Hello, everyone, my name is Olivia, and welcome to a winter TBR video.
This is going to be me discussing a couple of books from my TBR that I'm very excited
to read during the winter season because they just seem like the perfect winter reads, or
I'm just very excited to read them and I want to get to them as soon as possible and that's
probably going to be around wintertime.
And I'm happy to say that this video is being sponsored by Book of the Month, so to tell
you a little bit more about them, we are going to take it over to Sponsor Olivia.
Hello there.
I'm sure many of you have heard of Book of the Month, but in case you haven't, let me
tell you a little bit more about this amazing book service that so many people around America
use.
Book of the Month's goal is to promote new and emerging authors to help readers discover
new books that they will love.
Each month, their team vets hundreds of novels and provides bookworms with a curated selection
of new and early release novels, so people can spend more time reading and less time
researching titles to add to their TBR.
For the month of December, we have Somebody's Daughter by Ashely C. Ford, A History of Wild
Places by Shea Ernshaw, The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox, Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl
Gonzalez, and A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham.
I am personally excited about Olga Dies Dreaming who follows two Puerto Rican siblings who
are trying to achieve the American Dream when their lives are forever changed by Hurricane
Maria.
And another book that I am really excited about is The Holiday Swap mostly because I
have only read one holiday romance in my entire life, and people always seem to gush about
them, so this is the perfect time to pick it up around this time of year.
Book of the Month also has add-on novels that you could add to your monthly selection and
one of them is The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green.
I absolutely love this nonfiction, so if you want to join Book of the Month, you can add
this book as an add-on.
Another great thing about Book of the Month is that they are risk-free.
So, let's say you are in a book slump, and you are not in a reading mood for a certain
month and you want to skip that month, you are able to do so and you can skip it without
being charged, which is amazing.
And, to celebrate the holiday season, Book of the Month is having a great sale where
you can use the code "JOLLY" to get your first Book of the Month book for just $5.
That is a new released, hardcover novel for just $5.
That is not a deal that you want to give up.
So if you are interested in trying out Book of the Month, be sure to click the link in
my bio, and remember to use the code "JOLLY" to get that $5 deal.
So thank you so much to Book of the Month for sponsoring this video, and let's get back
to my winter TBR.
Welcome back, and let's get right into this video so I can tell you about a couple of
books on my TBR that I am so excited to read this upcoming season.
So one book that I mention endlessly that I always tell people I want to read but I
still have not read yet is Outline by Rachel Cusk.
You're probably really tired of me mentioning this book, but I will read this during the
winter season if it's the last thing I do.
Outline by Rachel Cusk is a story told in 10 conversations.
We follow our main character who is teaching creative writing over in Athens and I think
these conversations just deal with the people that she meets throughout time in Athens,
and I'm very excited to read this because it's my first Rachel Cusk novel.
This is actually a part of a series that I did not know about beforehand, but I've seen
a couple people post about it on Instagram and realized that this is a part of a series,
so I think this is the first novel in the series, and I'm just very excited to read
this because it seems very introspective and lyrical, and I've heard a lot of good things
about Rachel Cusk's writing.
And I really want to dive into this.
I love the cover.
That's the reason why I picked this up, and I love the idea of having a story split up
into different parts and they are all different conversations.
And I just want to get to this as soon as possible so I can stop saying that I want
to read this book and I can just say, I finally read this book.
I'm going to hide the books so you don't get any, like, sneak peeks to it.
The next book that I want to read was actually sent my way and I did not know about it beforehand,
but then I started seeing a lot of people read it on BookTok and Bookstagram, and so
many people posted photos and videos of them crying, and it is You've Reached Sam by Dustin
Thao.
This is a novel that Wednesday Books sent my way, and I'm very grateful to them for
doing that because this seems right up my alley.
This follows our main character, Julie, who just recently lost her boyfriend, Sam, and
she kind of wanted to forget everything about him.
She threw out every memory of him and wanted to move on-- The train passed by, so I lost
my train of thought *relishes in my own pun* But I think I said that Julie had thrown out
every memory of Sam, and she wanted to move on but something called her back to him.
So, in order to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls up Sam's phone, and she's expecting
to hear his voicemail, but then he picks up the phone.
So a blurb says that Dustin Thao "gently weaves grief, regret, second chances, and the honestly
beautiful moments we carry from a first love.
Every tear you shed reading this book will be worth it."
I have seen so many people cry while reading this story.
You know I love a good sad story.
So, this is a book that I recently acquired that I haven't hauled yet, but I really want
to read because I have heard nothing but amazing things and I'm very curious as to how it will
play out for me.
