I read Ali Hazelwood's CHRISTMAS ROMANCE so you don't have to
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UGH the billionaire thing. I don't care how nice he is to YOU, Miss Main Character, if he's a billionaire then he is not an ethical person. End of story.
Yeah I think we can ethically lust after millionaires, maybe, but billionaires is a no go.
Yeah, the idea of having sex with a billionaire is actually repulsive to me lmao.
unless the mc kills and eats the billionaire and redistributes his wealth get it out of my face kind romcom writers
Exactly. No ethical billionaires!
@@meatofmink You wouldn't happen to be a writer, would you? I like the way you think haha
I think it’s kinda extra frustrating that Ali makes all her main female leads STEM majors then proceeds to infantilize them. But maybe that’s just because I’m a small adult woman in a STEM field so the infantilization annoys me more then average
I’m convinced she’s making fun of women. All of her books are like that and it’s cringe. I can’t believe the amount of “I’m so tiny, he’s so big” she can fit in a 300 page book.
Why is the woman never the billionaire? Like if everyone wants to write the same kind of book over and over again why don’t we ever just switch it up slightly?
Yes PLEASE!
This is a good point. Why can’t women be rich?
Oooh! Sarah Morgenthaler's Moose Springs series has a woman billionaire and the male mc has a failing pub.
Because publishers nowadays want you to check boxes that Booktok likes. What’s this “original idea” you speak of?
I would love to read a book like that. I should write it. lol
“Who am I if I don’t hate my brother!?”
I’ve finally found what bugs me the most about Ali Hazelwood books! It’s that they’re supposed to be about badass women but everything just revolves around the man. Even the sister is defined mostly by her relationship to her brother, it makes me feel gross.
oh her books def dont pass the Bechdel test
I feel like every Ali book is the same. If you’ve read one, you’ve read them all 🤷🏻♀️
Eh, Bride certainly was in a league of its own
Bride was the only one that I've read xD
Right? I read The Love hypothesis, then a friend said that I have to read Love on the brain because according to her it was even better, but I gave up hallfway because of how similar it was to the love hypothesis. It's the same book, just different names! 😆
"what kind of adult doesn't have voicemail set up?" I dunno, that's pretty crazy 👀😅
hahahahaha
I mean, I've been an adult for a while now and I feel like I've been living a rich full life with voicemail disabled.
Super crazy. My husband and I definitely have our voicemails set up. Definitely 😅
I used to have my voicemail set up and then I got 2 calls from a random number at midnight; I didnt answer the first time, but answered the second and when the creep knew MY NAME while sexually harassing me I knew I’d never set up voicemail again. 😒
I've always thought snowbound, with a crackling fire, in a cabin, would be fun and romantic, but if it was a with a billionaire??? That sounds pretty horrifying and unpleasant. Dream destroyed.
okay but Marc's startup should have been an app that keeps people from being able to leave you voicemails
Brilliant!
as a millennial who thinks people make fun of millennials too much, ali hazelwood’s writing is PAINFULLY millennial
I’m CONVINCED she’s making fun of women.
Her, CoHo, and Penelope Douglas are the trifecta of “I’m going to write the worst book for women ever and try to put a cute bow on it”.
@@maerhodes8552
And it’s inSANE to me that women are still their biggest fanbase. Like hello, they actively think you’re lesser????
As someone with best friends with siblings, that trope has always befuddled me. Like, you're into Kevin? That guy who peed on my bestie's bed because their parents only got one of them a new bike? Him?
I don't need to read Ali Hazelwood. Too many people already do that for me! If they're not satisfied.. I doubt I will be!
As a doctor i can confirm that we are both smart and stupid.
I once had my doctor tell me “why don’t you just drink a Mountain Dew for your migraines” and when I said “I don’t really drink soda” he said “that’s just unAmerican”.
@ReadswithRachel that comment literally left me speechless. I was just referring to my needing to ask my receptionists to fax for me because the fax machine scares me.
He came up to take care of the family cat and the family cat NEVER APPEARS?? That is a truly heinous crime and I cannot forgive Ali Hazelwood for this.
