 I'll come back to my channel. I hope you're all good. Today, I hate myself. What I did is to myself. I believe she's somewhere living with deep, deep regret. We're gonna be reacting to my most anticipated releases of 2021 for the second half of last year. So we reacted to the first half of 2021, like a month ago, a month and a bit ago, and I thought let's react to the second half. Now because it's the second half, I feel like I've got much less chance of actually being successful, but I'm never successful anyway. So like, but actually before we get into the video, I want to say such a big thank you to the sponsor of today's video, which is Book of the Month. I love Book of the Month so much. I say this every time. I absolutely love them. I love their service. I've been a big fan of it for so long. So basically Book of the Month is this really unique subscription service where they select a selection of books each amount of thing to choose from of new releases. They scour all the new releases that are coming out and pick some of the best ones. So the pressure is taken off of you having to look for that yourself, and you can get a great book delivered to you. It's a win-win situation, essentially. There's something so special about getting a Book of the Month edition with a little like, bit on the spine and on the cover, like the logo on the spine. I love it so, so much. And I think they do such a good job of promoting new and emerging authors. They have a lot of debut authors. They also have a lot of authors that like, they get regularly. For example, I love Lucie Foley. So I was very glad that a couple of months ago they had her as a recurring author. I feel like they do such a good job of having that mix of having authors who they do pretty much all of their releases that come out. And they have new and emerging authors. I think they do such a good job of it. It's absolutely no risk. You can skip any month and you won't be charged if you're interested in any of the books that month. And they absolutely have the best price for new release hardcover fiction. You can get your first book for only $9.99 using the code MegwithWorks. I think that's such a good, that's such a good deal. A hardcover for only $9.99 is such a good deal. Right. I need to chat to you about the selection they had for March because it was actually a personal attack on me. It was so good. I'm outraged. Firstly, they had one of my most anticipated releases of the whole year, which is Yeah, but Brenna by Nina Lacour. I screamed when I saw this. I could not believe that it was one of the selections this month. I got so excited. This is Nina Lacour's adult debut. She's written why in the past is her adult debut. And I'm just literally so excited. I need to read it right now. Do away with all my other reading plans and read this right now. It's about two women with very troubled past like coming together in their lives and negotiating now. I think it's going to be a very like human and heartbreaking story. Then two books, which I've heard a lot of buzz about, I've had a lot of people speaking about already, like reading arcs. I'm so excited that they're selections. We have Breathless and the Hacienda. This is an isolated thriller. We know that's my thing, but this one is such a unique premise. It's about people I think climbing Mount Everest. Is it Mount Everest? I don't know. They climb in a big old mountain and someone dies. One in the party dies and like, are we with a killer? That is literally, you know, my favourite synopsis in books. And then this is like a horror and like it's been compared to Mexican Gothic and Rebecca. And I'm just so excited to cover for this as well. It's so atmospheric. I thought I would also mention quickly, they typically have a romance selection, a romance book and selection. And I'm not a massive romance reader as we know, but my mum loves all of their romance. She reads every single romance book they bring out every month. And she has already read Part of Your World. She loved this so much the next day she bought and read another one of these authors books. She was obsessed. So if you love romance, that's definitely a great selection for you. And then they also have add-ons so you can get more books with their kind of like special, special formatting if you want. And one of the add-ons this month was Book of Night by Holly Black! Oh my god, I know this is such an entertainment for so many people. I've never read Holly Black, but I'm so excited for this because the synopsis reminds me a lot of Ninth House by Lee Bardugo. It's very much like dark magic and like it sounds very mysterious and exciting. I'm just, I just literally can't wait. So yeah, make sure you check out Book of the Month linked down below. Thank you so much for sponsoring this video. I love them so much. I think their editions are incredible. Selection incredible. I cannot speak highly enough of them. So go check them out down below. Okay, so for disclosure, my camera just died when I was filming like this section of the video, like speaking after the Book of the Month section. And then I had to go out and run some errands that were like time sensitive. So it's been a while. This video was like