New Releases, BookTube Recs & So Much Romance | HRCYED 27

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]Welcome back. We are doing update 27 for the basics basic hered challenge. I was able to read a new release that I've been very excited about in this video.

[00:00:10]So, let's get into the books I read this week for her. First, we read The Night We Met. This is an Abby Jimenez new release, one that I have been highly anticipating. Her book Just for the Summer was one of my favorite books. I read last year or two years ago. I think two years ago now. [laughter] Yeah, cuz last year was Say You'll Remember Me.

[00:00:31]So, Just for the Summer was one of my favorite books I read when I was getting back into my like aggressive reading habits and obsession. And [clears throat] so, I was very excited to read her new release, The Night We Met. And this is a story about a woman and she has gone to this concert and she needs a ride home. And so, she meets this man, he takes her home, but she also meets this man's friend um that same night. And so she ends up dating the guy who takes her home, but they have a very interesting dynamic. And over the course of a lot of interesting events and dynamics, she ends up also befriending his bestie. Lissa and Chris, our main characters, end up co-parenting this dog and they end up having to spend a lot more time together. They're navigating this friendship that they're building up because of all these different circumstances while also knowing that she's dating his best friend. And it's just really a weird dynamic. So, there are a lot of things in Lissa's relationship that aren't perfect, and there are a lot of things that Chris is navigating that are just really hard, and so they kind of are finding some comfort in each other, which I don't necessarily endorse, but it's happening in this book. This is a book that based off the premise, I would not typically pick it up. I really dislike any type of cheating, romance, any type of like even emotional cheating, anything where you are falling in love with someone that's not your partner and you're not communicating to your partner that you're not wanting to be with them anymore. I'm not about it.

[00:01:59]Like, I feel like we're adults. We can communicate. There's really no reason to drag someone through that. And even if you're not a good fit with that person, cut it off before we enter anyone else into the picture. So that's my personal opinions about just dating and romance and everything. So I typically wouldn't read a book like this if I just read the back cover, but I love Abby Jimenez. So I was like, well maybe maybe I'll enjoy this book by her because who knows? I stand by my take. The things I don't like about this book are the premise.

[00:02:31][laughter] So I went into it knowing that that was probably going to be a hiccup for me and it continued to be a hiccup for me.

[00:02:38]However, I love the way Abby Jimenez writes and I love reading her writing.

[00:02:43]So, this book was a 4.2 star rating for me, which is probably the highest I've ever rated a book with any like weird triangle dynamics. Some of the questions we're looking at deal with timing. So, is timing really a factor to be considered or is it just an excuse we use to not deal with breaking things off or meeting Mr. Wright or whatever? We're asking, "What does it mean to be ready for someone? Or is there a time when you're just not ready to be dating? And if you're not ready, should you be dating?" How do we know when it's time to fight for something and when it's time to just let something go and move on and wish them the best and say, "You go over here, I'll go over here. We don't need to fight for this anymore."

[00:03:26]Like I said earlier, I'm a big Abby Jimenez fan. So, I figured I would do an Abby Jimenez ranking for the books I've read. There are more books that she has written that I have not gotten to yet, but this is my ranking of the ones I've read so far. So, we're going to go least favorite to favorite. At the bottom, we have yours truly. I loved the first half of this book. I remember thoroughly enjoying it and then it lost me with the second half of the book. And if I remember correctly, they have like a miscommunication and the entire second half of the book is just dealing with this miscommunication. Next, we have The Night We Met. I've just told you about it, so feel like we don't need to cover this one again. Then I have part of your world. This was my first Abby Jimenez I read and I liked it more than I expected to going into it, but I definitely like some of her other books more than that one. Then we have Say You'll Remember Me. I really enjoyed this one. I know this was heavy and I know this is more deep tragic story than it is as much of a like light romance easy breezy read, but what I like about Abby Jimenez's writing is that there's always something deep and personal going on. And I think she does a beautiful job of depicting the realities of being a human and having a big life that takes up a lot of your time and your energy and relational dynamics that are really messy and complicated. and also acknowledging that like love comes in the midst of that and it's not always convenient and it's not always good but like that's just how it goes. So, so you'll remember me is my second favorite and then my first is obviously Just for the summer. I loved that book. I'm also a little bit partial because I have kind of lived that book.

