 Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all good. Today, we're doing the mid-year book freak out joke. I haven't looked at any of the questions. I haven't looked at any of the prompts questions. And I'm a bit nervous because I don't know what I'm going to say for any of them. I'm not going to have to think and you just can get my on-the-spot decision. Apprehensive, nervous, a bit scared, also weirdly calm, perhaps on the verge of hysteria. Before we start the tag, I want to give a massive shout out to today's sponsor. Are you tired of eating the same old meals? Have you been hurting yourself trying to find new and exciting hobbies? Are you feeling creatively stuck? Then why not try Skillshare? Skillshare is an inspiring online learning community with classes for creative people. And it's a place where you can become better at pretty much any skill you can imagine. For example, always wanting to improve your Instagram, take this class with Halleus Navias, where you can level up your Instagram story game with small changes. And amazingly, a new change as well. This hasn't been the case before. But the first 1000 you to click the link below in the description will get one month free of Skillshare premium, a whole month to try out all new skills and become better at them. Okay, let's do this. The first question is, best book you've read so far in 2021? That's hard. Oh my god. Okay, let me get my good reads up. I think it has to go to so far in 2021, The House in the Cerunian Sea by TJ Klune. I absolutely adored this. I'll link the reading blog where I read this. It was where you guys picked what I read. I read some of your favorite books. So we're on the same wavelength. This is a story of Linus Baker who works for the Department of Magical Youth. And he goes to this orphanage where there's some of the most dangerous kids. And it's a story of like falling in love and understanding where you've been wrong and where you have had blinders on. It's like a warm hug in a story. I just loved the whimsical, magical way that it was told. This is my favorite kind of fantasy, I think, where it's this like magical fairy like story. You know what I mean? It's just laced to so much magic. But it's true. I'm the best one. You know, we had this small cast of characters, but they all had so many sides to them and it was just done so well. And I loved the story that Linus goes on throughout the book and how he changes and his eyes open. So I think this is my favorite book I've read so far this year. Oh, best sequel you've read so far in 2021. Okay, no, no, no. I know what this is. So this has to go to The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodore Goss. This is the third in The Strange Case of the Alchemist Daughter series, which is one of my favorite books. This is one of my favorite series. All the books are five stars for me because I just love the characters so much and the way that it's told. I can recognize that the first one is probably the best. I need, I really want to reread it. I'll reread it at some point. I just love the series as a whole. So this is basically set in Victorian London. We follow the daughters and female versions of men from classic Victorian literature, particularly like gothic literature. So we've got Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde. We have got Beatrice Rappuccini. We've got Justine Frankenstein. We've got Catherine Moreau. Oh, and we've got Lucinda Van Helsing. And they make up this group of girls who are kind of solving mysteries throughout Victorian London. Sherlock or Watson are in it. Sherlock is an icon in the series. I get called white man's whore. I love how he is tied into it. I love how this series seamlessly ties in all of these different elements of classic literature, but is its own story. My favourite thing about this is how Catherine is writing the stories and the girls will cut in and tell her off basically if they didn't like something or they'll just like chat about the story at some point, which I thought was done so well. Some people I think think it's a bit gimmicky, but I love a bit of a gimmick. I'm a sucker for a gimmick. What can I say? In case you haven't noticed, I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. And I thought this was such a brilliant ending to the series. There is this kind of like end fight scene that I found quite emotional. I just thought it was such a good closing off to the series. I just loved it. I just loved the series. I would take 10 more, please. I'm really sad it's just a trilogy. Like, I feel like this needs to be a 20 book series because I'll take it. And I always say Theodore Goss has said that she would. So we just need to publish it to buy them. It angers me. I'm like, someone just do it. Please. What do we have here? New release you haven't read yet, but want to. Oh, okay. There's a lot and they're all looking at me over there. I feel like for this, because there's a lot I could give you 20. Let me pick one or two that came out more towards the start of the year because it's more embarrassing than I haven't gotten to the books yet. Rather than like some books I'm really excited to read, but only came out a month ago. Probably the book I'm most upset I haven't gotten to yet is Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas. This was one I was so excited for and I still haven't read it. Are you not ashamed of yourself? Are you not embarrassed? This