VLOG!🍒 last days of summer, cozy reading vlog, cafes, bakeries & new favorite books!

Welcome back to another vlog. Welcome to another reading vlog slash days in my life. It's currently the last week of August, which means this is the last reading vlog of August and pretty much summer, which is absolutely insane to think about. I feel like I spend more time looking forward to summer than actually living summer. But anyways, we're going to enjoy this very last week of August by reading as much as humanly possible. I was going through the book choices for this reading vlog and they all feel very summer coded. So it's going to be a very good, very fun reading vlog. You guys already know how these go. Also just know that with this video, we are one video closer to my fall videos, which I'm so excited to film. You guys have no idea. But yeah, let's get into this vlog. I hope you guys enjoy. I truly do not care what the weather is like outside. This candle literally just transported me to a cool, crisp October night. Anyways, I'm going to show you guys my options for this reading vlog. Spoiler alert, I have a lot of options and I truly love all of them. I was going to use a spin the wheel today, but I think I know which book I want to start this reading vlog with. Anyways, here we are. Here are some choices. My very first choice, and I think the book we're going to start this vlog with, is this one right here. This is A Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry. I literally don't know what happened to me with this book. I feel like every single year I have a sense of urgency with the Emily Henry books. I'm finally getting to this book. I've enjoyed every single Emily Henry book that I've read, but I feel like I haven't been blown away by one of her books since Book Lovers. I just have a feeling I'm going to really, really enjoy this one. Okay, my next choice is a book that I got last week. That is this book right here, His Girl Hollywood by Maureen Lee Lenker. Okay, I actually didn't even notice this, but Emily Henry herself said my perfect read. I feel like this book hasn't been talked about a lot, so you guys are probably thinking, don't read that book. But when I tell you guys the plot of this book, it's so beautiful and I'm so, so, so excited to start it. And then I have two books that I also got last week. This is actually a series. It's called the Blue Moon series. This is the first book, and this is the second one right here. This is No More Secrets by Lucy Skor, and this is Fall Into Temptation. I feel like I've seen and heard more about this book than I have about this one. I feel like these are going to be just very cute, very fun rom-coms. Also a super quick question, what do you guys think is going to be the fall book of the year? I feel like there hasn't been a more perfect fall cover and fall book since these two right here, especially this one. Just by looking at this cover, I want to be in the fall spirit. It's that good. But anyways, last book for my choices is a book that I've been wanting to read all summer long. I feel like it's been like a dark cloud just hanging over me. This is Ellen Hildebrand's Summer of 69. It actually feels wrong of me to let an entire summer go by and not read an Ellen Hildebrand book. How many books can a human actually read in a week? Because I really want to read all of these. I feel like that's not possible, but I'm definitely going to try, and we're starting it off with this one right here. I came to this coffee shop that has some really, really good matcha. We're going to get a matcha and do some reading. So yeah, let's do it. Okay, you guys, I just left the coffee shop. I was able to do a little bit of reading and get a little matcha. I'm slowly starting to understand the premise of this book right here. It's kind of giving me the vibes of book lovers a little bit. So both of these characters are writers, and this story is pretty much about them chasing the same story. He is an award-winning author, and she is pretty much trying to catch her first big break. This really, really famous older woman is trying to find a writer to write her biography. She's lived an incredibly crazy public life, and now that she's older, she's willing to tell her story to a writer to make it into a book, and she's willing to give both of these authors a one-month trial. After the month, she's going to choose one of them to write her book, and they're not just spending this month anywhere. They're spending it on an island. So already I can see that it's going to be a competition. It's going to be close proximity. I feel like it's going to be really fun, and the summer vibes are really, really good in this book. But anyways, now I'm thinking what I want to make for dinner tonight, and I think I'm craving a creamy tomato pasta. The only ingredient that I'm missing for that is half and half, so I'm going to stop at the grocery store real quick, pick that up, and then we'll go back home and make dinner. Before I leave to the grocery store, I thought this would be a perfect time to talk about today's sponsor, who is Tora's. I was literally just using their mini mag charger inside of the coffee shop. Either my phone or my laptop always dies when I'm working at a coffee shop. Today was my phone, so having my Tora's power bank was absolutely perfect. Also this color of the mini mag is absolutely everything to me. It's so cute. Honestly, Tora's and their products have made charging way less of a headache for me. This right here is their FlexLine charger. Their FlexLine is a super smart magnetic charging cable that actually bends and locks in place. You can use it with your phone, whatever you need, but let me show you guys how I've been using it. So I plug it in like any normal charger, and the retractable cord, I've been using it for my laptop. Then to this same device, I add my phone charger. So FlexLine can automatically detect the charging power needs of different devices and intelligently distribute power, truly fast charging two devices at the same time. Fun fact, it doesn't overheat like a lot of other charging devices do as you're using them. And this right here, I feel like is such an essential, whether you're traveling, whether you're also constantly working outside of your house. This is the cutest, most slim, compact magnetic power bank. These two together are the most convenient charging combo I've had. So yeah, make sure to click the link down below and check out Taurus and their super convenient products. Okay, first of all, excuse my hair. I'm actually going to be trying something new tonight on my hair that I'm so excited about. I ordered something a few days ago. It's the Overnight Blowout Rollers. They're these velvet hair rollers that I guess are like the real deal, giving you like a really cute hair blowout overnight. We're going to be trying it tonight, so we'll see. But anyways, you guys, it's been a few hours. I've been reading. I already had dinner. I was going to go downstairs and start getting ready for bed, but I need to talk about this book right now. Like this instant. I've read this much. So I'm still at the beginning, but I'm on page 120, chapter 12. I don't know what I was expecting with this book, but when I tell you guys this book has completely exceeded all of my expectations, I don't know if it's because it's been a while since I've read an Emily Henry book, but it genuinely doesn't even feel like an Emily Henry book. I don't know whose book I'm reading. It just has such a different vibe than her other books in the best possible way. Like all of her other books were really, really good, but this book just feels different. So far, it's exceptional. Not one single flaw. Let me try to break it down for you guys. There are two stories being told in this book. The first one is the one that I was expecting. It's the typical love story, the one that I was talking about earlier between these two writers that are competing for the same book. So they're fighting for the same job, but they're also spending a month on this island pretty much. So whether they like it or not, they're also getting to know each other. However, that is not the story that is making me so obsessed with this book. The second big part of the story is this woman that is telling her life story to these writers, and her life story is the most interesting thing about this book so far. So this woman is pretty much a part of a family that is incredibly, incredibly iconic. I'm trying to think of like real life examples. Like we're talking old, old money. So like the Rockefeller family, the Vanderbilt family, the Kennedy family. So it's a family with a lot of money, a lot of power. There's been a lot of scandals, a lot of secrets. There's like a curse, I guess, in their family as well. And when she begins telling her story, she takes it all the way back to her great, great grandfather. And it's seriously so interesting because Emily Henry is really going into the details of that part of the story. It's kind of reminding me of Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. There's also a lot of mystery in the story right now on why this woman decided that now was the right time to tell her life story. So that is where I'm at right now, and I'm having the thought I knew I was going to have, which is the thought of why haven't I read this earlier? Okay, guys, I'm so excited. I'm going to be using the Overnight Blowout rollers tonight. Since it's my first time using them, I feel like it might not come out perfectly, but I'm going to try to use them every night until I get better. This took me such a long time. I probably redid it like five times and it still looks horrible. I'm going to go to sleep. Morning, you guys. This is what we're looking like. I slept so uncomfortably last night, so if this isn't sort of decent, I might be upset. I was also scrolling on my phone for a little bit last night, and I saw that people do it a little bit differently, and I think next time I do it, that's how I'm going to try it. Okay, not horrible, not good, but not horrible. I literally look like I'm about to go Anchor the News or something. Okay, I'm a fan of these. You guys, I have this much left of A Great Big Beautiful Life. I'm on chapter 27, page 302, so I have about 100 pages left. I'm going to start a stopwatch right now, and we're going to see how long it takes me to finish this book. I'm not leaving this chair