 Hello friends, today we are going to be doing a reading vlog where I let a random reading prop generator pick what I read. So I was thinking lately, I haven't done a lot of videos where I don't know going into the show what I'm going to be reading or roughly what I'm going to be reading. You know, even things like when I did the I can't stop reading until I find a five star. I had a general idea in my mind of like books that I was going to read for that. In this video, I know nothing we're going to find out together because I found this reading prop generator online. It's called Hey Reader. It looks really cool. This is not sponsored or anything by the way. I just found it online and they have other things like book lists and TBRs, but we're looking at this random reading prop generator. They have you can pick a card or you can spin a wheel. Oh my God, we'll try both out. Okay, we're going to do this. We're not going to find out our whole TBR now. We're going to do this one book at a time. We'll probably read three books unless I read like a really short book at some point. And yeah, that's basically what the deal is. I'm really excited, but I'm nervous because like I said, I haven't done this in a long time where I go into a video with literally zero idea of what I'm going to be reading, but I thought this would be fun. And I really like, I haven't done a video in a long time where I'd get a reading prompt. I want to do another episode. A lot of you won't have ever seen these videos, but I did two videos called Booktuber Scavenger Hunts where I started with one booktuber and they gave me a reading prompt and then based on what I thought of the book that I read for that prompt, they sent me to the next booktuber to go to and they gave me a reading prompt and those were always really fun as well. Maybe I'll do another episode of them at some point. But yeah, I wanted to do something that gave me reading prompts. So this is like so much pressure. I don't want to do it. I want to go home. Like I can't take the pressure of it. OK, we're going to pick a card. Holy shit. And then I just have to pick a book that fits that prompt. OK, are we ready? I am recording, right? Yes. OK, um, I want to go, I want to go for the second one. OK, set in my country. OK, so it's something set in the UK. Let me take you with me. So let me go over to my TBR card. I would like to read something like 30 of my 2022 releases. 2022, girl, it's 2023. Are any of them set? What about is I have some questions for you? This is that set in the UK? No, New Hampshire. Hellbent definitely isn't. Is Godkiller? Godkiller, this fantasy? No, we've got like a fantasy map. The writing retreat isn't. The drift, I don't think is. Well, Reach for the Stars is about like British pop, but I don't think it counts. Lost in the Moment and Found won't be The Lakehouse. This is an arc I got sent. Oh, I requested and got sent. It's not sounding. No, the author's from New York. Oh, God, why is this so hard? Oh my God. Oh, Wives Under the Seat. I don't think that is. I'm trying to think of the books that I want to read the most. Oh my God, this is terrible. I don't think it is going to be set in the UK. Okay, wait, the author's born in London. Don't know. Some things are obvious that I could go for. I could, I was just thinking I could read Murder Before Even song by Richard Coles, but I've just read loads of Murder Mysteries. So I'm not really in the mood. The Retreat by Sarah Pierce. Oh, an idyllic wellness retreat has opened up on an island off the coast of Devon. We're reading this. We're reading this. This is the sequel to The Sanatorium, if you've heard of that. It's got the same detective in it. And yeah, all I know about this is that we're a yoga retreat and murders start occurring. I guess this is kind of similar to what I've just read though. Hang on. Do I want to read this? I just don't know if this is the vibe. Guys, guys, guys. What do I read? Where is this set? Half a soul. Cause I would be, I really want to read this. Where is this set? Regency England, Regency England. Okay, no, no, no. We're not reading the retreat. We're reading Half a Soul. I've been so excited to read this. All I know is that it's like Kofi fantasy with romance. Regency England. Okay, this is what I need. See the retreat. I'd still have been up for it, but it's too close to what I've been reading tons of murder mysteries. Yes, this is more of a thriller suspense kind of thing, but I am beyond excited to read Half a Soul. I don't care that I'm starting another series. Let's just ignore that. I feel like this is like a five-star prediction for me. I cannot wait. I've just done yoga, hence being dressed like the way through Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater. And I'm enjoying it with caveats. Sorry, what? Huh? You what? Where, where? Are you jogging? I'm playing with Amora. I actually give up. So basically all you need to know is that we're in Regency England and we're following a protagonist who has half a soul. She had this