is really embarrassing. So this is following Maverick Carter who is the dad of the protagonist from the hate you give. And this is following her dad when he is younger. It's about him dealing drugs when he suddenly finds out he's having a baby and how his life and priorities and thoughts have to change in order to care for this baby. And I just love Angie Thomas's writing. I really loved both the hate you give and on the come up and I've been excited for this for so long. I got it pretty much when it came out. It came out like at the start of January. So it's been out a long time and I want to read it really bad. But it's just finding the right moment. And another one I actually pre-ordered this is Girl in the Walls by AJ Ghanuse. I've spoken about this a ton recently so I won't go into it too much. All I know about it is there is a girl who's living in the walls of this house. I'm not sure if she's alive or if she's a ghost and the boys who live in this house start to realize that she's there. The boys who live there now. I'm really excited for it and I just love the cover. I love everything about it. So hopefully I love it. This feels like a summer read. This like, I feel like the font is the same as the turn of the key. Hang on let me do a bit of detective work. I'm like Scooby and Shaggy. I'm solving a mystery. Oh yeah that's the same font. I opened it. It's a bit bigger but it's the same font. You can't see but you just gotta trust me. And I opened it. I was like this makes me feel like I'm reading the turn of the key and it's because they have the same font. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year. Okay let me just pick one for this because I will have a whole list of all my anticipated releases for the second half of the year coming out in about a week. My actual answer is going to be White Smoke by Tiffany D Jackson which is pitched as Haunting of Hill House Meets Get Out and I'm so excited for this. It's like basically a traditional haunted house thriller. I haven't read any Tiffany D Jackson yet but I do own Grown and I really want to read that but I am just so excited for this. Like I love haunted house vibes. Like oh my god are you so excited? I know that in the UK Harper through 60 YA are doing the arcs and they've posted a picture of them and basically Harper through 60 YA they send out to bloggers and booktubers. They send out like this newsletter where you can tick the ones you want and you may be lucky enough to get them. And I'm going to keep my fingers, my toes, my ears crossed that I get White Smoke. It is the arc I want the most. Like I'm like please, please, please. I'm so excited. I feel like this is right up my street. I kind of like dark books. Everyone's always like Megan wears the light stuff and I'm like I don't read that. Next question is biggest disappointment. I would say and I'm really sad about this hence why it is my biggest disappointment is The Islanders by SV Leonard. I literally just read this. I don't really want to talk about it. Go check out the video where I read it. This was a five star prediction. This was one of my most anticipated releases of this year. I was so excited. It's a murder mystery with Love Island, the show where it's a dating show and and then there were none that I could the Christie combined and I was so excited and I gave it two stars. Didn't like it but I think a lot of it was my problem. I didn't really like and then there were none as a book. I think I gave that two stars as well. So I think I don't like this premise where characters are just getting killed off one after the other and you know it's coming and it was told in first person present and I just found that really jarring in this case. I'm really sad um about it so let's not speak anymore. She's not gonna go there. Oh next is biggest surprise. Oh okay hang on let me have a look. For this I'm gonna go for a Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson so I was excited to read this. This is a YA murder mystery where this girl Pip is solving a cold case from her town where this girl was supposedly murdered by her boyfriend but Pip doesn't believe that was the case and she's trying to find out what actually happened all those years ago. It's totally like a mixed media format. We get interviews, her production logs stuff like that and I was excited for this but I don't think I was quite ready for how much I was gonna love it. I thought it was such a good modern murder mystery taking advantage of like modern technology things like Fitbits play a really big role in this series you know just technology like that as one example. I thought that the mystery was done so well and the clues are revealed so well that you're really taken through the story and taken through this investigation and you're constantly getting updated on what we know what we figured out so far and I just thought it was done so well. I would say though that I know that if you buy it in the US it's been changed to its location being in the US and I think some people have found that a bit jarring because it is for me like very British like in the way they act so I just don't really see how it would transfer to being set in the US so that is the only thing I would say if you're from the US and you read it and you're like something feels off and you're gonna come blame me for it that is something that I think I've read some people say feels off about it. Oh next question is