Reading Vlog ✸ Romance Reads, Journaling & Granny Squares ➤ 001

Welcome to 2025. Is this going to be the first video? I don't know. I have to look at the footage that I have from the first few days of the year because I don't know if there's enough. I don't know how much I filmed, but this feels like the first official video because I'm actually sitting down. I'm going to have a little chat. We're going to have our first reads of the year. I'm back home in New York after being in Chicago for the holidays. My mom and I road tripped from Chicago here because we had two dogs. We didn't want to pay two pet fees plus like New Year's flight prices. So we drove, which was kind of like, I would get so sleepy while driving. It just like lulls you into the state of like, go to sleep now. And I drove most of the way. So, but we're here now in New York and it's snowing today. It had said it was going to snow on Monday and then it went away and then I woke up to snow and it's so great. I love it so much and it's actually sticking. It's been snowing for a few hours. We did get up late today because we're still like so tired from the road trip, but it's so beautiful. I'm so happy. I, you know how much I love snow. It is just so interesting. It really adds. I don't like a sunny day. A sunny day is so boring. This is so beautiful and it was also snowing on the drive. We went through Ohio and Pennsylvania and it was gorgeous. So good. But because of being in Chicago and then the road trip, I haven't really read anything in the first few days of the year, which I love to get like going right at like day one. I like to finish a book January 1st, but I didn't, uh, which is fine. And I was still reading a book that I had started in December, which is A Dance Macabre by Naomi Loud. I got a physical copy. I was so excited to get home so that I could order this book to home instead of order it to Chicago because I don't want to drag it with me. But so happy. I was trying to annotate a little bit. I'm going to have to go back through and do all the annotations because I read it on the Kindle app on my phone and I literally took my Kindle with me to Chicago. Didn't use it once, so that's great. But I did read on my phone on Kindle app. I made a lot of annotations in this book like halfway through. If you missed it, this book, I, it's about this like city where these six families rule. In the beginning, I was really thinking of, I think it's just because I had seen like a TikTok or like a YouTube short about Sodom and Gomorrah, but the city kind of really gives like Sodom and Gomorrah vibes. It's kind of like lecherous and debauchery and all that good, good stuff, you know? There's these six ruling families of like death, idolatry, trickery, torture. I don't remember them all. Actually, it's probably right here in the front of the book. And there's one heir to each of these families and they really represent and embody what their house is about. And these families all worship a god, which is like the god of, they're embodying gods on earth. And it starts off with the end of rain, passing the torch to the next generation, and the gods choose, but then things go a little bit awry, power, greed, and it kind of takes off from there. It's a romance. It's pretty dark. A lot of murder, a lot of very morally black characters. Like I said, a lot of debauchery and a lot of spice, but it's really good. It's not just the boinking for boinking sake, it's emotional, you know? I really, really enjoyed this book and it just like really gives you the kicking, the toe curling, you know, I just really enjoyed this book. Definitely a good book to start the year off with for me. I'm very happy with it. So I'm very excited for the next book, which comes out in January 23rd. But I was looking at the author's Instagram and everything and people are reading arcs of the second book already. And I really want to ask for one, but it just feels so presumptuous. I want to say, is there a harm in asking, but like, yeah, it's so anxiety for me, but I think I will because I really want to read the second book right now while I have the first book fresh in my mind and I'm really looking forward to the second book. This first book is about two characters that are like the most powerful of the six. They're all like very powerful in their own right, but it's very, very hate to love, which I love. Like I love a hate to love, not just a, oh, you're there kind of hate, like hate. This was a lot of like fighting, like I hate you. The second book seems like it's going to be a lot more. It follows the character named Gemini Folly, which is like the trickster of the six. And I just really want to read that story now. So I would really love to get it. So I think I will ask. Very good. Five stars. A favorite book of the year for sure already. Love that for me. So I finished it last night. And this is my new reading journal for 2025, which is quite small, which I knew what the size was when I ordered it. But then like when it came out, it's like very small, but I did set it up and I did struggle setting it up because I didn't quite know what theme to go with. And then I eventually chose just black and white, but then like some of it isn't black and white and it's just kind of all over the place and I kind of want to redo it, but it's, this was a lot of hard work and it's also like wasteful of a notebook. And then at some point through this book, I ran out of the star stickers that I was using. And I was like, ah, I can just order more. Psyche. They're discontinued. Don't make me cry, bro. Why would you do that to me? But it's pretty, but I just don't know if it all goes together and I would like it to go together. It's fine, but I am excited to put my first book, first read of the year into my reading journal, which is what I'm going to do right now. And then also DM the author and ask if I can have an ARC, please. I just want to read it now. Anyways, in other reading plans, I have, where is my, I think I put it in my notion actually. My January TBR is A Dance With Cops. So one book checked off already, but I was already reading that in