THANK YOU!
my disinterest in Ali Hazelwood stems from something very simple - i'd rather read actual fanfiction than fanfiction reskinned into original fiction. give me the goddamn Reylo
Right? There's certain things just work in fanfic
@@SpaceandGoats theres that but also i'm just a fan of people being fans, you know what i mean? just, unapologetically writing about their favorite characters. there's a charm to it that is stripped away the moment the author tries to sell the work as original for monetary gain. fan works are a labor of love, and i think they should stay that way. monetize the shit that's actually 100% yours, not your Harry Styles fanfic type of thing
[edit: Harry Styles was a bad example because fanfic about real people shouldnt exist in the first place, i was just making a dig at Anna Todd]
Exactly. I get wanting to support your favorite creator or your writing buddy, but I am not paying for fanfiction.
@@menderash844 i get it. out of the sequel ships i'm probably most partial to throuple Rey/Finn/Poe or just Finn/Poe, but i was just making a point and AH is/was a Reylo writer specifically
I'm gonna be honest... my husband and I are both 34...
he literally doesn't even have his voicemail setup, I'm not sure I know how to access mine, and we never make phonecalls (definitely never leave voicemails)😅I'm with Ali on this one
oh my god am i the lone voicemail user? AM I THE WEIRD ONE?
@@ReadswithRachel Devastating news. So sorry you had to find out this way. 😂
Ugh, billionaire romance. I totally agree with you, but I also see where people who like it are coming from, at least theoretically. Billionaires (and dukes) as romance heroes are rooted in financial insecurity and the “princess fantasy,” basically. It’s a reflection of current-day social ills, although how much the author is conscious of that in their writing will definitely vary. But my response has always been, if financial insecurity is the issue, why aren’t we imagining more female billionaires? It’s much more consistent with other aspects of the romance genre’s (allocishet) women-focused branding, especially with many saying “all romance is feminist!” uncritically. And that’s leaving aside the flaws that still exist with female billionaires. It’s just mind-boggling that a genre that is pitched as so female-centric when it’s time to defend it almost always manages to center men.
Honestly I won't lie, I do fantasize about getting a super rich girlfriend and not having to worry about paying for rent or groceries or anything like that, but even then the richest I go is like, a successful doctor. Billionaires are just SO out of touch with the average human person that I can't possibly disconnect them from all the ethical violations they undoubtedly committed to get where they are (also, there probably aren't any lesbian billionaires in the first place). I also can't stand all of the people uncritically saying romance is a feminist genre when the male love interests uphold soooooo many patriarchal stereotypes. Like, women can read what they want, but a woman liking something does not make it feminist by default. (which is all to say, I'm agreeing with you here lmao)
I suspect it has to do with keeping the female protagonist relatable. Being rich has it's own ups and downs that an average person might not relate to on a surface level. Though I think feelings of mistrust and feeling like all men want from you is not your authentic self could be explored through the insecurities that can come with being rich and having to deal with people being fake all the time. There are parallels between experiences/insecurities.
@ you’ve hit the nail on the head. The other thing I didn’t get into is how often female characters (or anyone queer or BIPOC) are held to a higher standard. I’ll never forget this review of a book called The Rakess by a celebrated “romance critic” *snort* where she was like, “Why is here sexuality tied to trauma? Why can’t she just love sex?” But the author in question purposely flipped the archetypes of historical romance, where far too many male have mountains of trauma of and baggage motivating their “raking.” Case in point: all the men in Bridgerton. And while I respect her being part of a movement to educate about parts of romance history, especially how subversive some older titles were for their time, problematic as they are now, this just missed the mark. This was one of several situations that showed her (and many white women’s) allyship in the romance community was performative.
Because the fantasy is not them already being rich, it's being poor and getting saved by a rich man. Then they can be a happy housewife/trophy wife/sometimes girlboss while the husband does all the busy work. Having the mc be the female billionaire defeats the point of the fantasy. How many times has the average person wished for a rainfall of money out of nowhere when they were in a tight spot financially? This is the root of the desire.
