July Book Report

Happy Labor Day!!! Hope you enjoy this book report.

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Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Let's Talk podcast. I am glad to be back with you. My name is Hannah Covington, and today's episode, you know what it is. It's the book report episode that you hear once a month. Yes, and this is July's book report. And sadly, in June I only read three books, not the four, which was my goal. But the fourth book rolled into July. But we'll talk about that in a moment. But how is y'all's reading goals going for the summer? Have you read enough? Have you struggled to find a good book to read? There's always the library. There is very awesome local bookstores that are willing to give book recommendations. Just giving some hints. The Kindle app is very handy. Audible is very handy. I know if you have a Kindle, Kindle Unlimited has some great books. I have read a lot of great books on Kindle Unlimited. So you have multiple chances to read books. You don't have to have a Kindle to read on the Kindle app. You can read on the Kindle app on your phone, your iPad. So you have multiple chances to read through a Kindle. I'm just giving great recommendations if you're struggling to find how to read. But be aware. Bookstores have sales every once in a while to celebrate things or just to clear out inventory. Just giving some wise advice. I know they might be doing some sales for back to school, possibly. They probably do. Same with the local bookstores near you. And also go to book swaps. As I was talking about in another episode that will be coming out later on down the road. You'll find great books through that. So there's a plenty of chances to read. Support your local library while we have them. And you save a lot of money if you go through the library or go to book swap. And I know Amazon has sales as well on books every once in a while. I know they did during prime days. I didn't participate in Prime Days, but Prime Days had some good book sales. But I want to start off with the book I did not finish in the month of June that I finally finished in early July. What day did I finish it in July? Let's look that up. I keep notes on my phone on this because why not? I finished it on July 3rd, right before Independence Day. That is so awesome. But I was hoping to have it finished at the end of June. That did not happen, sadly. I was very, very sad. It was the most American book you can read for a memoir in my eyes. And why did I not meet this goal? I'm wondering if people have the same feelings as me. Do you ever have reading dead days as you set goals? I had a goal of reading four books in the month of June. I'm still gonna hold myself accountable for July and meeting this goal. Even though I have some thick books I'm reading at the current moment. Yes, your girl has some thickies that she is reading. Is do you have days where you don't want to read and you don't want to push yourself? Because I've also heard of if you push yourself, you won't love it anymore. I don't know how people handle that. I've heard people try to switch up books, change tactics, because I watch a lot of booktube and they are trying to give advice on how to handle this as well. But I'm just curious because I take days off from reading, even if I don't meet a goal, which is very frustrating at times. But I just am curious. I'm an avid reader, I was disappointed I didn't meet my goal. But it's always good to set goals and just pat yourself on the back. Wish I had made that goal, but we still have another couple months we can make this goal at least once or twice. We still have this month that we're currently in, and we still have August. And possibly September can September be counted as a summer month? I'm counting it counting it as a summer month. So I'm I just want to know these things. But the book I sadly did not finish in June, but finished right before Independence Day was. And I mentioned this at the end of the June episode that I would be finishing it in July. Like I was pretty close, like hmm, I had 20 to 35 pages left of this book, and I couldn't finish it. I was so sad. I was just so sad. And this book is The Good Neighbor, the Life and Work of Fred Rogers. You're wondering, Hannah, why did you pick to read this book? Well, I didn't grow up watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. I think we tried it with me, and it was not a successful watch with me. But oh well. But once I became an adult, I remember when they made a movie about him, and I would say most everybody watched this film when it came out back in let's look that up, and I'll be right back. And I am back with that answer. It came out back in 2019, and what made this film such a big deal was Tom Hanks played Mr. Rogers, and it came out a year after this memoir I read came out. Which this memoir came out in yeah, what year did this come out? Great question. It came out in 2018, and the movie came out in 2019, which I find interesting was you had a book come out a year prior to this film coming out, which is quite