 G'day mates! So today I am doing my January very very March video. May wrap up video and this month I read a brilliant 15 books. How that happened I do not know I literally just wanted to goodreads, looked up what I had read and was shocked by my skills of reading. So I'm going to jump straight in. So the first book that I read in this month was The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. It was a book that I read and annotated for a giveaway that I did. It was a really different book to what I normally read but at the same time it was still really really good. It was like a mystery thriller fiction book that left me with a lot of questions after it ended but at the same time it was good. Next up I have an ARC that I got from text publishing. There's a historical fiction book and for those of you who know me I am a huge fan of historical fiction and so that one is The War That Saved My Life by Kim Bluebrewbacker Bradley and this one is kind of a heart-wrenching story about a girl and her brother. She was born with clubfoot and her mother despises her. She's embarrassed by her. She never lets her out the house and it's just like really harrowing and sad and then when the war comes she has to sneak out of her own home to go to safety with her brother. Her mum wouldn't have let her so she had to do it at her mum's mission and they go and live in the countryside with this lady who appears to not really want them but at same time does look after them better than they've ever been looked after in their life. It was beautiful and also really sad and it was just really good. It's a really quick and easy read as well so if you guys want to have like a quick historical fiction you should read this. I got this next one from the YA Chronicles and I loved it. I devout it so quickly and that one is Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton plus it's like the most beautiful cover for a book I have seen in a very long time um so this is kind of like a western fantasy if I had to describe it. So it starts around a YA called Amani and um she pretty much lives out in the desert with this horrible backwards kind of town where women aren't really used for anything besides getting married given kids and not having any voices really. But Amani she's like not that even happening. I'm doing whatever I want to do and it ends up starting this huge journey that she goes on to and it is wonderful um if you guys are looking for a really good quick fantasy adventure pick this book up. It's really good. I'm not giving it justice because I'm off my head on Red Bull at the moment but it is very good. A Duck in Magic This Way Comes by Carmel Nyland. This is a pretty okay fantasy read. One that I have been putting a reading for quite some time because it is like one brick of a book is Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. This is the first book in a Duck Artifactus series. Um I might be like one of the like minorities that didn't actually like this book. I mean there were some characters in it that I really did like but I just was very disappointed by it. This next book I was not disappointed with at all and that is You Know Me Well by Nina Lacour and David Leatherthens. So this is an LGBT plus book. It features around two characters Good Mark and Kate and they are both gay. They are on their own story lines trying to find love so Mark is in love with his best friend and Kate is in love with a girl that she has only really heard about through stories and on this one night everything happens to go down. They're past cross and they become great friends and they go on this huge tale that um goes over the course of Pride Week and it's really uplifting and there's so much character development and it was just so good. I was ready to be read by Kristen Gia and I know that I'm pronouncing that wrong but what you're gonna do? This is the first book in a trilogy so you've got Sapphire Blue and Emerald Green which I need to get around to reading um so it's kind of like a time travel historical kind of book. It was pretty good. I mean I wasn't left with the need to really read the rest of the series. The plot for me kind of took a while to get into it but I did like the idea of everything and the characters and the historical times that was involved in this book so I will probably pick up the other ones but it is not a high priority on my tbr. This next book was kind of a low rating for me but at the same time it was kind of a refreshing read if that makes sense like I didn't 100% like it but it was very much reminding me of like Percy Jackson with the sarcasm and its clips and everything like that so it was fun I guess and that is It's a Wonderful Death by Sarah J Schmidt so this features a girl who accidentally got caught into my death and she pretty much has to go through all these stages of the afterworld to try to come out of it. The ending to this book though was amazing I loved Plot twist that happened and because of that I think I enjoyed it more than I would have normally. I mean for someone who's traveling through the afterworld I would have expected a bit more action to happen but it was very very slow in some parts and I also read The Wicked End of the Divine commercial suicides this is the third one in this graphic novel series. I was happy with this book at the same time I kind of feel like the series is going a bit downhill but I'm still very much in love with it. Hey the first third by Wilkes Dacus and this book if you guys have not read it should it is a wonderful contemporary read about family and love and it is heart-wrenching and I was in tears by the end of it but it is so amazing. Quick shout out to anyone who is in Perth there's going to be an event with Wilkes Dacus and Siobhan Plozer so Siobhan Plozer wrote the book Frankie and they will be coming to Boffins um did I say that already? I don't know but anyway they'll be coming and doing a talk and a book signing and it's gonna be really great so if you guys leave in Perth no I will leave a link below to that and if you guys come it comes to hire me and hang out with authors and have a generally awesome time. This next one I read is these special ones by M Bailey. A super creepy read that gives you tingles up your spine you guys need to read this is a very cultish kidnappery book and for me like at some parts it was kind of like flat and boring but the one thing that made me really enjoy this book was the really twisted fact that it had the kidnapper slash cult leaders perspective in this book so you guys kind of get an insight on his thoughts and it's super creepy. This next book is a third and final book in the divided week four series by Trent Reedy and this is a very like post-apocalyptic slash America civil war book so this series is very American-y um with the you know the pickup trucks and their guns and the girl from being called Jo Bell which in my head I just pictured like any American movie and I could just match the characters to them um but these books have so much development through them that I found myself so attached to the diverse range of characters and that but and and the last book which is the last full measure I felt like crying okay because so much bad stuff happens and I want them all to be okay but it is so horrible sometimes um these books have like a realistic aspect to them and it's a war so no one is really safe and it deals like PTSD and it's just absolutely heartbreaking to read but yeah it's a really heavy series but it's also something that's really good in that kind of sense but yeah it's a very action-packed um a lot is going on the dialogue is great the writing is great and if you guys really want something that's going to make you think about a lot of things um the series is one that I would recommend to you. Now I have some more graphic novels um first one is Rat Queens a volume one assassin sorcery and I absolutely loved this I need to pick up the rest but I have heard that they go kind of downhill and also um number two are Lumberjanes friendship to the max and for those who know me I absolutely love Lumberjanes so much. The last one that I read for this month was The Taming by A.M. Rycroft so this is an ARC that I was given by the author and I was so surprised at how good this novella was um I read it in one sitting in this 18 chapters and it is a very quick um fantasy read so if you guys in my quick fantasy fix I'd recommend picking this book up it features a lesbian main character who is trying to follow the mystery of her friend's death um it goes very quickly you meet a good range of characters that you really want to know more about so my only problem with this book was that it was so short and I really needed to see more of these characters and more on storyline and more developed for the world and everything like that but at the same time it was perfect for the length that it was because I could read it in one sitting and I really enjoyed it so if you guys are after a quick fantasy read pick this one up so there you guys have my um my books that I read in May and it was good and I'm really hoping I'll be able to maintain this like this streak going because I don't want to have to go into a reading slump which I don't actually feel happening yet so that's good so that is kind of all that I have got for today um I shall hopefully see you guys soon and if you guys have read any of those books I enjoy them totally fangal about them with me because I'm totally down for that anyway have a wonderful bookish week uh be awesome do great things change the world why do I do this to myself I just dropped all my books on the floor they're everywhere why I'm so sorry that I dropped you on the floor I hope you bae this Karen forgive me bye