I'm very curious to see if it will make ~me~ cry.
I haven't read a YA contemporary in a while, so this is definitely on my radar, and it
just seems like the perfect fit for me.
And the cover is honestly beautiful.
It looks like the cover of a Webtoon that I would definitely pick up.
I think this is just such a stunning cover.
And, I just want to know what happens next after she picks up the phone and talks to
Sam.
The next book that I want to read is a YA historical fiction from one of my favorite
YA authors because they always highlight an important piece of history that not a lot
of people know about, so they shed a lot of light on those historical moments, and it
is Ruta Sepety's I Must Betray You.
This is one of my most anticipated reads of 2021.
The moment that I heard she was going to release another novel, my interest was peaked, and
I knew I had to get my hands on it, so when Penguin Teen offered to send me an ARC, I
had to jump on the opportunity.
So I Must Betray You is set in Romania during 1989.
Romania is under a communist regime, and we follow our main character Cristian who dreams
of becoming a writer but he knows that is not possible under the dictatorship in Romania.
So one day Cristian is blackmailed to become an informant for the secret police in Romania,
and he has to grapple with the idea of betraying everyone he loves or risking everything in
order to shed light on this regime and tell the world about what is happening in Romania.
I am so excited to read about this because I did not know that Romania was under a communist
regime in the 80s and I don't know a lot of history about Romania, in general.
Ruta Sepetys' novels are always one of my favorite YA novels that I pick up.
Some of her books have become some of my favorite books of all time like Between Shades of Gray
and Salt to the Sea.
So I'm excited to see how I will like I Must Betray You.
My mom already read my ARC of it and she greatly enjoyed it.
She read it in, like, two sittings, and that's very rare for her like if you thought I was
a distracted reader, she's a very distracted reader.
So that is very high praise from her.
She thought it was fantastic, so I'm excited to get to this and I know it's absolutely
going to crush me like all her other stories do, but I also know it's going to educate
me and open my eyes to a different part of history that I did not know about previously.
Another book that has been on my TBR for way too long that I always tell people I want
to read is The Ballroom.
The Ballroom is another historical fiction that has just caught my eye for years upon
years.
I think I added this to my TBR in like 2014 or 2015 when I was on Tumblr.
I think I saw a couple people talk about it on Tumblr or maybe someone shared a quote
from it, but the premise really interested me, so I added it to my TBR, completely forgot
about it, and then was gifted a copy of it from my book wishlist.
So thank you so much to Kathy.
And I am ~finally~ going to get to The Ballroom during this winter season.
The Ballroom is set in England during 1911, and it is set at the Sharston Asylum.
Men and women, in this asylum, are separated in the building, but on Friday nights they
are allowed to mingle in the asylum's magnificent ballroom.
So we follow our main characters, John and Ella, who meet one night in the ballroom and
spark a connection with one another.
And one of them eventually gets the opportunity to leave this place and start a new life.
And they have to grapple with the option of staying in this asylum or living a new life
and living in an unfamiliar environment where they are separated from one another.
So this seems like it's going to be a very heartbreaking read,.
It also seems like it's going to be an eye-opening read because I know during the 1900s, asylums
and institutions were incredibly harsh to live in and there were a lot of injustices
that happened in those buildings.
And I feel like that's going to be highlighted in this story, along with this heartbreaking
romance of these star-crossed lovers, and I think it's going to be absolutely fantastic,
and I haven't heard a lot of people talk about this.
I have never heard of a friend reading this story, so I'm excited to get to it because
it seems like it's going to be a great read and an underrated one at that.
So, if it's really good, then I'll continually recommend it to people, but we'll see.
We'll see if I like it or if it's not my cup of tea.
I feel like I always love historical fictions.
I've never truly hated a historical fiction.
It's one of my favorite genres of all time.
So hopefully I can get to it during the winter season because I don't know.
It just seems very desolate.
It seems very cold and empty because that's what I picture when I picture this ballroom
and this asylum.
And I think that that environment reminds me of winter, and that just seems like the
perfect time to read it.
I don't know.
autumn and winter just seems like the perfect time to read a historical fiction, especially
a somewhat sad one.
The next story that I want to read is one of my most anticipated books of 2021, and
I can't believe that I have an ARC of it, and it is...
To Paradise.
So it says, "From the author of the classic, A Little Life, a bold, brilliant novel spanning
three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment about lovers, family,
loss, and the elusive promise of utopia."
So I don't know too much about To Paradise.
I just knew that Hanya was writing a new novel, and I knew I had to read it because A Little
Life affected me so much as a reader, so I wanted another novel by them.