interesting in my eyes, because both the memoir and the movie were really good, and I feel like everyone watched the movie, even if they didn't watch Mr. Rogers, which is my case, is because oh, it had a great casting, that's why people watch this film, and I was one of them. I never knew after watching that film it would spark an interest of writing my second history capstone. Yes, I took the history capstone twice in my first degree, the first one I didn't do too well on, and they gave me a second chance, even though they were like totally fine with me not doing it again, but I just felt like I could do a better job, and I wasn't interested in my first capstone because I had struggled to find a capstone at that point the first time around, and in the second one, I was working in the PBS world on the public radio side, and somebody told me I should write about Fred Rogers, and I was like, okay, get deep and down in the research. One thing I could complain about when you do the history capstone as an undergrad is it should be a two-semester process. In most degrees, when they ask you to do a capstone, some of them actually actually require it to be a two-semester project, maybe even three. But I know with masters, it's about a year and a half to a year range, and I feel that this should have been a whole year process from you spend a whole semester researching to the second semester you're writing this because I had a hard time trying to do research and write at the same time while working on the public radio side, mind you. And I wasn't the one to think of Fred Rogers. I was thinking of doing something else at the time. I can't remember what I was originally gonna do it on. It was probably gonna do something with history and religion, was probably gonna be what the capstone was originally gonna be on. And I was just sitting there trying to figure out, and I was talking with one of the full-time staffers at public radio, and they recommended I do it on Fred Rogers, and I'm like, why are you recommending Fred Rogers to me? And they go, Well, we don't hear much about Fred Rogers, and she and they were like, I think you would find more interest in Fred Rogers. Fun fact: it's hard to find stuff on Fred Rogers. I was going nut so crazy trying to find stuff on Fred Rogers. I watched a bunch of episodes on Fred Rogers, I watched a documentary on Fred Rogers, I listened to an audiobook on Fred Rogers. If this if this had been a two-semester project, I think I would have been a hint more successful. But I still this was still a better capstone than my first capstone. Enjoyed it a lot more because I liked the processing of it a lot more. A lot of my history instructors were sad I was not presenting my capstone because apparently I heard from other instructors I was taking at the time that they were hoping I would sign up and present on Fred Rogers. I didn't find this out until after all the presentations were done, and one of my instructors came up to me after class saying, Man, they were like, Hannah, I wish you had presented yours on Fred Rogers. They were like, this was one of those I was looking forward to hearing about. So apparently this was talked about in the history department of the college I went to, which is Western Kentucky University. And it dumbfounded me. I was like kind of confused, and now looking back, I'm like, wow, that's cool that they talked about it in that and I made it in a positive light, but they were sad I didn't present. And I'm sorry, my plate was just very, very full that semester, and I didn't have time to do that because you also, on top of writing the paper, you also had to make a PowerPoint on your paper, which I didn't have time to do, and they were super sad I didn't do that. I was like, oh well, I'm sad I broke their heart, I really am, because they were a good instructor to me, but I didn't realize how many people were affected by Fred Rogers in their life growing up while I was working on that, and as I was working on this, and I also listened to podcast episodes too, because some of his fellow co-stars also were on podcasts that talked about him, and one of the things that was brought up was this 2018 memoir, and I was like, okay, I'll get around to listening to it on my Audible account. I never did, I listened to one memoir, it was good, it was free at the time. I as I was listening to it, and then it became non-free. I don't understand Audible, they're always ever changing. If you're an Audible listener, you understand. So I listened to this one that was really, really good, thoroughly enjoyed it. And then this one book was brought up in all the research I was doing, which was The Good Neighbor. And I was like, okay, I'll get around to reading it. And then one day I went over to Half Price Books, and at Half Price Books, I found this book, and I was like, okay, I guess it's my destiny to read this book. I found this and another book, which is related to another TV show I'm gonna read down the road. It's on my list of reads for the year. I have a um a list of books between my Kindle and Hardbag that