cursed. My camera was like, no, we do not need to know this. We absolutely do not need to know this. So if you didn't watch the last video that I did about a month ago, I didn't do very well. And I think we're gonna do worse in this right now. What I want you to know is you're going to fail miserably. I don't think I've read as many from like the second half of the year. Why am I doing this to myself? I don't know. I find it kind of interesting. It's interesting. And I'm doing this because I do need to be a lot more selective and I do need to read my new releases more. I feel like also this year, I've only read four or five 2022 new releases so far. So like, I need to get my shit together. So if you don't know, we're going to separate it into sections where that I read and liked them read and disliked them unread and still interested and unread and not interested. On the screen here, you're only going to see read and not read because that's too much information to like have on the screen at all times. So we're just going to read it unread, but we'll talk about those statistics at the end. See, I spoke in that last video about how sweet child Megan, sweet innocent Megan would put, you know, books on the list that I wouldn't now put on the list of most anticipated and now I'm a lot more selective. And I don't know what mindset I was in at the time I made this list. Was I? Let's just chuck everything on there. Or was I a lot more selective? I don't know, but we're going to find out. So let's just start watching the vid. So the first one comes out on July 6th and he's Rise to the Sun by Lea Johnson. I am so excited for this one. Are you Megan? You're so excited. I have not read Rise to the Sun, but I am still interested. I own it. Lea Johnson wrote You Should See Me in a Crown, which I read and I really enjoyed as a way of contemporary. So I knew I wanted to get to this one. I know this one's about like two girls who meet at a music festival and fall in love, which sounds like such a fun premise. But yeah, ain't read it. Ain't read it. I feel like contemporaries actually I've learned lately are one of the things I've put off most. They're one of the things I say that can wait. That can wait because I think of them as an easy read for another day. And that day is not today because I never make things easy for myself. Next one comes out on July 8th and it is Other People's Close by Calla Henkel. Now I was very penny sent an arc of this or that may be another arc I haven't read. There's not many guys. There's not many 2021 arcs. I think there's like three left that I haven't read that I own. But maybe I should just quit this video now. Maybe we just shouldn't do this. I might not go back in. I'm gonna go home, actually. My back hurts like the vibes aren't great. Maybe try to crack it. Yeah, I, you know, never read it. But I'm still interested because I still like it and I would still love to read it. I feel like a lot of people have actually been picking this up lately. Like weren't picking it up as much when it came out. But now a lot of more people are reading it. Next is one of the books I am most excited for. Whenever she fucking says this is one of the books I am most excited for, I come out in hives from stress. Go! Okay, I bet I've read it. That is The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglas. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, most excited for. I have read it. She's right there looking at me on the horror shelf. Yeah, I've read The Taking of Jake Livingston. Oh, did I? I'm gonna say Disliked. I think I gave it a 2.5. Perhaps. I can't remember. Something around that. Yeah, I didn't really like it. I felt like the writing in this was just strange. Like there's a lot of like ghost fight sequences. And just I remember I read this for wrapped up actually in December. I remember just being like, what the fuck is happening? Like it was one of the strangest books to read. Like I could not picture a single thing that was happening. I think I would still give Ryan Douglas another go with whatever he comes out next with. But yeah, this wasn't it for me. This wasn't it. But at least we've read one. I don't think there's gonna be any more of those. I think there's gonna be a lot that I own, but not a lot that I've read. Oh, next coming out on the 22nd of July is She Who Became the Sun by Shelly Parker Chan. This is one that everyone is really excited for. Everything's fine. Everything's fine. I haven't read that. Still interested. Again, one that I own. I think I've yeah, I have owned all of the ones I haven't read yet. So like they're there. I could read them. Again, I've heard a lot of good things about this. I really want to read it, but I'm not gonna lie. I'm a bit intimidated by it. It seems like a lot. Quite an advanced fantasy, you know, and I just I'm a little bit scared. I'm a little bit scared, but um I would love to read it. I would love to read it. Oh, another super anticipated page July release. Also coming out on the 22nd is Love and Other Natural Disasters by Misa Seguria. I told you we have a lot of sapphic YA in this video. That one hurts. That one hurts. Yeah, I haven't read it. And I'm still interested in it because guess