Romance Book Chat with Nakita

I am joined by another fellow book lover, Nikita. Nikita, how are you? I'm well, thank you. How are you? I'm doing great. So thank you for taking the time to come on and chitchat. I know you do great things across the bookstagram community with videos, reviews, recommendations. So before we kind of dig deep into a couple of your favorite books, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you're from, and what really sparked your interest into reading. Okay, my name is Nikita. I am from Florida. I'm a nurse practitioner and a boy mom. And what got me back into reading? So as a child, of course, read here and there. Middle school, I used to love the urban books. You know, if it looked like me on the cover, then I was reading it. And you know, through school, high school, college, I lost that. And then I had a baby in my twenties. And being that I was dealing with some postpartum depression, I got back into reading with that. I just happened to be scrolling on social media and somebody was talking about Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan. I was like, oh, let me see what this is about. And since then, I've been hooked. Now what would you say is like your number one go-to genre if you could only pick one? Ooh, urban fiction romance, honestly. Yes. And on that topic, we're gonna take a deep dive into the Delgados here because, oh my God, I'm reading Goon 2 right now. And let me just say, I feel like it's just something about, it's like a universe with like the family and the interconnecting of characters in the storyline. I'm like, maybe I kind of want, you know, maybe I can see myself living in that lifestyle. I'm not gonna say that all the time, but you know, these men are thugs, but they know how to love on their women. And so now did you read the entire series or did you just read like the first three? No, I've read the entire series. Have you started Goon 2 yet? I did. That's actually what I'm currently reading. Well, compare notes like towards the end. Like, what do you think about this? Absolutely. Now, Capri's story, the very beginning, girl was getting on my nerve. I'm sorry. I'm like, I understand you went through and you're trying to figure things out, but it's like, at what point do you say enough is enough? I gotcha. Now, what did you love about Capri's story? So I actually, it was when I was postpartum with my second son and I just happened to be pumping in the middle of the night and somebody was talking about Capone and Cappadonna. So I was like, oh, let me start. And needless to say, I didn't go to sleep that night. I stayed up the rest of the night. Now, when it comes to Capri, I can understand like in Capone, everybody was like, oh, Capri, Capri. But I think Capri was the one I resonated with the most when it comes to being the daughter of Caribbean parents or being the youngest and being a girl, whereas, you know, the boys get all the love and all the attention and here comes the girl and you're trying to fend for yourself, especially with Caribbean parents. So I think that was what I resonated with most. And then just seeing how she came about, because, you know, when we started Capone, it was like, everybody looked at her as a little sister who doesn't know what she's doing. And seeing that growth was like that, that one is literally my favorite. Yeah, like she was bad at everything. When she finally tapped in and I loved how her and Mir like built their relationship on friendship first and how he kind of helped her through like all this stuff she was trying to figure out and like their relationship. But then also she was her own woman. Like she was doing a good job when it came to her job. She would hop on that bike real quick. She would let off the gun if she needed to. Like she was just one of those and they were like, oh, okay, like she's not just a little sister anymore. Like she's a grown woman that can handle her own. Absolutely, absolutely. And so that, like I said, that entire, like I remember I started Capone like when I first got my Kindle and I finished all of those books in like a week. So there was just like a soap opera with everything that they had going on. And author lady, Jacquel J, she knows she do her thing. She knows, she knows. And I give that lady her flowers every time. Like she knows, she knows. And then you also liked A Worthy Love by A.E. Valdez. And this is actually the last and final book in the Rise and Fall series. And so tell us a little bit about what's in this book and what would you say is a lesson that you've learned from it? Ooh, that's a good one. So this, again, like you said, it's the fourth book. And I think because we've seen this character, Marissa, go through all the previous books and she's just trying to find herself within those books and get that love that everybody else is getting. And then you have her book where she's basically learning how to navigate after so much has happened. And Asher, who's the MMC as well, he's been through the other books too. And it's like, they have a love-hate relationship and he's like stuck on her. He was like, I'm going to make this work. And oh my gosh, like that is one of the books that on Audible, I go back to and I listen to all the time. And I think one of the things that I learned from the book is even when you fall down, you can get back up. Like once you're at the bottom, that's just it. Now it's time to climb back to the top. Yeah, and I love those books that kind of resonate with you even after you write them. And a lot of times, even though they're fictional stories, I love when they're able to still have really good lessons within them where you don't mind going back. And it's like, yeah, okay, it might be a fake storyline, but the lessons are still real because they're very important and they need to be talked about. And so Nikita, before I let you go, is there anything else that you would like to say to fellow book lovers out there, especially since reading is so huge right now? Ooh, that's a good one. I think everybody gets caught up in the, oh, this is not real, and get mad about certain things that they see in books. And I would just say that, again, it's fiction. And with everything going on, people are losing jobs, getting jobs, mothers. Everybody's getting lost in their own thing where we have these books to just kind of take that load off of us. So let it do that. Get lost in these worlds and have fun with them. That's what we're here for. And I think a lot of people just forget that. So that's my main thing. Like, have fun. That's what these authors give it to us for, to have fun. Awesome. Well, Nikita, thank you so much for all that you're doing in the Bookstagram and literary community. And thank you for taking the time to come and chat with me and fellow book lovers out there. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you for having me.