I want to read. Let's see if I get through all those because it's ever adding. You can make a list uh of books sitting out and you never get to them. But your girl is trying while building a bookshelf. So it was kind of destiny. Once I found this book, I needed to read it, and I am so glad I read it. And I was very my eyes were very much opened, even though I had written my capstone mainly on the fact of how Fred Rogers really did say PBS. This book was more about his life, and the one thing I was sad that the book did not mention was how much impact Fred Rogers had on PBS and how much he saved it. It was like vaguely talked about, vaguely. But it decided to be very interesting. Let's get back to where we were. Okay. What did I think of the intro to the audiobook? Let me I really want to talk about this and talk about the importance of if you're not a strong reader, I highly recommend audiobooks. Audio audiobooks can sometimes be better better than the real book. I know a lot of avid readers talk about this. I'm gonna be the same way because I'm one of those that uses audiobooks and books at the same time. Very big fan of it, want to very much promote it, love audiobooks, especially when I'm exercising or on the road, or late at night when I don't want to listen to a podcast, but still want to read my book but not look at it. Highly recommend. But what did I think of the intro to the audiobook for this book? It was so amazing. You have LeVar Barton from Reading Rainbow reading this entire book. Yes, you're hearing me right. The original host of Reading Rainbow read this book, and they started and ended the book with the intro to the Mr. Rogers neighborhood song, which that blew me out of the waters. I was like, okay, you grabbed my attention, and it would grab anybody's attention if you're looking for a memoir of like holy cow! I can't believe they started with the theme song from the TV show. Holy cow! That is how creative audiobooks can be sometimes. What are my thoughts as Fred Rogers as a child? Ooh, this is interesting. I feel like he was a normal child to a degree, but I feel like he was overly protective during the time period where he grew up. Very his parents were very overprotective of him and his sister. So especially in his younger years, I think if they weren't as protective, I think he would have been just fine. But I think it shaped his personality as a whole and why his TV show was his the way it was. Yeah, I think it would how he was raised shaped how how he was as a person is what I get get out. And why I wrote that down was this might play a part later on in the book. It is when I was reading and I wrote this down because he was very sheltered as a child, he never walked to school, he was always driven to school by a chauffeur, he never walked home. He talked about being bullied as a child. He was very open about that. He talked about his white problems as a child, and he was very open and adamant about it. And I'm glad he was very open about it. Because not many people talk about if they struggled with white as a child. Most of the time, people hide their past and don't want to talk about it. I'm glad Fred Rogers was very open about it. Because I think him being open with kids to a degree, I think makes him feel more just like them. I think that's what he wanted in the TV show was he wanted to be seen that he was just like everyone and that he wasn't no different. And I'm glad he taught that. And he kept it until he died, and then it got refurbished and sent to a center that's named after him, which is quite interesting. And that he was also a very humble person. I think that's something we we're like, wait, was he as humble as he is on TV? Yes, he was a very humble person, a very kind person. He is, as you saw on TV, and it's also very interesting of also how dedicated to his Christian faith he was because he was pretty dedicated to the Christian faith as well, even though he really didn't show it on TV. You saw it in his day-to-day life of how he would help people because that's what his parents taught him to be. So Fred Rogers was a very interesting person. I don't want to give all the details away. I learned quite a bit about Fred Rogers that I didn't know, and I highly recommend you read this book called The Good Neighbor, The Life of Fred Rogers. Am I correct? This, yeah, The Good Neighbor, The Life and Work of Fred Rogers. Highly recommend to read it. It's one of those memoirs that will really surprise you. I hadn't read a good memoir in a hot minute. This is the first one of the year for me. The last memoir I read was about Beyoncé's mom. And the memoirs I tend to pick are on people who have done great things for society or affected society in a great such manner. And Fred Rogers is one of those that had a great big impact. And I will be back with my next read. I am done reading singleton books for the current moment, and I have officially started one of my series on my Kindle, and I can't wait to come back with you to talk about it. I have officially read my second book of the month, and I feel like