This is not an inherently bad or evil fantasy. I'd reckon most people understand that this is just wish fulfillment. It's important to note that these are not real billionaires. That being said, the books often do come off quite tone-deaf. It is valid to critique billionaire romances while keeping in mind that honestly, it doesn't have to always be deep. Yes, it can be, but fiction should be allowed to be just fiction sometimes and be a relief from reality. Sometimes people can just read things that they'd never want in real life, and poor x rich is a pretty standard wish fulfillment story as far as they go.
Because people fantasize about marrying a rich man. It's really that simple, but I'll explain more. Sure the fmc could be the billionaire, but that would require so much work on the her part and im assuming the majority of THIS audience (straight women) just don't want to see that. Many romance readers come to books to escape. To read novels where we (aka the fmc too) aren't struggling or hustling TOO HARD because we do that in the real world already. Better to live in the fantasy of having a ready made rich man that's madly in love with you. Super unrealistic, yes. But with authors like Ali specifically, that's kind of the entire point. I wouldn't go into a Emily Henry book or a Abby Jimenez book with the same expectations. Yes, what I would like to see is a book where the couple builds their empire TOGETHER. But still, is it so hard to believe that people just like what they like?
love interests where one met the other at birth is insane actually
Thank you for feeding us mother
Well, it is the holiday season and it's the season of giving blah blah blah. Thanks for being here!
Ima write a romance novel around 90s gangsta rap lyrics.
Story: A hot college student gets arrested and falls in love with the bad boy cop who arrested her.
Title: Fuck Tha Police
Please do
BAHAHAHA
😅
quain millz core LMAOOO
trombone mentioned but at what cost 💔
This made me laugh out loud i can't lie to you
Just listening to this plot makes my brain feel like it’s melting like one of the marshmallows in the infamous coco scene in every Christmas romance. But listening to Rachel’s commentary makes it so much better.
I dream of the reverse Christmas Romance where the lead is in a small town and learns they hate it there and moves to the city to follow their dreams of corporate dominance. It also should be sapphic. I can only dream.
I’d read the fuuuuck out of this. I just daydreamed a whole-ass Hallmark movie for it: Successful butch lawyer comes to town to represent a badass old lady that MC is good friends with in a lawsuit against the town’s mayor and his son, the local Christmas tree farm owner. The son only owns the farm because his dad made threats/illegal deals to get him the land for, like, a dollar. In particular, he threatened the old lady’s now-deceased husband, so she wants that shit shut down before she dies. Plot twist? Christmas tree farm guy is MC’s boyfriend. MC doesn’t believe her maybe-future husband and in-laws could possibly be so shady, and hates lawyer mommy despite how good she looks in a designer suit. Despite efforts to avoid her, her old lady friend keeps manufacturing situations where they meet, and MC finds herself liking the lawyer. MC and lawyer end up in the Big City at some point and MC realizes she’s never felt more alive than when she was able to get Thai food at 11PM. Once everything comes to light, she’s horrified that she put all her amazing business dreams on hold for the possibility of a ring from a mid man with a criminal family. In the epilogue she and attorney are married, living in a penthouse apartment, and decide to open an LGBTQ youth center on the land where the Christmas tree farm used to be, which they purchased with their combined millions. It will be managed by the badass old lady friend, naturally 😌
The only Christmas book I'm going to read this year is and was Nightmare before Kissmas by Sarah Raasch, and I have to say that I feel like the literary equivalent of a Hallmark novel isn't really anything I need multiples of, every year.
I got Carols & Chaos by Cindy Anstey - I was going to read it last year, but my family situation blew up and I didn't get to read anything.
Yk. A lot of her characters are in the stem field but i dont think we see these ladies ever do their job that's mentioned so many times
God the “it sounds like me & I find myself annoying” is so real. If I wanted to read my own ~quirky millennialisms~ I would write the book myself!
that's what makes it relatable for millenials then right? i wouldn't know im not one lol
Delilah Green Doesn't Care (F/F romance, best friend's stepsister)
I would not mourn if romance writers made an agreement to just, stop using the miscommunication trope altogether. I swear you can still make things compelling between people who actually TALK to each other!
