 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today we are talking about Megan, Lucas' songbirds and stray dogs. Megan was nice enough to send me a review copy. She also, hang on here, give me just a second, she's also nice enough to sign it for me. I know you guys can't see that very well. And she included this very cool card with a note on the back says, E, thank you so much for all you do for authors. Hope you enjoy. I did enjoy, but we'll get to that in a second. And she sent me an awesome bookmark. I love bookmarks. The quickest way to my heart is bookmarks. Just to let you know. And now, since this is one of my favorite reads of the year, the bookmark is even more special for me. But anyways, on to the review. This, I almost couldn't finish the book at one point in time. There is so much tragedy, so much heartache, and so much sorrow in this book. And I was in such a good mood when I started it. It completely destroyed all that. Now, Megan, if you're watching this, don't worry, I don't hold it against you. I probably should have waited until I was in the mood for something that dark had I known it was that dark. So if you're going into this one, expect to be very upset, very sorrowful throughout most of the book because the hope, the heartache definitely outweighs the hope. There are certain scenes in here that really, really bothered me, especially at the beginning. And that's when I had to put the book down for a while. I was I was saying, okay, I'm going to do 10 pages of the night. Just go ahead and get it over with it. Like I normally do with any author who is new to me. I know well read Beard. Beard loved this book. Damn near everyone who's read it has loved the book. And I ended up loving the book. Once I got into the dark, into the into a dark mood, I enjoyed the book more. I know that sounds odd, but it's the truth. I'm glad that I started off reading it very slowly because I had I consumed the entire book in one sitting, I would have been one messed up individual. But there was a point about a third of the way in, I still have two thirds to go because that's how fractions work. Sorry. Anyways, I was about a third of the way in and I just I couldn't stop reading. In fact, I sent I sent a tweet out to Megan. I said, damn you, I got stuff to do, but I can't stop reading your book. And that's the honest truth that there was a point where everything fell into place and clicked for me. And I think it was about the time that we got to Chuck. And once I realized that we weren't going to be focused solely on this utter tragedy, Jolene's tragic life that I felt, okay, it's going to get a bit better. And then it just kept on getting darker and darker. But by that time, I was invested. And that investment really pays off toward the end. This is not a happy book. I'm harping on this. I know I am. This is not a happy book. This is a book that I would normally absolutely just fanboy over. But at that time, I wasn't prepared for it. Now, I am still fanboying over it. But that was that's after it was all done, because it was a very, very difficult read to get through. There are some affecting scenes that well, they affected me. It is very troubling scenes for me. And by the end, the only criticism that I have was I wanted just a tad bit more closure concerning a certain character. If you read the book, you'll possibly understand she leaves it kind of open. Now, the story concludes. Don't get me wrong. We know everything we need to know. But I would have preferred to have seen the that person dealt with that kind of thing. Okay, I guess I'm trying not to spoil anything. Some very big standouts in this book are it's just the characters. I would just go ahead and say it's the biggest standout of the book. You come to love and appreciate Jolene. You come to love Chuck. You come to really fall for these characters, even the minor characters you fall in love with. And that's where Megan Lucas really gets you. It's almost like a Game of Thrones kind of thing. Don't get attached to anybody. So and it's not as bad as Game of Thrones. I'm not going to go that far with it. But I would I would put that warning, you know, that dinosaur book, all my friends are dead. I would put that warning on this book. But if you are in the mood, I would say even if you're not in the mood for something this heavy, go ahead and give it a shot. Go ahead and buy it and maybe sit on it until you are in the mood for something this heavy. Because this is one of those wholly affecting experiences that will completely change your mood. At least it did for me. So I'll retract that and say it completely changed my mood. I don't know if the same thing will happen for you. As far in the grand scheme of things, best read books, best books I've read this year. This one I'm putting at number three. There are two others that not necessarily that they were better. It's just those two experiences did a little bit more for me than this one because I do have that one criticism about the end. But it's not like there are no answers. I want to make sure you understand that. I just want to throw something in there because any review that is 100% positive normally gets, you know, side-eyed. You know like really sure whatever big man. So definitely go out and check it out for yourself. Buy it. Support the author. She's also super kind. It's one of the few review requests that I have accepted from a smaller small press author because the only reason I accepted is because Beard liked it as much as he did. But I'm so glad I did third favorite read of the year so far. It actually bumped down Andy Davidson's The Boatman's Daughter, which if you've read that one, you know that that is a that's a big accomplishment. But have you read Songbirds and Stray Dogs by Megan Lucas? If you have, let me know down in the doobly-doo. I'd love to hear if you loved it. I'd especially like to hear if you hated it and why. Especially if the reason you hated it wasn't, you know, how dour how just terribly sad and sorrowful this book is. If you have other complaints, I'd love to talk to you about it. Leave all your comments down there in the doobly-doo. But until next time, I have been E. You have been U. This has been another book review. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye!