 Hello friends! Welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all good. Today we're going to be chatting about my best books of 2021. Well, today is going to be the best day ever. I think maybe a book, maybe three or four, which are classes or term favorites this year, but I still had a lot of five styles to choose from. So we're going to be chatting all about that in this video. Before we actually get into it, I want to thank the sponsor of today's video, which is Book of the Month. You guys know how much I love Book of the Month. I absolutely adore them. I love their service. It's a super popular and fast-growing service for readers. Their mission is to promote new and emerging authors. So what they do, their team scours through all of the books that are going to be coming out for the most exciting books for the new debut authors. For the authors that are up and coming and they give you a curate selection of five books to choose from each month for your Book of the Month and you pick one of them. I think this is so brilliant as A, you spend less time researching and trying to find out about new releases and you just read. And secondly, I think it promotes authors that are just coming up that maybe don't have as big a marketing budget behind them and it introduces you to authors that are going to be big. Book of the Month managed to always pick these new and emerging authors, but then those books end up being some of the biggest books of the year, which I think is a talent. I don't know how to do it. They have like some witchcraft or something. I don't know how to do it, but I love it because they will literally have some of the biggest books of the year in their boxes and you get to discover them first. Book of the Month is no risk. So they have a skip policy, you can skip any month you're interested in any of the five books. Plus they have the best price for new release hardcover fiction. So you can get your first book, your first hardcover new release book, but only $9.99 using the code Megwithbook. So make sure you go check out the link below. Use the code Megwithbook to get your first book for only $9.99. I will say they're currently only available in the US. So any of you that are in the UK or internationally you won't be able to get it, but the majority of my viewers, the majority of you guys watching this are from the US. So I'd really recommend you go pick it up. So I want to chat about some of January's books. I don't think you understand how excited I am for some of these. So we have got Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins, which was one of my most anticipated releases coming out this year. It's very Agatha Christie-esque. You have six friends who go to this desolate spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, this island, and one of them goes missing, one of them turns up dead, and the rest of them are trying to figure out what the fuck is going on. They're completely disconnected from nature, very much like an ending that we're none retelling. Mara from Books Like War has spoken very, very highly of this. She really, really enjoyed it. So I'm really excited and I've always wanted to start Rachel Hawkins, like read one of her books. So I cried when this, well, we'll get into more of why I cried, but like literally when I saw this, I freaked out. We've also got Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. This is one of the most anticipated like debuts that are coming out at the start of this year. It's been really hyped up within like the publishing world. My understanding of it is we have two siblings whose mother dies, and all she leaves them is like a traditional Caribbean black cake, which is a family recipe and also a voice note telling this story. And it's about the siblings kind of rebuilding their relationship with one another. And then literally probably in my top five, I haven't done my most anticipated releases of the year video yet, but probably in my top five for most anticipated releases, I have this special edition that is pre-ordered. I don't think, I think I'm going to have to cancel my pre-order now. I have the book. I have it early. What the hell? The Maid by Neeta Price. I'm so excited for this. So this is about a maid who works in this hotel. Then one of the most wealthy clients of the hotel is killed, and Molly, the maid, becomes the lead suspect. And she is trying to figure out who actually killed this man so that she gets off the hook. And I have just been so excited for this. Fun fact, Neeta Price, I believe, is Ruth Ware's editor. Ruth Ware called her editor on Twitter, unless there's some kind of inside joke between them. Neeta Price is Ruth Ware's editor, which makes me just even more excited to read this. I need to read this this month somehow. I don't have any reading plans for it currently. But yeah, no, I'm really excited for this one. This one is an add-on. So this isn't one of the five books you get to choose that month. But this one, you have the option of adding on, which is a really cool service. They