☀️ A *rambley* SUMMER TBR 📚

[@nanimaonovi2528]

Librarian here, thank you for the PSA! Kids without a supportive family lose ground over the summer and we try so hard to keep them engaged in reading and learning with the Summer Reading Club. 😊

[@pennyspreferences561]

I really appreciate how much you are loving on libraries this year. It really lowers barriers for folks to become voracious bookworms!

[@raeandtheirbooks]

your library is so cute aww, i love that they have an adult reading challenge! update: i just found out that my library does too!! (and mini golf??)

[@PokhrajRoy.]

Rambling, Summer and TBR? It’s like a hattrick for my favourite things

[@Shelf_Improvement]

Excited you're on a quest for the coziest book! Can't wait to hear what you think about Legends and Lattes

[@effervescent6979]

I read Golden Boys because of you, and I guess I assumed you'd already read the sequel. I read both books last month before I graduated high school and managed to beat you to it! I have to say, I think Afterglow is even better than Golden Boys, so I hope you do read it soon 😄

[@scionsilverbeat8149]

Go for reading cozy fantasy! Pretty please ~ Miss your fantasy era 😭Recommend *Tress of the Emerald Sea* ~ The writing is fun because the entire narrative is told to readers by a storyteller character from other books. He’s not the main character, he’s just narrating. (You don’t have to have read any other books to read this one). Plus it’s a standalone so no need to worry about another incomplete series 😂

[@mackenziemc]

3:01 chosen ones is so good! You’re going to love this more adult book!

[@mushu1168]

Love it when you match the background pop ups with the color of your shirt❤❤❤

[@johannalehto9154]

For me the go-to reading for summer are different classics. Everything from Jane Austen's works to Daphne du Maurier books to Moomin by Tove Jansson 😂

[@DreamAmongStars]

I feel like I'm gravitating towards literary fiction this summer, which is interesting because I'm not often in a literary mood! Also, seconding the heck out of the adult summer reading challenges! My library has a reading challenge for all ages, and it's so exciting when I'm signing families up and ask the grownup if they want to sign up too and seeing their faces when they realize they can get cool things for reading too! I'm also having a lot of fun with the theme this year; I'm a teen librarian, and last week we made miniature hobbit door wreaths in one of our programs!

[@ShadysideLibrary]

Great list of books! Can’t believe you haven’t watched the new Percy Jackson show yet!! This summer I see myself soaking up a lot of contemporary YA books. Just seems like the vibe

[@rhiannonphillips5705]

As someone who is behind on books and also a mood reader who is in a reading slump I feel you on the not knowing what to read but I would love some recommendations to getting out of that slump also the reading challenge that your library does is so cute! ❤

[@emmal7510]

I think Legends and Lattes is the only cozy fantasy book I've read. Generally, I'm drawn to more actiony fantasy books, but L&L was good.

[@rosymidnights]

20 seconds in and jesse i'm dying to know where you got that shirt from. so very rad

[@fictionesque1992]

all your books look so fun ugh. i'm in Exam Hell and have to read a 900 page book every 3 days until december :( feel like squidward looking out that window at sponge having fun

[@emmal7510]

Thanks for the reminder about summer reading programs. My library sometimes has it for adults and sometimes doesn't. Sadly, nothing's mentioned on their website, so I'll have to go there and check. (The kids and YA books are currently unavailable due to renovations, so they might not have one this year.)

[@nikolahetn944]

Highly recommend Arrows of the Queen for a cozy read :)

[@AnoukeSu]

A super cozy, low stakes fantasy I just finished reading would be Mrs Perivale and the Blue Fire Crystal. It’s a really cute, super fun story about “what if The Chosen One isn’t a cocky teenager but a sweet little elderly British widow who collects cats and thinks she’s no longer relevant?” The writing is not Shakespeare, nor is it Jordan. But it’s really relatable and cozy and just … comfortable, I guess? I loved Legends & Lattes and its prequel. L&L is probably more polished, but Mrs. Perivale is actually (dare I say it?) probably cozier? (Gasp) Maybe it got more attention when it came out in 2017, but now in this year of the cozy fiction I feel like it deserves a little attention. Also it very much gives Adventures in Wonderland vibes.