I'm ready to talk about it. And yes, I have officially started another series, it's not as long as good old Bridgerton was. I felt like that series took forever to read. That took me a good couple months, and this series, I hopefully will take me a good month and a half, and that is including the main series plus two novellas. Is that what you call them? Yeah, novellas. I originally thought there were three novellas. I relooked, it's only two novellas, and three three of the main books, and I made a plan of how I'm going to read this series. I first thought I was gonna read like one main book and then the first novella, then the second book, and then the third book, and then the last novella. And then I changed my mind after finishing the first book that I was just gonna finish the whole series and then the novellas. I hope this is making sense. When y'all are wondering, uh people who have read this series of why I'm doing it the way I am, that's just how I am. And this series I have officially started after taking a good couple months break from reading a series is the Powerless series. Yes, I am officially reading the Powerless series. I have finished the first book, I'm 60 pages into the second book, which I'll talk about the second book once I get it read. I think the second book is gonna go a lot faster than the first book, and I felt that it took me forever to get into Powerless compared to Reckless, which will be the second book in the series. Some people may disagree with me, but y'all asked me to share my real thoughts without spoiling the book. What are my thoughts on the book without ruining the book? It's a really good story to lead into other books. It leaves you going, what during several moments during the story of who do you root for in this story? There's a lot of things that go on, you get introduced to a lot of different characters, and will we be seeing these characters again? It's like they try to combine two different series into one book. And what do I think of the layout of the book? It is very interesting because it goes between two different perspectives, it goes between Payden and Kai. So you have someone who is doesn't have powers and then is from a lower class, and then you have someone who does have powers and is a part of royalty, and seeing their different perspectives of how they live their lives and how they get thrown into this purging, which is kind of like the Hunger Games in my eyes, but we'll talk about that in a second. It's just very, very interesting, very, very interesting. This is hard because of how long it took me to read it, because I am one of those of I read and listen to the audiobook at the same time, so it was kind of very interesting. I don't know, I really don't know who I'd pick. I do know who I am going to pick for Reckless, but I can't tell you yet. You'll just have to wait and see who I pick. I would honestly, if I had to pick a character, honestly, I love picking the characters that are not like very present in the story, which I find very interesting about me, is I pick the characters that don't get touched on really. I would have to pick Kai's little brother Jax and Kai's cousin, who is actually named Andy. I just love their personalities and their and how they handle all these big events and all this, because they're kind of no names throughout the whole story. They're just a part of the elites and get thrown into the games. And yes, I'm not picking the future king kid, even though I like him. I'm of course gonna pick Jax and Andy, is who I am going to be picking for that. And why does this story give Hunger Games vibes? I thought this several times throughout the whole first book, is it gave big Hunger Games vibes from how there were certain things that happened in the story that totally reminded me, but it was also different than Hunger Games because it was trials and it wasn't like everybody was killing each other, like in the Hunger Games. That's a spoiler. Y'all need to go read the Hunger Games to understand what I'm talking about. Uh, that is one of those series I'm gonna recommend to you if you have not read Hunger Games, go read Hunger Games, especially since a new movie's coming out for that. But I'm not gonna sidetrack. There's just certain points throughout the story. It gave Hunger Games vibes, even though it was way, way different than the Hunger Games because they did trials. It's like they'd have one trial and then they break for a week and a half, then have a ball, and then go do another trial. So it was like kind of broken up compared to the Hunger Games. Was it worth a read? Yes, I know this is made for YA, but I feel like everybody could read this book. Sometimes I felt it kind of gave more of an adult-ish vibe than a young adult vibe with some of the language that is spoken in this book, um, because of how certain situations happen. And I don't know why some of these YA books are slowly being kind of like talked about in the book book talk world of YouTube and social media. Uh people are bringing up the fact of should this be considered YA or is it more