October was the reading month we've been WAITING for. Five-star reads, new book boyfriend obsessions, and one book that absolutely did not live up to expectations.

This week, we are recapping our October reads and building out our November TBRs. We're talking Nightshade & Daybreak, Sunrise on the Reaping, Bride & Mate, and yes, a little more ACOTAR 6 disappointment.

Then we're looking ahead to Alchemized, A Forbidden Alchemy, Romance Revival, and the other BookTok favorites we can't wait to get our hands on.

🔔 We’re SO close to 1,000 subscribers on YouTube!! If you love bookish chaos and unfiltered thoughts on BookTok's most popular books, subscribe and help us get there!

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Watch us on Youtube at Book Bits & Chill

📖 CHAPTERS

00:00 Did We Just Have Our Best Reading Month Yet?!

01:09 The Ending of Emma Lion Vol. 6 Left Us SPEECHLESS

03:27 Nightshade & Daybreak: A New Top Book Boyfriend

08:00 Sunrise on the Reaping: What You Need to Know Before

11:43 Bride & Mate: Finding out about THE KNOT

16:33 My Brilliant Friend & The Bluest Eye: Worth the Hype?

19:47 ACOTAR 6: We're Still Not Over It

20:22 November TBR

21:04 Alchemized: Why Is Everyone Warning Us?!

23:43 Cursed City: Should Fantasy Books Be This Confusing?

24:55 Romance Revival: Our Next Paranormal Romance Obsession

26:13 The Washwoman at the River's End: Is BookTok Overhyping It?

27:25 A Forbidden Alchemy: Next Favorite Romantasy

29:13 November Plans: The Bookish Besties Reunite!

#booktok #octoberreading #novembertbr #acotar #bookrecommendations

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Our honest A Court of Splintered Harmony review is here. After five years, ACOTAR 6 is out and we’re answering your biggest question: do you need to read Crescent City (or all of the Maasverse) before the Valkyrie Cycle? We do not agree.

We start spoiler free with our verdict on whether to read it now or wait for A Court of Forgotten Melody in January. Then we go full spoilers (starting around 15:56) on the inner circle falling apart, Azriel and Elain, Team Lucien, Nesta carrying the whole book, and our wildest theories about Koschei, Bryaxis, the Stygian spiders and a possible Throne of Glass crossover.

In this episode:
• How the Valkyrie Cycle format works (and the bonus chapters you can’t skip)
• Crescent City debate: required reading or not?
• Why every man in this book was the worst
• Is Elain the traitor? Is Amren up to something?
• Rapid fire predictions for ACOTAR 7 + our final ratings

Tell us: Team Cassie or Team Emily on the Crescent City debate? DM us @bookbitsclub.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BookBitsAndChill
Next week: our October wrap up and November TBR.

Chapters
0:00 Five years later, ACOTAR 6 is finally here
1:42 The Valkyrie Cycle format explained
3:58 Do you need to read Crescent City first?
8:42 Appetizer or novella? The Frost and Starlight comparison
10:58 Did the character writing deliver?
12:58 Spoiler free verdict: read now or wait for January?
15:56 SPOILERS START: the inner circle is in shambles
20:11 Cassian, what happened?
21:13 Azriel’s POV gave us the ick
24:00 Azriel and Elain (we were NOT ready)
25:26 Team Lucien? That bedroom door scene
29:44 Theory: is Elain the traitor?
32:46 Gwyn, the shadows and the missing Valkyries
34:22 Is Amren being sus?
35:58 Did Nesta worldwalk?
36:56 Koschei, Hybern and Bryaxis’s return
38:04 Stygian spiders and a Throne of Glass crossover
39:03 The new alliances: Nesta and Feyre, Mor and Elain
43:26 Rapid fire predictions for ACOTAR 7
49:09 Our final ratings
51:07 Wrap up + next week

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ACOTAR 6 is almost here, the Fourth Wing casting has officially sent BookTok into a spiral, and the book community has a LOT to talk about.

This week on Book Bits & Chill, we're catching up on all the latest bookish gossip. From Sarah J. Maas's massive ACOTAR 6 marketing campaign and the chaos of leaked book releases to Fourth Wing casting reactions, and the BookTok fandom drama that's getting a little out of hand.

