tier ranking the 45 books i have read so far this year

[00:00:00]Hello my friends. Welcome or welcome back to my channel. Somehow we are halfway through 2026. Saying that out loud is genuinely baffling, but I thought it would be the perfect time to film a tier ranking the books I have read so far this year. We're at the midpoint in the year. I would love to do a check-in, talk about all the books that I have read. I have made myself a matcha, so we are good to sit here. I have a feeling we're going to be a bit yappy in this video, so grab yourself a drink, get a blanket, get cozy. We are locking in to yap about the gosh, how many books have I read? 40-something books. I'll tell you about at the end. I think it's maybe 44 books so far this year, which is a lot more than I thought I would have read by now. These are probably some of my favorite videos to watch. I love getting a comprehensive snapshot of someone's reading taste, especially if I haven't watched their videos before. I will do my best to explain all my thoughts and feelings on these books, but to help me do that, I have made some very fun tiers that are Olivia Rodrigo, you seen pretty sad for a girl so in love so in love themed. So, our top tier is you plus me equals a heart forever. These are books that I adore with my entire being, my entire soul. Me and this book equals a heart forever. That is how I feel about these books. These are top tier, five star, absolutely adore reads. Next tier below that we have the most alive I've ever been. Now, these are books that I may not necessarily have given five stars, but I had the most fun time reading them. I think that if you have fun reading a book, it doesn't have to be a five star. So, these are books that just gave me, that made me feel alive, that I binged, was giggling, genuinely had a great time. Maybe not a five star, but would recommend if you're looking for a good time. That's this tier. Then we have every book that I read makes me cry, which is obviously not a lyric from the thing, it's every movie I watch makes me cry, but obviously we're doing a reading wrap-up, so I've altered it to that. Every book that I read makes me cry. These are books that physically pained me. I think the one thing I'm going to struggle with in this tier ranking is figuring out if it's a every book that makes me cry, or whether it's a you plus me equals heart forever. Cuz to be completely honest, if a book made me cry, I'm probably obsessed with it and so distinction between the two might be difficult. Anyway, next we have It Will Never Be the Cure. This was a really tricky one to label because I think I have a collection of books where I had a really good time. I did love them, but they just weren't that five-star feeling and I feel like It Will Never Be the Cure was the closest thing I could think of for this thing because with the cure, you love the person but it's just not enough. That's the vibe for this book is that these are like three or four-star books that I really enjoyed. I wanted to love them more. I wanted them to cure me in some way. I wanted them to be a five-star and they just weren't, but they weren't the worst thing in the world. They were good books. Where you are with this book, it's a good book. You could have loved for it to be more, but it was never going to give you a five-star. That is what It Will Never Be the Cure means to me in this ranking system. Next we have Did Not Meet My Expectations. I have read quite a few books this year that I had really high expectations for that did not make the cut and so I have a feeling that category is going to be higher than I would like. Then we have Give Me Back My Time, which this is if I had a jail time category, that's what this would be. Books that I wish I did not read. I probably should have DNF'd.

[00:03:05]I will say I have DNF'd quite a few books this year. None of them are in this reading wrap-up. These are all books that I have fully completed. That is my six tiers for all of these books.

[00:03:13]I've got all the books on the side here and we are just going to go through them one by one. They aren't in any chronological order, but I will just scroll through. I think I will start just at the top and go top to bottom, but if I get to books that are linked, I will probably just skip to those and do them at the same time, but we'll see how we go. First up, we have Heart the Lover. Now, I read this book not realizing that Writers & Lovers was the middle chunk of this book. So, when I read Heart the Lover by Lily King, it was all over my social media. I had so many people saying, "This is an amazing book. It is a more people ask Sally Rooney emotional, complicated white lit fic version of a romance." Sounds right up my alley. I unfortunately did not love it. Essentially, in this book, we are following two characters that I don't even know how to describe this book. As someone with book amnesia, the second I finish a book, if I didn't love it, wiped from my memory. Even if I loved it, all I remember is that I had a good time. Me trying to describe any of these books is going to be tricky, but we're going to do our best. We're following a female lead. I don't remember their names.

[00:04:14]And she has a boyfriend in college, and then that boyfriend has a roommate. This roommate is the person she actually starts talking to and develops a relationship with, and they have a complicated, messy college romance situation. We then jump a certain amount of time in advance to their adult lives, and just the complicated things and the what has happened in the time that they've been apart, you don't really know. That's kind of what's going on.

[00:04:39]Apparently, the middle chunk of the book is Writers and Lovers, which is her first book. And so, I when I read Heart the Lover, to be honest with you, I didn't know that Writers and Lovers was linked and the same characters, and I just felt like something was missing.

[00:04:51]Did not think I had nearly enough information to care about our characters, and it kind of shows now that there's a whole other book that I hadn't read. So, I will say for Heart the Lover, I'm going to say that this did not meet my expectations. I had really high hopes for it based on what everyone was saying. And for me, I did not love the writing style. It was really short and choppy, which is not my preference. And I just didn't have enough time to connect to our characters. I think that kind of falls into the marketing of it, and a lot of the books that didn't meet my expectations are going to fall into issues with the marketing of the book on Bookstagram and BookTok and what people were saying about it, because I had expectations, they were not met. I can't remember a whole lot else, but anyway, Wild Dark Shore. [clears throat] I loved Wild Dark Shore. I'm tossing up between The Most Alive I've Ever Been and You and Me Equals a Heart Forever, because I don't really read crime, thriller, mystery books, but this is a psychological thriller. I was on the edge of my seat, and so in that sense, I was the most alive I've ever been. I was waiting to turn that page. I just needed to know what was going to happen. Is it fully you plus me equals a heart forever? I would say that I'm a very character-driven, emotion-driven book kind of person. So a lot of the books that are going to end up in you plus me equals a heart forever are very character-driven books. Whereas Wild Ducks, sure, is a little bit more plot-driven, and so I was alive while reading it, but I don't think I would say it is you plus me equals a heart forever. However, you know what book is?