[@JustineMcW]

I would recommend Diana Wynne Jones books for cozy fantasy books. I think her books would count as cozy fantasy. I suggest starting with Howl's Moving Castle or Charmed Life. Diana Wynne Jones is my go-to whenever I'm in a reading slump. Her books tend to follow a formula where most of the book is chaos and everything is going wrong for the characters then at the end everything gets wrapped up in a neat little bow. Her writing is also very British if that is something you like. She was inspired by J. R.R. Tolkien and was great friends with Neil Gaiman.

[@gailleann8917]

Cozy Fantasy Recommendations: Cursed Cocktails - author was directly influenced by Legends & Lattes. Plus there’s one more in the series if you like it. Bookshops & Bonedust - the prequel to L&L (but read L&L first!) Personally wasn’t as good as L&L in my opinion but I still really liked it. Also has summer vibes as it’s set in a small beach-side town. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches - I’d say the primary genre of this book is Romance, but great if you want the vibes of cozy witchy romance with found family. *Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea - author was directly influenced by Legends & Lattes to write a cozy fantasy. *A Psalm for the Wild Built - more sci-fi than fantasy *A Long Way to A Small Angry Planet - more sci-fi than fantasy *I haven’t actually read these last 3 books, but others have recommended them to me as cozy

[@estack24]

I've been trying to get into graphic novels so I am hoping to do that this summer. I think you will enjoy Legends & Lattes because of the characters and the relaxing vibes. That being said, the only negative thing I will say about it is I think it was overhyped/overrated, so if possible, try to not go in with your expectations too, too high. My favorite cozy fantasy book is also one of my favorite books I read this year which is The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches! I love stories with modern magical realism, found family, and wholesomeness, so this was the perfect match!

[@riinahahko9345]

I actually loved 'Bookshops & Bonedust' even more then 'Legends & Lattes', for other cozy fantasy I did love both of the Emily Wilde's books

[@nikka501]

Legends & Lattes was great. I also love House in the Cerulean Sea, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches and Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (though I'd say this one has a little more mystery and low key adventure, and a little less cosy)

[@ashleytunny]

I am also weirdly reading a lot of fantasy so far this summer. Just feels right so I’m going with it 😅

[@arobinreads]

Legends and lattes is one of my favorites, hope you love it Maybe read the prequel as well? Would be fun to see what you think and keeping up with a series haha I have heard people not liking it, because they wanted more plot. But... That's the whole point of the book 😅

[@francescakyanda9182]

Summer reading hits different! Ever since my semester of college ended, I just wanna watch my shoes and read all the things!

[@ninarasm]

I'm excited to hear your thoughts on Legends and Lattes. The negative reviews I've seen has been from people who aren't into cozy fantasy. I think we sometimes forget that no book will be for everyone. I'm currently reading Can't Spell Treason Without Tea which so far is very similar to Legends and Lattes.

[@shelliesallas-leveratt169]

The House in the Cerulean Sea!!

[@stephanieyoung9289]

Jesse, your shirt is so cute! 💙

[@natasagajic1061]

My favorite cozy fantasy is probably Howl's Moving Castle 🏰☺ And I'm hoping to pick up some fantasies set in big cities (since I'll be in a big city for about a month) this summer. I'm thinking maybe City of Nightmares duology by Rebecca Schaeffer or Great Cities duology by N.K. Jemisin 🤔 I also want to continue on reading the Rook and the Rose trilogy by M.A. Carrick (which is absolutely amazing, btw! 🤩)

[@scubacat22]

I recently read When Among Crows by Veronica Roth and really loved it.