what? I own it. This was one of the books I was most excited to get as an ARC. I've almost read it many times. Let it be, let it be known. I've almost read it many times for many different videos, but um I read this time would be different. This time will be different by Misa Seguria the year before. I think in 2020 and I really enjoyed it. It was a great like little YA contemporary audio back then, and I heard a lot of good things about love and other natural disasters and I was really excited to read it and I requested the ARC kill me. I hope there's no more of them. Literally I can't be trusted. It's shameful. It's shameful and I'm very upset and I'm very sorry. And again this is such an easy book to read. I don't think it's very long. I remember I almost read it for the thousand doors readathon in like last summer and I wish I had. I wish I just read it then, but I didn't and I'm angry because I remember I didn't even like a lot of the books I read for that. Oh god Megan. And then my last July released on the 27th of July and it's Not a Happy Family by Shari LaPina. I've only read one Shari LaPina. I have read Not a Happy Family. Can we want a clap for me to applaud and I'll breathe a bit again? I feel like I'm not breathing. Like my whole body is in pain right now. What is happening? This is stressful. I'm sorry about my quickie chair everyone. Just deal with it. Do I say I liked or disliked it? I gave it I'm pretty sure three stars, but I'm gonna say disliked. It was a disappointment. It was a real disappointment. I read this to my Patreon book club. We read a different book every month that they vote on. I feel like a lot of us were really disappointed with this, especially because the other two Shari LaPinas I've read have been like solid four stars and I do like an author that you can kind of like, you're not necessarily gonna like be obsessed. You're not necessarily gonna like have new five star books but you know they're gonna give you a solid four star and I thought Shari LaPina was that for me and then she betrayed me. And I really scratched my head and I wonder where's God when you need him. This is about like a family where the parents are brutally murdered and all of their kids were around for dinner the previous night and their kids and the kids partners are kind of like, you know, the key suspects if you will. And it was just very disappointing and the way it was told it was just rich people like sitting around waiting for shit to happen. It was boring. The reveal was the most disappointing thing of who the killer was was the most disappointing thing. We were all outraged because it was fucking obvious. It was obvious that the whole book I won't spoil anything but because of the way it was written it was so obvious and I was very upset. So we're not doing very well. We haven't had... This chair is very squeaky today. We haven't had one that I read and liked yet. God. So this is The Woods Always Watching by Stephanie Perkins. This comes out on the 3rd of August. Okay, red. No. But I did tell a bit of a lie there. Unread and still interested. This was on my TBR, Cluedo TBR for February I think and I just like it's one of the only... I think it's the only physical book now that I haven't gotten round to from all my previous months. I tried to get round to it in my most recent vlog where I read seven books in seven days from seven readathons but none of the prompts really fit it. So unfortunately I didn't get round to it but that shows you I mentioned at the start of this video, that video. I'm trying. I'm trying. You can't be mad at me. But this I've heard very very mixed things about. I haven't heard great things. I'm going to be honest. I feel like Stephanie Perkins' new like thriller horror girlie persona is not paying dividends. The girlies aren't eating her up. They're saying give us Anna and the French kiss tease again please. And she's like no I want to write about people getting killed. Understandable but I mean yeah I haven't heard good things but also when I haven't heard good things about a book that makes me all the more intrigued to like pick it up myself and see what I think. Because I've read a many controversial book that I have loved. Next August 3rd release is The Dead in the Dark by Courtney Gold. Okay okay The Dead in the Dark. I'm going to say unread and not interested for that. I don't know. I just feel like if I owned it of course I would still be interested but I feel like time has kind of just passed it by and I think if Courtney Gold came out with like another release that sounded interested to me I would pick that up. But like I've got enough I've got enough on my plate. So now because I don't own it because I haven't had a lot of people speaking about it lately. I haven't had a lot of people speak about it in a way that makes me think oh I need to read that. Like let's just not add another book to the plate. Do you know what I mean? I've got enough 2021 and 2022 releases to get through. Let's just not add another one if I'm not like bursting at the seams to read it. Next August 3rd release is Oh How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao. So this is another thriller. Look at this. Look at this. We're just