unwrapping books picks what i read 🎁 wrapped up risk - episode five

Hello my loves! It is time for another episode of Wrapped Up, which we're doing every month now. We're going to do this until we probably have 10 episodes of this edition. Wrapped Up always comes back in December and I run it through the start of the next year a little bit, so if you don't know, I wrap up some of my books and in this edition, Wrapped Up Risk, I wrapped up 25 of the books I was most excited to read and 25 of the books I was least excited to read and I wrapped one and we read it together in a vlog. I would say, in terms of what we have left wrapped up, I think there's been four episodes so far. We've unwrapped in those three books I was most excited to read and one book that I was least excited to read, but I also have had to take out a couple that, if you don't know, on each of these there's like a tiny... see if I can find one. I try not to look for them usually. Okay, there's like a tiny number written on each of these and that corresponds to a book. I don't know what the numbers mean, so not looking at them doesn't mean anything. That corresponds to a book, so if I need to get one of these for another video, I can. So there has been a few that I've had to unwrap for other videos. So I think we are dealing with significantly more books that I was less excited to read than more. I don't mean to make her nervous that much. But let's just get into it. Spring has sprung. It is a beautiful day. It's lovely. My windows open. I feel like the world is wonderful. So I'm hoping for a book that's gonna make me happy. I want a book that's gonna make me happy. Do we go for a hardcover or do we go for like a paperback? I feel we haven't been going for as many paperback. I've just picked this one up. Do we just go for this? No, I think I'm feeling more hardback. Should we just, uh... I'm gonna go for this. I'm not even double thinking it. Whatever this is, we're reading this. Okay, I've just grabbed one. I'm obviously feeling red today. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Bloody hell. Oh, we've got black sprayed edges, whatever it is. Oh, I can see the pattern. Okay. So this is one of the books I was least excited to read. I'm, listen, all the books that I have on my TBR I'm still excited to read. So when I say least excited, it's just, you know, a book that I didn't want to read for whatever reason, as much as other books. We've got Year of the Reaper by Micaiah Lucia. This is the Fairyloot edition that I have. It is gorgeous. Let's see. Oh yeah, come on now. Come on. I don't know much about this. I think that was why I put it on here. It was like a YA fantasy that I just wasn't sure how I would personally vibe with. It says, three years ago, Lord Cassio disappeared in the midst of war. Since then, a devastating plague has swept the land. Having survived a rotting prison cell, Cass, now 18, wants only to return to his home. His castle has become a refuge for the royal court, and they have brought their enemies with them. An assassin targets the queen. Cass is drawn into the search for the killer. Okay, whatever. You know, I believe in a lot of things, including the killer. You never know who you can meet online. The killer. He's the killer. He's the killer. The killer is everywhere. We'll find out what it's about together. I think this will still be an enjoyable read. A lot of people have been enjoying this. I think, though, this is another series. So if I enjoy it, I am starting another series, which I have yet to. I've started two series already this year, and I haven't finished any. And if you don't know, my series goal for the year is just to have a net negative. So we'll see. Yeah, I've heard pretty good things about this so far. It's not too long, so I think we can have a nice few days reading this together. We'll see what we think. My loves, I have amazing, incredible, fantastic news. It's a star! I don't know why I thought it was a series. I guess I assumed that YA fantasy is a series. But it's a standalone. I read this book and that's it. Incredible. No notes. So I've just read the first hundred pages, so about the first third. I feel like I've gone very red all of a sudden. I'm feeling embarrassed. We meet Cassia, Lord Cassia, who was kind of separated from his family and his land. It seems imprisoned, and it's kind of the hit story. The first third is just him going back home. Sorry, you're a bit crooked. Him going back home, and he meets on the way this girl. I won't say who she turns out to be because it's kind of, I guess, a spoiler. But like, she turns out to be someone different than who she says she is. I guess it's kind of going to be a romance between those two, whatever. But he does eventually make it back to his hometown. And I'm really enjoying it. Here's the thing, it's not gonna be a five star, I can tell you that right now. But isn't it enjoyable, quick, fun read? Yeah, it is. It is. And I'm immediately grateful for it to be, for it for being a standalone. Like, I am so deeply thankful in my bones. This has reminded me how much I loved, in the past, court fantasy books, like books set in a royal court or a, what's the word I'm looking for, noble court, in a made up fantasy land. Like, I love that ----. And I have not really read it for a very long time. I think I read it a lot when I first started reading, but I haven't for a long time. And so coming back to it just feels nostalgic. Yeah, I don't know. It's reminding me of why I love reading stuff like this. It's a fairly simple book. I don't think the characters right now are feeling super fleshed out, but they're not feeling bad. It's just like a fun read, you know? It's not gonna be a five star, I can tell you that right in a second. Like, there's no chance. But I'm really enjoying the initial story. We've got kind of an assassin that we're trying to track down. I really like what Kaz has gone through and kind of what's the person that's made him into and the trauma that he has and the way that we've been examining that, I think has been really great. So there's a lot that I really, I really am enjoying about it. And it feels like YA YA. It feels like YA written for teenagers. I think I would have loved this if this had been the kind of thing I was into when I was, you know, 15 or whatever, 14. I think I would have eaten this ---- up, you know? So I'm really enjoying it. It's a fun read and it's a book that I would not have gotten around to forever if it wasn't wrapped up. This is like a real wrapped up moment. It's wrapped up fulfilling its purpose. I feel like a lot of the books we read at the start of this series were books that I would have gotten around to pretty quickly otherwise, but this isn't. This is a book I may never have read. I would have just put up, put