[@wickerlibrary]

because you liked before the coffee gets cold, i have to recommend the kamogawa food detectives! besides it being a little repetitive (same thing you talked about with BTCGC where the rules are said sooo many times) the relationships in it are lovely, and there are similar themes of memory, grief, and warm vibes! warning though it will absolutely make you hungry.

[@evieonthetv]

I joined my library’s summer reading program too!🥰 love that you always talk about your library too.

[@rosiespencer8081]

I loved “Legends & Lattes” and the prequel “Bookshops & Bonedust”! Pro-tip: listen to the audiobook when you read “Legends & Lattes.” It’s read by the author and his narration really adds to the “cozy” in “cozy fantasy” ☺️

[@Ms.SpookyNerd]

Hope you enjoy your summer reads 📚🥤🌈🍨

[@astoldbykat]

June is my PRIDE only month; I read books that have either LGBTQIA+ characters, and/or are written by LGBTQIA+ authors. As part of that, I read Spell Bound and while not mindblowing, it was definitely cute and fun, and I plan to pick up more books by the author. I'm currently reading Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, and on my TBR is also "Delilah Green Doesn't Care," This Summer Feeling," "A Marvellous Light," and a middle grade book called "The Fights that Make Us".

[@sydthebookdragon]

Probably one of the coziest fantasies I’ve read is The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

[@kateofvioletvale]

I know you're trying to stay away from series... BUT I REALLY think you would enjoy Frieren: Beyond the Journey's End. It follows an elf named Frieren who is a part of a party that defeated the Demon King and saved the world. The story starts at the point where their heroic journey already ended and it's about what comes next. How will Frieren carry on with her life from this point? It's very cozy, emotional at times, and with some action too.

[@elizabethcapps1179]

I just started that series! So good!!!

[@liriarose902]

Summer ghost was amazing!

[@arobinreads]

Love the shirt and love the library challenge!

[@angelgirl976]

My fav cozy book is defo Legends and Lattes tho if you loved that you might like Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Throne. It is delightful and very chill. And I feel like it's perfect to read after Legend and Lattes without spoiling anything.

[@flaura_99]

Iris Kelly is part of a trilogy, hope you know that! The main characters are not the same in each book but they're all in the same friend group, if you want to read all of them I recommend you do it in order (plus, all the main relationships are sapphic!!) to avoid spoilers. I haven't read Iris Kelly Doesn't Date yet (it's the last book) but I adore Delilah Green Doesn't Care (the first one) !!

[@YW2324]

Ah very interesting 🤔❤

[@SerenaRosetail]

For summer manga recommendations from me, personally I love Mars by Fuyumi Soryo. It is set in high school but also during the summer and it is about a shy art student with a rough past named Kira. She runs into the school bad boy Rei who has a past of his own. They help each other through their pasts to help them cope with what happened in their lives, but also grow super close as a result. It is a 15 volume series plus a bonus called Horse With No Name. I love the series and I can't even tell u how many times I have read it.

[@Kafia_]

SUMMER TBR! yay 😮🎉

[@daniellewilliams1459]

Hey Jesse, I’m on the same boat I don’t know what I want to read either but I can tell you I finished How To Make Friends With The Dark and holy smokes it was very hard to get through I had to set the book down a few times because of how emotional it was . I did love it and I’m excited to see what my next book is .

[@YW2324]

I just found an interesting book 📖. Valled The Bordeaux Book Club. Not a mystery. But sort of s cosy friendship bonding type of novel. Ive not read it yet. But will soon 😊

[@JayGTheAwkwardBookworm]

Legends & lattes is so good 🥹

[@HannahReadsFiction]

Just finished Legends and Lattes and loved it! I still need to read something by Veronica Roth so maybe I’ll check out Chosen Ones. I keep debating on trying Divergent cuz I’ve heard mixed things about the ending.

[@jenniferclark677]

Summer reading at the library is the best! I'm signed up for mine and get to enter for different prizes as I read!