And we follow three different timelines, so one is in 1893, and it says, "New York is
part of the Free States, where people may live with and love whomever they please (or
so it seems.)"
Then, in 1993, we are in Manhattan.
"Besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner,
hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father."
Then in 2093, "In a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful
scientist's damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him-- and solve the
mystery of her husband's disappearance."
I think it's interesting how it says "husband's disappearances" like he's disappeared multiple
times.
I wonder what that would mean because you would say husband's disappearance, not "disappearances."
So is he constantly coming back and disappearing?
I wonder what that's like.
So I think this always going to take place in New York City in all these different timelines,
and this is a heavy book.
I don't know if it's just the paper that they used for the ARC, but this is like 600 pages,
so this might take me a while to get through, but it's a book that I want to read, nonetheless.
Hanya is just very talented at crafting such authentic and real-feeling characters who
feel like actual friends, so I am very excited to get to this.
It sounds beautiful.
It sounds breathtaking, and I think it will hopefully not be as sad as A Little Life,
but I think it will also pack a punch as well because I feel like Hanya is just incapable
of creating a novel that doesn't feel like an emotional rollercoaster.
And the last book that I want to read during the winter season is a romance that my friend,
Jessica, got me for my birthday, and is the Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas.
So the Spanish Love Deception is a novel that I have seen all over BookTok, and so many
people have become obsessed with it.
They have shared so many different quotes from this story, and it just seems like the
perfect read that I'm going to love because they really hyped up The Love Hypothesis,
and I gave that 5 stars, so I feel like this is going to be in the same vein, and I think
I'm really going to enjoy it.
It deals with fake-dating.
It deals with a trip to Spain.
and people say it's a very slow-burn romance, which is one of my favorite thing in romance.
I love those types of romances where even if the characters hold hands, I'm losing my
marbles because I have read like 200 pages of build-up, and that simple contact leaves
me breathless.
Those are my favorite types of romances, but I also love those types of romances where
they're already kissing on chapter one.
There's no in-between with me.
So this follows our main character, Catalina, who is going to Spain for her sister's wedding,
and she is bringing a date to this wedding because she lied to her family and said that
she is now in a relationship.
So she has enlisted the help of a coworker, who absolutely infuriates her, and his name
is Aaron Blackford.
She was telling a coworker about this trip to Spain and how she needed to find a date
for it, and graciously volunteered, even though he loves to push her buttons.
So beggars can't be choosers, so Catalina decides to accept Aaron's help and they go
on this trip to Spain, and I just heard that this is full of banter, it is a slow burn
romance, it's going to make me lose my marbles, and I am so excited for it.
I think it's going to be amazing.
We're going to get some great scenes in Spain.
They're probably going to share a bed in the hotel room.
It's going to be one of my favorite things.
And I'm also really excited because this romance is 472 pages.
I want longer romances.
I want the angst.
I want it to be drawn out.
I want it to have so many pages to dive into instead of having a 200-page romance.
For once, I am saying, in my life, that I wish a book was longer if it's a romance because
I just love seeing a relationship develop.
I love the banter.
I love the different situations that they get into.
So this is a pretty chunky romance, so I'm going to have a lot of time to get to know
these characters.
to see them fall in love with each other.
And I think it's going to be great.
I think it's going to be a great time.
I have heard literally nothing but good things on BookTok, and I seem to have begun to trust
them because they are pretty good at recommending me romances that I have not heard about previously,
and I think this will be a book that I will love, just like I loved The Love Hypothesis,
which is also just a great book, in general.
Those are all the books that I want to read during winter.
We have one, two, three, four, five, six books that are definitely on my winter TBR.
I love setting small TBRs for each season because this is very doable for me.
Because I can split this up into 2 books per month in the wintertime, and I think that's
very doable because I'm a big mood reader, so my mood changes a lot in terms of picking
up books.
There are books that I can be very excited to read in one month, and I don't want to
even look at in the next month, but I think setting myself a schedule to read 6 books
is perfect because it's not too overwhelming.
It's not like a list of 20 books that I have to read during that specific season.
I think this is very doable.
Let me know if you have read any of these books and you're excited for them, I would
love hear your thoughts down below.
And if you are interested in trying out Book of the Month, be sure to click the link in
my description and use my coupon code, which will be featured right here.
If you want to connect with me anywhere else, all my social media links will be down below.
If you have made it this far in the video, leave a snowflake emoji to see who stays the
longest in all my videos, and I appreciate you all so much.
Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you in another video very soon.
Bye~