[00:06:14]My current favorite book of the year.

[00:06:15]And that is Slanting Towards the Sun.

[00:06:17]This book is probably the best book I have ever read writing-wise. Like the writing style was phenomenal. It is a debut novel, which genuinely baffles me.

[00:06:26]And we are following a marriage in turmoil, I guess you would say. At the start of the book, you have two main characters who, you know, are divorced, but you don't know why, and you spend the entirety of the book trying to figure out why, slowly getting drip-fed crumbs and pieces about their story as you go back and forth in the timeline of when they met, and when they were married, and when they were divorced, and all of these things, and you just slowly, essentially, peel back the onion of their lives. It was phenomenal. One of the main core things around this book is infertility, and how that can impact a marriage, and I just thought it was so fascinating, so well-written. I think about this book regularly. I already want to reread it, and I probably will before the end of the year. Honestly, getting to a point of being a six-star read for me, because I am still thinking about it months after.

[00:07:14]Phenomenal. If you like a fiction book that has romance, but not necessarily a happily ever after romance, more of a complicated, looking behind the curtains into a messed-up marriage, that's what this book was. All right, next we have Heartstopper, which is always going to be you plus me equals a heart forever.

[00:07:32]All five Heartstoppers are in here. I just finished my Heartstopper reread, because it's currently, I think, the 29th of June, and on the 2nd of July, Heartstopper volume six comes out. These books have my entire soul and being.

[00:07:46]Like, you could not have me more obsessed with a book if I tried.

[00:07:50]Heartstopper just holds the perfect place in my heart. I just adore them with my entire being. If you don't know these books and you have not read these books, please read them. I don't care what your reading taste is. I think that everyone needs to read Heartstopper. It is the perfect YA romance. It is obviously a queer romance, which I think it says so much for that community and expresses so much representation for that community. But just on top of that, the way that it depicts high school romance, the crushes that you have, the overthinking, the complications that come with transitioning a relationship from high school to university, friendship groups, the finding yourself in high school, everything is so perfect. I did not expect to fall in love with them so much. I first read them in 2024. I've read them multiple times since. I've just finished my reread. Cannot wait for volume six.

[00:08:40]Probably going to be in my top three books of the year. I am so unbelievably excited. I could yap on forever, but I will move on. The Deal of a Lifetime.

[00:08:47]Now, this is a novella from Fredrik Backman. Where am I going to put this?

[00:08:50]This is a weird one because I feel like a novella, it didn't make me cry. I thought it was really good, but I wasn't the most alive I've ever been. I feel like it'll never be the cure cuz it was good, but it wasn't anything that's going to break a five-star or anything like that. It was really well thought out and if you like Fredrik Backman's writing, I would definitely give his novellas a go. They are very emotion packed. hit a punch. They've got one specific meaning and lender, I guess, and message that's it's trying to come across. I can't really remember everything about this, but it is more about what are you willing to give your life up for and what sacrifices are you willing to make? It's kind of go in blind and you'll have a good time if you enjoy his writing or just want a quick read. It's quite wintery, I think. So, if you want a winter novella, would definitely recommend. How to Write a Love Story. Most alive I've ever been. I need to drink. Definitely the most alive I've ever been. I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. I have never read a Catherine Walsh romance before. I know she has a couple of Christmas ones, but I just never read any before. And I was in bed late at night one time and I was scrolling through my Kobo and it came up and I was like, "Sounds interesting." I downloaded the sample, read the entire sample that night, then bought the book, kept reading. I could not put it down. I was having the best time. It is definitely very Book Lovers S. So, if you love Book Lovers by Emily Henry, I think you would definitely love this book. It's not too similar in a way that it's like copying or anything like that, but it just has the same vibes of writer and editor and literary spaces for our characters being forced to work on a project together, aspects of grief. Essentially, we are following, again, I'm sorry, I have book amnesia. Don't remember anyone's character's names maybe ever in my entire life. I think my main character is a writer and her father, who has recently passed away, is this seriously famous fantasy writer. I really couldn't stop picturing him as Brandon Sanderson.

[00:10:30]Imagine Brandon Sanderson is writing a really big series, everyone is obsessed.

[00:10:34]He passes away, there's one more book to be written, and in his will he says, "My daughter needs to write this book." So, that's kind of the plot. I just kept thinking he was Brandon Sanderson. I don't know why. They just kept talking about him as this big fantasy author that everyone's obsessed with, and so my brain just kept thinking, "That's Brandon Sanderson." Then we have our male main character, who is the editor for this publishing company, and he is sent to Ireland to go to this house to work on this book together and get it done. That is the setup. So, you've got forced proximity, you've got grief, you've got so much banter, you've got emotionally unavailable, confused people. But it was so fun. I thought it was phenomenal. I really liked the side characters. I think I gave it a 4.5, but I would highly recommend if you like Emily Henry, Carley Fortune, all those kind of summery romances, would highly recommend. We possibly have, now this is, I could talk about this book for a really long time. If you want to hear me talk about this book for a really long time, I do have a reading vlog where I read The Mistake by Elle Kennedy. This is tough because if you've watched and read Off-Campus, you know that the show is phenomenal and the books are fun, but they are not insanely well written. They are kind of Wattpad 2015. That's what they are there for. But John Logan, that's my man. And so [clears throat] I think I'm going to have to put The Mistake in You Plus Me Equals a Heart Forever, but I'm going to find the rest of the Off-Campus series. Now, where is it? I know that there's more books in here, Score, and am I blind? Where is The Deal? Am I missing books? This is not 40-something books. For some reason The Deal is not here, so I'm going to have to download it.