until I'm done with this book. Spoiler alert, I have a feeling this book is going to be five stars. Okay, it's been 40 minutes. I'm on page 340 out of 416. I only have this much left. I haven't felt this way about a book since I read One Golden Summer, and I'm honestly so sad I'm about to finish it. I would gladly read another 100 pages of this book. Okay, I'm an hour and 15 minutes in. I just got to the craziest part of the book. I was not expecting plot twists in this story, and we just got to. This is... I don't care how this book ends, this is my favorite Emily Henry book. I cannot take this anymore. Okay, an hour and a half later, I just finished A Great Big Beautiful Life. I also feel like I made the mistake of going on TikTok right after I finished this book because I get curious and I want to see if people loved a book as much as I loved the book. I was on the wrong side of TikTok because I guess a lot of people didn't like this book. Could it be me? And let me tell you why. First and foremost, this is a five star book. Should I put the cover on it? Like I was saying, this is a five star book. I truly don't think I could have loved my reading experience with this book more. I want to talk about this book and discuss it, but I don't want to spoil the whole thing because if you need a book to read right now in this moment, I think you need to read this book. This is for sure becoming one of my favorite books of the year and I don't want to be crazy. I don't want to say any crazy things, but right now, it's my favorite book of the year. Like I was telling you guys, there's basically two stories happening in this book. You have the two writers that are competing for the same job while also falling in love at the same time. However, their story to me was not what stole the book. What really made this book crazy and so good to me was the life story of the woman that they were interviewing. Her name is Margaret and she has my entire heart the way another character hasn't had it in a long time. Also, I will say, if you guys haven't noticed by now, I am the biggest sucker for old Hollywood stories. Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones and the Six, literally those vibes are in this book. Also, if you've heard the song by Taylor Swift, The Last Great American Dynasty, literally all I was thinking while I was reading this book. Basically, this woman has lived an entire crazy public life. She goes into detail on her family story, how they became so rich. All of the rumors, all of the stories that people thought they knew about her and her family and what really was going on behind the scenes. I feel like there needs to be a sequel to this book. I need more of these characters. And I literally read this book in 24 hours pretty much and I'm kind of regretful about it because I feel like I didn't get enough time with these characters and with this story. It was amazing. Seriously, I don't, I can't think of any more adjectives to describe my love for this book. Five star book, five star story. Could be my favorite book of the year. I don't know. I have two choices for my next book. It's either going to be this one, His Girl Hollywood or this one, No More Secrets by Lucy Skor. I'm honestly leaning towards this one, His Girl Hollywood. However, I feel like with the whole old Hollywood theme that is also in this book, I'm going to start mixing stories together. So I'm going to give my mind a little bit of a break from old Hollywood and I'm going to start this one today. Just a fun, cute little rom-com. It's such a cloudy day today that you wouldn't believe it's currently 90 degrees outside. But today is currently Thursday. I just had my eyebrow appointment and my dermaplaning appointment. I'm craving another coffee today. So I came to a coffee shop and I thought I would do some reading and maybe some journaling. There's also a pastry shop right next to the coffee shop. I've been to it before and the pastries there are really, really good. So I'm going to go into the pastry shop first, see what they have, and then go to the coffee shop. But yeah, I already started No More Secrets this morning and I have a feeling it's going to be exactly what I want it to be. I'm craving like a palette cleanser sort of book. And I feel like this cutesy rom-com is just that. I got a little shot. I got a raspberry pastry and an apple tart. So excited to try these but especially this apple tart. Okay guys, it's a lot later. I've been reading No More Secrets all day. It's actually a really, really short book. There's only 263 pages and I literally only have this much left right here. I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about this book and not all of them are good. But I thought it'd be fun to set a little timer and see how long it takes me to finish off the rest. I'm literally thinking 30 minutes. But yeah, let's finish off No More Secrets while eating my little apple tart or whatever this is. Okay, literally 20 minutes later. We're done with No More Secrets. I'm trying to figure out how to go about this review because honestly, my instinct right now is to be harsh with this book. But I'm also reminding myself that with this book, it's literally like what you see is what you get. It's literally a 250 page rom-com. So I think I can't even be surprised that I feel like there were some things missing in this book. So I'm trying to keep that in mind as I let you guys know what I thought of it. I'm gonna give this book 2.75. It wasn't anything crazy, but it also wasn't horrible. And I am still very excited to read Fall Into Temptation. I also did something a little different with this book as I was reading. I feel like sometimes when I'm reading a book, I'm having all of these thoughts and all of these opinions as I'm reading it. But whenever I finish it or I'm about to film me talking about the book, I focus more on the ending and how I'm feeling with the ending rather than my whole experience while reading it. So I actually started a list on my notes app and I was just adding all of these random thoughts that I was having while reading the book. So I wrote down what you see is what you get, which is what I said already and I started feeling that very early on. I also put a very cute rom-com with Hannah Montana movie vibes. This book did have a lot of charm and I think the setting had everything to do with that. It's a very cutesy small town. Everybody knows everybody. Literally, the town from the Hannah Montana movie is what I was thinking the entire time. The main male character is a farmer and the main girl is actually a city girl from Manhattan. She comes to the farm for a week to interview the farmer and she's gonna be staying with him for a week. I personally thought the plot didn't make very much sense and I literally thought of this analogy. I think that's what it's called. It's literally an example of exactly what I was feeling as I was reading this book. So I've watched the show Friends like a million times. I know the characters already. I know what's gonna happen in every single episode, but you know when you go to like a hotel or you turn on the TV and whenever Friends is playing, it's always a super random season. It'll be an episode from season 4 or season 7 or season 10. So whenever you're watching it, you kind of fill in the blanks to kind of make sense of the random episode that you're watching. I don't know if that makes any sense, but that is what I was feeling when I was reading this book. Feels like the book is starting at such a random spot and you as the reader have to fill in all of the blanks. There is absolutely zero character development. There's all of these characters like the two main ones and all of the people from the town and there's a bunch of random things happening to the characters throughout the book, but it was so hard to care what was happening to these characters because you don't know the characters. It felt like page 1 should have been page 50 or page 100. Again though, I feel like I can't be so harsh because like I said, this is a very short story, but I did feel like the author was trying to give us a typical rom-com in a short amount of chapters and a short amount of pages. Like it's trying to give you these two characters falling in love, but it literally goes from one chapter, they don't like each other, another chapter, they're in love. It's trying to give you all of these secondary funny characters but you can't really connect to them because there's no context. Then it's trying to give you a third act breakup that comes out of literally nowhere and then it's giving you this big character revelation to add depth to the story but it's so random that you can't really feel for these characters. A whole mess if you ask me. So I think I'm going to stick with my 2.75 rating. Again though, I feel like I have to say this again, if you're looking, do I even want to recommend this book? I don't want you guys to buy a book and not like it. Look into it first, but this was a cute time. I was looking for a palette cleanser book and this was definitely that. I am still very excited to read Fall Into Temptation and now I'm going to start His Girl Hollywood. I'm craving a good book and I feel like this is going to be it right here. I told you guys the plot of this book in my last vlog when I bought it. Let me tell you guys super super quick what it's about. Basically, it's about two childhood best friends. She's in love with him. I think he's in love with her, but they never tell each other that they're in love with each other. She's always dreamed of being a director in Hollywood and he has always dreamed of being a dancer in Broadway musicals. So when he turns 18 and she's 17, he gets on a train and goes to New York. They promise each other to stay in touch, but that's pretty much the last time that they see each other until like 10 years later when it's 1930s in Hollywood and she is making her directing debut. She's going to direct her first film and it's actually going to be a musical. However, it's going to be a lot harder than she thought it was going to be because the studio producers tell her that they have chosen the actor that's going to be starring in her film and it happens to be her childhood best friend that she hasn't spoken to in 10 years and who's the only man she's ever loved and it's all on a movie set in the 1930s in Hollywood. It's going to be good. I already feel it.