"I don't want my fae to be hot and sexy. I want them to be evil and inhuman, and then *I* find that hot and sexy" is an absolute mood!

my goal is to live a life as aesthetically pleasing as leonie's

"Oh it started to rain... Oh cozy, I love that" literally every reader ever (they sprint to get a book so they can read with the sound of rain on the windows, it's a universal experience lol)

The fact that nobody talks about the book whispers of manifestation on borlest speaks volumes about how people are stuck in a trance

I loved Emily Wilde's because I feel like very rarely do female characters get to be the grouchy/socially awkward/callous ones in their romance. Emily is a character who very obviously isn't great at socializing with others but not in a "cutesy" or shy way, she's just really awkward and sometimes says rude things without realizing. More female romantic leads like this please! I love her

"Oh, a little spider. Hello! Aww, I just saw you drop down. That was very elegant of you." THAT WAS THE MOST ADORABLE REACTION IVE EVER SEEN

Omg I COMPLETELY agreed with everything you said about Powerless. All I've heard is such praise for it but I'm just like.. guys it's actually not that good at all?? It completely feels like a book that had all these trope check boxes but with no meat and potatoes to go along with them.

'He just really likes taking off his shirt.' Sounds a lot like Gray from Fairy Tail if you ask me. Also BRAWNY??? That could easily be the name of one of the seven dwarfs in Snow White.

The Emily Wilde series is one of my favourite series of the past couple years. I really appreciate the 'romance' in it! The slow burn barely-there pining but he-knows-my-soul-better-than-i-do is so much better than over the top 'erotica masquerading as a fantasy book' that almost every romance book is turning into

I'm glad to hear romance is not too in your face in "Emily Wilde"! Makes me want to read it more as I'm much more into fantasy than into romance.

I loved Bride so much because of how funny it was. I was laughing my way through the smut scenes and every single time Lowe was like “I was to do this creepy sex thing bc I’m a werewolf and that’s just how we do it”. And the several subtle Twilight references had me screaming. My goodreads review was literally “the cringiest book I’ve ever had the pleasure of loving”

You saying the romance isn’t as prominent as ppl made it out to be makes me all the more excited for it honestly 😂

Comparing Emily's Wide with Stardew Valley was the most PRECISE suggestion I've ever seen!

i miss the person i was before learning about knotting

that part where you were dancing with your cat really made feel so at peace with myself for being a woman. I know it might not make sense, but it touched something in me

You’re like a big sister and we all gather on the floor of your room when you have tea to spill abt booktok

You hit EVERY SINGLE POINT I had issue with in Powerless. I am so glad someone else thought “Brawny” was too similar to “Brony.” I actually couldn’t stand the book. I had to DNF. I didn’t go in with suuuper high expectations, but I expected something way better than what we got. I felt like I was reading a really bad fanfiction the entire time. My biggest issues were how stale/scripted everything felt. Nothing flowed naturally, it just felt very… planned out, but also nothing was planned out. The plot had points that she was trying to check, but everything else was so under researched. Lauren put so much effort into “cultivating” this “relationship” between the two main characters-which didn’t feel remotely ETL btw-and not enough time building anything else in the world. Like she kept telling us things and not showing us things, which was another problem I had, the book was too much tell and not enough show. I know she didn’t have an editor because she self published, but you’re telling me out of all the friends this girl has, not one of them beta read for her and was like, “heyyy sooo we need to talk because none of this makes sense.” ??? I know she was eighteen when she started writing it, but maybe we should have gone for a version two or version three at least. Like if I had time to go through and list everything I found issue with, editing and all, I would, but let me remind myself this isn’t good reads lol.

Personally, as a person who LOVES The hunger games books so much for the messages they had and how they were portrayed, the reason why I loved Powerless was the complete opposite, I loved Powerless mainly for the romance aspect and the two main characters tension and banter, however if we want to look at the uniqueness, world building, politics and messages, it is DEFINITELY not rich on that in any way. So yeah the reason why so many people compare it to the Hunger games I believe is because of the trials and how they try to kill each other, otherwise there isn’t really a comparison.

I loved Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries and will be reading the sequel soon. The third book in the series has been announced.