[00:12:04]I think there's going to be books missing, but I've downloaded The Deal for now and then I'll check at the end my fable wrap-up and see if it's the right amount of books and we'll go from there. However, so we've got The Deal and The Score. I'm currently reading The Goal, which is John Tucker's book, the fourth book in Off-Campus, but I have read the first three. John Logan is in You Plus Me Equals a Heart Forever, but The Deal and The Score are going to sit in The Most Alive I've Ever Been because I just didn't relate or love them as much as I loved The Mistake. But I had the absolute best time reading. They were three-to-four-star reads, but I could not put them down, could not stop giggling, had the best time. I'm not going to overly yap on about Off-Campus because I feel like I have done that plenty, but just know this one, Equals a Heart Forever, these ones are fun. I feel like I would put The Goal probably in here as well. That's where I would be sitting it at the moment. I think I'm like 30% in. I feel like I've been yapping so much and I keep forgetting to drink my matcha. Next up we have Yesterday. I finished reading Yesterday a few weeks ago and I just posted a reading vlog that has Yesterday in it and the reading vlog was reading books to see if they're worth the hype. So I read a few different books that I had pretty high expectations for that I've been hyped on social media and wanted to see if they met my expectations.

[00:13:08]Unfortunately, putting Yesterday in did not meet my expectations. I probably won't talk that much about it cuz I just posted a reading vlog and I feel like everyone knows what Yesterday is about.

[00:13:16]If you don't, it is I guess psychological thriller is probably where I'm going to put it. Essentially, we are following Natalie who is a tradwife influencer. She then wakes up in this alternate reality where she is actually a trad wife back in the however long ago and she is living this world. You go back and forth and you're just trying to figure out which is real and which is not and whatnot. Unfortunately for me, I guessed the plot twist and so for me it was a little bit underwhelming. I also think that there were different things that could have been done writing wise that would have made me like it more, but I'm not going to yap that much about it because I just did in a video. So if you want to see my full thoughts on Yesteryear plus two other books which I may as well do now, which are The Best Worst Thing and Into the Blue. The Best Worst Thing unfortunately, I'm going to put also in did not meet my expectations. I enjoyed parts of this book, but I had seen it so hyped that I was really thinking it was going to be a five star and the ending just let me down. This is a romance book that also speaks a lot about infertility. We have our female main character, I think her name was Nicole and she essentially at the start of the book finds out that her husband is cheating on her. This is a husband that they have been going through infertility, the trauma and tribulations of all of that. She's been putting her body through so much pain and she essentially cannot get pregnant.

[00:14:34]She then finds out her husband is cheating on her. So this whole time that they have been going through this really hard thing, he has been off doing that.

[00:14:39]We then switch to this other second chance kind of romance where she meets this other guy Logan or re- re-meets cuz second chance. This guy she used to work with Logan and so the book is their romance story, but it's obviously complicated by the fact that she is divorced, infertility, lots of things going on. I just didn't love it as much and I did not like the ending. I did not like the third act breakup. I did not like the reunion. All of these things were not my favorite and so unfortunately did not meet my expectations. The other book that I read in that video, gosh, any of these books There is not enough books in here. I'm very confused. I think Into the Blue is this Some of these books just did not upload properly. This This the final book I read in that video and I'll tell you why, but I want my time back. I do not love this. I have only seen good reviews. I have not seen anyone give it a negative review other than myself. I thoroughly disliked this book, and I don't like to get too negative about books. I think that every book has a reader. I so strongly believe that, but this book was not for me. I just And I don't feel like I can explain why I hated it without spoiling it. However, in this book, it is a second-chance then and now timeline of two childhood best friends that turn actors, and they have to act in these plays and shows and things together when they have so much miscommunication because they hadn't spoken for 7-10 years or something.

[00:16:01]There was just a lot of things that this book romanticized in a toxic way that I did not like. I I ranted about it in the video, and so if you want to see a full rant, and you don't care about a spoiler, go watch that video. I just did not like this book at all. My issue is that I liked it in parts, and then it made me so angry with how we handled it and things that we were romanticizing.

[00:16:22]What are we doing? [clears throat] I just don't think we need to be romanticizing this toxic behavior, and I think the public and social media response to it, I just don't understand.

[00:16:31]Anyway, I would like my time back, please. Next up, we have Alchemy of Secrets, which I read quite a while ago.

[00:16:37]To be honest, could not tell you a single plot point about this book. I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I thought I was going to. I do quite like Stephanie Garber's writing. I love the Once Upon a Broken Heart series. This was more of a crime mystery set in the real world, but magical, so not fully magical land, but it was just so confusing, and I don't even know how to explain the plot of this book, but I'm going to go give me back my time cuz I feel like if I I don't know, I would just rather read something else. And I can't fully describe to you the plot other than the fact that it just gave me trust issues. I remember there being multiple men in this book, and you didn't know who the bad guy was. And I just didn't know who to trust. There was like sister who we just knew nothing about. There was a whole lot going on, and I just would rather my time back.