having the best time. Oh we're not. I hate it here. So I have read How We Fall Apart. I actually just read it. It was the last book I finished. Claps for me Megan. Listen Serendipitous. Um I didn't like, well this one's difficult. I read it with my patrons so I will speak about it more in my wrap up into the month probably. This is a funny one because I didn't like it but it was the first book in a while that I've read and I recognized this is for young YA audiences for like 12 to 14 year olds and if I had read it when I was that age I would have eaten it the fuck up. I would have been obsessed like with the drama, the scandalous stuff. You know what I mean? I would have loved it but for me now I didn't. So it was a difficult one for me to write. I gave it 2.5 and part of me was always thinking that I should give it a 3 because I could see the merit behind it and I still don't know but the ending of this, girlie, girlie that was a choice. The ending with the end reveal was a choice. It was a fucking choice. We all make choices but that was a choice. Never have I, let's just say the reveal has some laughable aspects to it which again when I read when I was a kid I would have fucking loved it but now not so much. So we've read three and I've disliked them all. So much for knowing my taste. And then my last August 3rd release is All's Well by Mona Awad. Now let's check out this. We need to we need to chat. We need to chat. I have not read All's Well and I am still interested. I don't own it. To my credit this one like didn't come out in the UK or wasn't like easily accessible in the UK for ages. Like for ages and ages and ages. So I didn't haven't had like the most chance to get my hands on it. If I wanted to read it before that I would have had to get like a really expensive US copy essentially. Yeah I'm still interested in this. I've only read Funny by Mona Awad and I didn't love it like the rest of the girlies do. You know like so many people are like I'm gonna make this book my personality and I'm like I didn't like it that much. I gave it like three stars. Yeah it was fine but I'm still intrigued. I was intrigued enough by the concept to want to read more by Mona Awad. Next is one of my most anticipated and it is as good as Dead by Holly Jackson coming out on August. Yeah. Finally. Finally. We read one that we liked. I loved As Good as Dead. I read this at the start of this year and it's one of my favorite books still that I've read this whole year. This one is fucking crazy. It's the third book in the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series and like just thinking about it. I start sweating. I start sweating. Oh Jesus gross. Oh it goes places you really don't expect the series to go and I love it for that. It's bold. It takes a risk and I love that. I loved it so so so so much. It was an absolute five star. Knocked it out of the park. It was so good. One of my favorite ends to a series I've ever read. Next is A Velvet Was a Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I've read it. I've read it. I'm still interested. So I tweeted the other day actually. I tweeted Megan. You can't buy a third Silvia Moreno-Garcia book without having read the first two. That was a lie because I pre-ordered it months ago. But I haven't read Mixed with an Gothic or Velvet Was a Night and you can bet I'm buying Daughter of Dr. Moreno. Uh excuse me. It's like this book was written for me. I love you all know my favorite book ever. Strange Kate, well favorite series ever. Strange Case and the Alchemist Daughter. One of the main characters in that is Catherine Moreno and this book by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is Daughter of Dr. Moreno. You know what's the most exciting thing about winning? It's when you win. I love that feeling. I'm so excited. Yes I haven't read a Silvia Moreno-Garcia but yes I pre-ordered the special edition of that one. Do you have a problem? Do you have a problem? Oh another one I'm super excited for in our last August release is My Heart as a Chainsaw by Steven Graham Jones. It's actually, you know what, it's right here. It's right here in the book cart which tells you I haven't read it. I read my first Steven Graham Jones towards the end of last year. I read The Ownigid Indians and I liked it so yeah we're gonna say still interested obviously I fucking own it. Like I'm very excited to read more Steven Graham Jones. I want to read all of his stuff. I think he's a very interesting horror author but I feel like also his books like they take a bit out of you. Do you know what I mean? Like you have to read them in the right place, the right time and I just don't know when that's gonna be for My Heart as a Chainsaw. Anyways moving swiftly on! Next is Never Saw Me Coming by Via Kurian coming out on the 7th of September. I told you this would be bad. This is diabolical. This is diabolical. This is actually the end of my life. This is actually the end of my channel. Bye! Bye! Watch everyone in this video. Everyone's unsubscribing. Everyone said girl. Girl. Fraud. Fraudulent. Fraudulent. I am so interested in literally sitting right here in the thriller I really want to read. It sounds so interesting. It's about this girl