Hello, everyone, my name is Olivia, and welcome to books and brews episode two a series in which
I tell you about a couple of books that I have read recently while I drink a cup of coffee. So
grab a cozy drink and sit down with me and let's talk about some books that I have recently read.
Look at my adorable Chimmy cup. I love them so much. So, the first book I want to tell you about
is Muted by-- it's upside down-- *laughs* The first book I want to talk about is Muted
by Tami Charles. This is a YA novel told in verse following a group of girls who want to
make it in the music industry. So we follow our main character, Denver, who is a part of a music
group with two of her friends and they go to a concert where they are trying to get the attention
of Sean, who is a very famous music producer. So they sing their song for him and he really
enjoys it and he decides to pick them up and try and help them become famous, but throughout
this whole entire process where he is introducing them to parties, he is taking them to his house,
they are slowly but surely getting into a very, very dark situation that their parents and society
is warning them against because Sean has had some very serious allegations told against him. And,
this book just greatly explores the darker part of the music industry. It is inspired by true events
and this is just a very hard-hitting YA that I didn't know what I was getting into,
but I just greatly enjoyed the ride because it was so gripping and because it was so raw and
very unique in its storytelling and in its topic itself. When I first started this book, I had
to really slug my way through the first hundred pages because I just was not gripped by the story,
but after hitting the hundred-page mark, I sat down to continue reading this book and I read
the entirety of it in one sitting. And, I was so immersed by it. I was just so scared for
Denver because you can clearly see this very dark situation happening and you're trying to
warn her against it, but she doesn't really know what she's getting herself into, so you kind of
just have to watch it fall apart as the reader. It is just a very heartbreaking read because you
definitely know that this happens in the music industry often, especially with newcoming artists
who don't know a lot about what's happening and who are easily talked into certain situations.
And, I just think this is a really hard-hitting read if you're looking for a YA novel told in
verse. I will be sure to link my Goodreads review down below because I listed all the triggers for
this book because this book is not to be taken lightly. It talks about some very serious topics
and some very serious situations, and I do want to warn you about that beforehand,
before you pick it up, because it's definitely not a light why a read to just read on the weekend.
It's a very heavy book. Another book that I have been talking about left and right and front and
center is Somewhere in Between by Laekan Zea Kemp. This is a YA contemporary following two Mexican
main characters and it is a dual point of view YA novel, which I really enjoy because you just get
a full well-rounded story, especially a romance. You get to see both sides falling in love with
each other. So for one point of view, we follow Penelope, who wants to open her own pastelería
next to her parents’ restaurant, but once a secret of hers comes out, her relationship with
her parents really much falls apart and she has to pick up the pieces and learn to be independent,
as an 18-year-old. And then we follow Xander, who just wants to find some stability in his
life and he finds it in Penelope's parents’ restaurant. So, once he starts working there,
Penelope is introduced to him and they slowly start a romance with one another, but this novel
doesn't focus slowly on the romance. It focuses a lot on family. It focuses a lot on immigration,
on the restaurant, and the food industry, and it is just such a well-rounded YA contemporary that I
just had so much fun with because it speaks about some very serious topics while also having a very
pure very heartwarming romance. And, I just love Penelope and Xander's story because this focuses
a lot on being independent at a very young age at 18 years old. It talks about finding a career for
yourself. It talks about reconnecting with your parents, and I also love how much this speaks
about how a meal and a restaurant can really connect with people in their community because a
well-made meal is just such a good way to get to someone's heart. If you are a foodie and if you're
looking for a lighthearted romance to read this spring, I would highly recommend this one, and
I also greatly enjoyed the audiobook because we get a narrator for both Penelope and Xander and I
really enjoyed that. The next book I want to talk about is a book that I did not enjoy... and I just
wanted to talk about it... to just stir the pot, you know? Sometimes you just have to stir the pot.
So here we go. So I finally read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab. and I have
~feelings~ about this book. I rated this three stars on Goodreads, but I think,
the more I think about this novel and the more I let it marinate in my mind, it's a two-star read.
It's just a two-star read. Yes, the writing is beautiful. I loved the writing. I highlighted so
many different passages of this story because I just thought it was a very lyrical type of read,
but the plot is absolutely-- not ridiculous but just absolutely forgettable. So if you
do not know, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue follows a girl named Addie LaRue who is cursed
to be forgotten because she made a deal with the devil and she is able to live forever, but the
one catch is that she is forgotten by every single person that she meets. So she can talk to someone,
but right when they leave the room, they instantly forget her and she is forgotten by
every single person in the world until she meets this one beautiful Timothée Chalamet looking boy
in New York City and he is the one person who doesn't forget her. So, that starts the story
of Addie LaRue. What annoys me about this book is the flashbacks because we go from the past to
the present and the flashbacks of the story are just so dry and recycled. They are just
continually repeating the same thing and it's the fact that Addie LaRue is forgotten and
nobody remembers her and woe is me, but also I have these really cool freckles that nobody ever
forgets and I'm just so interesting because of my seven freckles. And I'm just like girl
you can't ride your whole personality on your seven freckles. You can't. You c a n ‘ t. So,
the first hundred pages is Addie Larue dealing with her curse that she is newly introduced to.