favourite new author. So for this I'm gonna go with the author that I feel the most excitement to read more books from and that is Nina Lacour. This is Watch Over Me by Nina Lacour. Nina Lacour does like YA, surrealism, fabulous, all of those isms. I never know what to call them. Is it magical realism? Is it fabulous? Is it surrealism? All of those things are the same in some ways. They have differences, they have key markers that mark them out but I'm never very good at distinguishing them myself. But Nina Lacour's writing is haunting like I've never read an author whose writing is so haunting. In this one our main character is at this farm where there's these ghosts basically. She's kind of like haunted by her trauma and so you're wondering are the ghosts real? Are the ghosts her trauma? Like what's going on here? Who knows? Who knows? I still don't really know. But Nina Lacour's writing is beautiful, it's haunting, it's mysterious and I am most excited to read. I have any author I've read so far this year to read Nina Lacour's writing. So not a debut author but the author that I've read for the first time I'm most excited to pick up from again. Next question. Oh I hate this question. It's not for main park. I feel terribly ill all of a sudden. Newest fictional crush. I don't, for the last time, I don't get crushes on characters. I don't, I don't, I don't get crushes on characters. I can't think of one to be honest. Maybe a nege from Six of Crows and Cookie Kingdom. If I had to say one I just love a nege so much. I think she's amazing. I think she's the coolest person ever. So maybe a nege. The question after that was newest favorite character, fictional character, same answer. The next question is book that made you cry. I know, let me go get it. The Traveling Cat Chronicle is by Hiro Arakawa. I cried a lot. I cried a lot okay. I cried a lot. This is the story of a cat and his owner. The owner is no longer able to care for the cat for some reason and we don't 100% know why so he's taking his cat around to all of his friends to see he would be a good fit and it's told partly from the cat's perspective which I am obsessed with. Like I love cats, I love cats so much. So reading from the cat's perspective and how sarcastic and like negative and just like it was is the best because that's what my cats are like. We talk for them. If you don't talk for your cats like if you don't narrate what they're thinking that's weird. You should like have a full blown storyline or you know should know what your cats are feeling and you should narrate it. Anyway some people think that's weird but I think it's weird if you don't. It's getting weird. And this book made me sob. This name that I was a mess. Like I wasn't it wasn't a little tear. It was like I put the book down and I was screaming crying. That was the situation we were in. A book that made me happy. Oh I know I know I know. Heartstopper Volume 4. This one this one does deal with some more serious issues than the other ones in the series but Heartstopper just makes me happy. Nothing makes me happier than Heartstopper. Again I need to reread this at some point but nothing makes me feel more joy than the Heartstopper graphic novel series. Loves of my life. I love you. I love you so much. The most beautiful book you've bought so far this year or received. I just did a whole video on my most beautiful books that I own but any of the books I've received this year let me try and take this to cross and not fuck it up because I always fuck it up which is why I never take them off. Oh no I fucked it. Oh no. Oh this is a this is a travesty. I would say the most beautiful book that I have acquired this year is Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth McNeil. I love this cover so much. There is so much detail in it. I just love this like circus vibe and then I love the end pages. I love this pattern and I love the foiling on the hardback itself. Like I just think it's dainty. It's beautiful. It's so gorgeous and I absolutely cannot wait to read this book. It's one I'm hoping I'm going to get to really really soon and then the last question is what books do you need to read by the end of the year and like all of them. I can't even tell you like a few because I need to read all of them. There's books I know like I could say oh I have to read this one but I know I'm going to be reading it in like two weeks because I know what videos I'm doing. So that's a bit of a cop out you know. I want to read as many 2021 releases as I can. There's so many I've been excited for and so many I haven't read. So they're definitely what I want to prioritise but it's hard when you do themed reading vlogs to like fit them all in but I have got a lot of them planned so I would say just reading more 2021 new releases is my priority. So that was my mid-year free cat tag. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm pretty happy with the answers I gave. I think I was correct in all of them. Let me know what your like best book you've read this year. Most disappointing, most surprising. Let me know all of them for the books you've read so far this year and if you've gotten to the end comment the Warthog emoji because it's like my favourite emoji. I love the Warthog particularly is it the emoji like where they're like I always send the Warthog one they're my favourite. So yeah thank you so much for watching and I will see you very soon in another video. Bye!