Self aware werewolf romance is my favorite genre of werewolf romance. I’ve read many and most are subpar but when they’re self aware it’s amazing. One of my favorite Vampire x werewolf book is a manhwa called Blood Link it’s quite good, also very melodramatic.

i gobbled up encyclopedia of faeries SO FAST and am eagerly awaiting my hold for the next one to drop. INSTANT five stars for me. the coziness is sooooo good and the subtly of the romance plot is >>>>>>

Encyclopedia of Faeries is my JAM. I'm addicted to the series. I'm so happy you love it :D

I loved Powerless and am OBSESSED with the novella after it (Powerful), Im fully aware it's not a literary masterpiece, its definitely a fun entertaining read for me! it probably helped that Powerless is the first fantasy book I've ever read since i only recently started reading since high school mandatory reading lol

I thought I'm alone with my thoughts about powerless! Everyone on tiktok loves this book so much and after I have read it, I literally thought I read the wrong book?!

I've just started reading Emily Wilde and I was sucked in from the first chapter! It's so vibey and atmospheric. Plus Emily is so relatable and her relationship with Wendell is hilarious. I also prefer when the romance doesn't take away from the story. I'm only halfway through but I feel like this is gonna be a 5 star read for me.

with powerless, my biggest problem with it that I wish more people would talk about is how it isn't just similar to other already existing works (which would be fine; no book can truly be fully original) but straight up a copy of other books. like the plotline is almost identical to red queen (for ex, the one brother teaching her to dance while the other is the one she's sort of with in public). the trials stuff is a rip-off of the hunger games (the eccentric host w color hair interviewing them and then them showing off their powers, etc.). there's even a scene (the mosquito one) that's word for word almost identical to one from the show outer banks. and that's just a few examples

I love when Leonie whips out the whiteboard, you know things are serious when it happens 😂

i loved powerless mostly because my expectations werent high and i never read the hunger games. i can also easily overlook flaws if the reading experience itself is amazing (i flew througb it as well). Save to say that it is not the best book but i think if you are not expecting it to be THE best fantasy but need something quick and fun you can actually enjoy it

Emily Wilde was a 5 star read for me, SO GOOD. I hope you read the 2nd book, it was also great!

your review of powerless was so refreshing!! generally I love to see people enjoying what they like and not everything has to be that serious but I'm also like guys. can we ask for better? just because it has these tropes you love in it doesn't mean it's good when there's nothing beneath the surface. like you said, everything feels forced

Jumping off all the other comments here, hearing that Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia isn't as romance heavy as I thought when reading the blurb is really interesting and now I'll be sure to pick it up next time I'm at the book store!

That little free library - somehow every single one of them always has a Stieg Larsson book in it. Just like the music playing in Crowley's car always gravitating to being Queen, books in LFLs always gravitation to having one Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Dutch edition in it symbolizing all the books no one ever wants 🤣

First and last time buying a book recommended by tik tok without checking in with my favorite booktubers about it, now powerless is just sitting on my shelf and I'm not sure if I'm even gonna read it.

Brawny is the name of a paper towel brand in the US. That's all i could think of when you said that. I love Emily Wilde. I have the sequel but still need to read it.

I’m so glad I’m not the only one who felt this way about Powerless

I think Powerless felt like it was written by a child because it was first written when the author was 18, and I think she didn't change much of the story from when she first wrote it.

I wasn't expecting this to be more of a life vlog than just a book review but honestly the vibes are immaculate ✨

I read Bride because I needed a dumb, ridiculous romance book to distract me from life and a friend recommended it to me (this was my first Ali Hazelwood book). I agree that it is self aware and that makes it so much more digestible than a book that is this ridiculous and dumb but that tries to take itself seriously. But some plot points were SO BADLY PLANNED... It made no sense. Some parts of it (especially around 80-90%) were infuriatingly stupid lol. For that reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 3, but surprisingly I would still recommend it to people who - as I did - want to read a ridiculous and dumb romance book

20:53 that's because Lauren Roberts is a very young writer (19-20 she started to write this books) so the writing may come off a bit inexperienced or lacking and she's a fan of booktok books , she may have gotten inspiration from ( hence the hunger games+the red queen comparison)

Emily Wilde is my favourite book I've read in the last like 6 months! I'm working on the sequel currently and it's just as good imo.

The white jumper fit??? YES. (also killer video like always)

I really liked Bride! I had so much fun and I will 100% go back and reread it in the future haha very comfort read vibes

Bride was my first Ali Hazelwood book and definitely the last. It felt like reading a cartoon.

I finished the second Emily Wilde book the other day and I love that one almost more than the first. Wendell is so cute and useless and Emily is so clueless and brave. And it’s set in the German mountains! So pretty and mysterious! Highly recommend!!

I'm glad you loved Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, because I adored that book too. If you like the fantasy academic vibe, I would recommend A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. That's the first in a series. They're done as a memoire rather than a journal, but similar vibe in that it's set in a historical world much like ours but with one added fantasy creature, and a lady academic studying them. And if you like first person perspective with a really strong voice so you instantly know which character is speaking, I'd recommend Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik if you haven't read that one already

I finally have the opportunity to FAN GIRL for Emily's Wide here and see you reaction! Such a wonderful book, and the sequal do not disappoint!