[00:17:19]So, putting it there. Next, Pack Up the Moon. I don't know. I'm tossing up between one of these two. I wanted to DNF it so bad. So, in that sense, I think I'm going to put it back in Give Me Back My Time. It's an emotional, weird kind of romance where there is a married couple and the wife passes away, and we're going back and forth in timelines, and then she writes him these letters, and every year he opens a letter, and he's trying to get his life back on track. I just did not connect, didn't really care. I know I've seen really good things about it, but I just could not connect. And I didn't love some of the plot choices that we took, so I would rather my time back. In Your Dreams, I adored this book. Like, the way that I devoured this book, where is it going to go? I think I'm going to put it in You Plus Me Equals a Heart Forever. I can't say that I think about it much on a daily basis, but the reading experience that I had for this book beats almost any other reading experience because I read it in Perth, in this beach house, on the beach front with my three best friends, and we all read it at the same time. And so, it was just this ultimate buddy read. We were giggling, kicking our feet, screaming, obsessing, all at the same time. Lauren and I were even reading the same chapter at the same time, so we were reacting in real time. If you don't know this book, it is the fourth book in the When in Rome series by Sarah Adams. The first book, When in Rome, then Practice Makes Perfect, then Big Barn Still, then In Your Dreams. It is an interconnected small-town romance series following a set of siblings. This final sibling gets a book, her name is Madison. She is very similar to Poppy, I would say, in People We Meet on Vacation. So, if you like that character archetype, I think you would love this book. She leaves her small town, goes to do chef school and be a chef in New York. It is not what she thought it would be and not cut out, but she feel like she can't face everyone and move back because she had these amazing plans to go to New York, but then James, her brother's best friend, decides to open a restaurant so that she will come back and run the restaurant. And he is so down bad the entire book. If you love a man down bad, if you love a small town, if you love a woman sort of confused and not having support and then a man showing up for her, I don't know. I adored it. I gave it five stars. I think it belongs here in You and Me Because of Heart Forever.

[00:19:30]Partly for the book and partly for the reading experience. Now, this is the one that I was thinking of when I was considering if it was going to be you plus me equals a heart forever or every book that I read makes me cry. I think it needs to go here. Just know that I loved it and that it is a heart forever, but I have not cried so viscerally reading a book possibly ever as I did when I read Atmosphere. The way that this book moved me, I was so not expecting. I have read a few Taylor Jenkins Reid and I liked them all, but I just had not connected to a set of characters like I have with Atmosphere.

[00:20:03]We are following two females who are falling in love whilst at NASA and it is the first round of women that are allowed into NASA, so it's set in I think only the '80s. Like it's not that long ago. I adored this book, the way it was written, everything about it. I think it is a perfect book if you go in blind, so I don't want to explain that much about it, but it is an emotional romance and it is possibly one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read.

[00:20:25]That's all you need to know going in.

[00:20:26]Next, we've got Phoebe Berman's Going to Lose It.

[00:20:29]This is a tough one. I only recently read this book. I had really high hopes because I have seen so many five stars and I think I possibly just went in with the wrong expectations. I was expecting to love the romance part of this book a lot more than I did. I think that it was a still a great story. I think that it is more a women's fiction comedy than a straight run-of-the-mill romance. I can't say that I was that invested in the actual romance of it all, but I was invested in Phoebe and our main character. Essentially, the plot of this book is we have Phoebe Berman and she is 30 days away from turning 30 and she is still a virgin. And so she decides to create a list of things that she needs to do so that she can lose her virginity by the time she turns 30. The reason she needs this list is cuz she has severe anxiety towards intimacy even though it's the one thing she really wants. And so, she needs this list to keep her on track, to hold her accountable, to put herself out there, and to do these things. And essentially, we have three different suitors. I just thought it was a really short book to have three different possible love interests, and that it didn't give me enough time to become invested in our actual love interest. I would almost love to see a book two where we watch Phoebe and the man of her choosing who she ends up with at the end of the book navigate a relationship with anxiety and with the long distance and whatever else they're going through. I would like to see that, but I just did not love the book as much as I thought because of that. I think that it is a really important book to be in the romance genre and to have conversations around anxiety in relationships. Did not meet my expectations, unfortunately. Breaking the Ice with Man's Rapacity. I read this quite a while ago. I think I read it in like April or something. So, I need to remember exactly where I would want to put it. This is a emotional hockey romance, I would say. It is very similar to your Icebreakers, your Off-Campus's, all of those things that have a college hockey romance. Wait, is he college? I think he's not college. Whatever that NHL. I can't remember. Like I said, I have book amnesia. I think I'm going to put this book in It will never be the cure. And I say this with so much love because I love Man's and I love this book, but I just think it didn't give me the five-star feeling that I was hoping for. And so, I think It will never be the cure is probably where it sits. In the sense that I absolutely adored it. I loved these characters. I loved the book that Man's wrote. Didn't give me like full Off-Campus feelings. So, I think it'll sit here. But like I said, this is a good ranking. I think it's going to sit there. Spark of the Everflame. Now, where am I going to put these? So, I've read the first two books in the Kindred's Curse Saga. I've got book three to go and then book four comes out in September. This is a amazing fantasy series. I don't read a whole lot of fantasy anymore, but I absolutely adored this series. I think I'm going to put Spark of the Everflame in the most alive I've ever been, and then Glow of the Everflame is going to go in You Plus Me Equals a Hot Forever. I adored that book. It is my most recent five-star, which is unfortunate cuz I read it maybe two, three months ago and I haven't had a five-star since. Separate issue. I adore these books for Romantasy. A book like this to me is so rare to see in the genre. It is insanely well-written, [clears throat] which is something I look for in books. I love a well-written book. I love prose. I love writing.

[00:23:33]Whatever. So, a lot of the Romantasy genre kind of loses me because we focus a whole lot more on the smut and the plot. And I'm not a plot-driven book.

[00:23:40]I'm a character, emotion, writing-driven kind of person. These books had that to a T. The plot stood on its own though.