encounter with like a fairy king or something, I don't know what the right terminology is. But her encounter and since then she kind of hasn't felt emotions. She, yeah, has been like emotionally distanced, struggled to feel emotions like a normal person. And she's in Regency England. Her cousin is about to like enter society and tried to get married. And she meets the Lord Sosier and they're like discovering stuff about this magical plague, what have you. Okay, it's really cute, right? I love the writing, but I cannot, I need to just get this out of my chest. I can't hide this. I have heard nothing but incredible things about this. I feel like everyone has given this five stars. It's not five-star for me right now. It's like a four, right? Which is great, a four is great. But I went into this with such like five-star lofty expectations and it not achieving that is making me feel nervous and sick to my stomach. And I feel like it's preventing me from enjoying it as much as I could. I think I've put my finger on it. I love Regency setting stuff, right? Like I love it. I love Pride and Progeny. I love Jane Austen, love it. But I feel like it's relying on that setting and the cultural like knowledge that we have of how the dress is looking, how the place is looking, what have you. I feel like it's relying on it too much rather than like actually describing stuff. I don't feel like it's describing stuff. It's just relying on that body. And his thing, I'm not like, you know, I don't want heavy description but I don't think we've had how someone looks really other than maybe the two guys that we have in this. Especially how locations look. We haven't had it described. And so I'm struggling to picture stuff and it's annoying me. Struggling to picture stuff is always my number one. Like I hate it. And so for me, I feel like it's relying on too much. So we know what a ball looks like. We know what when they go to dinner at someone's house that looks like rather than actually setting the scene. They're like, oh, we just got to this person's house. I'm like, oh, what? Like I can't picture anything. So that's what's setting me back a bit. But I am enjoying the romance. I'm enjoying how that's growing. I really like them as characters. I think the writing is beautiful and has this great charm to it. So it's a lot like I'm really enjoying it. But that little like not being able to picture stuff as well is kind of like holding me back. And I haven't been reaching for this. When did I find out I was gonna read this? Monday and it's Thursday. I am gonna go just finish it now. I'm gonna go sit downstairs and read it. But I've wanted to do like anything but read basically. So yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and finish it quickly. I am enjoying it, but I feel like I'm not quite getting the five star experience that I feel like everyone else has been getting. Okay. So, okay, I have finished half a song. I don't want to talk about it guys. Why does this happen to me? I didn't dislike it. It's a 3.5. Oh no. You need a wing. Here you go. I'm getting it out there. I'm putting it in the universe. What did I just think I was? What did I think was gonna happen for me doing that? Yeah, 3.5. I just felt like I never fully connected to the character. I swear everything is going wrong in my life. I just never fully connected to the characters or the relationship in particular, the romance. Like I could see it. I could vibe with it. I could recognize it. I could acknowledge it. But was I into it? No, I always felt like there was a degree of separation between me and the book. But from an objective standpoint, I enjoyed everything. But I never fully like gone into it. It was like an abdistance enjoyment. It wasn't, to get a 4 or 5 book has to really pull me in. We have to be in it together. Whereas I wasn't in this. I don't know. I'm so sorry. I'm gonna continue the series. I'm gonna at least try the next one out. Yeah. I don't really have anything to say. It just felt like kind of like fine. I enjoyed it. I liked Dora as a character. I liked the Regency setting. I felt like there's not enough Regency historical books. But I have distinctly zilch to say to you. And that's really embarrassing. And I'll see myself out honestly. This is like, this is not good. I just like everyone's giving it five stars. I put it on TBR Cludeau and everyone was like, oh my God, you're gonna give it five stars. You're gonna love it. It's gonna be like a new book. I gave it five stars. I loved it. And I'm like, and it's like maybe even closer. If we're like talking, is it 3.49 or 3.51? It's 3.49. I feel like I'm breaking everyone's heart. I don't know. I'm gonna continue on, see if I can get more into the rest of the series. I've got to admit I'm feeling very hormonal today. Today has not been a good day up here. So that could have played into it somewhat. I tried to like ignore that and like not have it affect my decision. But the thing is with reading, reading is subjective. Like how you are in life is gonna