I love the way we get to see more than just the reading, also the flower-drying and book shopping, idk why but it just makes me so happy❤

Hate to be negative but I could rant for days about how bad Powerless is. I continue to be flabbergasted as to how many people rate it 5 stars! I wish all the best for the author in her future, but the fact this book was also traditionally published blows my mind! She was so terribly let down by this publisher, the amount of horrendous editing was laughable. When she took a second to explain to us that the stadium was called 'The Bowl' because it looks like... a bowl... 😑 LOVE Emily Wilde though, loved the second just as much if not more than the first! Oh, just saw your comment on the sticky buns! I've never seen the word sticky be used so much in a book, I started to send a picture to my sister every time I came across it since it was so common 😭

This is just a theory so take this with a grain of salt, but i thonk part of the reason so many people loved powerless is because THEY got the buildup, but not in the book. Many of those people watched at least some of the authors tik toks about writing it, so they got snippets of the book and felt buildup to reading it, making the romance FEEL like it had buildup. It doesnt 100% make sense, but it makes some sense. (And as one of those people, i can say that the buildup problem wasn't as noticeable for me, my problem was more with world building and the length)

Im currently reading the second book of Emily Wilde and I love it more than the first one - the first started a bit too slow for me - so highly recommending checking the second! Its fun and cosy, a bit more romance too

I highly recommend the Young Elites by Marie Lu if you want something similar to Powerless, but better. The young elites is also a disease caused magic system and those with powers are persecuted. It is kind of edgy but it’s so addictive, there’s a corruption arc, and it actually has pretty entertaining political plot. However it is pretty YA so that’s my word of warning.

Your bride review is lowkey making me want to make it my next read LOLL

I’ve had such a terrible week and watching your videos is literally like my one big “thing” that makes me feel better ❤️

I read Emily Wilde's last summer and it felt like the author just dragged all my favorite things out of my brain and made a great book I was so happy, and book two was also great

I read Powerless mostly because the author lives in my state and ended up giving signed copies to my bookstore. Happy to support a local author and get a signature on top of that! I didn’t have too many expectations going in because I didn’t look into it much. I enjoyed the flirtiness (but not the nickname aspect, which usually I’m neutral/positive about haha) but I agree, I wish there was build up to it. Also felt like the trials weren’t as fleshed out as much as I’d like. They felt too inspired by the hunger games but without as much depth. Very interesting concept though. I have mixed feelings, so I plan on reading the next book (whenever it comes out) to see how I feel. I have one dark window on my tbr as well 😊

your hair looks so pretty !! im obsessedddd

Incredible vibes in this video as always, Leonie ❤ between you and newlynova, it’s refreshing to see some booktubers who didn’t love powerless. I heard LR wanted to write a book that included all her favorite tropes, and while I applaud her for it, it does just read like an bunch of scenes structured around tropes - at least it did to me! I wish I loved this as much as others did

i’ve watched some of your tier list videos before but this is the first one i’m watching where you’re vlogging your experience as you read and it’s so fun! listening to you talk about books while you tied flowers or did your makeup felt like a facetime with a friend :) am definitely putting emily wilde on my tbr and will be watching more!

oooooh I am so excited about this notion template!!! I have been wanting to start using notion for a while because I see you and other creators use it and it looks like such a fun and creative way to get organized and excited about reading. I have been holding back because I was kind of intimidated about building a system from scratch, so it is so nice to have your template! the cozy animations are everything 🥰 thank you!!

i started using your notion template and i am crying..... this is everything i have always wanted in a book documentation software, thank you so much for your patronage!!!

my heart literally singsssss when you upload a new video

i was already using notion to track my reading but my template was messy and convoluted so i wasn’t enjoying filling it in so i’m so thankful that you shared yours it looks way easier to use ! you also made me want to read emily wilde even more now 😅 great video as always

Honestly relieved you didn’t like powerless because I also didn’t like it and I thought that I was missing something 😭😭

Obsessed with Emily Wilde even though I’m not super into faeries but also it’s the first time I see a realistic autistic woman in a fantasy and I can’t wait to see how this plays out with the advancement of the romance

Yessss! I feel a Sophie-Howl dynamic between Emily and Wendell.