adult? And this is a good point that's being brought up, and I feel like powerless is one of those that should be brought up to a degree because of how certain situations are handled, is making you question the fact of is it more adult, or is it kind of like in that middle spot of some scenes are considered YA while other scenes are considered young adult? We will never know, and that is just something that has crossed my mind since reading this, started reading this series and watching YouTube videos when people are talking about these young adult books, and this is considered a young adult book. And was it worth reading? If you like fantasy fantasy or trying to get into fantasy, it is very much a good read because some of the chapters are shorter than others, they're not long, lengthy chapters as other fantasy series. It's one of those easy to get into fantasy series. I would highly recommend as someone who is also trying to get into the fantasy world herself and trying to break into new genres as well, and not being stuck in biographies and historical fiction or books about history. I'm trying to expand my palette as well. Because there's so much history you can read, and you need new genres so you don't get burned out. And how did he um and how did Payton find out about the resistance? Oh, this was another, this is one of those good parts of the book. I really enjoyed reading, even when there was a lot of dullish moments in between trials. This was like during one of the in-between sessions that really grabbed my attention in the book, and I feel that everybody will grab it because of the fact of Peyton didn't know much about what her father did, other than he was a healer, and then he just gets randomly killed. That you slowly find out throughout the whole first book of her father gets mysteriously murdered, and she doesn't understand why he gets murdered, and then by the end of the story, you really find out because for the longest time, as you're reading the book, she will say the king murdered her father, and that the resistance has been waiting for her. They also thought she was dead. Spoil spoiler alert. How they found out she was alive is when she got when she saved the prince, which is Kai, and loot, from a silencer who was also a part of the resistance, which is mind-boggling, and that they need her help, and that she had also been putting with a guard who is also a part of the resistance. Well, the guards are called Imperials, but to speak more common language, I'm gonna call him a guard. And him and her work side by side halfway through the book till what happens and how the first book ends. And she learns a lot about how her father was involved in the early years of the resistance and how they need her help, and that the resistance has taken over her childhood home. There's just a what that goes on, and I don't want to spoil because I hate when I spoil books, and people were like, Why did there's so much you can say, and I've said this over and over again. And was the ending of the book good? Well, some questions definitely get answered at the end of the book, which leads to what is gonna happen in Reckless, which I am reading about, and boy, it is juicy, and I can't wait to talk about it. And that powerless ended on a good cliff note, and I was like, oh my gosh, and Malachi or I almost said Kai's full name. Whoops, he is Malachi, but he goes by Kai. And when Payton confronts the king, this is a big part I'm gonna tell you about because you'll be like mind-boggling, going, what I didn't expect this to happen, which is Kai's father, who is the king, is fighting Payton in at close to the end of the book in the last couple chapters. They're in a fighting duel in the bowl during the last trial, and you are finding out that the king won't own up to the fact of he killed Peyton's father. He keeps throwing it on Kai because Kai is training to be the enforcer, and he keeps saying, Well, Kai killed your father, he says to Peyton when he's kind of playing with Peyton's mind and telling her that she really didn't see what she saw, and that it was a part of Kai's training, is he had to kill Peyton's father, which it makes you question of so who really did kill Peyton's father? Was it the king or was it Kai? And that he's playing with her, and he tries to kill her because he has never liked her from the get-go when she got into the games. He had been trying to kill her since the first trial. That was his goal. Was he wanted to try to get her killed, but she lives through all three trials. She watches her good friend die. She sees a lot, and and then the king brands her before she gets killed. And the book ends with Kit becoming king, and Kai becomes his enforcer, and he's and Kit's telling Kai to go find Peyton, is how the book ends. And uh it was a shocker of how the book ends, and they both love her, which is so funny. She had both these princes wrapped around her finger to be later considered a killer when really she was like ending an evil king's reign so the country could heal, but she's now considered a villain on the last