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

Friends, welcome back to Wrapped Up Brisk, where I have wrapped up 25 books I was most excited to read and 25 books I was least excited to read and we unwrap one and we read it. It is April. It is episode number seven. I just, I don't think you guys understand how nervous I felt. Girl, Siri. She was very f***ing rude. Weren't you? I don't think you guys understand how nervous I get. This is episode number seven. In the previous six episodes we've unwrapped four that I was most excited to read and two that I was least excited to read. So, I mean, we're hoping to keep carrying on the positivity. However, we are doing something special for episode 10, which I'm not going to tell you about yet, but I'm kind of hoping we leave some of the ones I'm more excited to read for that. That might be giving too much away. I don't know, but shall we just read a book? Okay, I've just got to pick one and go for it. I'm feeling gold today. I'm not even going to think about it. I'm going for this one. I'm not even thinking about it. I'm not even thinking about it. I've picked it. It's a hardback and I'm just going to start unwrapping. I have to just pick it fast, otherwise I start doubting myself and looking at other ones. Okay. Oh my God. This one is wrapped well. Oh my God. Okay. Okay. Okay. You guys. No amount of money would keep me here. So, we've got, as you can see, Girls of Fate and Fury, which is the finale to the Girls of Paper and Fire series. Holy ----. This is going to be the first series I finish this whole year. We're finally going to finish this series. Oh my God. Yeah. Okay. So this, I'm sure many of you know, we'll talk about more of the plot when I first check in with you, but we're following Lei, who was a forced to be a paper girl in the first book, who were forced to sleep with the king. Now, we're kind of like in a war situation. I'll try not to spoil anything for the whole series. I'll talk more about in vague terms, you know me, but I mean, it's Blurred by R.F. Kuang. So like, we get the vibe. I'm excited. You know what? This series, I love this series very dearly. I love the first book so much. It was really a book that got me back into reading at the time. Oh my God. This is not what I was expecting. Okay. What I was expecting, but I forgot that this was wrapped up. Okay. We're going to finish off a series, guys. It's taken me four months in theater to finish off a series, but this is going to open the floodgates. Positive vibes. Okay. I will read probably the first a hundred pages. It's about 420 page long. So maybe I'll check in with you roughly every a hundred pages. Let's get into it. I'm about to go out for a walk. So go out for a walk and then maybe I'll read a hundred pages. Who knows? Hello cows. Yeah, they can. You guys are crazy. Regan's at home with her friends. Guys, you've got to stop. Cows on FaceTime. Oh my God, there's even meat up there. They're chasing us. The cows. They won't leave us alone. They are your best friend. They say that looks like a cow. Hi. How are we doing? I'm a hundred pages into Girls of Hate and Fury. Um, I'm just going to leave. I'm having a problem with the writing, which for me, Girls of Paper and Fire, I remember describing as having beautiful, impactful writing. And the writing in this feels very YA, generic, insert writing here. I actually don't want to talk to you. So here's the thing. This is the third book in the series. The first book, I'll give you vague synopsis, right? I don't want to spoil anything. First book, Leia, I think I told you is forced to be a paper girl who are forced to sleep with the king. She, uh, develops a sapphic relationship with one of the other paper girls while she's there. It's not really a spoiler. A lot of people talk about that. I think it's in the synopsis that she gets in a relationship with someone else. You know, this is on many sapphic lists so we can connect the dots. Yeah. So there's that book. The second book is kind of like a quest book. And this one is more war, right? I think that's all I'll tell you. I ran into a problem first where I found, uh, what's the word, recaps of the first two books. The first one was on recaptains, but they didn't have a second book. So I went somewhere else for the second book and I was reading the synopsis for the second book. The first book I remembered pretty well. Like I remembered all of that. The first book was a five star for me. The second book was a four, if we're being honest, maybe a 3.5. And I was reading the synopsis and I was like, I don't remember a single part of this. I didn't, there was six characters named who I was like, I have no clue who you are. It's like a group of characters they go on this quest with. And I was like, I don't know who single one of you are. I forgot any of you existed. So I guess that's a bad sign. If I like forgot a good chunk of this and a good chunk of the first part of this is trying to remind you of who a lot of those people are. But a lot of them have kind of met peril in some way or another now. And I just could not care less. Like I don't care about these people. They just feel like fantasy insert here characters. I feel like I've read those characters a thousand times. They're nothing unique. Is it creative and unique? I'm genuinely curious. No. I guys, this is actually terrible for me. I'm hoping it's going to pick up, but the writing for me just isn't what I thought I knew from this series right now. And I feel like the book has moved or the series has kind of moved away. The first book is amazing. And