There were a lot of high profile booktube books on this list and I found your thoughts really interesting. Excited to see you in my subscription box so much lately 💕
Also with carry on I found the first 100 pages annoying and I made the comparisons and things but everything after getting through Simons first big section I love the book. I also liked heartless but understand your disappointment as I’ve heard those complaints a lot. I also did the audiobook but I love audiobook reader.
Thank you! I expected to draw comparisons at the start, but I was hoping that I wouldn't continue doing it after a little while... sadly that was not the case!
Ah, that's a bummer, I'm reading Heartless right now and absolutely loving it. I definitely see what you're saying about what a stark contrast there is between Catherine and what we know of the Queen of Hearts ... but I actually do think you see some flashes of foreshadowing. Her mother, for example, behaves a lot like what the QoH turns out to be, and even though Catherine is so different from her mother, I can see that the constraints of the life she's born into might eventually wear her down into becoming more like her mom since she can't escape the world they both inhabit. That even though Catherine wants to rebel against all that, eventually her frustration and anger with not being able to festers inside her to the point that it turns her dark and sour. And I actually like the romance a lot, I think because it feels more natural to me than most fantasy romances usually do. They're both simultaneously outsiders and insiders, and trying to navigate that, and so I can see how they would feel drawn to the other.
I read heartless and also listened to the audiobook and I really really loved it but listening to your thoughts I understand a lot of your views. Definitely going to have to reread.
I enjoyed Carry On. I found the parallels between it and Harry Potter to be fun but I can see how it could be annoying to others. I think my favorite thing about it was the magic system. I personally believe that words hold magic and power so I love seeing that in books.
I'm sad to hear about Heartless because I've been excited and waiting its release in my country for a while. It's finally coming out this year and now I'm just hearing a lot of mixed reviews 😕 In any case, great video, it's nice to see the explanation to each book on the list.
I couldn't get into Heartless, I dnf'd it around page 100. I am really sorry you did not love Queen of the Tearling, it is one of my faves! Either way, great video! :)
Hi, new follower here. I completely agree with you on The Rose and The Dagger which I found to be such a huge let down after the first book. However I really liked Heartless which I finished only a few hours ago, but I was never a big fan of The Lunar Chronicles. Going to go find the video of your favourites now.
First let me say what gorgeous blue eyes you have. You sure read a lot of books last year and that is an understatement. I am going to add some of those books you read to my TBR list. . I have heard nothing but good about Red Rising. How often do you post video's? thanks Catrina.
So glad to see that I wasn't the only one let down by Queen of the Tearling. It was a frustrating read for me because it seemed like I should have started caring about the characters at some point, but I just didn't. And (spoilers?) things that were supposed to be mysterious... weren't.
I actually Loved The Queen of The Tearling, but was disappointed by the last book in the series. I enjoyed Carry On, but I didn't love it nearly as much everyone else seemed to. I also found it hard to kind if "turn off" the parts my brain that compared everything to Harry Potter just because there were so many parallels
That's sad to hear about the conclusion! I'm unsure if I'll continue the series - I was given books 1 & 2 as a gift so I own the next one, but I don't think I loved Queen of the Tearling enough :( Glad I'm not the only one who struggled with the comparisons!
I feel very similarly about Queen of the Tearling. I'm currently in the middle of reading it, and I can't get over how boring it is. It's extremely slow-paced. I was really excited to read it, and so far it's letting me down
I feel that The queen of the tearling had very vague writing like there was never enough explanation done for a lot of things that made it a bit underwhelming for me
I was disappointed in Heartless too. I didn't like how she went from this sweet as pie little baker girl to a tyrannical bitch in a heartbeat. And while I loved Rebecca Soler's narration in earlier books, I hated how overtheatrical she was in Heartless. Just too much for me and honestly painful for my poor ears 😣
I was also disappointed by the queen of the tearling! It was my first audiobook i ever read and then i didn’t read another for like a year cause i thought it was that i didn’t like listening! Little did i know...
I really didn't like The Queen of the Tearling either! I thought I was going to absolutely adore it but nope it was boring and I despised the main character....
Same problems with the Seafarer's Kiss. I was so excited and so disappointed. The toxic relationship and these vision of women as damage if they can't reproduce + the selfish character of the main character...
I didn’t enjoy the fan fiction parts of Fangirl, but picked up Carry On for the reason that it was meant to be similar to HP. But it was so anachronistic and at some parts absurd, that whilst it was an entertaining read, it ended up being a bit meh.