December. Nightshade, which I think I started in November, December and got halfway and then I was enjoying it so much that I didn't want it to finish. And then I just started reading other books instead. And I have a physical copy here. This is by Carrie Lake. I've read a previous book by Carrie Lake, Nocticadia, and then her newest book, Anathema. I actually have never said that word out loud, so I don't know what to say it, but the audio book for that comes out, I think this month, later this month. So I'm looking forward to that one. It's really long. I think it's like a dark romance, perhaps, I don't know. This is a dark romance and I went and finished it this month. I have a lot of books that I need to finish this month, that's most of my TBR, but one that is completely new is Ebony Gate. I don't know who it's by, I don't have it written down. I just got the audio book for it last night so that I can start it when I finished A Dance With Cops. It's by Julia V. and Ken Bebel. This is kind of sounding a little bit like Jade City, but in San Francisco. Female John Wick, which I've never seen John Wick, so. With Dragon Magic, set in contemporary San Francisco's Chinatown. Sounds interesting. Action, adventure, magical realism, paranormal. It sounds like a good time and I'm hoping it's a good time, so. So I'm either going to read this or I'm going to do my reread of Queen of Blood, which is the Patron Book Club book pick for the month. I started back up again, finally decided on a book for the club and that was what was holding me back for a couple of months there because I just could not decide on a book, but that is the book and I would like to also get to that this week so I don't keep putting it off until the end of the month comes and then it's, I haven't read it, so. That is also an option, but for right now I'm taking this day to journal because I was trying to do my end of year journaling while I was in Chicago, but I didn't take enough stickers. I only really took Christmas stickers, I just didn't like think it through, which was super annoying because I really wanted to get to my end of year journaling and like setting up January and goals for the new year. I don't do New Year's resolutions, but this year I have made a couple of things that I need to do, like get my New York license, try and apply for healthcare. I don't know what's going on, if I can do any of this. Also my mom's here and somebody sent me a book in the mail and she saw it and she was like, I'm going to read that, so that's what she should currently be doing, but watch I go out and she's on her iPad, so we'll see. Oh, and also my mom's dog Snow is here and my mom is going back to Belize and Snow is staying here with me, so I'll be taking care of two dogs, which I never really wanted that, but like I love Snow, she's such a sweetheart and it's only for maybe three months, so she's going to be a regular now, along with Rocky Dog, who is currently sleeping, so like a little angel. This morning though he stressed me out because I thought he had like something wrong with his mouth, but I think it was just because he was sleeping on it all night, but he's old and so I thought like, oh no, it's happened, like gum disease or something, but I think it was just because he was sleeping weirdly. Love a spiked heart rate right in the morning when you wake up. I thought you were supposed to be reading. I thought you were supposed to be doing some rest. I'm going to finish this by the end of this week. Okay, how many pages? Four hundred and three. I'm headed to the post office right now, I have a few orders to drop off that came in while I was out. I also need to check my PO box because they return stuff after 15 days, which is kind of very annoying because one time that happened and they weren't even open the only day that I had to go. They didn't even leave a note or anything and the next time I went, there was caution tape over like two of the bays. Anyways, I'm also going to go to a bakery, my favorite bakery, because I really want a slice of cake and then we're going to come back and read my ARC of Feasts of Fools. I'm so happy that I got it, cannot wait to read it. I sent it to my Kindle, I'm going to try and read it on my actual Kindle tablet thing. Um, so yeah. No, it was not cheap, girl. You better not have... To Arbit Month. I just got a little bit of book mail. Crunchy crunchy. I don't like to buy books on Kindle because if I'm going to pay for it, I don't want to like pay for it digitally. I just would rather have the physical books since I do love to just collect books. I did just get three new bookshelves at the end of last year and they are all full. So, what's one more book, you know? This is Death of... Okay, why am I looking at the spine? Death of the Dawn by Amanda V. King. This has been on my TBR for quite a while now and it's I think a YA vampire book. The main character in their village, there are people turning and she wakes up as a vampire. And I think it has to do with like her and the vampire that turned her, blah blah. I love that the blurb in the back is shaped like a coffin. Love that. So yeah, a little vampire book and it has a lot of good reviews so I was like I'm just going to finally order it so that I have it and I can hopefully just freaking read it because there is no audiobook to it. And it seems like the kind of book that I would have loved to listen to an audio and just like zip through it but we'll see. And I also am a very slow physical book reader so these days whenever I endeavor to read the book physically, I need some assurance that it's good and has really positive reviews so that hopefully I really enjoy it and can actually stick to reading it. Speaking of me being a slow weird reader, I was reading Feast of Fools on my Kindle. Is it called a tablet? And then last night I was like I'm not reading as fast as I do on my phone so I switched back to reading on my phone. So that's what I did and then last night I could not sleep. It was such a mess. It was really annoying. And I ended up reading up to 70% and well maybe like 65% when I read some more today but I've mostly been working