[00:23:46]Like, if you can make a plot that actually hooks me and that's the reason I love a book, crazy. So, it did really well with that. But, I absolutely adored all of the characters, all of the found family, the romance in this book, like the tension. This is actual enemies-to-lovers and it is is just so well-done. Essentially, we are following Diem, who is raised in the mortal land of this world, and then there is a magical ruling Again, so sorry. There is like nine kingdoms. Anyway, I cannot describe fantasy plots to save my life, but essentially we have Diem, who is raised as a mortal, and then she is a healer as well. Oh my gosh. For someone that talks about books for a living and works in a bookstore, I cannot explain some plots to save my life. Just trust me that it was amazing. Essentially, I'm going to do my best. So, we have Diem. She is raised in the mortal world. There is nine different kingdoms, I think, that all have their own rulers and whatnot, but there's like one king. We have his son, Prince Lucius, very important character. And then Diem is a healer, so she sort of interacts with the palace every now and then because she has these healing abilities and people need healing and whatnot. And I can't really can't a whole lot else about the plot without spoiling things. However, the found family is so good. This is like super tangentially, but if you liked Prison Healer by Lynette Noni and the found family that is in that book, I think you would love this series.

[00:25:08]Anyway, just take it from me. I don't like fantasy that much, but I adore this series. And I'm going to stop yapping cuz I'm saying nothing coherent. Okay, These Storms. I loved this book. I haven't thought about it much since, but I read it in January and absolutely loved it. I think I'm going to go The Most Alive I've Ever Been because I wouldn't say it's in my top tier of books. I think I gave it a 4.5 at the time, maybe a four. It is a complicated family. If you read The Conditions of Will and liked that, it's very similar. We have this rich, famous, bad guy and he passes away. There's like three adult children who then all return back to this one island that the dad and the family own. But the dad has left each of his children a task that they have to complete within that seven days between him passing and in order to access their trust and their, you know, the will. And so, he obviously is kind of from beyond the grave and going, "Well, you're going to have to do this stuff if you want to get some money."

[00:26:03]And there is just a lot of complications in that. We also have a romance in this book between one of the daughters and this other guy who knew the dad. And it is a like very forbidden romance, but it's done so well and I absolutely loved it. Really good summer setting, complicated family. I loved it. Really well written as well. Really loved it.

[00:26:22]Now, I did a Play Along and Caught Up Ray Ray before reading In Her Own League. This is tough. Play Along is clearly You Plus Me Equals a Heart Forever. I don't think I love a romance book or romance man more than I love Isaiah Rhodes. It's a tough one to beat.

[00:26:37]I think Isaiah Rhodes is my top book boyfriend. Top romance book like Emily Henry is sort of top for everything, but after Emily Henry, Play Along. It's phenomenal. If you haven't read the Windy City series, you need to read the Windy City series. It is the best sports romance series to possibly ever exist.

[00:26:52]Caught Up, it is you and me equals a heart forever, but is it the most alive I've ever been? I think I have to put it here just to differentiate between Play Along and Caught Up. But, these are both the Rhodes brothers. If you have not read In Her Own League yet, which is Liz Tomford's new book, but you've read the Windy City series and you just haven't read that one, please reread Caught Up and Play Along before doing so. I'm going to put this In Most Alive I've Ever Been next to Caught Up. Loved that book. Didn't love it as much as Caught Up and Play Along, but I still had a really good time and it exceeded my expectations for what I thought it was going to be. I absolutely loved it. If you haven't read In Her Own League, we're following Miller's dad, who is the female lead in Caught Up, and her dad is also the baseball coach for Kai Rhodes and Isaiah Rhodes, who are the leads of this book. So, it's the dad and then Reese, who is the owner new of the Windy City Warriors. Amazing sports romance, that's all I have to say. Every After, now I only read this recently for the first time so that I could watch the show. I actually really liked it. I had a lot more fun than I thought I was going to. I think it's going to go in the Most Alive I've Ever Been. I know that a lot of people don't love this book, and I don't feel like I need to explain what this book is about cuz most of BookTok know what it is about, but essentially it is a second chance romance with Sam and Percy. You're going back and forth in timeline. They meet in Barry's Bay, which is this quintessential very perfect summer town, very Cousins Beach summer town pretty, like that's the vibe that we're going for in the sense that like the town is a character in itself. Sam and Percy back and forth in timelines, they've known each other since they were like 10, I think. And we go back and forth in timelines, and essentially Percy has made some mistake, and you sort of as a book try to figure out what that is, and seeing if these two people who have been through so much and so much has happened, can they reunite? That is the gist of the book. The mistake that Percy makes, a lot of people don't agree with.

[00:28:41]I'm not saying I support her mistake, but I think that we need to have more room for empathy and understanding and forgiveness in our lives and that we put so many expectations on book characters, but I think that like so many people in their lives have made mistakes at 17 that they wish they could take back and they wish they didn't do. I feel like that's a pretty normal thing to have happened and so I don't know, I didn't hate the sort of third act situation and what happened as much as other people seem to have. I'm not saying I support it, I'm just saying I understand it and that's all I have to say on the matter.

[00:29:14]However, this other Carley Fortune book is unfortunately going in Give Me Back My Time. I read this book while I was in Brisbane with Lorien and she wasn't reading it. I was just reading on the couch next to her and the way that I rage read this book wild. The first 30% I was like, "Yeah, I'm having a good time. Carley Fortune's writing is always good and the summer vibes that she gives always good." I've never hated a woman more than I have when reading this book and I don't want to hate a woman. That's not what I'm here to do. I really did not like our female main character and that was not the point of the book. I think I don't mind Oh my god. I need to regularly be drinking this matcha because I'm yapping way too much to be not hydrated. All right. I don't mind unlikable characters if the intention is for them to be unlikable. However, our female main character in Our Perfect Storm, I think her name was Frankie, I seriously did not like her and I could go on for a really long time about why I did not, but the way that she treated our male main character, the speed at which what happened, I just couldn't do it. And it's a second chance romance which is one of my favorite tropes. It just was not done well in my opinion.

[00:30:14]The speed at which we moved on from what she went through essentially at the start of the book, she calls off a wedding or she doesn't, her fiance calls off the wedding. We like so quickly move on into her now being with this childhood best friend. We did not leave any time for, you know, improvement and we really just jumped into a whole new thing. I did not like the way that she treated him, the way she handled things.