affect the books you read, whether you know it or you don't know it. Maybe there's a book that if you'd read it when you were sad, you would have loved it more versus when you read it. It was happy and vice versa. How you are affects your reading. But, yeah, should we go find out what we're reading next? Because I just want to pretend that this, I mean, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't everything that I wanted it to be. Let's find out what we're gonna read next. Okay, it's time to find out what our next reading prompt is. I figured this time we would spin the wheel rather than picking a card. I'll shake things up a bit. I know we do live life on the crazy edge of it. Wow. Crazy. You're crazy girl. By the way, I found out that this website had actually been created by a fellow booktuber. So I will leave her channel link down below. I only found out because I told my patrons I was doing this video and sent them the link to the prompts. And they're like, oh my God, I love her channel. Apparently she was actually Christie. So I've put some of her videos in my watch later. I haven't had a ton of time to watch YouTube since I found out. But yeah, I'm gonna check her out. So go check her out down below. If you also like Chrisy or reading prompts. So, okay, we're gonna spin. Are we ready? I don't know if I'm sick. Spin, we're just doing it. We're just doing it. We're not even thinking about it. We're just doing it. This one really builds up the suspense. A book with a great first sentence. Well, that's subjective. Let's go look. There's a book that I got in TBR Cluedo that I feel like if I don't fit into this video I will put off forever. So, Ghostwood Song by Erica Waters. Does this have a great first sentence? Let's figure this out together. I'm as restless as the ghosts today. See, I think that is a really good first sentence, but like, am I just saying that because I wanna read it? Hmm, hmm, hmm. I'm as restless as the ghosts today. I'm as restless as the ghosts today. I'm as restless as the ghosts today. See, I think that kinda slaps, but I also wanna read this for this vlog because otherwise I'm gonna put it off and not end up reading it. My initial reaction was like, yeah, that's good, but am I just kidding myself? No, I think that is a good first sentence. I think that's a great first sentence. I can think of one other book that does have a great first sentence, but it's like a five-star prediction and I think that I am not in the best reading mental state right now, so I don't wanna read a first sentence. But I know that the writing retreat has a great first sentence, but I'm as restless as the ghosts today. I'm reading it. It's not a shit first sentence. That's a really good first sentence. You can all count me. Anyways, we're gonna read Ghost with Songbaric Waters and I'm nervous because I didn't love the rest of the story, but a lot of you have promised that I will enjoy this, so let's give it a go. I am halfway to Ghost with Songbaric Waters. You just came here. Why do you wanna leave? I just got busted tickets, by the way. I should be really happy for me to- Oh, I got ya. Do you wanna come busted with me? I'm halfway through Ghost with Song, by Erica Waters, and I'm really enjoying it. So the plot of this is basically our main character. God, there's a lot of laos here, so I'm trying to decide what is important to tell you and what is not. Basically, her dad has passed away. She lives with her stepdad and her mother and then something happens and her brother gets accused of murder and she is really tempted to play her father's fiddle that can raise the dead, but it comes with consequences. I think that's basically all you need to know. I just feel like this is a really solid YA. I don't really love YA anymore, as you guys know, or just at the moment, I haven't been reading a ton. And I just feel like this is such a good YA, mystery, thriller, horror, kind of hybrid. It's creepy, it's eerie. We've got a bit of a love triangle going on. We've got family relationships. Like, I feel like it's got a lot of really good layers to it that I'm really enjoying. It's an easy read. The audiobook is great. The audiobook narrator has like a Southern accent. And I don't know, it's just putting me in the vibes. We're very much in like the, is it the swamps? I don't know, like the woods is kind of where we are. And it's just really creepy and atmospheric and eerie. Spooky, oaky, coaky and creepy. And we've really only gotten into that plot that I was telling you. We had a lot of building up of, I've got cat hair all over my face. I can feel it. We had a lot of building up of like characters and their relationships and the dynamics between characters at the start. I don't know, I just feel like it's, it really built us up to a good place where I'm just really excited to continue. So I think I'm gonna finish this today. I'm really enjoying it. I'm gonna keep listening to your book as I get some bits and bobs done today. Yeah, I was so worried because like I said, the rest