The fanfiction part of Fangirl was my least favorite part of Fangirl, but I still ended up buying this book and I have no idea why because I feel like I'm never going to read it lmao. And that's unfortunate it's way too close to Harry Potter :( I really want to read Heartless now! I'm curious to know how I will feel about it haha I was also a huge fan of the Lunar Chronicles and Fairest was such an interesting read!
The Queen of the Tearling is actually one of my most favorite fantasy books. I was really surprised that you thought that there was a lot of girl-on-girl hate. I mean one of the only things she's knows about her mother is that she's vain but I think the more she learns about her the more horrified she is that her mother agreed to ship the Tearling people as slaves. Kealsea also becomes good friends with the "Mort wh*re" as the regent calls her and her three daughters and she's also often thinking about other women like Lily and envying them, she puts herself down a lot for not being more like them so I'm surprised by what you've said? It is a slow burn story but I really enjoyed the world and I enjoyed that we really only understood as much as Kelsea did she doesn't understand the magic system very well in the first book (really not many do) but that is developed later too. I get that not everyone is going to like every book I was just really surprised/confused by what you said they didn't seem to match what I had pulled from the trilogy at all. Oh well, I hope you have better readings in the future!
I have heard so many people who were disappointed by Heartless, I think it is such a cool concept, so it is disappointing that people aren't really liking it.
It's so interesting what people think of Queen of the Tearling books, i personally raced through all three of them in three days and loved them, i'd say it's one of my all time favourite series! But I do agree there's a lot of hate for other women but I think it's justified given the main character's upbringing. Its not nice to read from a modern standpoint but I think it's realistic for the world she's in. I think Kelsea is a bit like Katniss in the hunger games, you're not supposed to completely fall in love with her, she has the queen thing thrust upon her.
I agree entirely with your opinions of Carry on and Heartless. Carry On was supposed to be mind blowing for me because how much Kat loved it, and I always trust Kat's tastes. It just ended up being OK. And Heartless was weird. That's what I thought about it, but I guess that's the whole point of Wonderland.
Sadly, I agree about Heartless. I loved, loved the Lunar Chronicles but Heartless just felt a bit flat... I didn’t quite believe in Catherine and Jest’s relationship, and the ending was rather abrupt.
I ended up DNFing Heartless last year. I just hated everyone, except for Cath, and then I let my mom spoil it for me. . . and I don't get it. I was told by my mom, whom I usually trust with this stuff, that I would hate Cath at the end as she deserves to become the Queen of Hearts we know at the end. But I really don't think so. It just sounded so . . . contrive and in the end I'm supposed to hate her for being human? Ah. . .no.
So happy I'm not the only one who totally forgot Queen of the Tearling.. I can't remember shit about it :) and it was so so so slow! Can't even remember that there were magic 😂😂😂
I totally agree about The Rose and the Dagger. It ruined anything I loved about the first book. I can see your points about Heartless too. While I agree that Heartless would've been better with a better explained transition and the beginning was certainly too slow, I still loved the book anyway.
I wasn't a fan of Heartless - agree with your comments - the character development was a little slow and the change to the Queen of Hearts was just too fast. There were some good ideas, especially toward the end, that could have been explored more. On the other hand, I really loved The Rose & The Dagger - I liked it more than The Wrath & The Dawn. I think I liked the wider cast of characters and also Jahandar, the heroine's father, had a really interesting and emotional story arc.
Very interesting with your character analysis for Queen of the Tearling, I haven't read it yet but Emma Watson is going to be in the movie coming out soon so I'm curious so to how she's going to adapt this character if she was very negative towards other women in the story. In beauty and the beast, I think Emma feminized (?feministized?} Belle very well.
i really love your videos and it was one of your videos that got me in booktube community and reading overall but i really wonder why all booktuber read just novels or fictions and there are almost no other gener . love your work but i just wonder as i thought that reader must have a taste of all or just one book at least from any gener...
Was a little disappointed that you did not like Heartless, but everything you say is very correct. It is not entirely logical. On the other hand, I enjoyed the romance, and as you say it is a big part of the book.
Totally agree that The Rose and the Dagger was disappointing in comparison to the first book. I loved seeing certain character interactions, especially ones with the sister, but it just...wasn't as good at all.