[00:30:37]She was so blind to everything and I think there's an aspect of that that is allowed, but it was way too much in this book. I'm not going to speak too much more negatively on it, but I wish I could get my time back. Okay, Easy plus me equals a heart forever. That was a reread, probably the fifth time I've read People We Meet on Vacation. I adore that book. I have yapped about Emily Henry until my face goes blue, but I love Poppy and Alex. I love this book. I reread it just before the movie came out. If you haven't read any Emily Henry, please do. Best rom-coms ever of all time. I'm going to assume that most people know about Poppy and Alex, so I'm not going to yap on it that much about it. Problematic Summer Romance. I liked this one a lot more than I thought I was going to. It was not a five-star, but I had a really good time reading it. I read it in summer, which I definitely think helped. I read it right by the pool. There was definitely parts of the plot that I felt like we were tangeting off and it wasn't amazing, but the romance itself I absolutely adored. If you like the kind of man that Anthony Bridgerton is, you will like Connor from Problematic Summer Romance. I know that's like completely different worlds, but the way that he speaks is very Anthony Bridgerton coded and I'm obsessed with it. I absolutely loved it.

[00:31:42]I probably wouldn't reread it. I probably don't think about it that much, but I had the best time reading it and I definitely was the most alive I've ever been. That's the vibes it's giving. It is a brother's best friend second chance forced proximity situation. It is the second book like interconnected to Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood, which I did not love really at all. I think I would have preferred to have DNF'd it if I wasn't reading it for a book club at the time. So, that's why I didn't think I was going to love this one as much, but I really did. I really had a great time.

[00:32:10]I don't think you need to read Not in Love in order to read this book. I think you could just go in and read Problematic Summer Romance to be honest.

[00:32:16]I adored it. Our main character was fiery and confident and [clears throat] our main main character was so down bad and I just adored every bit of it. No matter what by Cara Bastone, I absolutely loved this book. I love Cara Bastone's writing so much. This is definitely my least favorite from her, but it's really hard to beat the other two books. Ready or Not is one of my favorite romance books of all time. So, that will probably always be my top Carissa Broadstone book. I think that she will struggle to do something that beats that for me. Promise Me Sunshine I really loved. No matter what, I gave it a four star. I thought it was really good. Was it the most alive I've ever been? Maybe not. Oh gosh. But, it's not like in love with this book. So, I think it needs to go here. Essentially, this book is following a marriage in turmoil.

[00:33:00]We have two main characters who have gone through like they're married and they go through a very traumatic experience together with his younger brother, who is also her best friend.

[00:33:10]So, they go through this family tragedy together and their marriage just breaks down because of it. They're going through so much and they just don't know how to communicate. I will say if you don't like miscommunication, would not recommend this book. I think that the miscommunication was valid and they work on it throughout the book, but there is a lot of miscommunication about like what they're saying and what they're feeling, which is really kind of thing that I probably didn't love about I think I was understanding of it considering the situation that they're going through, but I think if you really don't like miscommunication, you probably would not enjoy this book. I just don't mind it if it's done okay.

[00:33:47]So, I was fine with it. It is a very beautiful story about trying to find yourself in a marriage and be yourself, but also with your person and sort of live your own lives and share them together instead of just being so intertwined. It is a very sad story that's to do with the trauma that they went through and the way that that can impact you. I absolutely love her writing. I think she is phenomenal and I will read anything she writes. So, I had a good time. I had a really good time.

[00:34:12]Not like a happy good time. I think it was more of an emotional good time.

[00:34:16]Still a good time nonetheless. This one's a bit tricky. Everyone and their mom has read The Brightest and loved The Brightest. Unfortunately, didn't meet my expectations. Again, I had such high hopes for this book. So many people have loved it. I just did not fully connect.

[00:34:32]I felt like we really tried to cover a really wide span of time and a lot of characters in a really short page time and I just don't think that we dedicated enough time to certain things enough for me to care about them. If you love complicated families, if you love, you know, kind of if you like seeing a way that traumatic events can impact a family in a generational sense, I thought it was still really beautifully written. I just felt like I didn't connect enough to the characters in order to feel the way that everyone else felt about this. That's kind of what I have to say. It is essentially very similar to a bunch of other books that I've explained where there is a couple at the start of the book and you're sort of watching the breakdown of their relationship, but they have a daughter and so it gets kind of complicated based on custody and things like that. There is definitely some trigger warnings in this book that I would look up before reading it. We do follow the book into the daughter's perspective by the end.

[00:35:27]So, we just go through so many perspectives and there is just kind of from a sort of a shock value purposes, I think. I'm not really sure. Some of them just did not hit for me. I think it was a very realistic depiction of what this kind of family would look like, but I just didn't connect in the way that everyone else seemed to connect. I did not cry, which everyone kind of did. So, I don't know whether it just wasn't the book for me. I wouldn't not recommend it if you were interested in reading it because so many people have loved it. It just didn't meet my expectations. Crazy Rich Asians, look, I read this for a book club because one of the girls picked it. I would rather my time back, unfortunately. I felt like this book was very all over the place. Obviously, has a very famous movie attached to it, so I'm not going to go that much into the plot and whatnot. I feel like everyone knows Crazy Rich Asians and to be honest, I would still watch the film. I just didn't like the book. We were following so many different people and so many plot lines. I just felt like I was getting whiplash the entire time. I couldn't remember who anyone was, who our main characters were, what was going on. I would just rather my time I'm Hello Girls by Emily Henry, I'm going to say didn't meet my expectations. I decided this year that I want to go through Emily Henry's backlog, like not her standard rom-coms, but the ones she's written before. And so I read Hello Girls, which she co-wrote with another author. I just didn't love it. I don't even know how to describe this book, but I probably wouldn't recommend it. It definitely doesn't have that Emily Henry flair. It's not a romance.