page, a powerless, which is very mind-boggling. Even though there was dull moments, there were some good moments in this book. You find out a lot of information about I think the three main characters, which is gonna be Payden, Kai, and Kit. If I'm understanding how the story went, and it was a good story, and I highly recommend you read this series. And I feel like the second book is gonna be better than the first book in this trilogy, and we're just gonna have to wait and see what happens. A lot happened close to the end of that story. A lot of things happen. I don't I'm not gonna tell you everything, but the king is dead at the end of the book. Payden kind of got confused about who really killed her father. Was it the king or Kai? My feelings are with what she had always said since the beginning of the book, it was the king. She's been branded by the king, she still has this mark, and now she has to go into hiding, going into the second book, which is Reckless, which I will be back with a report on that once I finish this book. And I am back after finishing the second book of the Red of the Powerless series. I almost called it what the second book is. It's called the Powerless Series. I sadly did not finish the main three books this month. July was a very busy month. I had a lot of dud days, uh I would say, in reading. So I think that is why I didn't even get to finishing the series. I did start the third book at the the last day of July. My the last week of July was pretty crazy. Can't go into details about that, but life was busy the last week of July. It took me quite a bit of time to finish Reckless. I thought I would read it pretty fast, but when you start a book while going on vacation, sometimes you lose more time than you realize to read. So that is the issue I dealt with is I lost time due to reading and going into duds. But I do have my thoughts on Reckless, which is the second book of the Powerless series. I am halfway through the third book of the Powerless series. I will be talking about it in August, by the way. So can't wait for y'all to hear that episode, by the way. So excited. So so excited. What are my thoughts on the conversation between Kai and Gail? It's been a couple days since I finished. I finished it on a Friday. I'm talking about it on a Monday since starting the third book. Why I wrote this down was it was a very eye-opening conversation at the beginning of the book that I'm remembering correctly, because it almost feels like the book just keeps on rolling from what happened in the arena to what has happened since the funeral of the dead king. I forgot what it was about. I think it was they were talking about the future of what's gonna happen with Ilia, to being worried about Kit, to Gail worrying about Kai as well, and that Gail is worried about both brother brothers, because she has always been a motherly figure to both guys. You learn that as you read in the first book from Kai's perspective to Peyton being introduced to Gail, you learn that Gail plays a very big part in both princes' lives, and that the queen wasn't much of a motherly figure to Kai. It's very interesting. Kai's own parents weren't very nurturing, and you really kind of get a real glimpse of that. You you think in the first book that Kai's mother is very sweet, kind, caring about her son, when in reality, the fact is that Kai was technically left to fit for himself, and his life wasn't easy as a prince. And Gail was kind of the one who helped him through his emotions and all that, and him and Gail have a conversation of worrying about what the future looks like, and how can Kai be him his best self while also being a help to his brother, and also being worried about the new king, which is Kit. And a lot of things have happened in Reckless. I really I felt like I read Reckless a little bit faster than I did Powerless, and I I was really thinking this multiple multiple times is the fact of I enjoyed Reckless a ton more than Powerless. I felt powerless, had a lot more duddy moments, as I probably have mentioned. Reckless really didn't have any, and that's gonna be the same for the third book as well, because I'm almost 300 pages into fearless, and I feel that it's not gonna be a dud book either. Interesting how the second and third book is way, way better than the first book. Don't get it, but I can't wait to talk about Fearless once I finish it. How does Kai feel about his first mission as an enforcer? Well, he was already an enforcer before the games that they did in the first book. He was technically just barely starting the role as an enforcer, and once the king dies, he becomes fully an enforcer as you learn, and that his first job was to capture Payton, which, if you've read the book, he has a hard pill swallowing, and also the fact of you find out at the end of the book, he told her to go hide. He gave her a X amount of distance before he started searching for her. So he was not really great for this mission that he was put on. In technically, the whole second book is his journey of trying to find her, her running away from