The SHE'S TWELVE hits relatably. I work as a tutor and one of my pupils, I think she's 15? is in her "boy-crazy" phase and always texting guys and sometimes she mentions someone and says he's 19 and I go, 'rED FLAG. put your phone away and do your damn worksheet"
The miscommunication trope drives me bonkers. If the entire book could have been one short conversation, it SHOULD NOT EXIST.
Feeling real seen by "listen, some of us cry all the time and it's fine!" speech 😅😂
Also I literally had that exact argument about voicemails with a friend recently.
if you're looking for a sweet, heartwarming holiday book, I read Marissa Meyer's new book Let It Glow (it's co written with Joanne Levy), it's twins separated at birth/adoption & meet again at 12. one was raised with Christmas and the other with Hanukkah so they switch places to learn more about each other. it's a sweet story about family, identity, and sisterhood. definitely recommend!
That sounds super cute!
If someone ordered me to not go back out into the snow I'd probably go stand under the tree to spite them
Why did she include a scene of the main character holding her love interest when he was a baby. Like i know theyre close in age so its not super weird but the fact she thought to include it at all is still a little weird lol.
I'm with you and working out. I'm out for the count after 😫
Finally someone who gets me
Having a biological father named Mark (with a K!) who's been no contact for over a decade is going to make this... an interesting experience.
Why is every cishet romance dude just Daddy Warbucks with a six-pack? Give me the starving artist living in a shitty one bedroom apartment he shares with four roommates and vermin even though he has a degree from UCLA and the debt to show for it!! Or hell, the dude who makes technically a lot of money but CA has drained his bank account and his will to live, now THAT is accurate to the Bay Area! As someone who lived there for almost half of my life, do better Ali lmao
She's getting ten inches of ham and ten inches of -
RACHEL
@@AlishaHerbiederbie literally! it would be way more endearing for a character who doesn't technically have the means but goes the mile anyway to try to do nice things rather than a whole ass billionaire
"do your patients know you're stupid" i was drinking water when you said that and spit it out 😂
Sooooo is this book just the plot of that Christmas song Baby it’s cold outside?! 😂
this lady keeps refusing to write queer romance so now everytime she releases something i BURN with fomo and sit on my hands hoping you'll be my filter 2 it.
also as a ficwriter, completely anecdotal, ofc, so much of her writing comes off as a writer who has three favourite tags and doesn't want to write anything else. which GREAT ! me too friend, i love battlehusbands so much that's all i write about but at some point it does come off as selecting names in the doc & replacing BOOM publish.
It IS worth noting that several of her characters have been bisexual, but _more importantly_ her debut was literally with two demisexual leads.
Books can be het & queer. I get what you're saying, but it's really nice to get ace spectrum rep in mainstream romances.
@@MeMyshelfAndI people skip over other queer characters a lot simply because it doesn't fit in with what THEY consider important. Demisexuals are largely ignored by yes, other lgbtq+ people. And yes you're right she has multiple LGBT characters, they're just usually side characters though.
@@katgreer6113 Yeah, that's why I only mentioned the lead romances with LGBTQIA folks, assuming a sapphic side romance (like in LOTB) wouldn't meet their criteria.
But also like... I wouldn't WANT Ali Hazelwood to suddenly be writing main relationships totally outside of her wheelhouse and knowledge? That sounds like a miserable reading experience and would likely come across super fake/forced.
There's just a lot more rep than people are willing to acknowledge, and no queer erasure like the original comment seemed to imply.
As usual, I'm lmao at your bad story commentaries. I've read one Ali Hazelwood book, Bride. And I only read it because it was an Owlcrate adult. Thanks to you, I will never need to read another Ali Hazelwood book! I appreciate the work that you do and for saving my eyeballs.
It’s one thing to be rich but a billionaire??? The gap between millionaire and billionaire is so huge. Even multi millionaire! You can’t get a billion dollars ethically like pls y’all.