who's like I think a psychopath and he's being studied by the university but then I think people in the group like of this group study start like dying off and she's like um either villain or is someone else the villain? Am I the villain? I don't think I'm the villain. Someone's coming to take my spot because I think she's like want to she want to kill the girlies too. She want to kill them. That makes no sense. What was the grammar? She wants to kill the girlies too. Still very much interested in this. We only have one that I no longer interested in which is kind of good. Oh next super excited for this is So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morro. Haven't read it. Basically I've got a series I want to start in the next couple months but like I never know when I'm gonna start it but um I will be reading that in the video. I'm so excited to read So Many Beginnings because it's like Little Women but remixed and like I think it draws a lot on almost critiquing Little Women in a way which I'm very excited for. I really want to read Little Women as well. I've never read Little Women. I just like the film so yes but me and Bethany C. Morro, I'm a bit nervous for this because I didn't love, what is it? I always forget a song below water. I didn't love that but this seems a bit of a different vibe so hopefully I will like this more. Oh next I named this as my most anticipated release for the second half of the year. What? It is White Smoke by D.B.D. Jackson ladies and gentlemen. My most anticipated release for the second half of the year girl. You're on the ropes. It's over for you. An absolute disaster. A total disaster. I read it. I read White Smoke but I didn't like it. Didn't like it. It was so disappointing for me. It didn't give me spooky house vibes like I want it. Yeah just the writing wasn't it for me. I'm gonna read Mondays Not Coming soon because that was my third Tiffy Jackson that I'm gonna read and if I don't like it then it's kind of over because I didn't love Grown either as much as everyone else seems to so yeah but at least I've read it. Coming out on the 21st September is Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. Okay I read Under the Whispering Door and I loved it. It was another five-star. One of my five stars of this year. I read it a couple weeks ago and yeah yeah yeah yeah. It was very it made me cry. I really liked it. Didn't like it as much as House and the Cerulean Sea but I think it said a lot of beautiful things about grief and loss and death and I really just admire like a book being written about that subject. I don't think you've seen much of that before so yeah. Okay October. First we have Fireborn by Ashton Flower. This is another one I've been super lucky to get an alcove. Okay so yeah I had an arc there. Unread I'm not interested. Oh I'm sorry but it ain't on. No it's not on. No no. I actually unhauled Fireborn. Yeah I just thought I wasn't interested in it anymore and that's okay. That's okay. And again it was one of those books I spoke to once before when I just accepted everything because I felt so lucky to be in the position to be offered books and I just accepted everything and I didn't think do I actually want to read that? Is that something I'm interested in? Is that something I would pick up myself? And I didn't think critically about that which now I definitely do and I'm a lot more selective because I was just felt so lucky to be in a position where people were offering me books. I was like how this is crazy. This is my life but I think I should be more critical because then that's better for me and the publisher you know. Next is another one of my most anticipated releases and it is The Spirit Engineer by NJ West. Oh yes yes yes I read and liked this. I'm pretty sure I read this before it came out which Go Megan. I really liked this. It was like a fun... Well not fun. That's not the right word but it was a very interesting like historical novel looking at this real life figure. I love when novels either fictionalize real life figures lives from history or like like in the strange case that I can restore to like fictional characters like re-fictionalize them. Next on October 19th is The Death of Jane Lawrence by Kate and Starlin. Well I've read it. Are you proud of me? I read it. Yeah yeah yeah I read it. Didn't like it. This was another strange book and not in a good way. I just this went places. Girl oh thinking about this book. It went places that um I don't know if a book should ever go. Next is The Haunting Season which is an anthology. I haven't read this and I don't think I'm interested in it anymore. There's a lot of authors I think that I think it's be fun to read but again it's like I'm not like bursting at the seams to read it. I think seasonal books are always tricky for me because I tell myself oh I'm gonna read it in October I'm gonna read it around Halloween and then I never do and then you don't want to read it the rest of the year so you save it again for the next October and then you don't read it again. I just don't think I'm that kind of girl. I don't think I'm made for that. It is The Very Very Murder Club. Okay this one's different. I'm gonna eat my words here. I have not read