[00:05:05]There have been multiple times where I will go on a few dates with someone or get to know someone and then that person will end up marrying my roommate. And I have done it so many times. I think I've done it four times. It's like ridiculous. It's so funny at this point.

[00:05:20]Um, at first it wasn't funny. It's funny now because it's just too consistent.

[00:05:24]Like, it's too real. It's about two characters who both have a tendency to date people who then immediately find their spouse after they break up. So, they figured they'll date each other to break the curse and then they just have one summer together and it's their story. So, part of my love for this book is based on my own life experience, but I also think it's a really cute book and it's really beautifully written as well.

[00:05:48]That would be my Abby Jimenez ranking order. I know there are more I need to read, so we'll see if it changes as we go. Can you hear that playing?

[00:05:56]That is loud. Let's talk about where this goes on the Hercad board. First, we put this in the monthly new release. So, this is released the last day of March and so it counts for March. And then we also were able to put this in the alphabet challenge. This goes for N and for night of the night we met. This is what the board looks like with those spots added in. Adjacent to romance but a very different category. We read the non-fiction book the meaning of marriage. This is a Christian non-fiction book that explores the personal growth and connection within marriage. The book is really reframing marriage as something that's fulfilling or lifegiving to something that's more of a spiritual practice in character growth and connection and sacrifice.

[00:06:41]It's really beautifully written. It's something I have read slowly over the last few months. I wanted to really take in a lot of the concepts and sit with them and mold them over rather than just blitzing through a book because we all know I can read a book very very quickly. And I aspire to be married at some point. And so I figured why not read this book now when I'm not like rushing down the altar and trying to like take in all of these concepts in the midst of being in a relationship and being busy in wedding planning. Let's consider the concepts now. have them simmering on the back burner so that if I am in a place where I'm about to get married, these aren't new ideas to me.

[00:07:20]They're things I've really sat with. And so I really enjoyed reading this. I think Keller is a really wellspoken person and so I think his books are really interesting and his wife also wrote a chapter in it as well. And so I really enjoyed hearing her voice as a female who is married to this author um and getting some of her takes as a woman. We're asked so many questions in this book. I had the hardest time narrowing it down to just three. So, know that there are like 45 more questions I could propose here. I think one of the big questions we're looking at is how different is a Christian marriage to a non-Christian marriage?

[00:07:58]And is a marriage a covenant or is it a contract or is it a feeling and an agreement? and he really dives in to highlight the covenant and the Christian covenant that we believe in and explains what marriage can be inside of that covenant and why we have covenants to begin with and why those covenants mirror Christ in the church. We're also looking at how culture distorts our picture of marriage and not just the picture but also our expectations for it. And then lastly, because this is a Christian book, I think we're really looking at how faith impacts our view of love, what love is, what love should feel like, what love looks like in action, all of those things. I think he does a really good job at redefining love as a concept and not just as much of a feeling. I don't rate non-fiction, so no rating for this book, but we did put it on the board. So, this is a non-fiction book. This is, I believe, the last non-fiction book on the board.

[00:09:00]So, we have completed that square. And this is what the board looks like now with that spot added in. So, I actually read four books this month. That's not true. I read four books this week and two of them I couldn't put anywhere on her yet. I tried so hard and there was just not any spots for them. So, I won't go as deep in depth for both of them, but they were both books that I enjoyed and books that I needed to read for my 26 books in 2026. So, I figured I would just briefly go over them and just let it be known that I read them. I should say I've read a number of books since I started Herk that haven't applied to Herk. Some of which, and especially for these two, I was in a huge slump. And so I just needed something that I could be excited to pick up and get back into the rhythm of reading. And so these books really helped me with that, but they're not necessarily books that are helping this challenge, but here they are. The first one is The Bright Years. This has been such a highly recommended book to me. I know people have loved it. It is a sad book. I was I I was going to say I wasn't prepared. I was prepared. People told me. I saw tears as people read it, but I felt emotional reading this book.