him, and trying to survive outside of Ilia as someone without powers, which is very interesting. But he does catch her, and it's just very interesting in that they're on a mission to try to get back to Ilya, even though he kind of feels hesitant of does he turn her in or does he not. You do find that out at the end of the book. He does get her back to Ilya, even though he technically wanted to free her, and right as he was about to free her again. You know what happens if you've read the books. I don't want to spoil it, but stuff happens. So he was not okay with this mission. Him and Kip both had mixed feelings about that mission because they both had feelings for Peyton. Yes, Peyton liked both princes. So she was in the middle of a love triangle with both princes, which is so funny. And every time I am reading the book, I think about this love triangle. It's so hilarious of which one is she gonna end up with? I can't tell you until I fully read three, so you'll be finding out in August. So that will be very exciting, very, very exciting. What happens on the mission? Oh, a lot of things happen. Let's see. She makes it through a sandy desert. He does too. She ends up in one of the different towns, takes up fighting to make a living, and that is how he finds her, takes her back, and then they get captured. It's me giving a rough summary, and then they get captured again, and then they escape a jail and try to run out of town. That is just a whole mess, and I don't want to ruin that because that's a big part of Reckless. They just go through a lot of stuff. She learns a lot about Ilya's history she didn't know about. She also learns some deep dark secrets about her father that she thought was her biological father, which in reality was he is her adoptive father. Okay, through journals she had pulled before the house was set aflame that she grew up in. So a lot of interesting things happened. A lot. And then bam, it hit me going, here's Kit. And I'm like, why do we need Kit's perspective? Did we need Kit's perspective? Was the thaw's eyes wonder it is? Was that necessary? Was that really, really necessary? Is what I was wondering, and I was like, Well, they thought it was necessary, so that's what they chose to do. They added perspective. To Kai trying to find Peyton, and Peyton, how she was handling not being found, to once they got together, hearing both perspectives, once they came near each other, and how close they got, and both their thoughts about becoming close, they were close to actually becoming a real couple and dating, which is mind-boggling. I wish they had, but she got handed a very interesting situation at the end of the book. I will talk about it more when we talk about book three because it goes into more details in book three. Which perspective which perspective is my favorite perspective? Oh, that's so hard. Oh, it's so hard. I would probably say Payden. Even though the uh both both princes' perspectives were good, they brought different aspects to it. I just like Payton because she's very interesting in how she is sharing her thoughts and her mind of what she sees things. It's that is why I like it. Since book one, I have liked Payton's perspective, especially when it goes into why she has her nightmares. That is very interesting. And what are my thoughts on the ending? Well, oh, how do I word this ending without ruining it? It's so hard not to ruin a book, but this ending was a good ending. It left y'all on a cliffhanger. I did not expect a cliffhanger with this book. I was like, okay, we get a cliffhanger. I think that's another reason why I wanted to automatically go into the next book, but it was late at night, and I was like, let's start the next one the following day. But it left a really good cliffhanger at the end of the day, and I was shocked. I'm like, it ends right about when Kit's about to ask Payton a very serious question, and I will go into details on that of why is Payton be being why is Kit pulling out a ring box? And why is and why is Payton not being killed? Because let me tell you, the whole his whole court is completely surprised, and so is Kai of like they thought she was going to her deathbed for what she did when in reality something else happens, and I don't really want to spoil it, but it's very eye-opening because as she's walking to the castle, she's getting really not kind words to her, and some of the Imperials don't treat Peyton right, which makes Kai mad. He's like, be nice to her, and let's just say some of the comments being said were not comments I would have expected to be said, especially from the elite society. They were shocked when Kai brought her back, is what was very surprising. I hope you liked this month's reads. I hope I explained the book good enough and I didn't spoil it enough. I'm recording it a couple days after finishing the book. So I hope you enjoyed it. I thought I was gonna read four books, it was only three, but oh well. We still got another month of summer reading to do. Maybe we'll be able to accomplish it. I don't know, but but I will see you next time. Bye.