have some books you can add on to your order. Maybe some of them are exciting. You can get two back, so why not? Treat yourself. So yeah, this isn't one of the five selections of the month, but it is an add-on. And I think I love their add-ons. Whenever they send me all the add-ons, I'm like, oh my god, that's a big one. That's a big name. So yeah, I would really recommend adding this on to your order if you do go and place your order today with the code and the link. Okay, so thank you Book for Month. Let's talk about my best book of the year. I want to go home. Like, I can't take the pressure of it. I don't think any job interview... So here's the thing. Usually I do a book award at the end of 2021. It was scheduled to happen, but it did not happen. December was a funny month for me. I didn't achieve everything I wanted to. I had some stuff going on behind the scenes. And yeah, it just didn't happen. So what I've actually decided to do... Usually my best books is like in any random order. We're doing it ranked. I've ranked it and we've actually got 11 books. I couldn't pick 10. I noticed one that I hadn't put on the list and I was like, you've got to go on there. So I couldn't get rid of one. So we've got the 11 best books I've read in 2021 and they are ranked 11 to 1. So I will be talking about what my favourite book of the year was. So let's just get into it. Coming in at number 11 is Watch Over Me by Nina Lacour. So this is a story of this girl who has aged out of the foster system, the care system. She gets the offer to kind of move to this farm, work there as a job, teach the kids living on that farm. This is a really beautiful story. It's very melancholic. It's really a story about a girl who's been through some really big trauma. She's really been through it and it's about how that manifests through this sadness and this this deep melancholy. The farm is kind of haunted. Spooky, oaky, coaky and creepy. You're kind of questioning throughout the book what's real and what's not but you begin to see ghosts around the farm and you're kind of like are they real? Is she imagining them? What's happening here? But this book was just so beautiful. I'm really excited to read everything that Nina Lacour puts out. She's got an adult debut coming out in 2022. It's like poetically written. It's the story of grief. It'll probably make you cry. Like it will probably sob. The book feels so fragile, right? It feels like it could break. The whole situation could break any minute and you're just like tense. I read it literally in one sitting, which I very, very rarely do, like literally one sitting. I did not move. You could not get me to move, which I never do. I always like, at least get up, but I was glued to the book. It was absolutely gorgeous. Number 10. Fucking. I cried like a bitch. Me after this book attacked my emotions. She was very fucking rude, weren't ya? The traveling cat girl was by here at Arakawa. The book that's probably made me cry most in my life. Like sobbing, like screaming, crying, throwing up, screaming, crying, throwing up. Like I was inconsolable. So basically this is the story of a cat and his owner and his owner. We don't really know why, but he's no longer able to care for him. And so they're going around the owner's friends, visiting them to try and find one that would be a good fit for the cat. And it's told from the cat's perspective mostly and like, listen, I always say this book got spot on how judgmental cats are. If your cats are not like cynical and a bit like moody and like angry and like sarcastic, then they're not cats. I'm sorry, you have not got that in a dialogue right. It will literally make you cry. I fucking, I was screaming. Like after I put the book down and I screamed for another five minutes, it was a lot. It's beautiful, you know, the relationship between him and his owner and the kind of understanding that they have of each other is so gorgeous. And I think if you love cats especially, but if you love animals in general, if you have pets, that will play on your heartstrings because yeah, just the bond that they had is so like what I feel with my cats. And so, whoa, listen, listen, the stuff that happens in this book. I know, I don't look upset. Don't get upset. Don't worry. It's a lot. It's a lot, but it was absolutely wonderful. I really loved it. Coming in at number nine was the one that I forgot to put on this list and then I was getting all the books together to film this and I was like, hang on, hang on. We haven't got a book here that should be here, which is The Project by Courtney Summers. This is the story of two sisters, one who years ago entered this cult after the younger sister had been in a car crash and the younger sister is now kind of in journalism and is trying to figure out what has happened to her sister and wants to interview the cult and stuff like that. Again, if I read the epilogue of this right now, tears, tears. The rest of the book was, like, it gets sad. I mean, it's Courtney Summers. It's going to ruin you. Courtney Summers books, if you didn't know, if you didn't, if you want to wear, they're going to ruin you. They're going to kill you. They're going to rip your heart out and stomp on it a couple of times. Courtney Summers enjoys to make you feel pain, but the epilogue was on a whole... And I really scratched my head and I wonder, where's God when you need him? It was on a whole other level. I'm a bit emotional at the moment, so listen, this is a lot. I can't even think about it. I can't even think about it. Listen. Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold your horses, everyone. So this edition, I have another edition, but after I read it and reviewed it, this edition was very kindly sent to me by Courtney Summers and she wrote a lovely little message in it, which, you know, was just amazing. Like, I've never had that amazing and interaction with an author before, and so it was pretty crazy for me. Like, I was like, oh my God, this is wild. But I've just realized, because this is the Barnes and Noble special edition, I believe. It has a chapter annotated by Courtney Summers at the end of it. So, um, listen, I need to go read that straight after I finish this video. And a bonus chapter, oh God, we're gonna cry even more. But the epilogue of this, oh my God, if I ever want to cry ever again, let me just, let me just cast my eyes over the page. No, I can't. I just loved it. Courtney Summers can, like, kill me. I will read every book Courtney Summers ever picks out. I need to get through her backlist. It was incredible. It was so good. Another book I read super fast and really, really enjoyed was The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta. So this is a contemporary, and we're following Michael pretty much from birth to when he goes to university, and it's about him growing up at the intersection of black and gay in the UK, and it's written in prose. So it's like, you're gonna read it so fast because it's literally all written in prose. That is not correct. And oh my God, was this beautiful. I always say that Dean Atta manages to fit so much in so many little words. He'll say a sentence and you'll be like, oh my God, like, that says so many different things. That has so much meaning packed into it that it's just absolutely gorgeous. And just seeing Michael learn who he is and like, go on that journey of self-discovery and figure out that being him is okay. Being him is great. It's just absolutely gorgeous. You know, him as a child, I think my favorite sections were him as a child, and learning about his identity and learning about what makes him him, it was just gorgeous. So Dean Atta is another author I'm very, very excited to get to in the future. But this is just such a big recommendation for me to everyone because it's so short. If you've never read prose before, I think this is my favorite prose. I mean, I love Elizabeth Avedo. I've been saying prose, haven't I? Wala, what do we have ladies? A fucking clown. We are a stupid bitch. We are a fucking clown. It's verse. It's written in verse. Oh, I hate myself. I hate myself. I hate myself. Sometimes it just slips out and I say written in prose instead of written in verse. You can't tell me they're not in the same, they're in the same box in my brain. It's not, it's written in verse. Other books are written in prose. It's written in verse. Anyway, I love Elizabeth Avedo, but I think this is my favorite book written in verse. Coming in at number seven, one of my favorite like the rollers of the year, They Never Learned by Lane Fargo. So we're following two perspectives on this. One is a teacher who murders people. What is this like teacher at this university who murders shitty men? I always say it, girl, a shitty mess. Shitty men. Girl, a shitty mess. Yeah, she kind of punishes and kills men who have been shit. Like they've been like rapists or abusers or stuff like that. And she's been doing this for years and years since she was very, very young, but the university's kind of starting to catch on because she always, she always tries to make them look accidental, but the university's like, we've got a lot of men dying up in here. So an investigation is lodged into that. And then we've also got a young student who is just joining the university. And through her, we kind of see the misogynistic culture at the university and how that pervades to all areas of kind of student life. And so it's really interesting how the perspectives go back and forth. This book had twists up to twists up to twists, but one of the best twists I have ever read in the book, like I was, I was so shocked. Like one of the best twists I have ever read and it completely leveled up this story for me. This was so readable. Like I could not put it down. I was flying through it. Like I was absolutely like tearing through it. It's always like the perspectives switch exactly the right time. You're always left on exactly the kind of right like surprising element. And I just absolutely loved it, girl. I just absolutely loved it. I've got to say it was absolutely great. So yeah, if you love