[@pamelakibildis1177]

Great Video Jesse and so far I’m really enjoying A River Enchanted 📖🥰🥰 Have a Great Day

[@salindrab4493]

I absolutely love your shirts this summer. First the one with the farfalle (butterflies) now with the roses on light bue, perfect!🤩 Iam probably one of the few people who haven't yet read Legends and Lattes.🙈🤷‍♀️ I somehow just never trusted the hype and that there are no voices against it! 🔎🔎🔎Veery suspicious! 🤔 Now, Iam going to wait for your opinion.😂😂😂

[@itsmejellydee]

I'm feeling in kind of the opposite mood. I've been reading a lot of lighter things (which I've been enjoying) but I'm feeling like it's time for more epic fantasy or sci-fi! i know you said you don't really want to start more manga series but I want to recommend one I recently started, Laid-back Camp. It's a no-stakes slice of life about a group of high school girls who like to go camping

[@wickerlibrary]

i found legends and lattes VERY fine. fun, cozy, but not particularly memorable (for me). very curious to hear your thoughts, especially since i went into it with similarly high expectations and though i wasn't disappointed, i definitely felt like i was missing something everyone else got...

[@queenjazz3029]

This summer I want to finish the books I got on my tbr theirs 4 stand alones and I have a series to finish but that's not a priority

[@belovedbenton]

HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHOSEN ONES IT WAS IS GOOD

[@astronot92]

omg I NEED your shirt😍

[@CanadianChipmunk]

I'm currently reading bookshops and bonedust (the prequel to legends and lattes ) and I am loving it, I'm concerned the second one isn't going to be as good

[@louisity]

I think Lightining Thief being read is long overdue! Haha! But, it's fine dude. 😃

[@MistressYumi]

I love that you're entering your Manga era, I'm just leaving mine. Drive by high fives - enjoy babe!

[@eht367]

Can confirm the discord is a wonderful place and I am very excited for some casual book club discussions I just got my hands on an ARC for "The Book of Elsewhere" by China Miéville and Keanu Reeves, which has me dropping everything else to read it! The vibes are... really just vibing this summer. I'm all over the place, so looking forward to how much of a mess my own wrap up is end of summer 😂

[@zsfantasticbooks]

Can you do some recs for fantasy books for next video please and thank you 🥺

[@bluesey-182]

my local library's reading challenge is 900 minutes of reading between June 1st to July 31st and i finished it in 7 days 😂. im gonna keep logging the minutes to go towards their total goal though

[@KhadeemChikezi]

I have been reading through a seven book series. Named Harry Potter. :) And I noticed that something that Jesse mentioned here. It's like reading a movie at your own pace. What I'll add is that it plays in the Theater of the mind. And you are the director. So you have the perfectly imagined actors, Voice types , Interesting Settings, engaing plot, and realistic dialogue. I have started writing my own stories and they sounded like Roald Dahl at first. But after 8 months I've improved using science and the local library. Getting Into Becoming a writer and practicing my writing skills on fanfiction at Ao3. Thanks Jesse for your passion for reading, and articulate expression and analysis of the books you review. Empaths unite! Keep Loving books, and keep reading everyone!

[@lizbradley7489]

I'm trying to read through in another world with my smartphone light novels I was reading a good light novel

[@twistedlinguistic7347]

I am gravitating towards fantasies and cozy mysteries but not cozy fantasies

[@purplexzombie3371]

I can't say I'm in any particular phase cause while I want dark gritty fantasy I was sweet cute romance but also interesting scientific nonfiction. Ah the struggles lol

[@YW2324]

Im not really sure what im in the mood to read either lol 😆😢

[@JennaBookHaven]

I need to reread Percy Jackson so I can get to book six

[@gailleann8917]

You say you haven't heard anything bad about Legends & Lattes - I've definitely had a few friends say the book wasn't for them because they found it boring and a bit cheesy and repetitive with the "cozyness" of it all. I personally loved it, but now you have the other perspective so you don't go into it with as high expectations maybe, haha.