[00:36:46]It is more about two females who have complicated families and find each other and end up on the run and there's just like so many things going on. Did not love this one, unfortunately. Broken Country, this is a tough one. I think I'm going to put it I'm tossing up between Most Alive I've Ever Been and Every Book I Read Makes Me Cry.

[00:37:05]I think I'm going to put it in Every Book I Read Makes Me Cry. This book was weirdly sad for me. I'm going to put This is Is this so hard? I'm really unsure because I again think it falls really similar to the realm of Wild Duck Shore in the sense that it's not You and Me Equals a Heart Forever. It's a very plot-driven book, but I was obsessed and I could not put it down. I think it's going to go in Most Alive I've Ever Been because it is yeah, it's very similar to Wild Duck Shore where we are following some complicated characters and you're really just following like things unfolding in their lives. But I absolutely loved it. I could not put it down. Our female main character, severely unlikable, but she's meant to be, so I was fine with her. Essentially, we have yeah, a female main character who is married to Frank. Love Frank.

[00:37:45]Bestie Frank deserved better, essentially. And then we have this like childhood romance happening and so there's also like a case happening. I think it's really best if you go in blind, but essentially there is a court case happening because a murder has happened in this town. The entire time you don't actually know who's on trial or who was murdered, I think. And so there's a big question mark throughout the entire book, but you're also following this weird love triangle adult situation. I think it's really best if you go in blind, but I had a really good time reading it. Carrie Soto, I think it's going to be in Most Alive I've Ever Been. I had a phenomenal time reading this book. It is probably my second favorite Taylor Jenkins Reid book. We are following Carrie Soto, who is a fictional tennis player, and her journey. She is an unlikable character, but I think it was done so well because you're still so invested in the story and her life, and it really felt like I was reading a tennis player's biography.

[00:38:37]I love tennis. I played tennis growing up. My family is a big tennis family, and I just adored it. I thought it was really good. I don't think you need to know anything about tennis or like tennis in order to read the book, but I think it definitely helped me sort of understand I guess the terminology and whatnot. But you definitely don't need that knowledge going in. It's just so well written. I would highly recommend this as an audio book because they really incorporate the news reporter sound effects and all of that. It's just like really put to life. I did audio book this one, and I absolutely adored the audio. Correspondent. I really need to put some more books into every book made me cry cuz to be honest, like Sydney to see made me cry. Play Along would make me cry. Correspondent, I think I'm going to put it in makes me cry. I do love it. It's very close to you and me cuz of Heart Forever. It is one of my favorite books of the year, but it just tugged on my heartstrings so much. I think it needs to go in this category. I adore this book. If you love a character-driven book, I think you'll love The Correspondent. We are following Sybil, who is an older lady who is writing letters, and essentially the entire book is her correspondence to and from a variety of people, whether that is letters and emails over the span of her life, and you learn about her life through these letters and through this correspondence. She writes letters to friends and family. She writes letters to authors of books that she has read and loved. She writes to random people that work at different companies, and you just slowly unravel her life has been through these letters. Again, I think it's great if you go in blind for what actually is her life, but it was phenomenally written. It was like nothing I'd really ever read before. A beautiful story about hope and humanity and human connection, and I just thought it was beautiful, and I adored it. It definitely made me cry and want to write everyone I love a letter. Well, I lost you, Silver. I think I want my time back. I didn't have high expectations for this book, so I don't think it fits there. But I could have gone without reading it. I think I just read it to finish the Rose Hill series. This is the fourth book in Elsie Silver's Rose Hill series, which is like Wild Love, Wild Wild Card, and Wild What was the green one? Wild Side, I think. It's just like small town. They're not necessarily cowboy romances because the Spring series was like very cowboy romancy.

[00:40:43]It's still kind of like small ranch vibes. This was ex-boyfriend's dad. The ex-boyfriend of it, to be honest, didn't actually bother me as much as I thought it was going to. It was a very like loose terminology for ex-boyfriend. But I just didn't connect. All I remember is that he was a firefighter, and I would probably just prefer to have my time back. I wouldn't not read it if you're interested in it, and if you like Elsie Silver and you're reading that series, I wouldn't say don't read it. I just personally would rather my time back.

[00:41:10]Okay. All righty. Okay, Dolly All the Time. I loved this book, and I loved it a whole lot more than I thought I was going to. I've read all of Annabel Monaghan's. I love Summer Romance by her, that's my favorite by her. I didn't love as much Nora Goes Off Script. I thought Same Time Next Summer was okay, and I DNF'd her most recent book, It's a Love Story. So I was unsure going into this, but it sounded really good. It sounded up my alley. I love fake dating.

[00:41:34]It is a very summer fake dating book, and a couple of my friends had read it and loved it. So I thought I'd give it a go, and I was pleasantly surprised.

[00:41:40]Essentially, in this book we are following a female main character who is very eldest daughter coded, is very I can do it on my own, I will take care of myself, I will figure it out kind of adult. Like she really is I am the runner of this family. She is a single mom. Then we have our male main character who is a high-up business dude, I think like finance or property or whatever it was in this family business, and they both come from this small town. They run into each other in this small town, have like a meet-cute story. Sure, they end up in a fake dating scenario. It was a beautiful book. I thought it was perfect summer vibes. I really enjoyed the anxiety representation in the male main character. I thought it was really good.

[00:42:21]If you like books that are very elder sister coded, I think you would love this book. And that's all I have to say.