like, like men getting their comeuppance and like angry women, like this is a book for you. Number six is A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. So this was a series I started this year and absolutely fell in love with. This is set, um, well, this is a weird book. It's set in the UK and the UK. But if you buy it in the US, it's set in America, which like just imagine it's set in the UK, please, because I don't think it really makes sense to your Americans. Like there's a lot of like, it feels very British to me. It feels like I'm watching CBBC, not maybe CBBC, but like an adult version of CBBC. Me when I found out they had switched locations in the US version. This can't be true. Tell me it isn't. But anyway, we're following Pip who's doing something called an EPQ. I think they've changed that again in America. Basically an EPQ is something you can do in the UK to get extra points to get into university, right? So some universities, if you get like an A in your EPQ, whereas you would have had to get AAA to get into a course at uni in your A levels, they'll now ask for AAB and an A in an EPQ. That's basically what an EPQ is, any of you who didn't know. She wants to do it on this girl who went missing in her town years ago. And the boyfriend of the girl confessed to the murder that she doesn't believe that's actually what happened. So it's her going around interviewing people in the town, investigating. She has interview logs, police reports, online research, that kind of thing. And it kind of flips back and forth between the two. It's so well done. It's really, really well done. The way that the mystery unfolds, the mixed media elements of it I absolutely love. It's just a great YA mystery. My favorite YA mysteries that I have ever read. I think they're so, so well done. And I honestly can't wait to see what Holly Jackson comes out with next after this series is done. We're into the top five everyone. Do you have any guesses? So what's going to be in the top five? Leave them down below for you watching it. Or any guesses for what you think my favorite book of the year is going to be. Because I, it was a close one. I'm a bit nervous. Number five is The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl by Theodora Goss. I forgot I read this this year. I read it right at the start of 2021. This, if you don't know, is the last instalment. Well, I don't want to say last because I'm holding out hope that one day we'll get more books. I refuse that this is a trilogy. I refuse. It's a lot of fantasies. And when I feel the fantasy, it is my reality. Theodora Goss, I need you. Listen, she's up for it. I don't, I actually don't need to ask Theodora Goss to anything. I need to ask publishers buy this shit up. I don't care. I literally don't, I, you need, I, at least I need some short stories or something. Some novellas following different cases the girls have done anyway. If you don't know, this is like my favourite series ever, ever. We're following daughters and female versions of classic villains, I guess, from Victorian literature. We have Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Catherine Moreau. Side note, Sylvia Monogasiya is publishing a book next year called The Daughter of Dr. Moreau. I almost like, like burst into dust, like cease to exist when I saw that. Anyway, Beatrice Rappuccini and Justine Frankenstein and Lucinda Van Helsing in the second and third books. You know, we're following them as they solve mysteries in Victoria and London and like just live their best lives and like, oh, this found family of gorgeous girls. I just love them. So this is currently the last book in the series. I can't really say much because I can't give much away for books one and two, but I will say that this book for me, it was amazing, like the mystery element. I love, I love the girls relationship, but the thing that made it for me was the final like big battle scene. Like it's one of those books, right? Where you have like, you know, a big end, like big battle at the end. And the way that it honored the journey that each of the individual girls have gone on throughout the series actually made me tear up. Like in terms of how much respect and how much it honored the girls, you can tell Theodorragos loves this series because it just like, it was just so well done. It was so well done. If you love found family, Victoria and London, monstrous girls, like read it, read it, read it, read it, read it. I cannot recommend you enough. The first one is The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter. I reread the first one, still one of my favorite books of all time. I'm going to reread the second one hopefully in the next couple months. The audiobooks are incredible. So I would predominantly recommend you read the audiobooks because the narrator does a fantastic job of the girls, but I like now to own the physical and read the audio along with it. Yeah. Oh, these girls are such a special place in my heart. Oh my God. Oh my God. Just okay. So I know I've been going on too long, but