Plus, we're sharing our ACOTAR theories, debating whether fans have become too demanding of their favorite authors, and giving you the full story behind our campaign to cast Idris Elba as Tairn. Yes, he actually commented on our Instagram.

Consider this your invitation into the bookish group chat. Bring your opinions, your theories, and maybe a little gossip.

Subscribe for new episodes of Book Bits & Chill every Sunday!

#ACOTAR #FourthWing #BookTok #SarahJMaas #BookPodcast

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Imagine losing your son in one of the busiest train stations in the world, then searching for him for five years. That’s the opening of Little Wonder, the Oprah’s Book Club pick from Sophie Chen Keller, and we got to talk to her about all of it.

Sophie tells us the story of getting the call from Jenna Bush Hager and Oprah while bouncing a sick baby on a yoga ball, and how her Love Island binge as a new mom brought her back to the piano. We get into Song and River’s story: a single mother, her piano prodigy son, the stage fright, the synesthesia, and the found family that keeps the book from breaking your heart completely. Plus, Sophie shadowed a Beijing food delivery worker for her research, and she explains the candied sweet potatoes we can’t stop thinking about.

If you loved Demon Copperhead or All the Light We Cannot See, Sophie says this one’s for you. Grab your blanket, put on Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1, and come hang out.

(00:00) Lost in Beijing
(04:20) The Oprah call
(11:39) Love Island and classical
(22:37) Candied sweet potatoes
(24:15) Shadowing a delivery worker
(30:11) Debussy and book recs

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September did NOT go according to plan...Emily got taken out by a book hangover, Cassie let Libby completely take over her reading life, and somehow we still finished 15 books between us.

We’re catching up on everything we read in September, the 5 stars, the surprises, the books we kept putting off for absolutely no reason, and then attempting to build our October TBRs.

And apparently October means dark academia, romantasy, werewolves, 1,000-page books and immediately abandoning the TBR we JUST made.

Books mentioned:
- The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion
- Knave and the Moon
- Threshing Day
- The Love Hypothesis
- Road to Tender Hearts
- Die for Me
- Broken Country
- The Briar Club
- The Summer Storms
- Little Wonder
- Nightshade
- Daybreak
- Cursed City
- Ninth House
- Bride
- Mate
- Alchemized
- East of Eden
- Sunrise on the Reaping
- A Forbidden Alchemy
- A Forsaken Prophecy
- The Wolf King

Tell us your best September read + what you’re dying to read in October!

New episodes of Book Bits & Chill every week.

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Should you read Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros now or wait for book 4? Spoiler free verdict first, then full spoilers.

Threshing Day isn't book 4. It's a collection of 13 threshing stories from your favorite Empyrean series characters and their dragons. We break down what the point of a novella even is, why Rebecca released this one now, and whether you need it before Fourth Wing book 4. Plus: audiobook vs the GraphicAudio version (out Oct 13), and whether to read it now or after ACOTAR 6.

Then we cross the spoiler line: favorite and least favorite POVs, marked ones vs Navarrians, the lying dragons, the trees, who the brother is, Garrick and Imogen, and which dragons would realistically bond with us (and whether we'd survive threshing).

Which dragon would choose you? Tell us in the comments or on Instagram @bookbitsclub.

00:00 Happy threshing day
01:23 What Threshing Day is and isn't
02:32 What's the point of a novella
04:39 Why Rebecca released it now
06:33 Why 13 stories instead of one
08:01 Read it now or wait for book 4
11:53 Audiobook vs GraphicAudio
12:45 Our spoiler free ratings
13:28 Spoilers start: favorite POVs
21:09 The POV we didn't see coming
23:33 Who's the brother
26:00 What are the dragons up to
28:27 The trees
29:54 The dragons are lying
32:00 Unreliable narrators and Asher Sorrengail
34:08 Xaden's family twist
36:11 Dain and Violet's family theories
37:56 Blue dragons vs Navarre
38:59 Garrick and Imogen
42:15 Where signets come from
44:33 A new appreciation for Violet's threshing
45:23 Which dragons would bond us
50:51 Would we survive threshing
53:11 Next week

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The Love Hypothesis movie just dropped on Prime Video and we have one very important question: WHERE WAS THE YEARNING?