[00:42:26]I'm going to put it in The Most Alive I've Ever Been. Hello beautiful. This was the first book I read this year, so trying to remember. I think I'm going to put it in It Will Never Be the Cure. I enjoyed this book. I didn't hate this book, but it was not what I thought it was going to be, but not full on did not meet my expectations. I had a lot of merit and a lot of things that I loved about it, but there was some things that I just didn't. In this book, from memory, we are following four sisters.

[00:42:51]It's very like it is a big complicated family situation. There was a lot of family drama. There's four sisters and William who is married to one of the sisters and he has had a very complicated upbringing. And essentially it's just a character study. It's very similar to a book like Blue Sisters where you have a family of sisters, nothing kind of happens, but everything kind of happens and by the book you've learned so much about the characters.

[00:43:19]This one just felt like we covered a really long span of time. I think I prefer when it's a shorter span of time, possibly. We were just trying to cover so much in this book and there was just some things that I did not love about this book. You were kind of supposed to hate things that happen, but I just Yeah, I think if you're interested in the plot, definitely give it a go. Felt like it dragged on a lot and there were certain aspects of the plot that I just found really icky. Which is probably the point, but I just didn't love it. But it didn't like fully not it meet my expectations. I enjoyed it. It just like wasn't going to give me five stars when I thought it was going to. All right.

[00:43:50]Happily Ever After Playlist, I think this is like the behind Into the Blue and Our Perfect Storm. Happily Ever After Playlist is probably Those are the top three that I wish I could get my time back. I did not like this book. I liked the first like 70% and then I rage read the last 30%. Again, I'm pretty sure I read in a reading vlog, which I'll link below if you want to see my full reactions. Margaret, Are You Leaving by Diane Chamberlain? I really enjoyed this book. I Oh, the deal is okay. Maybe every book in here I have to figure it out. Margaret, Are You Leaving by Diane Chamberlain? I really liked this book. It didn't give me a five-star feeling. I'm probably going to put it in It'll Never Be the Cure. I had a really good time. Thought it was very interesting. It was another complicated family situation kind of litfic book. We read it for book club. Diane Chamberlain is a phenomenal writer. She is so charismatic as well in person. I absolutely adore her and her writing. It just like didn't fully get me up to this point of like You and Me Have Heart Forever. Like we aren't fully here, but it definitely was not down here. So, I think I'm going to put it in It'll Never Be the Cure. Loved it. Didn't like push me into a five-star, but I had a really good time. Essentially, it is a litfic book following a female main character who is adopted and her adopted mother passes away. And then her and her adopted brother find these letters in that mom's their adopted mother's house that give info into their birth family and whatnot. And so, she then goes along this journey of figuring out and piecing together what happened and what her life was. I thought there was a lot of comedic relief in this book. I thought that it was really well done. I think it made a really good conversation about adoption and family and the family that you can choose, the family you create, about the timing of life. All of those things. I thought it was phenomenal. I think that if you liked The Correspondent, it is a book that like you would really like. It just didn't deliver in the same way that The Correspondent did for me. Aluthor writes pretty similar as well. We also read this for book club. Cassie Schroud's debut novel. Also amazing. Like similar where there was this house and someone passes away and there's letters and like I've read quite a few of those this year. And so, maybe it just got redundant by the end. And The Correspondent kind of just took the cake. So, else I wasn't fully going to be as obsessed with, but they were all good. I just kind of wanted them to be giving what the correspondent was giving, and they weren't. But, still really good books and still would recommend if you liked The Correspondent. They kind of fall into that same category for me. I think that might be all 45 books and that no books actually got missed cuz obviously I just could not find a deal before. 45 books, perfect. All the books are in there.

[00:46:24]That is my final tier ranking. This actually looks a lot better than I thought it was going to. I feel like I've had a tough reading year, and there are quite a few books like There's way too many books in Give Me Back My Time and did not meet my expectations for my liking, but there's also quite a lot of books that are up here and I think I need to remember that because, to be honest, a lot of these top books are ones that I read quite a while ago, and these are more of my recent reads, and so it's just been quite hard. But, I would say I've had a good reading start to the year and that if I had to pick my top three books of the year that were not rereads, cuz obviously Heartstopper and whatnot are all rereads, I think I'm going Slanting Towards the Sea, Correspondent, and Atmosphere. I think they're my three favorites of the year.

[00:47:03]Really honorable mention to Glow of the Everflame and The Mistake. They're just like different kinds of that I love, but like my top three, I think Slanting Towards the Sea, The Correspondent, and Atmosphere. I think it's going to be hard to beat that trifecta, or that's the kind of book that I'm chasing. So, if you have read those books and you have other books that you want to recommend that you think I would love because of those top three, please put them in the comments because I need a five-star so bad. It's actually crippling at this point. I feel like I have had a pretty decent reading year so far. I would say that I've read a lot more than I thought I was going to. My reading goal for the year was 60 books, and I'm currently at 45. So, it's safe to say that I will be hitting that target. I don't think I'll change the target. I'm not really about moving the goal post. I will just probably exceed it, and then we can adjust next year. I want it to be achievable, but not something that was going to stress me out. So, I was very happy with 60. I've just read a lot more than I thought I was going to. Books like Off-Campus really facilitated that because they were just so bingeable. Five of those books are the Heartstopper graphic novels, which are obviously much quicker to read. So, I'm excited to see what books we end up getting to in the second half of the year, if any of them can also fall into the top category for me.

[00:48:08]Like I said, on the hunt for a five-star. It is diabolical at this point how long it's been since I've had a five-star. If you have any book recommendations for me based on everything I yapped about in this video, please let me know in the comments. I would love to know your favorite books from the year. I would love to know if there was any you wish you had your time back on or ones that fall into your you plus me equals happily ever after category, or your crying ones, because I love an emotional book. If you're still at this point in the video, thank you so much for watching. I absolutely loved yapping to you about all the books I've read so far in 2026, and I will see you in the next video. Bye.

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