So, you just hear the same exact thing: my name is Addie LaRue, everyone forgets me, I'm so alone.
That's all you read for the first hundred pages. I genuinely believe that you can just skip the
first hundred pages because it's so unnecessary to the plot and it could have been edited down easily
to 20 pages, but I feel like the editor of this book just wanted it to be as long as possible to
draw out the story because if you were to edit the story down it could have easily been like 150-page
story and that would have made it much more interesting than like a 500-page book... I think.
This book was too long. That's what I'm trying to get at. It's really only when her love interest
Henry's introduced, in present-day New York City that I actually became interested in the
story because, while Addie LaRue severely lacks a personality, I really enjoyed her love interest,
Henry, because I feel like he actually had a personality. He had some interest.
He had a motive. He just had ~substance~ to him, compared to Addie LaRue, who he immediately falls
in love with, and I'm like, “But what are you falling in love with? Are you falling in love
with her appearance and her mysterious appeal? Because it can't be that you're falling in love
with her personality because we have yet to see one for the whole like 500 pages of this book.”
So the only thing that really kept me engaged with this story was her relationship with Henry.
I thought that was really well done. I really enjoyed the star-crossed lover feel to it, but
like I said, Addie LaRue, herself, is just a very uninteresting and forgettable character, which I
find it to be incredibly ironic because this story is about a girl whose curse would be forgotten,
and I'm like, “Well, yeah. That checks out because she doesn't have any interesting aspects to her.”
And when we would flip-flop between the past and the present. I feel like the past was constantly
recycled versions of different chapters. They always had the same type of structure,
and it got very old very quick and it kind of brings you out of the story because you're so
invested in the present when she's falling in love with Henry, and then you get thrust into the past
to this random time period where a random artist falls in love with Addie LaRue's freckles and
makes art for her, and I'm just like, “This can't keep happening.” And that's what made me lose
interest in Addie LaRue. And, I just wish we had more scenes with the devil, who she made the deal
with because I thought that that dynamic was very interesting and I think we could have explored it
more and it could have been a really cool aspect to the plot, but he only really showed up whenever
it was convenient for Addie LaRue. And, I just thought that that was very random and
that also took me out of the story. I don't know. I feel like the only thing I greatly enjoyed was
Henry and the writing style. I wish the book was centered around him because I thought he was so
much more interesting than Addie LaRue. And I feel like this is going to be my last VE Schwab book
that I'm going to pick up because I think I don't jive with her stories. I don't jive with the way
that she writes female characters. They feel very flat. They feel like they lack substance and they
always have this I'm-not-like-other-girls feel to them and that's not something that I jive with,
and I just don't really enjoy her story structures anymore. I think they're very predictable,
and I think they're recycled and very long-winded. And, I just don't think that VE Schwab and I jive
anymore, which is totally fine. It's not like she's writing these stories specifically for me.
It's just me realizing that I don't have to waste my time reading her stories anymore because,
for me, the concept is always more interesting than the actual story itself,
which is fine. Those are my thoughts about Addie LaRue. Don't scream at me in the comments. Me not
liking your favorite book is not an attack on your personality. Trust me, I'm sure you dislike some
of my favorite books, and it doesn't keep me up at night. So I just wanted to share my thoughts
and if you want to hear a very in-depth, very concise voice message, podcasty type of episode
about my thoughts about Addie LaRue, I recorded that for my Patrons over on my Patreon. So, if
you want to join my community there, I am posting a lot of voice messages/ podcasts about the recent
books that I read, the recent movies I've seen, and the recent tv shows that I have marathoned,
and I am really enjoying making that content over there. So, be sure to check out my Patreon down
below because I'm really enjoying the community that I'm creating over there. To cleanse my
palette, I read a book that I absolutely loved and it is: Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert.
I have an entire reading blog documenting my experience reading this book, so I will be
sure to link that video down below if you want to get some in-depth thoughts about it and just
to see a really pretty reading vlog because I'm really proud of all my reading vlogs. I think
they're all really pretty and soothing, so if that's something that you're looking forward to,
be sure to watch that video after this one. But, Act Your Age, Eve Brown follows a woman named Eve
Brown, who is very much stuck in life. She doesn't really know what she wants and she has to make a
decision very quickly, so she comes across this B&B, one day, and she decides to apply for the
position of a chef there. So, she goes to the interview, very suddenly, without giving them
notice beforehand, and she meets the owner of this B&B, who is Jacob. Jacob is a very stiff
type of person, He's very grumpy and he's not that welcoming to new people,
so him and Eve get off on the wrong foot. literally, and she ends up getting the job and,
slowly but surely, they fall in love with one another as they work in this B&B and it is just
such a heartwarming, very pure type of romance that I just needed to read at the right time. And,
it just lifted my spirits and really put a smile on my face, and I just loved this story.