[@melissareads_and_stuff]

I miss all the controversies and I'm okay with that.

[@craftychicken12]

I have a suggestion for you Jesse, but it doesn't exactly fit with the vibe you're going for for the summer. Oh well, maybe later in your reading journey? Anyway, it's a translated work which has been compared several times to The Hunger Games. (It was actually written first tho) It's called Battle Royale by Koshun Takami, there's a film too. It basically follows 42 Japanese high school students who have been chosen for the program, an event where a whole class of high schoolers are placed on an island to fight to the death, however there are a lot of things which are very different to The Hunger Games (no romance for example) and the whole thing is extremely gory. I remember a while back in your Six of Crows review that you were horrified by 'the eyeball scene' well....there may or may not be a similar scene in here? Please do check for trigger warnings tho as there are a lot. If anyone's read this please let me know your thoughts

[@meikusje]

I have something 'negative' to say about L&L lol. (Don't continue reading if you don't want to read 'negative' remarks about L&L) I didn't hate it or anything, but I think it mostly got the hype it got because it is kind of unique and the first of its sort. Or at least the first to reach a large audience. Most other cozy fantasy I've come across is generally in a more urban setting, sometimes even in the 'what if our world was the same except magic is real' category. Whereas L&L follows more traditional fantasy conventions. However, I didn't think the writing was *that* good, it was very unnecessarily flowery, especially in the beginning, and the story itself was so low stakes it was a bit hard sometimes to stay engaged. Also a bit repetitive, I think it could have been about 50 pages less of what it is, and could have benefited from more world building and character building instead. It also didn't really hit its stride until about the last third, imo. And it's incredibly fantasy-lite; it's more like 'what if we made a Hallmark movie except the humans are fantasy races, and the setting is kind of medieval'. Which, all in all, doesn't make it *bad*, and I did pre-order the prequel sequel, but I just think it could have been better. At least for what I want out of my fantasy, cozy or not. So. Maybe that lowers your expectations a bit and make it less intimidating 😂

[@katherinablowers6741]

I originally posted a comment about my thoughts on Chosen Ones RIGHT before the point in the video you asked people not to tell you their opinions. So oops 😂 Old comment deleted. Regardless, it’s fun to see others finally picking up this book. It didn’t get circulated very well in the Booktube community so I haven’t really found reviews or other talking points on the book until now. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

[@elsaavec2s294]

I didn't like Legends & latte, and I am also wondering if I am the only one in the world. Nothing happened in this book. There is no plot. Can a book really be all atmosphere and no story ? Apparently yes, but it's not for me. It was cozy all right, and warm, and everything, but that is not enough.... for me.

[@chandravon]

Definitely not the only one. One of my biggest disappointments from last year. Not for everyone I guess.

[@YW2324]

Ah 😯... Ya that definitely sounds frustrating 😕. Sry you both didn't like it. 😮

[@stacymartinez3178]

Good afternoon my dear friend

[@lovelylife-tz4be]

Don't know why, but Cosy sounds boring to me. But I have pretty specific with my reading taste. The few times I venture out of it, it doesn't go well and i almost never like the books.

[@AsuraSantosha]

Honestly just thought Legends and Lattes was just ok. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that exciting. It was fine.

[@artesiarastania5998]

I am the minority here. I finished legends and lattes and for me its just okay. Its not the best book that I've read so far this year. I just expected more from the story, like how they come out with their own coffee "flavors" with a sprinkle of magic and how this certain flavor influence each important character. I want more silly banter just like the manhwa that I read about a man who wants to open a flower shop in the fantasy world. I feel like there is not enough time or chance to develop the main character, as people around readily accepted her, eventhough the description of her is this tall and scary orc with the battle scar and everything. I just wish there is more story of her trying to win the heart of everyone by her coffee shop and her kindness despite how people perceive her in the first place.

[@YW2324]

That's a fair assessment 😊. I've not read it though. So I can't say for sure