This week Book Bits Club is breaking down the full adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, what the movie got right, what it completely changed from the book, and whether Adam Carlson survived the jump from BookTok boyfriend to on-screen boyfriend.

We get into the missing fake-dating tension, the Chapter 16 of it all, why the entire conference storyline had us spiraling, the Tom villain rewrite, Holden getting completely AXED, Lily Reinhart and Tom Bateman’s casting, and why the movie somehow lost so many of the stakes that made the book work.

Plus, we have very different opinions on whether you should read The Love Hypothesis before watching the movie or save the book for after.

If you watched The Love Hypothesis and immediately needed to discuss every single change from the book, you’re in the right place.

🎙️ Book Bits & Chill is a podcast for people who read romance and romantasy, love a book adaptation spiral, and are always two chapters from a book hangover. New episodes every week.

⏱️ CHAPTERS

0:00 The Love Hypothesis forgot one very important thing: yearning
1:04 First impressions: did we actually like the movie?
4:10 Did it deliver the Ali Hazelwood effect?
6:30 Should The Love Hypothesis have been a TV show?
7:32 The weird Off Campus similarities
8:40 Should you read the book before watching?

-- Spoilers Start Here --

11:31 The biggest book-to-movie changes
11:49 What happened to Adam and Olive’s yearning?
14:42 Olive’s missing backstory
15:25 They changed the entire reason for fake dating
18:25 Tom Bateman as Adam Carlson
19:47 WHY did they cut Holden?!
21:17 The conference is where everything fell apart
21:47 Chapter 16: did the movie deliver?
24:00 The conference ending and Tom rewrite
25:20 Book ending vs. movie ending
28:22 Lily Reinhart and Tom Bateman casting
29:55 Did they remove all the stakes?
33:07 What the movie actually got RIGHT
36:19 Should you read or watch The Love Hypothesis first?
36:50 Final verdict: was it a good adaptation?
37:55 Our final movie ratings

📚 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Love Hypothesis — Prime Video
Off Campus / The Deal by Elle Kennedy
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Heated Rivalry show and book
Fourth Wing / The Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros

💬 Drop your Love Hypothesis rating in the comments AND settle the debate: are you team read-the-book-first or team watch-the-movie-first?

#TheLoveHypothesis #AliHazelwood #BookAdaptation #BookPodcast #BookTok

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Mafia boss, morally gray villain, or a beast in a mansion: why do we love book boyfriends we'd run from in real life?

Cassie and Emily start with a real Reddit request for a mafia romance where the FMC has no idea the MMC is in the mob, and he refuses to let her walk away once she finds out. Then they get into what makes a love interest unhinged in a fun way versus too far.

In this episode:

• The Aristotle theory that fiction lets us feel big, dangerous things with zero real stakes
• What unhinged means to each of us: Emily wants the obsessive, broody guy who's only down bad for one girl, Cassie wants the mob boss and the white collar criminal
• Why we fall for the beast, the vampire, and the recluse in Beauty and the Beast retellings
• Where the line is: villains who get a moment of clarity, motivations that make sense, and why serial killers and stalkers are a hard no
• Why we always pick the bad boy over the nice one
• Our most unhinged book boyfriends and TV men

Chapters:
(00:00) The Reddit request: a mafia boss the FMC doesn't know is mafia
(01:09) Why we love unhinged love stories (Aristotle weighs in)
(02:52) What unhinged means to each of us
(05:49) Beauty and the Beast, monsters, and paranormal men
(07:29) When fantasy goes too far: real life criminals and Tommy Shelby
(09:32) Where's the line? Villains, motivations, and hard nos
(11:50) Why we always pick the bad boy over the nice one
(13:50) Our most unhinged book boyfriends
(23:46) Unhinged TV men: House of the Dragon and True Blood
(26:42) Your turn: send us your most unhinged love interest

Tell us your most unhinged love story or love interest in the comments or DMs @bookbitsclub.

Mentioned: Fourth Wing, Zodiac Academy, Daggermouth, Poison Daughter, Fall of Ruin and Wrath, Chasing the Wild, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Peaky Blinders, House of the Dragon, True Blood, You

Heads up: adult language and spicy book talk.

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