As an Aro/ace myself, it irked me that she did the whole "I think I'm Asexual-Sike, I just didnt find the right man," bullsh*t in The Love Hypothesis, not to mention her main female character s*xually ass*ult*d a man but it wasnt treated seriously but all of a sudden when the same female character has that happen to her, it gets treated seriously (as it should but I think the mans one should be treated the same too). I read the other three books too but it was the same formula with the same characters, just different names.
I was very surprised that an AH book wasn't mentioning how large the man was. And then she mentioned it at the smut scene. Truly it is one of her Things
“you don’t have a picture of her being stupid?” i’m CACKLING
20:25 I can see certain extremely pretentious 16 year old boys I knew speaking like this, but it's something they would have done because they'd seen it in media (!!) and it sounded impressive to them, and it's something you look back on as an adult and say YIKES!
I think the reason why there's so many Billionaire romances featuring hot young(ish) men, is because all the billionaires that exist in the real world are old men who look like that potato you forgot in the back of the pantry.
Yes, just like every time I see a corvette or something like it. and try to see who is driving, it’s always a white haired old man. 😂
As someone in academia, I can say that you can absolutely be stupid and smart at the same time. You can be a genius in book smarts with no social smarts whatsoever, they definitely aren’t interchangeable
But Ali just kinda. sucks at portraying the nuances of intelligence. Her characters’ intelligence feels incidental, not a prominent aspect of their personality that shapes their lives. It’s more like they’re idiots that are shoved into academic fields to make them seem smarter than they actually are
oh thank the universe for this video. my grandfather died today (LOTS of complicated emotions) and I really needed this distraction
So sorry for your loss friend
Id rather date an actual felon than a tech billionaire whos allowed to roam free 😭
13:29 my 5 year old keeps telling me he has a sister so definitely making up memories that never happened 😂
Folgers commercial fanfic now, huh?
I SCREAMED HAHAHAHAH
Im honestly surprised that the woman is older in this. At this point I thought Ali was contractually obligated to infantilise women
She’s still got the “supposedly smart idiot” thing going on though so at least she’s on brand in that bit
Maybe I’m biased because I’ve been the best friend/sibling in this kind of dynamic and it didn’t go well for anyone so I’m naturally a bit eh about it, but this version of that trope doesn’t work for me. Them seeing each other as like siblings and the best friend not being present just feels wild
Like before my best mate started dating my sister, they didn’t talk to or like each other because their only dynamic was filtered through the lens of my (somewhat fraught) relationship with my sister. It wasn’t until they developed a friendship outside the context of their relation to me that they actually started dating, and even then it was pretty weird for everyone. If they’d pretty much grown up together or seen each other as siblings, I have no doubts they’d never have gotten together because it would have been way too strange
If nothing else I think it would have been more interesting if the friend had actually been there to provide an active stumbling block for their relationship. Her starting to realise that her brother and best friend are into each other and the challenges that brings to their dynamics could have added more stakes to the story and given a tangible reason they can’t be together. We don’t even know how she would have reacted to them hooking up because we never meet her. My sister literally came to me and asked if I was okay with them being together when they started dating because she didn’t wanna blindside me. Even though we’ve never liked each other much, I was an active point of consideration when they got together, she’d invite me to hang out whenever he was over to see her, and they didn’t feel right going on without me knowing. I was the one my sister went to when they had issues, and it was probably the closest yet most awkward we’d been in our lives because it gave us something to relate about
Having a best friend’s sibling plot without the best friend actually involved is just such a strange decision to me. It’s probably the most natural way to set up stakes and conflict based on actual emotional challenges, but instead she just depended on miscommunication as always
Also I don't think Ali is for me 😂
I don't know if this counts as a Christmas book, but my pick is The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
There's something about the difference in millionaires and billionaires that makes billionaires a foreign species I would never want to sleep with, it's uncanny valley to me. Just ew, billionaires are gross.
So I was 2 and a half when my brother was born, and I actually do have a (very brief) memory of my grandparents taking me to the hospital to visit. But I had no interest whatsoever in the baby. The thing I so vividly remember is that my mom had Sprite and a box of See's candy, stuff which I was never allowed to have, so I consumed a whole bunch of it while my mom was too tired to say no. I specifically remember taking it off the over-the-bed hospital table and there was baseball playing on a little TV mounted in the corner of the room. I was maybe 12 or 13 when I brought this up to my parents and they confirmed it was completely accurate.
