 Hello friends! Welcome back to my channel and welcome back to another episode of Wrapped Up! You might be thinking, Megan, you're not at home, you're in Wales. I am pre-filming me unwrapping, finding out what February and March is wrapped up as, so that I don't have to take all 50 books that are wrapped up with me to Wales to unwrap too. That wouldn't make sense. I'm hoping for good vibes. I mean good vibes, as we know, I need a five-star, my reading. Well, I'm filming this, my reading hasn't been great at the start of the year. By the time it's February, it might have been wonderful. Who knows? Things might be looking up. But right now, I feel like I need something good. I feel like the universe needs to look out for me. So, I'm just gonna grab one and we're gonna unwrap it. Um, oh my god, I hate this. Why do I do- why have I done this to myself for like four years? Three years? Okay, I'm going for whatever this is. I just look and whatever one like I feel cosmically pulled to in that moment, I have to unwrap. Okay, let's see. What is it? No, you're actually having a giggle. There's no way. There is no way. I'm gonna complete state of shock. I forgot what I was gonna say. Guys, no, I did a video where I was like, these books, myself, destruct within- no. I'm not faking this. I promise you I'm not faking this. Okay, I did that video where I was like, these books, myself, destruct and I hadn't read five, right? Of those five, the four books we have unwrapped in T-Bear Kudo are those four, but I'm probably sure I'm not faking this. I don't know what the books are. I haven't- Someone put a comment, I think it was Louise, put a comment on the last vlog, like this is the odds of you unwrapping those three books. This is the fourth. This is the fourth. The Jordan Moff- and I just want you to guys know I just planned out all my videos that I'm doing in February, March, and in the start of February I was going to do a vlog. I've always been doing- I was always going to do this vlog. I'm reading the books I was supposed to unhaul, right? So I had no reason to unwrap these. I was happy to unwrap one or two because then it meant the amount of books for the vlog I don't have to read four or three, you know what I mean? But now the only book I have to read is Alan James Crompton, which is arguably one of the ones I wanted to read the most. Okay, I've got to- I've got to think up a new vlog. I've got to replace something. What? This is absolutely insane. So this is the thing- I was going to be reading this in February anyways. This is not- okay. The woman was too stunned to speak. Okay so this is the Jordan Moff, the second in the Sinclair's Mysteries. I enjoyed the first one. This is one of the oldest books on my TBR. It is these Edwardian middle grade murder mysteries, and I've been really excited to continue on the series. We're continuing on the series. Listen, I'm happy. It's just- we've only unwrapped four books. Oh wait, no, no, no. Sorry, sorry, sorry. This is February's. I'm forgetting. I haven't read Up Rooted yet, but that is January's episode, which you would have seen. So out of five books four of them are from the video. I promise you I'm not faking this. If I was watching, I think I'm faking it, but I have no reason to because I was going to read all the others on a vlog anyway. What am I going to vlog instead? Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. We're reading this. I'm actually very excited to read this, and hopefully I've heard that this middle grade series improves as it goes on. So I'm looking forward to making progress. I just cannot believe our luck. I don't know how that happened, but it's not luck actually. I'd rather run something else. How are we doing? So I'm in Wales now, and it's time to start- well, I have started The Geard Moth by Catherine Woodfine, and I have been so excited to start this. Before I start this, I was just looking forward to it because I don't think I've read a mystery yet this year, guys. I haven't read a mystery, and I'm craving them. Like I honestly thought I've got some really exciting videos coming up. I've got a really exciting vlog coming up this weekend, which I've been working on for like three weeks. Dear God, this vlog's pretty going to be over like the course of a day or two days. The vlog this weekend is like three weeks, so I'm nothing if not a variety, okay. Yeah, but I thought about sacking it all in and just reading mysteries. So I've been really excited to get to this one, and I'm excited for something lovely about middle grade. Here's the problem I've been having this year so far. I feel like as you'll see with this weekend's vlog, I've started actually having some better luck with the books I've been reading. I've given out some higher ratings than we had in January, but I'm still not reading very fast. It's still taking me a lot longer to read some books, than it would usually. And so I'm just hoping that this little short middle grade mystery will kind of like get me going at a better pace, you know? So I was really looking forward to starting this. And as I mentioned before, it is a sequel, but the thing with this series is I can kind of tell you what happened, because like with mystery series, they're kind of all self-contained mysteries, right? There's no, there's like a bit of an overarching mystery in this series, but we're not going to find out the answer to that until the end over like who this baron is, the baron who's like this like gangster, I don't know, some guy who's like making all these businesses pay, and like the criminal, the criminal underlord of London. And then all the rest of the books are like mysteries in each book, you know, self-contained. So A, I don't have to remember too much like the last book, the first book I read like three years ago. This is one of the oldest books on my TVR. I read maybe even almost four years ago. Yeah, almost four years ago, since I read the first one, dear God, that's quite