[00:10:17]I thought it was beautifully written.

[00:10:18]This is Sarah Demoff's debut. I was very impressed and I really enjoyed reading this book. So, we're following these two people who end up falling in love and getting married. And we're following the rest of their lives through different points of view through the woman, the child, and the father as they are moving forward in life and navigating just a lot of complexities and change and growth and trauma and fear and anxiety and just trying to be the best versions of themselves. but sometimes their best version isn't the best for the family as a whole. So, it's really looking at individual versus family and how fear really shapes who we become and the decisions we follow through on. It's very emotionally vibrant and this book is less about the plot and more about following how our choices change us, how they shape who we become and how they influence the people near and dear to us. and even those not as near just people in general. It's less about the plot and more about the accumulation of choices that they make that shape who they become. Some of the questions that this book prompted are, can we fully understand the people we love? How much of life is decided by small unimportant, seemingly unimportant choices? And how do we make peace with the lives we didn't lead but thought we might?

[00:11:42]Overall, I rated it 4.75 stars. similar to the names which I read last week were like teetering on the edge of a five. So I'm not sure if it's not a five because I'm like kind of not into reading or if it's not a five because it's actually just not a five. So this I feel like over time is either going to jump up to a five star for me or it's going to jump down to a 4.5. I just don't know which way it's going to go yet. The last book I read this week is called No Matter What. This is Cara Baston's March release as well. I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed following the couple in this. And this book is really interesting because we're following a couple that's been married for 10 years and they've had this change in their relationship happen quite dramatically and they're they're losing each other and they're trying to figure out what direction to take, how their marriage is going to play out. This is a book that centers on miscommunication.

[00:12:37]So, if you don't like that, I fully understand why you might steer away from this. However, this is a miscommunication that I kind of understand. It's not crazy that they're not communicating. I think if they were a couple that were constantly talking in and out of each other's world in circles 24/7 and they had this miscommunication, I'd be very annoyed. But because of the circumstance we find them in at the beginning of the book, I'm not shocked at how this miscommunication happened.

[00:13:06]Did it drag on perhaps longer than necessary? Yes. Did I still really enjoy the book and enjoy the character study we did of a couple that really loves each other and doesn't know how to connect anymore? Also, yes. It's a heartfelt romance. It's rooted in chosen family and emotional resilience and unconditional support. And so watching this couple have this second chance story as they they're together the entire time, but they're just navigating deep levels of grief and trauma and just something that most people don't have to contend with in life. They're navigating it and figuring it out and finding their way with each other and figuring out what their future looks like now that the past they can't ever go back to the past. Like the past is behind them. this thing has happened that will forever change them. And so, how do you move on?

[00:14:01]Do you move on or do you move forward or what do you do? And that's really what this book explores. Some of the questions this book deals with are what does unconditional love look like, especially in a long-term relationship and marriage? What does it mean to feel emotionally safe with someone? And what role does patience play in a real connection? I rated this book 4.5 stars.

[00:14:26]I have read three of Cara Beststone's books. My ranking order for that would be Ready or Not in third place. I would put No Matter What in second place and Promise Me Sunshine. Sunshine and Promise Me Sunshine in place number one.

[00:14:42]So that would be my Carabes ranking. I'm excited for new books from her. I really enjoy her as an author. I feel like she writes romance, but the romance isn't the center of the story. Just human connection is. and I really enjoy reading those types of books. Believe it or not, we're putting all four of these on my weekly favorites board. I have so many spots left to fill. So, I figured might as well add them all. I enjoyed all four of these. They were all 4.5 stars and above. And obviously, I don't rate the non-fiction, but for non-fiction really, really good. I really enjoyed it. So, these are just all the placements. You can just see them on your screen now because it'll be easier than me walking you through it.

[00:15:22]But those are the four books we've added to the weekly favorites board. Thank you for coming with me for update 27. I know we've been working on this for a while now. I am loving Herkit. I'm loving what I'm doing. So, thank you for coming along and watching and supporting. We are getting close to the end of this challenge, but we have more books still left to read. So, [music] keep resting, keep reading, and I will see you soon.