I just feel like these other two books got lost in the weeds a bit and they're not sure exactly what they want to do. And there's just like all these moving parts, but none of the moving parts have necessarily been like fleshed out enough. The characters now that we're meeting again from the first book feel like shells of who they were. I don't know if it's on me and the fact that this is now one of the oldest series that I've been reading. And I read the first one long ago. And the second one quite a while ago, because then there was quite a big gap. I think it was like around two years between the second and this one coming out. And then it's been about a year since this one came out. So maybe it's been about three years since I read the second one. That is entirely possible. So I don't know if it's on me and it's my fault, but I remember how much I loved the writing of the Tashjan in the first book. And if it's been so long from me reading the rest of the series that I'm now coming to this as a fresh book, I should be able to love it. And the writing, even if I don't like the plot and I think the plot is like lost in the weeds a bit or whatever, like the writing should be a constant for me, you know? Like the writing I should be able to enjoy as much as I enjoy. I remember that being a huge plus for me in the first book. And I'm just feeling very worried. I don't know what to say. I don't know. It's just not doing it for me. Have I outgrown YA? Have I reached a point now where I'm not enjoying YA as much? Do I need to stop reading as much YA? There's a lot of questions. So I am hoping tonight that I will get halfway through this, but I've got to be honest with you. I'm not feeling super motivated to read right now. I don't know. It's not looking good for me. I'll see you in a bit. I don't even know what I'm reading guys. I don't, I don't want to talk to you. I'm in pain. My stomach hurts. I'm just sad. Okay. I've come to the realization. I made a realization. I connected the dots. I've connected the two dots. You didn't connect ----, but I've connected them. That this is dual POV, dual timeline. And I don't believe the others were. The second one might have been, hang on, let me look. No, I don't think it was. No, no, no. So this is the first of the series where we suddenly have dual POV because certain characters are not together. And it just doesn't work for me. It took me, I kid you not. I kid you not. It took me three hours, at least, at least, if not more like four, to read 110 pages, which for me is really slow. And I wasn't even doing anything else. I didn't do anything else in this time. I just read this book so slowly. I was so disinterested. I've just caved and I bought the audiobook, which I never do for a book I've read half of already. But for my sanity, I need the audiobook. And the audiobook is rated really highly. So I'm actually hoping it might turn it around for me a bit. And that some of the lines I'm finding more cringe in this, I will like more. I just don't care. And this is really sad to me because this was like a favourite series. On a lighter note, let's stop talking about that. I just got two deliveries from an order that I made on Book Depository. Rest in peace. Thank you for your service. Because it was shutting down, I thought, let's, let's support it and buy two US covers that I had my eye on. First, we have got A House of Good Bones by T. Kingfisher. I have heard such good things about this from people who have already read it. I just know it's about a woman who goes to her mother's house and her mother has changed and seems to be becoming very strange. It's a horror surrounding that. So I'm super excited for that. I still haven't read a T. Kingfisher. I know that's my second one that I own, but I'm hoping to read them both this year. And then the other one I got because this isn't out in the UK until like, I want to say like October. Oh, it's shiny. I didn't know it'd be shiny. It's The Golden Spoon by Jessica Maxwell. This is The Great British Bake Off Murder Mystery. Are we obsessed? I'm just expecting fun times from this. Not expecting the greatest work of art ever, but I'm expecting to have a good time. So listen, that's cheating up a bit. Two fan deliveries. So cute. Anyways, we're going around with my grandparents for dinner. And then when I get home, I've got to wash my hair. So I don't know. I want to finish the book tomorrow though. Like, is it not in focus? Sorry. I'm not waiting any longer to finish this book. I don't think you guys, if you haven't been here for a long time and like haven't seen me talk about this series a lot back in the day and how much I loved it, you don't understand the grief that I'm experiencing right now. Like, I'm so sad. Guys, there's been a plot twist. Getting the audiobook of this has completely changed how I feel about the book. Oh, how the tables have turned. I'm really enjoying it now. I'm enjoying the writing. This is crazy to me because usually when I read a series a certain way, I really prefer to like always read a series that way. And I've only ever read this physically. But there's something about the audiobook and hearing this said to me that has changed how I feel about the writing. It's miraculous. It's a Christmas miracle. So I'm now 314 pages in. So I've only got really the last 100 pages left. And yeah, I'm really enjoying it. Now I wouldn't say it's gonna be a five star for me because A, I had that kind of reaction to the first half of the book. And B, it does have that dual perspective, which isn't my favourite. And C, I've just been