actually go either way um but I think I'm in my Jane Austen era so I've got to go with Emma you don't get it you don't get it I love her I've watched like our long Jane Austen documentaries Lucy Worsley I was saying this what video was I saying I think I was saying it to my patrons in the video but um Lucy Worsley is my favorite historian I don't know if that's weird to have a favorite story that's not normal and I think you know she maybe gets some help or something she's the one who did the Agatha Christie book which I haven't read but I read a part of it when I did the Agatha Christie disappearance video she's done all these stuff on Jane Austen as well and she's got a book about Jane Austen which I am now going to have to read I don't have a choice in the matter so I think I'm in next year it's going to be my classic era my Jane Austen era next oh okay legends and lattes versus Finley Donovan is killing it I mean it's tricky but I mean it's also not tricky listen I'm hoping for the drama and for the excitement that I am hoping that something will edge out legends and lattes as my favorite book of the year before the end of the year I think Richard Lawson and the last level today I could do it I'm not gonna lie okay then we have got the writing retreat versus Emma this is almost tricky again I mean there's a thing Emma is a classic in terms of what has greater like societal endorsement and agreement it is Emma you know like everyone hates to write a retreat whereas Emma has stood the test of time for like 200 years but alas I just have to follow my feelings and it's the writing retreat wow I didn't expect the writing retreat to make it this far I expected legends and lattes but I did not expect the writing retreat to make it this far I just think it's great I don't understand what is wrong with all you people who hate it you're just wrong you're just wrong I'm sorry I'm sorry I don't make the rules and then I'll find a battle between legends and lattes and the writing retreat and I'm sorry we all know it's coming legends and lattes has to be our winner I knew legends and lattes would be our winner okay I knew it but I'm interested it was interesting to see what came out on top in the other categories but legends and lattes is still my favorite book that I've read this year that's kind of like I don't like it though I don't like I don't like that that that's the fact I don't like that's no drama you know what I mean there's no drama to that where's the drama to that where is the drama to that like legends and lattes being my favorite book I've read this year hmm like that's not exciting it was the first book I read this year nothing's topped it so it is my mission that I'm gonna read a book the rest of this year that I've preferred legends and lattes and I think it's Richard Ellsman is our only hope Richard Ellsman is our only hope can you save us Britney Spears can we be saved so anyways that was my five star tournament of the five stars that I have had so far this year I hope you enjoyed it I definitely want to do this again like next year hopefully it will be earlier in the year because I would hope that I'd reach 16 the five stars quicker than I have so far this year 13 five stars at this point year I had 24 this point in the year that is actually terrible it's actually very sad anyways let me know what you thought of any of these books let me know if you thought I made any of the wrong decisions in my ranking and if you got to the end comment this heart emoji this is like my new favorite heart emoji comment that heart emoji down below if you got to the end thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another one bye