like allow me this one. You don't know the girls like cut in like almost like a script. Sometimes when Catherine is writing the book, she's writing the book and the intro says, finally they realized they were the monsters. And Mary goes, now you're just trying to upset me. And Catherine goes, did it work? And Mary goes, no, not really. I mean, I know perfectly well that we're monsters, even me. I didn't want to admit that for a long time, but I can't deny it. Can I? It's not such a big bad thing after all. And Catherine goes, I told you so. Number four on this list for me is House in the Cerunian Sea by TJ Klune. So I'm sure you've heard of this. It's a super popular fantasy where we're following this case worker who goes to this orphanage for magical children and basically like falls in love with everyone there. This is just beautifully written. It reads like a fairy tale. It feels so warm and inviting. And like, oh, it's just absolutely gorgeous. This was a lot of people's favorite book last year. I was just late to the party reading it. It's just like enchanting and gorgeous and and heartwarming. And oh, it's gorgeous. Now there was some controversy around it into the TJ Klune did after I had read it. There started being some controversy around it. And a lot of people, I would just say make up your own minds to it. Basically, in the interview, he said that he had this idea for this book. And when conducting research for it, he came across what happened in residential schools to Indigenous children. And that informed him on some of the research and the ideas for this book. And some people feel that it's, you know, very insidious for him to write this book with that as an inspiration. But I've watched a lot of own voices and non-own voices commentary on it. One of my favorite discussions on it, this isn't own voices, but one of my favorite discussions on it was what Mara did from Books Like Why. And for me, I feel like it was he already had the idea and it was just part of his research that informed it. But some people feel different kinds of ways. So like, some people do not like this book and this author anymore. And that's just a decision that I guess you have to make. But I would recommend really doing a lot of research on it and making up your own decision. But I absolutely loved this book. I read it like a really hard time. I think I'd either just finished or wasn't the last stages of university this year. And that was tough. Like, I've only really just gotten over uni, I feel like. And like, well, I'm only just starting to get over it and repair my relationship with myself and like my brain and everything. This beautiful story came to me at such a wonderful time. And I'm very excited to read under the whispering door. I haven't got to it yet. But yeah, it's just an absolutely gorgeous, magical, amazing story. Okay, we're into the top three, which I would say these top three are favorites of all time. Any predictions? Sorry about the squeaky chair. Any predictions? Any predictions? All of you trying to remember the books I've loved this year. So, uh, so, uh. But the top two were really hard for me to split. They're really hard for me to split. But this one, this next one is my favorite 2021 release of the year that I have read. The other two are not 2021 releases. So this is my favorite 2021 release. And it is the one my father says by Ally Hazelwood. We were not expecting to see a romance on this list. We were not. We were not expecting to see a romance. But I love this. This is my favorite romance ever. We're following Olive who's a third year PhD candidate and she starts fake dating. They start fake dating for various reasons. And then they start to fall in love. Let me tell you it's so good. Like the romance in this is amazing. Like I love their relationship. He's like not mean, but he's like cold, not cold. What's the right word? Grump sunshine. It's a grump sunshine romance. So he's a bit like grumpy, broody. She's like upbeat, fun. But the way that he like starts to be a little bit sunshine, he just for her, but no one else just for her. That, it gets me. Something about grump sunshine gets me. And I don't know why, but it does. I don't think I've ever given a romance book five stars in my life. But this is like five, five, five stars. Listen, I. The power that that has, the intelligence that that has, the clearance that that has, the access that that has, the influence that that has. I think this proves I can love romance. It just has to be topped here. It just has to be the best romance ever written. But I can love it. It's it. And Ally Hayeswood obviously just gets me and I'm going to continue reading her books forever, forever, forever. Okay, top two. So I was nervous because not a lot can split these books, right? But we're going to do it. Coming in at number two. You ask if I'm sure of this, I am not. Coming in at number two is The Once and Future Witches by Alex E. Harrow. So I loved it. If you thought this would be number one, don't ever count me. But it's number two. We're following