Bi-cons, swashbuckling, and Gods Gone Wild (June Wrap Up)

addie soldiers oh what the hell i had ice in this before i set up my camera oh this doesn't bode well but you know what else i have you know what this means oh that was a good one oh wow that's uh certainly a flavor well now i have to drink it because we're all matchy-matchy and if anything i'm a fiend for the aesthetic you know what fix this gin i think the burning question on everyone's mind right now is how is it already july looking back at the beginning of this year i'm like there is not a single thing that i retain from the first six months of 2021 like what was i doing in march i don't know but something i apparently did was finish eight and a half books in the month of june so i want to do a june monthly wrap-up today to just talk about some of the stuff that i've gotten through in the last month mostly due to stress reading got some historical drama we got some sci-fi existentialism and of course we have a whole lot of fantasy shenanigans without further ado grab a drink grab a snack and let's do a good old june monthly wrap-up i say i finished eight and a half books this month because i did end up dnfing something like pretty much june 1st and that is unfortunately master of crows by grace draven i quite like grace draven and her work there are some good new adult fantasies and this one seemed like it was going to be perfect like it's these creepy old gods and the master of crows is this disgraced magician who is trying not to become an avatar to this evil god and our main character is this priestess who is being sent to spy on him and report him back to the church but something about this just didn't grab me and i'm really sad about it because damn that's a good plotline was supposed to be an enemies to lovers and i felt like the main love interest master of crows was just i couldn't quite sympathize with him enough to eventually fall in love with him i just thought he was kind of a dick and getting from scene to scene was a little wobbly like i liked a lot of the scenes individually but putting them all together was just like a string of inconsistencies i might eventually return and try and reread this book because i love that plot line so much but just i guess at the time i decided to dnf this so that's all i'd say on that moving on next up is a book that i absolutely adored like i am recommending this so much that you think i would be getting commission and that is the super existential environmental dystopian sci-fi mystery that is the ones we're meant to find by joanie that took so many takes to say i'm not doing it again this is a futuristic dystopian sci-fi that centers around two sisters one sister c wakes up on this deserted island with no memory of how she got there and only the fact that she has another sister whereas the other sister casey lives on this environmental compound that floats in the sky above the earth earth's all [ __ ] up and like the tectonics are causing mass extinction and she is trying to track down sea who has gone missing and the way that this plays with reality and time is super super weird builds the story and these puzzle pieces going back and forth so it's a super trippy sci-fi world that just keeps getting stranger also i'm pretty sure one of our main characters is a sociopath and through that you kind of get to watch a villain being born and somebody playing at being god but you know i love me some morally great characters but this also goes into these weird existentialist conversations on like human awareness our ideas of what the future is going to be like the inability of humans to think beyond our present global warming which if anything in this stupid heat wave bc is having we should be concerned about now i want to go very opposite that and talk about a book that was a major surprise for me this month because i read it for class i am currently in an upper level children's literature class and one of the things that we needed to read was this amazing middle grade novel that is the we free men by terry pratchett as an english major i read a whole lot of books that i do not include in these monthly wrap-ups because to me they don't count i think it would be boring to talk about like oh yes another take of frankenstein 10 pages into this i was enchanted our main character is a nine-year-old girl named tiffany who ends up that she can see the other world when her younger brother is stolen by fairies she needs to get a hold of her fledgling witch powers and go into the world of fairy to go save him and along the way because she is a witch she gets the respect and admiration of the we free men who are also known as the knack mcfigals who are just like these six inch tall like little scotsman and it's written in an accent like oh my gosh they're ridiculous and this book makes my heart so happy sorry lore girls kicking ass with frying pans uh witch magic plus good lessons for kids but like asking for help when you need it but also being self-sufficient trusting in yourself not standing for people putting you in a box due to your gender or your age i am a terrible fantasy reader this is my very first harry potter novel i've ever read i fully admit that i was wrong i have been clowning around not exploring discworld because this book was great next i will talk about my first contemporary that i read this month that i really really enjoyed this was also a giant surprise you know me i read less than or equal to a contemporary a year so the fact that i've already read more than a handful is like mind-boggling contemporaries are fun and all but like where are the dragons you know but somewhere between bitter and sweet by lake and zia camp was such a fantastic novel this is an upper y.a book with our main characters being 18 and the only thing that penn wants is to take over her father's taco restaurant but her parents want her to have a different kind of career and life for herself and when there are clashes in the dysfunction of the family and the restaurant things go downhill she ends up getting kicked out a big part of the story is them reconciling but also her making it out on her own and sticking her ground