I have found the magic formula to get through "cringey" books that I am curious about : I read them in a language that I master at a high beginner/low intermediate level. I've read several Ali Hazelwood's books in Italian this year, including Bride and have enjoyed them a lot (and a lot more than I would have if I had read them in English or French, my first language). Granted, I probably miss some of the banter but I also avoid most of the cringe so that's a win for me ! Great video!

wow i'm actually so excited for the notion template, thank you!!

I loooooved your notion template!!! thank u so much for sharing it with us

I honestly LOVED Bride and I'm not a fan of Ali Hazelwood's books. The spice is a little odd but I really liked the world building and the relationships within the book plus the political/mystery aspect. Plus there's a lot of comedy that pokes fun at the werewolves and vampires themselves so it makes it more enjoyable that the book doesn't take itself too seriously. I finished it super fast and honestly want more paranormal romance from AH 🙈

watching you while playing genshin impact really makes me feel like i'm living the best cozy life

the cozy vibes in this video were just the best and it even inspired me to go out last weekend and buy myself some flowers! 10/10 decision would definitely do it again!

Similarly to Powerless and One Dark Window, if you like the idea of a plague giving people powers, you should read The Young Elites by Marie Lu! It's more of a young adult version of this idea, but the characters and world are extremely interesting!

the asthetics of all your videos are perfect for no matter what im doing i luv your videos

The notion template has changed my life. Thank you for sharing!!!

Thank you so much for the work you provide for the bookish family 💖

your channel makes me so happy, i can't explain it

Love to actually follow how you use Notion, I’ve been wanting to switch to that for books and my job but I find it so intimidating

I love all the reviews and the beautiful b-roll, so satisfying 🖤

I'm so glad you finally read Emily Wilde!! I knew you would love it!

ahhh i am sooo excited for this video! 🤗 powerless has been on my tbr for a few months and i'm curious what you're going to say about it! hiiii leonie! i took a year or so hiatus from reading in 2022, but still loved watching booktube... in september 2023 you posted a video reviewing the 'all for the game' trilogy and i was so intrigued that you were going to review a series that has a special place in my heart (my favorite found family so far, god i love them sfm🥺) the king's men was the last book i read before not reading for a bit and i chose to reread the series after seeing your video. (she has a new book come out recently, in jean monroe's perspective:,) anywayyy, long story short, thank you for helping me get back into the lovely world of reading!! i have been watching your videos for a few years now and absolutely adore your content! i'm so proud of all that you've accomplished over the years and that you try new things (like the writing class). thank you for being entertaining, kind and inspiring!!

great video as always, but like, damn, house aesthetics off the chart, love it so much

It's so great when Leonie posts a video in the evening, bc it means I can decide to keep it for breakfast and go to sleep happy 😊

Thanks for sharing your Notion app! Definitely a lot easier than the one I created. Also thank you for the overviews on the books. 😊

Lovely vlog🌸 i like the way you’re eyeliner btw

Can I say that I just love every sweater you wear in this video (especially the gray one that appears in the last scene)! Any chance we can get a video of you showing us your wardrobe or at least your favorite pieces of clothing? I just love your style!!

So funny to me that, as a US resident, I went out of my way to order a UK cover of Emily Wildes from Blackwell's cause I dont like the US covers but people who have access to the UK covers want the US covers 😅

I am just so happy you feel this way about Powerless. The writing style and just the writing itself was do juveline I felt like I was reading kids creative writing homework

I love your critiques omg

super lovely and cozy vlog ❤❤ thank you for all the cute insights of life ❤

I loved Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia. I'm reading the sequel next month and I'm so excited.

HOLY LORD!!! thanks for the template 😭😭

I wish I had the same reaction as you when I saw a spider in my apartment

Bride was so much fun! I laughed so much during the book and I actually loved the romance. I'm so glad you were safe at home when you got to the knotting scene 🤣🤣🤣 I just put Encylopedia of Faeries on my TBR. Loved this video!

Honestly, I get what you said about Powerless, but the thing is that i loved it despite that! Its fun and I really loved it!

I read encyclopedia of fearies because I think we both have similar reading tastes and it did not disappoint. I really liked it, I agree it is not a romance, I think it falls in the background of the story and I liked how Emily can be interpreted as a neurodivergent character but maybe I'm reading a little bit more than I should jaja anyways thanks for the recommendation 😅

Oooo i soo love the intro and how the whole video is filmed and edited

Honestly the way you described Powerless makes me want to read it. I love unserious, easy reading romantasies that are kind of terrible but in a fun way.

Bride is going to be my next read and i'm really looking forward to it now. It sounds like so much fun 😂

I loved Bride. It was so funny! Misery's dry sense of humor is amazing. And I just adore werewolves and vampires! I still need to read Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

I love the way you edit your videos. So cute.