off forever because I'm not reading as much YA fantasy and I just feel like the synopsis didn't grab me, but I am having a great time reading it. I feel like this lighting is a little bit homophobic. I need to be facing the, ah, it's because this lighting is homophobic. I need to be facing the window because here it's like lighting me from the side. So I'm just going to face like this. I am now on page 200 of You're the Reaper. I just had some lovely reading sprints with my patrons. I'm still really enjoying this. It's a fairly simple YA royal court fantasy book. It's not pushing the envelope. It's not trying to be something unique. I am enjoying it though. I'm having a nice time reading it. If I had to rate it now, it would be like, I'm sorry, sorry. Let's turn this way again. I don't actually love myself this much. I just act like I do. If I had to rate it now, it would be like a 3.5 or a 4. That's kind of where I'm sitting. It's like a fun, enjoyable time. I just keep thinking this is like proper YA, right? I feel like I've been having some problems lately where like I either read young-ish YA and I don't like it because I don't like the writing, but I don't think that's because of the age-old writing. I just don't like the writing, but whatever. Or you read YA these days and it's not written for young adults. It's written for the adults who still read YA. And this just feels like, oh, it feels like what I... If I had been into this kind of fantasy when I was 13, I said this already to you, but like it is perfect for the audience, you know? I mean, not much has happened. Like my guy is holding this thing. Nothing to do with that has happened yet. And the thing he's got on the cover, like, I don't know what this is. Not much action or like drama has necessarily happened yet. It's a lot about court politics. It's a lot about, I don't know, relationships from his past and relationships from the now coming together. You know, it really is a story about like, is it the prodigal son? I don't know, the son returning home. He was presumed dead. And how that's affected all his relationships three years later, him coming back into society, I just think is really interesting. What do you want from me? But it's not a complex book. I don't have a ton of thoughts on it. It's just a nice, easy, enjoyable read. There is a ro... Well, it's not even a romance yet. It's these two characters you can tell are interested in one another, but like they are going to not be near each other very soon. And so there's that kind of like, mutual interest. But even if it doesn't go any further, I'm okay with that. Like, I'm liking the relationship dynamics. I'm just hoping there's like one character that I feel is being set up to be a villain. And I don't want that. I will be pissed off. I will be upset. I will be hurt. I will be betrayed. So we're not, we're not wanting that. But other than that, I'm really enjoying it. So I'm about to head to Tom's for the weekend. So I will check in with you hopefully this evening, if not in the morning with my final thoughts. But this is one of the books where The Wrapped Up is picked in this series that I've been happiest that it's picked because this was one of the ones I was least excited to read. But I'm just really glad that I finally got around to it. So I finished it. I finished Year of the Reaper. And I loved this final third. I thought this final third was so good. There was a little twist, a little twisty twist. I have to say that sounds a little bit twisted, but kind of great. And I just loved the direction that it took the story. I won't, I won't spoil anything, but there's, I want to like tell you about it because it's like kind of twisty. You go, oh yeah, okay. Do you know what I mean? But I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed how the story all came together. And I just appreciate like a standalone YA fantasy. That's pretty rare, right? But to have this story where like, yes, it's fairly, you know, it's not an imaginative fantasy system, but I don't think you can have that really in a standalone. But it, you get there, you understand what kind of society we're in. You understand what's going on. Like, I don't know, is it really fantasy? Is there any magic in this? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I guess the fantastical element really is that he can kind of see ghosts because of some trauma that he's had. He can like see spirits. I saw a spoiler that happens like right at the start. But yeah, I appreciate this book for being a standalone YA fantasy and not being a series because it doesn't need to be a series. It's a self-contained story. You know, yes, we end the book with like some hopes for the future for the characters, but it's nothing like unresolved. I don't know. I really enjoyed it. So I'm going to give it four stars. I think it's, I'm so happy that Wrapped Up picked this book because I know, because I know myself that I would not have read this for like years and years if it wasn't for Wrapped Up. And I enjoyed it. You know, I will say I can understand it's the kind of book where yes, I'm giving it four stars. I can understand why someone would give it a two. I think depending on the frame of mind you go into this book in, because it is fairly simple, it's nothing out of the ordinary. I view it as almost like a cozy, not cozy fantasy in terms of like low stakes, but like cozy fantasy in that it's a fairly familiar story beat, familiar setting. Like there's nothing out of the ordinary. It feels like coming home to a book that you've read many times before. And if that is something that would cause you to rate a book low, I can understand. Like I've seen some of my friends rate it one star and I'm kind of like, I can see, I can see how you got there. But I'm giving it four stars. I really enjoyed it. I thought the writing was great. I really liked a lot of our characters. I thought the characters were a good mix of like characters that were closest to our protagonist being more fleshed out and then us having like a lot of other characters who are kind of just like, you know, there's not much depth to them. But like I said, because this is a setting, like this royal court that I feel like is so done in fantasy that you kind of know it already, like the characters can just be almost stereotypes of what those character roles are and don't need to be anything more. So yeah, I'm very glad that Wrapped Up picked this. And this was a pretty successful one, especially for a book that I wasn't the most excited to read. So thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this little Wrapped Up vlog. Let me know what you thought of this. If you have read it, I would love to know other people's thoughts on it. And I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!