I was also dissapointed by Carry on, especially after loving the sneek peak in Fangirl. Firstly I think that it being the last (fake) books of a long series a lot of facts and characters are not presented enough for us readers to take real interest or grow attach. That would be like only reading HP 7. Also I was reading it to finally discover the rivalty/romance between Baz/Simon and at the end of it I feel like there was no real one. It happen super quickly and it's almost instalovy on Simon part. The novel end almost immediatly after that so we don't see it bloosoming either... Yeah I was really sad about this one (and can we talk about how annoying Simon was ? If people complain about Harry he had nothing on Simon xD)
And I agree totally with the rose and the dagger. The pacing was slow, the character development stagnated, and the main plot points were resolved really...conveniently. Lazy writing overall.
There were a lot of high profile booktube books on this list and I found your thoughts really interesting. Excited to see you in my subscription box so much lately 💕
Also with carry on I found the first 100 pages annoying and I made the comparisons and things but everything after getting through Simons first big section I love the book. I also liked heartless but understand your disappointment as I’ve heard those complaints a lot. I also did the audiobook but I love audiobook reader.
Thank you!
I expected to draw comparisons at the start, but I was hoping that I wouldn't continue doing it after a little while... sadly that was not the case!
Heartless became one of my favorite books. I was so emerse with the story and characters. Jest and Catherine were adorable
Ah, that's a bummer, I'm reading Heartless right now and absolutely loving it. I definitely see what you're saying about what a stark contrast there is between Catherine and what we know of the Queen of Hearts ... but I actually do think you see some flashes of foreshadowing. Her mother, for example, behaves a lot like what the QoH turns out to be, and even though Catherine is so different from her mother, I can see that the constraints of the life she's born into might eventually wear her down into becoming more like her mom since she can't escape the world they both inhabit. That even though Catherine wants to rebel against all that, eventually her frustration and anger with not being able to festers inside her to the point that it turns her dark and sour. And I actually like the romance a lot, I think because it feels more natural to me than most fantasy romances usually do. They're both simultaneously outsiders and insiders, and trying to navigate that, and so I can see how they would feel drawn to the other.
Your hair is gorgeous🙌🏼🙌🏼
I read heartless and also listened to the audiobook and I really really loved it but listening to your thoughts I understand a lot of your views. Definitely going to have to reread.
I just finished Carry On and it was disappointing for me as well. I was really hoping id love it. I loved FanGirl
I enjoyed Carry On. I found the parallels between it and Harry Potter to be fun but I can see how it could be annoying to others. I think my favorite thing about it was the magic system. I personally believe that words hold magic and power so I love seeing that in books.
I'm sad to hear about Heartless because I've been excited and waiting its release in my country for a while. It's finally coming out this year and now I'm just hearing a lot of mixed reviews 😕 In any case, great video, it's nice to see the explanation to each book on the list.
I was just watching your Favourite Books of 2017 video when I got the notification😂 perfect timing👌🏻
I couldn't get into Heartless, I dnf'd it around page 100. I am really sorry you did not love Queen of the Tearling, it is one of my faves! Either way, great video! :)
Glad I'm not the only one who had those thoughts about Heartless!
Dang girl you posting a lot suddenly 😂❤️
Milagros Aquino winter break from uni probably
It’s been so great. I’ve missed her
Chelsea Schuur summer break in australia
Girl-on-girl hate is my biggest complaint about the books I read too!
Hi, new follower here. I completely agree with you on The Rose and The Dagger which I found to be such a huge let down after the first book. However I really liked Heartless which I finished only a few hours ago, but I was never a big fan of The Lunar Chronicles. Going to go find the video of your favourites now.
First let me say what gorgeous blue eyes you have. You sure read a lot of books last year and that is an understatement. I am going to add some of those books you read to my TBR list. . I have heard nothing but good about Red Rising. How often do you post video's? thanks Catrina.
So glad to see that I wasn't the only one let down by Queen of the Tearling. It was a frustrating read for me because it seemed like I should have started caring about the characters at some point, but I just didn't. And (spoilers?) things that were supposed to be mysterious... weren't.
I didn’t finish Queen of the Tearling - got halfway too. Didn’t get the love for it.
I actually Loved The Queen of The Tearling, but was disappointed by the last book in the series.
I enjoyed Carry On, but I didn't love it nearly as much everyone else seemed to. I also found it hard to kind if "turn off" the parts my brain that compared everything to Harry Potter just because there were so many parallels
That's sad to hear about the conclusion! I'm unsure if I'll continue the series - I was given books 1 & 2 as a gift so I own the next one, but I don't think I loved Queen of the Tearling enough :(
Glad I'm not the only one who struggled with the comparisons!