It has the sunshine character versus the grumpy character falling in love, which is one of my
favorite tropes in the world because Eve is such a bright and airy and spontaneous type of person
while Jacob loves his routine and never wants to break it and just lives a very strict life. And,
their personalities really clash with one another, but they also really get one another in a way that
other people don't really understand, and I just loved their dynamic. Their dynamic was
just so healthy and pure and I just loved how much they respected one another's lifestyles
because they're both very different, but they just respect the way that the other person lives.
And if you're looking for a very light contemporary novel to read, I would highly
recommend all of Talia Hibbert's books, but the Brown Sister series is just a series that
is so light and airy and this book also has OwnVoices autistic representation that I greatly
enjoyed, and I just love these characters so much. And I feel like this is always going to be a book
that I will return to if I ever need some comfort or I needed a pick-me-up, and I just loved it so
much. And the last book that I want to tell you about is another book that I did an entire reading
vlog for, so I'll be sure to link that down below. I think it's one of my prettiest reading vlogs,
so if you want to check that out, I'm really proud of it. And it is Piranesi by Susanna
Clarke. Piranesi is such an interesting read. It's one of the most interesting books I have picked up
in years. It's very much in the same vein as The Starless Sea, where it's a very unique
concept with lyrical writing with a unique premise that will completely suck you into this
Wonderland-esque world that you will never want to leave because it is so unique and unlike anything
you will ever see. Piranesi follows a man named Piranesi who lives in this building with one other
person. This building has an ocean on the bottom levels and then an atmosphere on the top, like, a
sky where birds fly around in the building. There are countless rooms that he explores and is very
familiar with, and twice a week, he meets up with the other person who lives in this building who he
calls the Other. They are collecting scientific data to study this building to understand what
it is and how they can explore it, so twice a week they meet up together and talk about the
new findings that have that they have found. And, one day, the other starts to suggest that
there might be a third person in this building and that's what really sets off this plot. So Piranesi
is a novel centered around this very unique type of setting that feels like a character in itself,
and we follow this protagonist as they explore this building further and further and there is
a mystery to solve. And it is just such a unique book. It's really weird. I feel like it won't be
for everyone because it is so weird because it is so ambiguous and because the writing style
is very flowery, and it's just a very beautiful book that I think would be tough to get into,
but I love these types of stories. I love stories that don't really have a lot of dialogue, that
just focuses on one character, that just focuses on his growth as he explores this one building,
and I greatly enjoyed Piranesi. I think I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. It was just such a unique read,
unlike anything I've ever read, and I loved the way that Susanna Clarke writes. I loved
her writing style and it makes me want to get into her, like, thousand-page book that so many people
recommend, which scares me, but I feel like if I enjoyed Piranesi so much, I think I would enjoy
that thousand-page book as well. And, people say once you get into it, it doesn't feel like
a thousand pages. It just flows so easily that you don't even notice you're reading such a big book.
One thing that I do have to see about Piranesi is that I think a lot of people would get annoyed by
the fact that you don't get all the answers about this building, about this character. about this
world that they're in, and I don't really mind that. I love when stories are ambiguous and don't
give you all the answers to the questions that are raised. I just think that's sometimes really fun
because it leaves a lot to the imagination. You can fill in the blanks or you can just leave it
as a mystery because the main character doesn't even get all the answers, and that's totally
fine because I feel like that's life. You don't get all the answers sometimes. So that's what I
really enjoyed about Piranesi, but it could also be a really big con for other readers.
But I go into more depth about Piranesi in my reading vlog, so be sure to watch that as well.
But those are the five books that I have recently read and really enjoyed, minus Addie LaRue which
I just wanted to rant about. Let me know if you've read any of these books. Let me know if you agree
with any of my thoughts. Be sure to be kind in the comments because there's no reason to fight over
Addie LaRue in the comments. I know we all have some very hot opinions about that book just-- just
be nice in the comments, please, If you have any book recommendations similar to Piranesi, please
let me know because I would love to read more books like that in the future, and if you have
not followed me on Instagram, be sure to do that as well because I post some really fun content
there that you won't see here on my stories and on my posts, and I'm really proud of that
page that I have curated. So be sure to follow me there and if you have not subscribed so already,
be sure to do so to support my work and see more videos from me in the future. If you have made it
this far in the video, comment down a white heart emoji. That's my favorite heart emoji to use,
and I just it's beautiful. It's a wonderful emoji. And I hope you all have a wonderful day
bye~