thinking about it. I mean, keep in mind, I'm enjoying this now. Like I'm having fun. It's just difficult to talk about my reaction to specific parts because like everything's a major spoiler. I've just been sitting and thinking about it and thinking about what book one did and kind of what it spoke about with sexual assault and victims of people who've experienced that. And I just feel like this whole kind of the way the series has gone into this war and like kind of typical fantasy, I feel like isn't where I guess I wish the story had gone. Although I don't know where I wish this would have gone. I just feel like it's not playing to the strengths of the first book. I would almost recommend just read the first book. I think the first book is amazing. It can kind of be treated as a standalone because I love the first book, but I just think that it kind of goes, it kind of has just become like a typical YA fantasy. But I feel like in this last quarter that I've just read, stuff has finally started to happen, thank god, with characters I actually care about. Like there was the first chapter I read via the audiobook. I was like, holy ----, we're going there. We're going there. Finally, some good ******* food. So I'm enjoying it a lot more. It's a much more pleasant read. It's probably going to be somewhere around like a 3.5, maybe even a 4 if I really enjoy it. I want to give it the benefit of the doubt because I maybe should have read the whole thing via audiobook. I don't know. Yeah, depending on what this last section is like. I'm nervous because I am starting to like, you know, we've got characters now that I care a lot about, like in the centre of everything. And I'm nervous about what's going to happen. But I'm excited to finish it and see what I think. We're going to go out for a walk now. It's a lovely day. It wasn't supposed to be this lovely, but it's turned into a lovely day. We're going out for a walk in a bit and then I should check in with you probably when we get back on my final thoughts. Good morning. I finished Girls of Fate and Fury this morning. I read most of it yesterday, but I finished the last little bit this morning. And I've been thinking about what I'm going to rate it and I'm going to give it a 3.5. I feel like that's fair. You know, I really did enjoy the second half, really did not enjoy the first half. And, you know, I was thinking like a 3.75. Well, then it's basically a four. Do I just give it a four? But I do still have a few problems with the ending. I feel like the stakes weren't high enough. You know, like I kind of feel like I went into this expecting to lose characters, a lot of characters I really cared about and I didn't necessarily. So I don't know. I feel like the stakes could have been a bit higher, but I still really enjoyed it. And for me, I always find it tricky when books do this. It's either I love it or I'm like just finished the book already. But we had like the big, you know, culmination of the book. And then there's about 40 pages at the end that are kind of just following the characters after that and just like tying up the loose ends and seeing how some of the characters have grown over the course of the series and the book. And I actually loved that in this. I feel like it needed to happen. I feel like there's certain characters who needed resolution and I feel like it ended in a nice way where it feels like everything's still not perfect, but like we're here. Do you know what I mean? I don't know. I really enjoyed the ending and I felt like it really, I don't know, honoured the characters and what they'd been through and the stories that they'd had. So many different, you know, not just the main characters. And I really appreciated that. So yeah, it's a 3.5. I'm really glad to have finished this series, you guys. It's my first series. This is it. This is a big one. This is for the girls. This one. So far, I just had a look at my spreadsheet. I've started four series that I plan on continuing this year and I've finished one now and I've DNF'd one. So we're at plus two series from the start of the year. We need to be at least minus one by the end of the year is the aim of the game. Yeah. Glad that I've read this and glad that I finished off this series and I'm intrigued to see what Natasha Nguyen comes out with next. She's like not on Instagram or Twitter. I'm like, oh, where are you? I feel like this series is a nice YA series, but the first book is like the book, you know, I don't feel like the second and third one necessarily needed to be two books. I can see that it should have been a duology. Yeah, the first book is the one that's truly amazing, but I'm glad that I got the resolution for all these characters. So I hope you enjoyed this vlog. I just want to let you guys know there's not going to be a vlog next weekend. There'll still be a video, but it won't be a vlog because I'm about to embark on a big video project that I'm kind of terrified about. Wish me luck. So I'll be working on that over the next two weeks and hopefully that should be up next weekend. But it's a really exciting video that I've been putting off for a long time and I'm excited to do it. So yeah, that's in the works. So this is kind of the last book that I was reading before that. Glad I finished the series and it's done. So anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the video. If you got to the end of the video, comment like a sword or knife emoji or anything like that because there was a lot of swords and knives and stuff in this book. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!