36:14 “I’m just so full of Marc there’s no room for that inside me” 🤢 I hate that why are you trying to be philosophical you’re literally getting railed
wait the taking care of an egg for health class thing is real??? i thought that was made up for cartoons DX
this is such a hyper specific thing, but, as someone who was kind of a loser as a high school senior with a super popular sophomore little brother, it is very possible ^^’
don’t think i’ll ever fully grasp the appeal of billionaire romance. maybe i get the escapism aspect but i also think there’s so many more interesting things a person/character can be than a billionaire
Good on you admitting you have double standards! :) Don't we all. 19/21 is fine, I think, even if we olds shudder.
Realized I’d gotten Guarding Temptation on Chirp Books after you brought it up, I will be listening to this soon, thank you!
Off topic, but watching Rachel's videos has inspired me to write a book based on the one anthropomorphic high fantasy political thriller idea I had a few years ago.
I agree with other commentators-I don’t listen to voicemails and I hate them so much 😂
I haven't actually -listened- to a voicemail (outside of the one I specifically listened to because it was my then toddler saying 'hi mommy') because I READ them. Google has been providing that service for years and I absolutely ADORE it. (that's how I knew to listen to the then toddler). And then Messenger / WhatsApp decided to let people send voice messages with no text to speech and I absolutely LOATHE it. If I wanted a goddamn voicemail, I would have given my phone number so I could read the damn thing. 😭
Better to just not set up the voicemail so people know not to leave one, and then they can text (hell, even do a voice to text)
Rachel going on about her having too many dirty jokes while completely missing how "juices are filling me" during the sponsorship bit sounds is hilarious. Also i love the dumb dirty jokes
I swear I said fueling I SWEAR 😂
I'm with you Rachel! I may hate voicemails, but I have mine set up and I do listen and I do reply. Eventually...😅
I appreciate that this one didn’t seem to be OTT about how annoyingly BIG the LI is. I’ll put this sapphic Christmas romance novella I’ve been meaning to read for a while so I actually get to it this year. Mangos & Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera is about two Dominican bakers who get paired up to compete in a holiday baking competition taking place in a Scottish castle.
Not me immediately trying to make "roasting pan" a euphemism for something 😂
the best roasting pan is Rachel - an awesome pansexual and the best at roasting! 😄
I also was 2.5 when my sister was born & I have no memory of her lol.
Also she made the girl older but still infantilized her 😅
Nah I'm 30 and I ignore the hell out of my voicemails.
There's a Linda Howard book where the female main says something about 8" being too much. Like 6" was ideal & the extra 2"" wasn't going anywhere. I think it was in Mr. Perfect. Will get the exact quote after work much later tonight
Forgot to do my homework last night, but found the exact quote from Mr. Perfect "C'mon! Anything over eight inches is strictly for show-and-tell. It's there, but you can't use it. It might look good in a locker room, but let's face it - those extra two inches are leftovers." This comes from the discussion among four female friends drinking & making a list of requirements for the perfect man. Her Harlequin/Silhouette romances from the 80s & early 90s may be cringe, but I still love Linda Howard's mystery/thriller romances that came after the mid-90s. I probably still have all of her paperbacks packed away somewhere, but her works since Kill & Tell (1996) remain on bookcases even if I don't read them very often lately. I really like how she writes women like Jaine in Mr. Perfect, but Jaclyn Wilde from Veil of Night or Blair Mallory from the Blair Mallory duology are my favorites. Also, Daisy Ann Minor from Open Season will always be one of my favorite virgin heroines. My tbr grows longer by the day, but I'm just sitting on the floor pulling these books out & thumbing through them again all because of the memory brought to mind by ten inches. The way I love reading & the random things that stick in my brain.
Having been the best friend’s sister, I’m personally glad we never did anything more than fool around a little in HS. With the loss of my brother and his BFF helping to make that loss more bearable it would be really weird if we’d ever had sex.
I don’t think this trope is for me.