on like journaling stuff, facedown my sister for a while and then like I couldn't focus while I was on facedown with her. And then I also had some computer work stuff to do which I have not even gotten to I feel like half of the things that I wanted to today because I have a lot of like video planning that I want to do as well but I haven't even gotten to any of that yet. Yay! I don't know. I, yeah, Feast of Fools. I am enjoying it but I'm not loving it as much as I loved the first book. I think what like really drew me in about the first book is there was a bit more of an exterior plot rather than just the two main characters but I also feel like in a way they made a very interesting plot whereas these, their relationship doesn't feel like a plot. You know what I mean? Does that make any sense? I do like them but I think what I have issue with with this is that one of them is like morally grey or morally normal and the other is morally corrupt but when they're both, like in the first book when they're both morally corrupt that is, now we can just enjoy it. We don't have to think about like boundaries. I mean boundaries are good, boundaries are healthy, blah blah blah but like in this one you're just too aware that these things are bad but one of the tropes is like corruption and like he corrupts her or like helps her discover that side of herself rather I would say but it does take some time to get there. Not loving it as much as the first book but still I'm enjoying my time, still reading it really fast so I'm still really into it and some things have like happened, revealed and I think now it'll get into like the meat of what I love about this world and this writing perhaps but we'll see how it goes. Don't really know what's gonna happen in the next, the rest of the book up until the point where I'm reading, what did I say, 70%? That's my plan for the evening. I really need to fix my sleep schedule because that was one of the things that I kind of have like a New Year's resolution for is to have more of a work-life balance. I'm mostly very creative at night so I don't mind sitting here at my desk like all day but I think that's just probably unhealthy. Like I don't feel unhealthy for doing it but it just seems like it is and maybe I would benefit from you know going into the living room and have sitting down in the couch which I used to do a lot more when I had a TV but I sold my TV and blah blah. Yeah that is one of my kind of goals for at least the next couple months to try and you know log off and go and sit down and relax. Maybe not every day but make more of a conscious effort but with that I need to wake up early and you know since the holidays I didn't start the year in New York and then the road trip and being tired from that and my mom being here and we're just like relaxing. Although not really because I have been doing a lot of work but it just it's got the relaxation air because also we're not waking up early so we need to fix our sleep schedule because my mom also needs to fix hers because she needs to get back to work where she has to wake up very early. Okay. Oversharing, rambling, yapping. I'm gonna do a nice everything shower or a nice boil. Also I banged up my knee yesterday so that was rough. I need a nice reset everything shower and then I will get into bed and I want to finish Feast of Fools this evening so that I can move on to something else tomorrow. Not that I'm trying to like rush through this book quickly or anything but I would like to get to another book on the TBR because it's the beginning of the year. We want to be reading lots of books. That's the vibe. So bye. Reading updates. I finished Feast of Fools this morning. I just have thoughts about like that it could have just been like a different way and it would have made a lot more sense. Like you could have still followed the whole storyline. I just want to more grit. Not that every main character needs to be like strong and crazy and you know like knows what they want. Obviously there are characters that like didn't need to discover themselves. They don't necessarily have like a very strong sense of self and have to learn that through the story but I just think in this world and with the subject matter in the book it works better with characters that already have a certain way about them and then they change from that like in the first book. But it did have some good scenes and I ultimately gave it a 4 stars. I just really loved the first book most of all. Like still. I just like the first book. Also this one's quite spicy and there are a lot of like triggers and things between the two books of course so if you're thinking that you might want to read it definitely look those up if you're sensitive to things like that. But yeah so that's finished. First two books of the year read. And then I was going to start another book today. I was thinking either like I said The Queen of Blood or Ebony Gate but in classic Katie style. I didn't feel like reading either of them and then I was going to just look for a random book to read. But then things happening in life in my family. Just some of those people but like things and so it just threw off the vibe of the day. And then I was learning about the fires in California and I'm just like what is the world? I literally don't even know what to say but I hope that everybody and their pets are safe at the very least. Like I don't even know what to say but yeah. The day has taken a turn so I'm just going to do and I have a lot of work as well that I need to do on my computer that has just come up so that's what I'm going to spend my day doing as well as crocheting. I haven't finished a crochet project in literally a million years and I have far too much yarn. So I'm on a yarn buying ban and I'm getting back to my current project. I have a lot of current projects but this one is a balaclava. But that's all I guess. A good start to the year in reading both physical reads and I don't know what I'm going to read next. I would like to start with Death of the Dawn which I probably will start tonight on. But that's kind of it. I'll see you next week. Goodbye. Bye.