Personally LOVED Heartless....one of my favorites for sure. Obsessed with hearts and darkness since reading it lol
I agree with Heartless and Carryon. I liked them...but was expecting more
I've heard that a lot about The Rose & The Dagger, so I don't know if I want to pick up the Wrath & The Dawn and set myself up for disappointment!
I feel very similarly about Queen of the Tearling. I'm currently in the middle of reading it, and I can't get over how boring it is. It's extremely slow-paced. I was really excited to read it, and so far it's letting me down
I'm halfway through my 3rd attempt at Carry On because I had the exact same problem with not being able to get past the Harry Potter similarities!
The parallels between Carry On and Harry Potter is why I couldn’t finish it. I might try reading it a second time though.
Hahaha I love hearing different opinions on books I love! Heartless is a favorite of mine and I did adore hearing the audio book!
I love your outro :D
I thought I wasn't going to enjoy Carry On but I did. It's one that surprises!
I feel that The queen of the tearling had very vague writing like there was never enough explanation done for a lot of things that made it a bit underwhelming for me
Interesting list I haven’t read heartless yet because I am so hyped for it too!
Harry Potter and Carry On are both some of my all time favourite books!
I was disappointed in Heartless too. I didn't like how she went from this sweet as pie little baker girl to a tyrannical bitch in a heartbeat. And while I loved Rebecca Soler's narration in earlier books, I hated how overtheatrical she was in Heartless. Just too much for me and honestly painful for my poor ears 😣
I was also disappointed by the queen of the tearling! It was my first audiobook i ever read and then i didn’t read another for like a year cause i thought it was that i didn’t like listening! Little did i know...
I really didn't like The Queen of the Tearling either! I thought I was going to absolutely adore it but nope it was boring and I despised the main character....
Same problems with the Seafarer's Kiss. I was so excited and so disappointed. The toxic relationship and these vision of women as damage if they can't reproduce + the selfish character of the main character...
I didn’t enjoy the fan fiction parts of Fangirl, but picked up Carry On for the reason that it was meant to be similar to HP. But it was so anachronistic and at some parts absurd, that whilst it was an entertaining read, it ended up being a bit meh.
I completely agree about the seafarer's kiss! I was so excited for the book, but it felt so rushed that I just couldn't enjoy it.
The fanfiction part of Fangirl was my least favorite part of Fangirl, but I still ended up buying this book and I have no idea why because I feel like I'm never going to read it lmao. And that's unfortunate it's way too close to Harry Potter :( I really want to read Heartless now! I'm curious to know how I will feel about it haha I was also a huge fan of the Lunar Chronicles and Fairest was such an interesting read!
The Queen of the Tearling is actually one of my most favorite fantasy books. I was really surprised that you thought that there was a lot of girl-on-girl hate. I mean one of the only things she's knows about her mother is that she's vain but I think the more she learns about her the more horrified she is that her mother agreed to ship the Tearling people as slaves. Kealsea also becomes good friends with the "Mort wh*re" as the regent calls her and her three daughters and she's also often thinking about other women like Lily and envying them, she puts herself down a lot for not being more like them so I'm surprised by what you've said? It is a slow burn story but I really enjoyed the world and I enjoyed that we really only understood as much as Kelsea did she doesn't understand the magic system very well in the first book (really not many do) but that is developed later too. I get that not everyone is going to like every book I was just really surprised/confused by what you said they didn't seem to match what I had pulled from the trilogy at all. Oh well, I hope you have better readings in the future!
I have heard so many people who were disappointed by Heartless, I think it is such a cool concept, so it is disappointing that people aren't really liking it.
Heartless is definitely in my top 5. I couldn't put it down!
I think this is why reading is great because we have people who don't like books and people who love them.
It's so interesting what people think of Queen of the Tearling books, i personally raced through all three of them in three days and loved them, i'd say it's one of my all time favourite series! But I do agree there's a lot of hate for other women but I think it's justified given the main character's upbringing. Its not nice to read from a modern standpoint but I think it's realistic for the world she's in. I think Kelsea is a bit like Katniss in the hunger games, you're not supposed to completely fall in love with her, she has the queen thing thrust upon her.
I agree entirely with your opinions of Carry on and Heartless. Carry On was supposed to be mind blowing for me because how much Kat loved it, and I always trust Kat's tastes. It just ended up being OK. And Heartless was weird. That's what I thought about it, but I guess that's the whole point of Wonderland.