I do not listen to voicemails, because I can't figure out how to set it up on my phone. I do leave voicemails, though.
Do you have an iPhone?
@kaylahaas No, I've got a samsung. It's been since 2013 and through 3 different samsung phones and every time I try to set up my voicemail it won't let me. I actually didn't even try with the first phone bc I was 18 and didn't really need it, and I think that might be part of the problem, since I've kept the same number the whole time.
Marc gave serious serial killer vibes and I will stand by that
And happy week to you too 🎉
20:26
I’m a girl, but I used these types of words to sound smarter than I was when I was 14-17. XD
So maybe a 16 y.o. boy would use it to appear more “mature” or “smarter” than he actually is.
Omggggggg I LOVE Talia Hibbert!!! I was so excited that you mentioned her!
Happy Week
You scolding yourself for the note you wrote was legitimately funny. Actually barked a laugh at that.
Thank you, queen! I would never read it anyway, but thank you!
All Christmas romances are the same some girl leaves her corporate job moves to a small town obsessed with Christmas and falls for the first gigs Chad she sees. Bonus points if there’s some magic sprinkled in there and a kookie best friend who’s not like other girls
The existence of sapphic holiday romance pretty much debunks this. I’ve read (to name a few) one about a woman who agrees to a marriage of convenience with her landlord (a man), only to fall in love with his sister; more than one queer (and Black) reimagining of the film The Holiday; one about exes where one left the other at the altar being reunited by mutual friends over Christmas; one between queer office rivals paired on a project with a Christmas deadline; and another queer one with a woman meeting the wedding planner at her sister’s Christmas wedding. And those are just some of the recent ones, plus one that really stuck with me. Maybe don’t judge and diminish an entire subgenre that brings people joy, just because it’s perceived as “lowbrow.” This book Rachel reviewed may not be the best, but if it makes people happy, why does it bother you?
Hmmm, juice you say? I may have to chek this out I thought they were just food. 😂🍹
How did I miss this video drop yesterday?
Yay! Christmas book review! I just read You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Toni Shiloh, it was an okay short read overall, bit heavy handed on the religious (Christian) undertones. But it was very hallmark and sweet overall (except the mom, she needed a come to Jesus moment too.)
Hope to see more Christmas book reviews from you!
Cruel summer is just playin in my head now.
The ENTIRE time I read this
Girl this is SO funny
as a portland, oregon girlie, umm yes i do think 10inches of snow is a lot, ms.hazelwood.
thank you for this video as i can now pass on this one this holiday season. i cannot handle the way she writes miscommunication. it's less, oops we misunderstood each other and more, one person refuses to let the other person say anything and will literally speak over them anytime they try to clarify.
Hard agree with the working out part! My fiancé, daughter and I go for a walk almost every morning and then I do some sort of strength training when we get home and by the end of it I’m done for the day 🥱🥱
I absolutely HATE the miscommunication trope. Ali Hazelwood is definitely not the author for me, but I enjoy watching others review her books.
Love at First Set is a sapphic best friends sister romance ❤
It's me! Waves! It's just Wave's. Like ocean waves or "He waves at you"!
Merry Christmas rachel!!
merry christmas!
I found Love, Theoretically to be her strongest work thus far. Otherwise, I enjoy her works as a palate cleanser or something light.
Is Marc Compton supposed to be like… Mark Cuban fanfic? 😂
Omg NO I DONT LIKE THAT IDEA
@ LMAOOO you’re welcome for that image
I thought the motto of everyone younger than Gen X was "if it was important THEY'LL LEAVE A VOICEMAIL" what is wrong with him?!
... no surely if its important they'll email so there's a paper trail...?
the plops ablnd boop sounds had me giggling all over... 😊
The dialogue in these books is always embarrassingly and excruciatingly UNREALISTIC. No one speaks like that!!!!
I mean, that's why you keep your business socks on, cause it's business time.
damn your earworm!!
Break the rules by Roxi Noir is a good best friend's younger sister book with characters in later 20s early 30s. Third in a series of standalones that is very good if your looking
Why does she write like she's writing a food blog