The Very Very Murder Club. I don't own it but I'm still interested. I would definitely like to read this this Christmas time. It's like a middle grade murder mystery anthology which I feel like is a lot more up my street like murder mysteries but like I haven't read many middle grade murder mysteries so um yeah I'm definitely excited to read this. Hopefully I will get around to it this Christmas. If I was like 100% certain that it was coming out this would have been what I said was my most anticipated 2021 second half release in my mid-year freak out tag but I wasn't so I didn't want to say it and then it might actually be coming out. It is Girls of Fate and Fury by the Passion of Yang. Haven't read it but I'm still very much interested. I've almost read this a couple times. Sure Jan. I'm just putting it off because I'm scared. You know Girls Paper on Fire is a very important book for me. It definitely got me back into reading. I read it at a very pivotal moment in me coming back into reading and I absolutely love the first book but the second book I didn't love as much. So that's why I'm a bit nervous because I want this third book Girls of Fate and Fury to align more to the first book in terms of my enjoyment of it and I'm nervous to see how that's gonna go down. I haven't really had anyone speak about it yet either so yeah I'm very excited to read it. I've almost read it a few times for different videos so hopefully I will get around to it soon. Coming out on November 2nd as well is You Reach Sound by Justine Fow. This one's difficult. I'm gonna say Unreader Not Interested. I think this was the kind of book You Reach Sound was kind of the book that I put on this list because a lot of other, my hair is, I'm looking a bit, you can tell I'm stressed out. We've gone downhill. Oh no this has now gone downhill. It was the kind of book I put on this list because a lot of other people were excited about it not because I was excited about it. I put it why was but like I was excited about it because other people were excited about it. Do you get what I mean? Again I would still read it if I had to and I'd be excited to read it but am I gonna go out of my way to get it? No. I mean the cover is still one of my favorite covers ever I think it's absolutely gorgeous but I just don't know if it's for me. Then on November 9th we have Within These Wicked Wars by Lauren Blackwood. Ain't read it but I'm still interested. At this point it's over for me. Oh my god I'm just so over it! I'm very excited to read this. I think this is one that Britney Spears recommended like Queen Icon Legend. I think Britney like recommended this book she loved it. I believe this is a Jane Eyre retelling and yeah I own it. I was actually just thinking about reading this book lately for a certain video so who knows who knows when that video will be made and if I shall read this book we shall find out. And then my last release. My last release. Oh my god we've done number one and it is A History of Wild Places by Shaya Urnshaw. I've read it! Didn't like it. Oh my god! We've done so badly with liking any of the ones we read. Oh my god. Well I don't know if it's like this like this but this book just definitely wasn't what I expected and it didn't really deliver. It was kind of like a cult book. This book was a little bit boring and the twist like the end twist was like the most obvious twist I've ever read in my whole entire life. It was good writing. Again I'd probably read from Shaya Urnshaw again. I'd give her another go but the end twist was like it was so obvious. I'm like is this supposed to be a twist or are we just supposed to know this throughout the whole book but if it's not supposed to be a twist what's the point? Do you know what I mean? It was one of those. So let's calculate. Let's do some maths everyone shall we? So there were 26 books in total according to my calculations. Now I could have got this wrong. I read and liked three. I read and disliked six. I unread and still interested in 13 and unread and not interested in four. I read 34% of what was on here. That's bad and like I only liked a third of that. I only liked 10% of what was on here roughly. I just don't even have to say. I'm no longer interested in about 15% of what was on this list. I'm no longer interested in. 50% of what was on this list I have not read but I'm still interested in. It's over for me. It's over for me guys that was shameful. I'm still excited for all of them so listen they'll get read eventually. All right listen I hope I've got many years left on this earth. The books will get read eventually but yeah I do feel a bit like oh. Here's the thing I wish I could read like 30 books a month. How does some of you do it? How does someone read 30 books a month? Because if I could do that I'd be unstoppable. Think of how many videos I'd make. I'd be unstoppable but alas that is not me. That is not me. Anyways guys I hope you enjoyed this video. Let me know how you think you would have done. You know I feel free to roast me in the comments. Feel free to roast me. I'll take it. I deserve it. Roast me as much as you want. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you very soon in another video. I love you. Bye!