Your hair! 🖤
Sadly, I agree about Heartless. I loved, loved the Lunar Chronicles but Heartless just felt a bit flat... I didn’t quite believe in Catherine and Jest’s relationship, and the ending was rather abrupt.
I felt the same way about "Carry On". I didn't enjoy it as much as everyone else did!
I ended up DNFing Heartless last year. I just hated everyone, except for Cath, and then I let my mom spoil it for me. . . and I don't get it. I was told by my mom, whom I usually trust with this stuff, that I would hate Cath at the end as she deserves to become the Queen of Hearts we know at the end. But I really don't think so. It just sounded so . . . contrive and in the end I'm supposed to hate her for being human? Ah. . .no.
I didn't like Heartless either. It started of really good but I felt like it was dragged out for too long at the end and it got really boring.
So happy I'm not the only one who totally forgot Queen of the Tearling.. I can't remember shit about it :) and it was so so so slow! Can't even remember that there were magic 😂😂😂
I totally agree about The Rose and the Dagger. It ruined anything I loved about the first book. I can see your points about Heartless too. While I agree that Heartless would've been better with a better explained transition and the beginning was certainly too slow, I still loved the book anyway.
we also have to read 40 books in one school year as a challenge so yea
I wasn't a fan of Heartless - agree with your comments - the character development was a little slow and the change to the Queen of Hearts was just too fast. There were some good ideas, especially toward the end, that could have been explored more. On the other hand, I really loved The Rose & The Dagger - I liked it more than The Wrath & The Dawn. I think I liked the wider cast of characters and also Jahandar, the heroine's father, had a really interesting and emotional story arc.
I felt exactly the same about Heartless. I was so excited about it and it just greatly disappointed me.
Very interesting with your character analysis for Queen of the Tearling, I haven't read it yet but Emma Watson is going to be in the movie coming out soon so I'm curious so to how she's going to adapt this character if she was very negative towards other women in the story. In beauty and the beast, I think Emma feminized (?feministized?} Belle very well.
Agree about Carry on
Agreed with Heartless. I DNF’d it.
i really love your videos and it was one of your videos that got me in booktube community and reading overall but i really wonder why all booktuber read just novels or fictions and there are almost no other gener . love your work but i just wonder as i thought that reader must have a taste of all or just one book at least from any gener...
Wow I guessed Carry On before you mentioned all the details. That was a first.
i completely agree with you on the rose and the dagger. i was so disappointed when i finished the book :/
I'm glad I'm not the only one! Was such a let down :(
Was a little disappointed that you did not like Heartless, but everything you say is very correct. It is not entirely logical. On the other hand, I enjoyed the romance, and as you say it is a big part of the book.
Totally agree that The Rose and the Dagger was disappointing in comparison to the first book. I loved seeing certain character interactions, especially ones with the sister, but it just...wasn't as good at all.
I was also dissapointed by Carry on, especially after loving the sneek peak in Fangirl. Firstly I think that it being the last (fake) books of a long series a lot of facts and characters are not presented enough for us readers to take real interest or grow attach. That would be like only reading HP 7.
Also I was reading it to finally discover the rivalty/romance between Baz/Simon and at the end of it I feel like there was no real one. It happen super quickly and it's almost instalovy on Simon part.
The novel end almost immediatly after that so we don't see it bloosoming either... Yeah I was really sad about this one (and can we talk about how annoying Simon was ? If people complain about Harry he had nothing on Simon xD)
Yes I argue with want you said about carry on
have u read magestirium series it soo gud
Agree with Heartless, it was honestly such a meh book it was all over the place and didn’t really stay on plot real well.
And I agree totally with the rose and the dagger. The pacing was slow, the character development stagnated, and the main plot points were resolved really...conveniently. Lazy writing overall.
omg i hated carry on. fangirl was SO good and carry on was just such a disappointment. :(
OMG I FEEL THE SAME WITH CARRY ON
Mainly the magic system bothered me and the spells
IKR! The magic system was so juvenile, it reminded me of Sabrina the teenage witch
Awh so sad you didn’t like Heartless 😞
Heartless was a huge disappointment for me :(
I completely agree with Carry On. I tried to like it but it just seemed like a cheap rip-off of HP to me.
Yeah the Rose and the Dagger was a disappointment
hi catriona sorry if I spelt your name wrong
very nice
I didn’t enjoy Carry On either.
I'm lately tired of retellings in general. And Marissa Meyer's style.
im the foueth to comet yea