of Stark Barricot was like a one star, 1.5 star for me. This feels completely different. The writing in this, I'm loving. Whereas the big problem with the rest of Stark for me was the writing. I felt like it was kind of like juvenile and the relationships between characters and the characters weren't fleshed out. All these characters feel fleshed out in a way that you know, oh yeah, I'm still reading YA. It's like we're not getting to like deep motivations and thoughts. It kind of is, I feel like some YA, you don't mind it being surface level-esque, especially when you have a lot of characters like we're doing this. You have a lot of friends and siblings and what have you. It just feels like a great YA. I can't believe the same person wrote these two books. The writing feels so different to me. I don't know, I'm really enjoying it. So yeah, I'm going to go ahead and finish it and then hopefully we'll pick our last book tonight. Should we tell them what we thought of the book, Rora? What should we say to them? I'm really tired. We've just been shopping today at Westfield. I got some nice clothes and I'm feeling very tired. I didn't film anything because if you've been Westfield a weekend, you know, you don't want to be filming. They put me through purgatory. They put me through hell on this earth. Anyways, I finished Ghostwood song. It's going to be another 3.5. This vlog is boring. I'm saying it now. The reading prompts generator is fun, but another 3.5. And I've got to confess to you, we're going to go find out what I lost because it's Saturday evening now. And this video is supposed to be going up tomorrow and I haven't edited any of it. So I don't know if that's going to happen. We'll pick a short book if we can, like a graphic novel for the last book if the prompt fits it. Thoughts on this. I didn't love the second half as much as the first half. I thought the whole resolution to the story was not as successful as the build up as the kind of setting up of the story. And I was just a bit bored in the second half. I listened to this mostly almost all via audiobook. I didn't do a lot of reading physically and just the first half, I was so excited to do stuff so I could listen to audiobook second half. Not really. And I just felt like by the end, there was like so many different story lines. How do I explain this? There's certain story lines, right? That like certain characters were associated with. But towards the end of the book, it was becoming clear that those characters weren't going to be associated with like storyline A or storyline B. And so more story lines started being created near the end to like bring those characters back into the fold. Does that make sense? And that didn't work for me. I liked this. I enjoyed it. It's meant that I'm not swearing off Erica Waters. I thought the audiobook was fantastic. I thought the audiobook narrator was fantastic. Love to the beginning. Love the atmosphere. Love the setting. But what the fuck just happened with that focus. Apologies. A lot that I really enjoyed about it, but for me the resolution didn't work. Didn't work. So that's what I have to, I don't really have a ton to say to you. Oh, I did like the love triangle. I'm usually not a love triangle girlie. What is going on? Why are you focusing on the bookshelf when there's people going outside? It's been a long time. I need a drink. You know, you know when you shopping and you're just taking your jeans on and off, on and off and all these different shops just try on jeans and stuff, the jeans and then don't get over your butt. Yeah, usually I'm not into love triangles, but the love triangle really worked me in this and it felt realistic. It felt truthful. It felt true to the story. I understand why it happened. I understand why it was in there. I liked how it resolved. I really liked the love triangle on this. So I think this is a solid YA. I enjoyed it. I think I really recommend this to young people in my life. I think they would really enjoy it. So yeah, but a 3.5. 3.5 is not a bad rating at all. At all. What was the last book written? Oh yeah, half a song. Yeah, not a bad rating these 3.5s, but I want something more than that. So let's go see what prompt we get. I don't know if this is crazy considering I wanna read a short book, but I feel like to culminate, the culmination of this video, we should pick two prompts. One from a card, one from spinning the wheel. We're gonna do it and find a book that fits both of those prompts. The drama. I just think she's very delusional and maybe possibly insane. Are we just gonna do this? Am I actually gonna do this to myself? Yeah, and then if we have to push the vlog back, so be it. Live or let die. Okay, card time. Bang. A blue cover. Okay. Okay. A blue cover. A blue cover. Spin the wheel. A blue cover and a place in the title. Any. What is our definition of place? I sort this by a number of pages. Okay, let's go to my shortest books. No, I need to go to owned. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Is, okay, hang on. Is the T-Dragon Festival a place? Something's gonna be pushing it. But I mean, I can read the next T-Dragon book. Is going to the T-Dragon Festival a place? Let's go to the T-Dragon Festival. I feel like if you can say, we're going to somewhere, then that's a place. Let's see if there's anything else that's short. The Salt-Wise Sea? Hang on, hang on, hang on. That might be a better bet. The Salt-Wise Sea is a place? It doesn't have to be a real place. The Salt-Wise Sea is a place. The T-Dragon Festival might've been pushing it, but let me know if you thought I would be allowed it. Because I think, you know, if you can go to a place, I don't know if the book actually has a festival. Oh, I don't know, the audio. I feel like if I'm reading a book and actually working on it for us in 49 minutes, I'm going to get the audio back. We're going to do it. Along the Salt-Wise Sea, by Eddie Debra Baker, AKA Sean McGuire, the next in the Up and Under, the first one is Over the Woodward Wall. Yeah, let's do that. I can do that. I can do that. Okay, there we go. Oh, wait, is that a blue cover? Shit. I think that's blue. Yes, perhaps green. Did it, was it blue on the cover? I didn't save the prompt. Blue on the cover or a blue cover? Blue on, I think that's blue. Yes, I'll have to go find it. I don't know where it is, but that's blue. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bish-bash-bosh, okay. Depending on how I'm feeling it halfway, I might check in with you halfway. It's only about 190 pages, or I may check in with you just when I finish it. We'll shall see. But yes, I will read that. Oh my gosh, progress in a series. Go, Megan. Okay, I just gotta be honest. I went away and I read the whole thing because it didn't do it for me. This vlog, you guys, right now, life couldn't get any worse. Oh my God, I thought it was gonna be such a fun vlog. Three stars, three stars. How have we had a vlog with a three and two 3.5? So it's like the most boring vlog to ever exist in existence ever. So if you don't know, this is the second in this series where these two kids go through a door into this world, the up and under, and they're kind of trying to figure out how to get out, and they're going on all these adventures in this new world. And you may be thinking, Megan, this is written by Sean McGuire, and it just sounds like wayward Jordan series, kind of similar. And not as good. This is just written with like this younger tone that I don't think I enjoy, and the books feel like nothing really happens. Oh my God, this feels sacrilegious. This feels, I can't believe I'm saying this about Sean McGuire series, like one of my favorite authors. But sometimes you just go, and you go, no, when to let it go. You know? What about us? What about us? What about you? What about us? Anyways, I am not going to be continuing with this series. I know, I'm sorry. I'm not going to be continuing with the series. It just didn't do it for me. I was kind of bored. I had the audiobook and it helped me get through it, but I can't say that I really enjoyed this. I don't know what to say to you. I don't feel any attachment, though, to the characters. And we're following kind of at this point, four characters that we were with in the last book a lot. And I just don't feel anything towards them. And there's so many queen and king and page of this and this and this and this. And I am so bad at character names. I can't keep track of which kings we've met and which queens we've met, and which queen is this queen and which queen is that queen. I can't keep track of it. And the book even does do a good job, like the whole first chapter, first 15-ish pages is kind of giving you a rundown of what happened in the last book, because it was like, Megan's gonna have forgotten. I just can't remember who anyone is. So, wow, this was a failure of a vlog. I'm gonna be honest, I've gotta apologize for lack of b-roll and stuff. This week was one of the worst mental health weeks I've had in a while. I'm feeling much better now, but it was like a little bit of a rough week. And so I apologize if that kind of bled through in the quality of this book. You might have had a great time, I don't know. And I'm talking myself down. But if you're like, this isn't up to her usual standard. Yeah, it's been a rough week. But, and we haven't even read it. If I had read a good book, maybe I would have been incentivized and revitalized, but like, all the books have just been fine. So anyways, I hope you enjoyed the vlog. That's all I have for you. If you got to the end of the video, comment a ship emoji, because we spend all this book on a ship, on a pirate ship pretty much. And yeah, I promise my next vlog will be more fun. There's a lot of fun stuff planned for the next one and I'm really excited for it. This one, the reading prompts were fun, but it was a rough week. But it's all good now, I'm feeling much better now. Anyways, I love you guys. Thank you so much for watching and I hope you have a good rest of your day and I'll see you soon. Bye.