and doing what she truly wants to do which is to bake our other character xander is an illegal mexican immigrant who has come and started working at penn's father's restaurant in hopes that he can track down his absent father i actually really like their relationship it was like a little rocky but at the same time it wasn't this intense tension-filled fighting kind of i don't know if we're gonna be together like they were like hey you're cute and uh i think i would like to spend more time with you and then they do it's great also penn deals with clinical depression and has to be on medication and that's a really big part of her journey and truly the most unrealistic thing about this book is the fact that xander and penn like actually call each other instead of texting that's weird and the found family dynamics of this restaurant just oh give me so much joy they are so ridiculous and i love that pen is like that [ __ ] okay so this next one i have some flamin hot opinions on now i am no different than the many of you i get the majority of my reading recommendations from tick tock and so because book talk would not shut the [ __ ] up about this book i bought neon gods by katie robert and you see this betrayal i trusted you and all of you guys said that this was a good hades and persephone retelling and i am shook and not in a good way in theory interesting like the gods are not gods but the titles are passed down through the generations as like seats of power and hades's realm is the lower city that the upper class gods don't come down into and of course he takes care of his people and the the selfish gods and their golden towers are actually these like awful socialites that like don't care about anything except for fame and money y'all this was a water down fifty shades of grey although i do have to say i did enjoy uh how thorough and regularly consent was displayed so i gave her credit for that this book really needed another edit i multiple times i was going through reading something and i'm like wait a minute i just read this sentence like two pages ago what the hell and i could get behind the sex club thing because like i think that actually would be really cool but just the way she did it felt so strange do i have to say the most relatable thing about this book is the fact that hades really likes hardwood floors and respects crown molding like yes king we love an interior designer also can confirm running in heels will [ __ ] up your legs i have 10 years of modeling to back up that claim will i continue to [ __ ] on this book yes but did i also finish this in a day also yes i would call this next segment book talk tea but i don't think it's tea i just think it's something that people should be aware of and are being dicks about because june is pride month there's been a ton of lgbtqia plus recommendations and something that isn't happening is that people are saying that they don't like lesbian or female female relationship books with this there has been a very big conversation on the fetishization of mlm relationships and how people don't like lesbian books and they don't do as well in the market so if you don't like wlw books or think that any kind of queer representation in media is you know not good because you personally don't agree with that you are all cordially invited to get the hell off my channel now that we only have the girls gays days and allies let's talk about this amazing historical wlw book that is last night at the telegraph club by melinda lowe this is about two lesbians in 1950 san francisco navigating the queer club scene at the time our main character lily is also chinese so there's a lot in this book about stereotypes and prejudices against chinese people during cold war and she's also a scientist so it's like women's stem and feminism and like queer identities and like sneaking into clubs the relationship between lily and kath and other people that they meet at the telegraph club is so pure and wonderful and i love how many different perspectives we get however i must clarify that i do not endorse nor condone underage drinking because especially like the rate and volume of these girls are going out like my god your liver function is going to tank by the time you are 22. people have such a narrow view of you based on the experiences they have in their own lives and just because your life is different and you love somebody other than what is expected of you doesn't make your life any lesser this is warm and heartbreaking and tough and full of joy thank you so much to bridge of bridge loves books who is one of my mutuals on tick tock for being the wonderful influencer that she is and influencing me to read this book oh my god there's another one i almost forgot this is the problem with ebooks i would love to get on board with ebooks but just if i don't have a physical copy of it that i can see it doesn't exist to me so now let me talk about a little bit of an unexpected favorite of the month and is mage born by jessica thorne so hundreds of years ago mage born magic users and the royal family of wrathlyn struck a bargain there must always be one of wrathlyn's descendants on the throne and in return the mage born would like be not wiped out but now the only heir to the throne is also a mage war and has magic so there is this whole political descent within the city grace is an orphan who has now become the captain of the military and she tracks down the most dangerous of mageborne but she herself has hidden magic when she is tasked with protecting the prince of thorns it turns out that he harbors a soft spot for mageborn and wants to completely reform the empire but then they also find out that there is this awful conspiracy with the real king and his now questionable wife messing with memory what magic will do to you if you do too much like burning up burning out i burn out all the time i only have magic this is a new adult action fantasy that had some very interesting takes on politics and magic great fight scenes i like especially at the beginning of their relationship that they obviously have chemistry but they're still kind of awkward together and all the deep dark horror that the old