these sisters who are witches. And they're, they're coming back together. So they've kind of been split up for years. And it's them coming back together, discovering their witchiness. It's taking place in New Salem and they're joining the suffragists at the time. Alexey Harrow knows a lot of words. Let's just say that. Alexey Harrow knows a lot of words. There's a lot of words in this book. It's very wordy, right? The way it's written, it's very beautiful prose, very descriptive. That's a fuck ton of words. The only reason this isn't number one is that I think I actually, this is why I think the two are separated. I had to rush kind of read this book. And so I think I had a better reading experience with number one where I was able to take my time at will. I didn't feel rushed. I think if that had had that, they're pretty neck and neck in terms of how much I loved each of these books. But listen, it was breathtaking. It's the perfect amount of complex. It's raw. It's beautiful. It's amazing their relationship, how that grows. It's one of the most gorgeous books I have ever read. Like it was mind blowing that someone can write this. Like a human can write this. How does that work? Like I don't understand how that works. When I tell you, I cannot wait to read 10,000 Dollars of D- January and a spindle splinter by Alexi Harrow. I'm going to eat that shit up this year. I've got to read Alexi Harrow's like other two books this year. I've got to do it. I've got to do it. I find it hard to describe this book or review it because it just feels so above me, right? It's just so good. Like it's just so amazing. The healing in this book, the journey into the past of your lineage and yourself. Oh, it's just amazing. So I would recommend you pick this up. It's absolutely gorgeous. I'm so glad I read it. Now number one, everyone, are we ready? Are we ready? I don't think we are. My number one favorite book of the year is The Thursday Meta Club by Richard Altman. I was not expecting that. This is my favorite book of the year. So in this, you're following these four elderly friends are like 80 years old living in a retirement village, but they run something called The Thursday Meta Club where they come together every Thursday and they try and solve cold cases. And then a murder happens on their door step. And it's them trying to solve this murder basically and what happened. And I loved the humanness. This book is so funny and joyful and silly. I just feel like it's a joyful book. It's a joy to read. It's really well plotted as well. Like the way that the mystery unfurls, you keep thinking, you know, what's going to happen in it twists. You keep thinking, you're also going to happen in the knit twists. I really loved also reading about elderly characters. I don't feel like we reread that that often. And it's them like getting out there and fucking doing it, you know, like it's them getting out there and like killing it and like having this interest and just like really living their lives to the fullest. This also made me cry a couple times. It will make you cry. Oh yeah, this made me cry a couple times. I can't even look at the wall with that sad face. But I just thought it was so well written. One of the best well written books this year. Very different to Once the Future Witches. They're both in terms of the writing, some of my favourite books this year. But that's beautiful. Whereas this is kind of like, I don't know if matter of fact is the right word. It's only the words that you need, you know what I mean? And sometimes you do need like beautiful descriptions and it has that. But it's like only the words that you need. And yeah, I just loved the relationships between characters. I loved the mystery and how it unfurled. Like I'm just a sucker for a good mystery and this is the best mystery I read like and how it was revealed. And I can't wait to read the next one which is The Man Who Died Twice. And I'm just so excited for this series to continue. I'm hoping it's going to continue forever because it's been so successful. You would think the publishing budget is there. I absolutely loved it. Favourite book of the year. It's just so good. Like you'll just read it and feel happy but cry, feel intrigued, feel shocked. Like it has all of the emotions. So there we have it. I'm not going to try and pick up the stack. Or am I? Or am I? Okay. That's my 10 top, that's no, that's my 11 top books of the year. My top 11 books of the year. Let me know if you've read any of these, what you thought of them. Let me know which one of these you most want to read in the future. I feel pretty good about my ranking. I feel like I got it pretty spot on. If you've gotten to the end, comment a white heart emoji. It's my favourite emoji to use at the moment. I was like why, you know, good vibes for the new year. Peaceful vibes. Comment the white heart emoji if you've gotten to the end. Thank you so much for watching. I cannot wait for all that 2022 is going to bring us together and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.