embarrassing. I'm getting older. I don't know if I can, if I want all this drama all the time, if I'm being honest. So the good thing about this is I don't have to remember a lot about that first one, but I actually do remember I think a fair amount. But yeah, we're following these girls who work at London's biggest department stores. I think Selfridges, right? It's that kind of era. They would sit in Edwardian times, they work there, and they last book, they solved a mystery at the shop. And in this one, a local debutante has lost a jeweled moth that she was gifted, and she tasked them, it's been stolen, and she tasked them in finding out who did it. We've only really just got to that point in the mystery. And I'm enjoying it. I love the historical setting. This is Edwardian times those of you who don't know, I don't know if it's like widely known, because it's like referring to UK kings and queens in terms of era, but it's after Victorian times. So I think it's like 1901 to 1911 or 13, early 1915, something like that, is the time period that we refer to as Edwardian. So it's an interesting time period because you're coming out of the Victorian era where you've had this massive increase in an industrial, also what I'm looking for, industrial, the industrial revolution, I don't know, like, you know, the ability, our ability to do things has rapidly increased. And you're kind of coming into this modern era where you're coming into the 1920s. It's a very interesting little pocket of history, I think. And I'm really enjoying the setting as we're focusing very much on this debutante, like the kind of almost archaic, at this point in time, like nature of like girls coming into society and whatever, like it feels almost like Jane Austen era practices. But it's obviously the upper classes are still holding onto these practices. And it's just very interesting pocketed history. So I'm really enjoying that. It's a very easy read. I flew through, oh, I didn't tell you where I am. I'm up to chapter 10. So I'm about 100, 110-ish pages in. And I flew through the start of it. And the mystery, you know, it's like a middle grade mystery. So it's not super intriguing. But I just think back to myself when I was a kid at school, right? And like I read middle grade as a middle grader, I don't know. I see middle grade as stuff I would have read when I was a bit younger than middle grade. So like your middle grade refers to, I think the equivalent to our year six, seven, eight and nine. Whereas when I read middle grade, it like children's books remind me of what I would have read when I was like in year three, four, five and six. Do you know what I mean? In my school year. So I when I think back to myself like in year four, year five, like reading these kind of kids books, I think I would have loved this. I would have loved the glamour of the era, the atmosphere, the storyline, the characters, like I can imagine myself having a really fun time reading this book, not necessarily being the most memorable thing that I like, you know, take into adulthood and be like, oh, I loved that book when I was a kid. But just as a moment in time, I can imagine myself really enjoying this. So I'm going to go continue it. Yeah, I'm having a fun time so far. So I'll let you know what I'm a little bit of the way through because really the mystery has only just begun. So we'll see what I think once we're a bit of the way through. But I am enjoying it so far. Okay, hello, friends. I am now about 220 pages into the George Mouth, so about two thirds of the way through. And I'm going to chat to you about it. But before we do that, let's unbox a few packages I got from my Amazon wishlist. Some of you guys are very funny to me. So let's open these fast. Let's have a bit of fun. I feel like I need a little bit of, um, it's been a tough few days. I don't know how to get into why, but it's been a lot of car insurance calls and I'm stressed. So this is like, you know, very kind of you. It's arrived at the perfect time. So first, oh, we've got City of Brass by SA Chuck Robotti. Let me see if there's a note. Oh my god. Amazon is insistent on not sending out notes. I had this problem loads with my birthday book. Cool. So if you got this from me, please let me know so I can thank you. This has been a fantasy series. I have been so intrigued to read for a long time. Obviously it's like one of the kind of major fantasy series I think. So I'm really excited to read this. This could be like, I'm really craving some fantasy like epic large scale adult fantasy that I love. I feel like a lot of the fantasy I'm reading nowadays is not feeling big enough. And I feel like if any series is going to feel like momentous enough, it's going to be this. So thank you so much to whoever gifted me this. Okay. We have got, oh my god, shut up. I just saw a little treat as we're having such an awful start of the reading year. At least you get a gift. Much love from Barley. By the way, read it back. Okay, well, I think it's pronounced Isla. If I'm wrong, please click me on my pronunciation. We have got, we have got Pride by Ally Hayes. Oh my god, I'm going to cry. I'm so, I'm actually the soon. I've got a couple of videos this could go in like ASAP. I'm out of food soon. This is Ally Hayes Awards Paranormal Romance debut. As you guys know, I'm Ally Hayes Award girly. I'm actually rereading another Ally Hayes Award like this week in a couple of days. It's sitting right there. I am definitely getting through my Ally Hayes Award collection. And this is another one to add to it. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I've spoken about whenever I speak about this, I used to be a paranormal romance girly. So the idea of like Ally Hayes Award and Paranormal Romance meeting. I'm so excited. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Whoever sent me both of these. That is so kind of you. Wowza. I'm so excited. Okay, now let's chat about the George Moth. I unboxed the years in the video because what I want to thank could have gotten for me, but B, I don't have much to say about this. Really enjoying it. It's just a lovely read. But I don't think there's anything particularly notable to say. I do think this is paced much better than the first book. I'm enjoying the pacing a little more. I think I'm enjoying it more. I think I gave the first one three stars. This is feeling like it could be a 3.5 or a 4 because it's just feeling like the mystery is moving at a better pace. Maybe now that we've met the characters. Obviously I've met the characters for years ago, so I don't remember them that well. But I feel like it's done a good job of like getting me back into the story or remembering vaguely who these people are. And I think this kind of world of the debutantes and the higher society mixed with characters from the east end of London who are living more, not necessarily in poverty. You've got a character, a young girl from Chinatown who has, I don't want to spoil the connection too much, but like is also in the story alongside the characters we met in the first book. And I think it's mixing those worlds in a very interesting way and saying stuff also like with kids, like with big topics. You've kind of like got to infiltrate the stories with them because other than I understand. But like it's introducing ideas of colonialism and why that's bad in like a way that I think is very accessible for kids. So I'm really enjoying it. I think this is kind of what I needed right now. Do I think it's going to be a very bookable time? No. Am I going to remember this book very much in the future? Probably not. You know what I mean? Like it's not, you know, it's not the best bookable time but I am enjoying myself. So I'm going to curl up and finish this now. And yeah, we'll see what rating I set along. But I'm feeling like I definitely want to try and finish this series this year. I believe there's two more. So I would like to finish this series now this year, I think. Get my hands on the second two and just finish it because it'd be satisfying to finish a series that has been on my TBR for so long. Okay, I have finished the George Moth by Catherine Rudd Fine and I'm very excited to tell you I'm going to give this four stars. I really enjoyed it. This in my opinion is such a stronger book than the first book. I don't know if the first book was her debut. I think it might have been. And so maybe it was just struggling with some of those pacing issues. But this series felt so much filler in this book. Like mysteries are starting to seep across the books and give it a great pace. I really enjoyed the settings. This one was actually more outside of the department store. We really weren't in the department store that much. We were like in the rich people's houses basically instead. But I just really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed all the characters we met in this book. Listen, is it really a great book ever? No. It is brilliant American literature and I don't care about anybody. It is. It's lit. It should be taught in schools. But I just think this maybe is what I needed right now. I needed like a quick fun book to like get the ball rolling and me finishing a book in a day again. Because I don't think I've done that this whole year. I've been like reading books so you took me a day like five days and that's a problem. So I think maybe just the pace of this, the ease of this was really something I needed. It's not the most interesting for a vlog because A, it's a middle grade so I feel like there's a lot less to me to say. And B, it's a second in a series. So like I can't tell you stuff that spoils the first in a series. And sequels always I find them a little bit harder to speak about especially when they're middle grade. Whereas it's kind of like it's just an enjoyable reading experience. Do you know what I mean? That's what I can really say is that I had a nice time reading it. But I am so glad, for me personally, maybe not for you and like for the video, but for me personally, I am so glad that this got chosen and wrapped up because this is a book I've been putting off for a long time and I have continued a series that I had not made progress in since 2020. I'm happy I'm making progress in series this year. And I think I can definitely finish this this year. There's only two more books, The Painted Dragon at the Midnight Peacock. I really enjoyed the audiobook. So maybe the audiobook is a way to go going forward. But I would recommend this series if you're looking for kind of a cozy historical middle grade mystery. This is I think a fun choice. So yeah, not the most exciting for a vlog because with middle grade, especially when it's like this, there's not really much to say other than it was nice. I don't know this time, it was enjoyable, it was what I needed in the moment. For me, I think this was the perfect pick because I think I could have gone ages without making progress in the series and then like forget everything, you know? So I decided this is my middle grade series. I'm now going to focus on finishing this year. Thank you guys for watching this video. Let me know what your favorite middle grade series is. Other ones up for me that I need to make progress in are Amari, the Mari and the Nightbrothers series, or the Pages and Co series are ones that are on top of my list to make progress in. But if you have any middle grade recommendations, please let me know. I know a lot of people recommend Nevermore. A lot of people tell me I'm going to enjoy that. So yeah, let me know if you have any recommendations because I really enjoyed the experience of reading this middle grade. And I'll see you guys soon at the weekend with a big vlog, hopefully. I promise. I swear. I swear I'm going to get that video up finally. Like I've pushed it back twice, but it's a really exciting vlog coming out this weekend. So I will see you this weekend with that video. Bye.