 Hey cuties! It is time for our last book haul before Christmas. If you guys have been around a long time you know I have a bit of a tradition of every Christmas filming myself unboxing slash unwrapping all the books I get for Christmas for my family and the ones that you guys very kindly send to me but I actually have quite a lot of books to haul and then after that my next book haul is my birthday book haul because my birthday's on January 28th which is very inconveniently close to Christmas I know. So then when I have a book haul again usually of just like random books until like March or whatever and so even though I don't have quite as many books as I usually do a book haul I think I have about 20-22 something like that here and usually I do a book haul when I've got like 30 plus these have to be hauled otherwise they're not going to be hauled for like forever and so we have to do it now. We need this. This is essential. This is a crisis. So I've got quite a few that I've read but we'll do them last. We'll go through all the books that I haven't read yet and let's just do this. I'm very excited. These are all books I'm very excited to read and I'm excited to chat about them with you. Where should we begin? Okay let's go with some of the new releases that I'm excited for. One of the books that I'm most excited to read. You guys ready? You're not ready? Book chops and bone dust? This is The Prequel to Legends and Lattes by Travis Boudry which for a long time this year I was saying was my favorite book of the year. That may have changed but I'm not going to tell you anything else. My lips are sealed. I'm going to complete state of shock I forgot what I was going to say. But I love Legends and Lattes so so so much and this is The Prequel. I'm a little bit nervous because I think part of the joy of Legends and Lattes was this like coffee shop and like oh it was so quaint and beautiful and like small stakes whereas I think in this one our girls are war but I think also spending a lot of time in this bookshop. So listen I'm gonna love it. Travis Boudry has the key to my heart. I have yet to find really any cozy fantasy other than maybe I guess trust the emerald sea which I read recently that I love this much. A lot of cozy fantasy I feel like doesn't have substance. I need substance and I just I just love Travis Boudry's writing. I'm so excited. I don't I'm intrigued as to whether I'm thinking I think about this a lot. There's a lot of things that I think about a lot that I don't think any other human thinks about a lot and one of them is is this gonna continue being a series or are we just gonna have the sequel and prequel for now and then is he gonna write other stuff or is it all gonna be in this what like what are we doing Travis? I need to do the game plan. I need to survive. But yes I'm very excited for this and I love my cover so I'm gonna have to read this soon. One that I am definitely gonna be reading soon is the Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett. I'm gonna be reading this just before Christmas and this is a Christmasy sequel to the appeal. It's in the name. I didn't love the appeal as much as I wanted to but I've loved every other Janice Hallett since. I love the twi-foot code and I love the mysterious case Abton Angels and so I just love I said this in my Tegucludo when I put this on there but I just love Christmasy Murder Mysteries. I just I love it. Every year I don't spend the whole of December reading Christmasy stuff because that's like overkill but just around Christmas I do love Christmasy either romance or Christmasy Murder Mysteries and this year I'm reading a few Christmasy Murder Mysteries. I'm gonna do a special vlog for it and I'm so excited. Also it helps that a lot of the ones I'm reading are quite short. I do I do think like a Christmas book doesn't need to be that long. Like I loved Christmas at the Grange is that it? It's like the short story, Christmasy short story from T. E. Kinsey in the Lady Hardcastle universe. But in this one I think they're putting on like a panto. They're putting on a Christmas panto and someone dies and I just love it. You guys who don't live in the UK are missing out on panto. Panto is its own beast. It's like a Christmas play but it's its own genre. It's camp! It's camp! I don't know what to tell you. And I love panto. I haven't been in a while. I love panto. So I'm very excited. I think this is gonna be high camp. Then when I went to Costa Rica with some of my friends for you guys, one of them Erica very kindly gave me the US edition of How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendricks on also oh this beautiful little bookmark. How cute is that? Yeah if you guys been around a while you know that I have been refusing to get the UK cover of How to Sell a Haunted House. I'm gonna put it here. It's just ugly. This has got such a cool vibe to it with like it's kind of like a toy house. I just love it. I love the vibe of this one. This cover is actually offensive to me. I recently gave Grady Hendricks my first ever five star for him but he is definitely my flavour of horror. Like I've spoken about a lot. Like if I'm gonna read horror, Grady's my guy. You know? So I know this one is about two siblings who are trying to sell their parents house but it may be haunted and I'm just I'm gonna read everything Grady puts out. I think Grady's my horror guy. And I've always said if you have recommendations