gods bring oh my god that ending though like holy [ __ ] like i finished reading this and i was just like i am unwell going back to something a little bit less actually this isn't less intense at all what the hell am i talking about no less magical but perhaps a bit more whimsical i'll talk about the very fun very gay swashbuckling adventure that was in deeper waters by ft lukens like no spoilers but this book really has legs like i couldn't wait to finish it it was amazing when i first hauled this i just made fun of it because i was like i think this is just gonna be like pirates of the caribbean chris is a black pearl meets honest ranger tides but gay and adorable einstall is on an ocean cruise for his coming of age ceremony and they rescue a dashing young boy from a sinking shipwreck who ends up being a mermaid while most people in the ruling family have some kind of magic tal's magic over fire is one that is most feared because it was the magic that his grandfather used to take over their country so he's trying to hide it but he gets kidnapped and then he needs to figure out a way to mesh his magic and his political savviness together to make sure that he can escape but then he learns more about athlin and his magical world and they all have to come together because there might be war on the horizon don't get me wrong i did like this book a lot but oh my god does this book have a tone problem like the parts that are sweet are so sweet almost too sweet tall and athlon together are absolutely adorable i love the family dynamic between tal and his other prince brothers when we get to things like war and the pirates and other kinds of dark magic and it's like wow wow wow so i can say this is light-hearted and fun but there's also like murder it was fast paced it was a quick read and i like overall enjoyed it i just realized that this cover is the is the colors of the pan flag oh my god was that on purpose this is my kind of book cover if you know what i mean and lastly this is a book that i managed to finish last night before filming this so you know i just managed to squeeze it in to this june wrap up and like god i love being so talented and that is a book that knocked my freaking socks off eva reed had the audacity to write this banger that is the wolf and the woodsman i also mentioned this in my birthday book haul and i said something along the lines of like i'm not sure if this is a red riding hood retelling and oh hope oh baby girl oh it is not at all whatsoever damn this is a book based on hungarian history jewish folklore and pagan nature magic in her pagan village avike is one of the only girls who does not have magic but when soldiers from the holy order of woodsman come to take a wolf girl for a blood sacrifice in the capital evk is surrendered on their way back through this magical whispering moving dark cursed magic infested forest they get attacked and now it is only avike and gashbar who ends up being the crown prince and their fates become intertwined ashgash bar needs a way to use pagan magic to overthrow his zealous brother who is thinking of usurping the king your journey to find a magic source of old takes them across the country and what do you know their loathing turns to understanding and maybe eventually desire so the author ava has a degree in political science that focuses on religion and ethnonationalism and hot damn you can tell also oh my god are there trigger warnings abound in this novel you're like oh this would be like a fun fantasy read and it means to lovers some like magicky stuff no oh wow if you're not prepared for limbs to leave bodies don't pick this up there is torture self-mutilation colorism racism and religious fanaticism all shown and explored in a brutal way this is deep and dark and violently magical and it's so engrossing her writing is amazing for a debut novel like i had been eyeing it for a couple months up to release then one of my book talk mutuals deidra uh deirdre rose morgan uh was like yo you gotta read it and i did and i loved it but she's also the one that recommended me neon god so like deidre you're on the rocks no i'm kidding but seriously this i'm so impressed like wow it gives you a lot to think about so there you have it there's a good old june wrap up i'm very impressed with the things that i managed to read this month i'm also very impressed my camera only overheated once we love this character development actually it's likely because i'm filming earlier in the day and also our heat wave has thankfully taken a dip so now it's only like 27 degrees instead of like 43. celsius by the way like all you us people can at me i don't care get out of here with your fahrenheit you're one of the only countries in the world that uses it like get with the times please down below if you yourself have read any of these things and want to talk about them because i think i had a lot of feelings this month although it was very cathartic to just yell at a camera for like oh my god oh longer than i thought also this is maybe a very dumb and extraordinarily like privileged and consumerist way to look at the world um but i'm excited for july because there's only like three books i'm excited about coming out in july so that means that i have more time to read the things that i've already bought and we haven't read yet like i'm trying to rein in that book dragon urge to just hoard all the pretty shiny covers you know where i clicked like the video you know where to click to subscribe i hope you guys are all having a nice day wherever you are and i will see you all next week bye

Channel: AModelWho'sRead

Views: 760

Rating: 4.9550562 out of 5

Keywords: reading wrap up, june wrap up, june 2021 wrap up, june books, ya books, booktok, fantasy book recommendations, new adult books, new adult ebooks, the wolf and the woodsman, somewhere between bitter and sweet, neon gods, hades and persephone retelling, the ones we're meant to find, mageborn, grace draven, last night at the telegraph club, queer ya books, mlm books, wlw books, terry prachett, lgbtq books, pirate books

Id: Hg6B45XvSfc

Length: 16min 27sec (987 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 05 2021