for horror that is similar please let me know because I need them. Speaking of horror, one of my patrons Cade very kindly gifted me two books. And one of them is One's Trilio which I've heard so many good things about. I feel like everyone's been loving it. I don't really want to know what this is about. I just have certain books right where like I don't want to know the plot but should we have a little look? A woman's son dies? Oh yeah and she calves out a piece of his lung to save for herself and then it grows into like this little creature. But I think it's about family, about grief, about love and I've just heard so many good things about it and I'm hoping you know it will be the kind of horror that I can stomach. But I just heard so many good things about it and I really think the cover draws me in. I think it's such a unique cover. I think it's very special. This was like a bit of a special book. And then Cade also gifted me Shark Heart which I'm very excited to read. This one is about a couple who find out I just love this synopsis that I just love saying it. Okay a few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories and intellect but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. That's all you need to know. Olivia Wildnod at the end of the day, right? Olivia Wildnod. It's gonna be a little bit weird, a little bit magical realism. There's like a lot of pages that are like a line or a paragraph which excites me. I'm ready for this. I think this is like a five-star prediction and it's not usually like it's like fiction you know but I feel like it's my kind of fiction. So very excited to give this one a go. What should we talk about next? There's so many books here. A little while ago I met up with Jenani from this story Ain't Over while she was visiting in London and we went to a few bookshops and I was very restraint. I only bought two books guys. First is Days at the Morasaki Bookshop. It has a cat on the cover that is why I bought it. I think it's just about this cozy bookshop and it's like a cozy, gentle, heartwarming book. It's only like 140 pages and I have heard so many good things about it. It's one of those books I'd been to a couple bookshops like in the weeks prior and I'd almost bought it so many times and just held off and held off and held off. Yeah I'm really excited to see what I think of this. I think this could be a really cute, gentle, heartwarming book. I think it's about a woman who like the bookshop has been in her family for generations and she's like nah I'm never gonna you know that's not my job. But then I think her life kind of turns upside down and so she actually goes to work there and yeah live rent free there and kind of like I think it's about finding yourself and gentleness. I'm so excited. And then a book that I have almost bought so many times and I've been interested in for so long. It's one of those books that you're kind of interested in for a long time and then it takes you a while to actually pick it up is Plain Bad Heroines. So I know this we've got students in the early 1900s who are then found dead and then like the school opens then to film a film like a Hollywood film. It's got footnotes. It's got pictures. I'm very excited. Oh it has like a footnote. It says remember this name. Oh that's fun. That's camp. I love it. Here's what's really upsetting about this sort of art. People are ready for it. People are not smart enough to appreciate pieces of work like this. It is very long though. It is 600 pages and like why did the book need to be that long? It's always my question now the 600 page book. I'm like that was a choice you made. Why did you make that choice? I feel like I've had a lot of good things about this. I feel like people always tend to pick it up around like October season so maybe I'll save it until then. I mean listen it's not as if I'm struggling for books to read but I was like Megan you've almost bought this so many times it's time to pick it up. Then let's talk about some books that publishers have very kindly sent to me. We have got Murder Volume 1 and Volume 2. This is like it's not really a book but they're on Goodreads so you know I can mark them as red but it's like it's a game online murder where it's like a murder mystery game where you like crust off out and you gotta solve the mystery and as the book goes on they get more intense. I'm really excited to give these a go. I might even like around Christmas time I think this would be a fun thing to like sit and do. I'm a bit intimidated by them but I've seen some reviews that say once you start you can't stop and yeah so it's just like mystery logic puzzles but they're on Goodreads which means they can count as books towards my written goal and I eventually read them. So yeah I'd listen I love mysteries I love murder so I'm really really really really excited to try and do this. I don't know how good I'm gonna be but I feel like once you get the hang of it you can be good at something like this so it's very kind of them to send me both volumes. And then I also got sent death on the list that I always struggle to pronounce this Lysitania. This is a murder mystery set on this ship in 1915. Listen I love a good ship mystery. Never underestimate the sea. I love anything like train like anything that's like we're stuck on this this vessel together and there's a murderer and there's no way out. It's kind of I love it. Oh the man's body was discovered in a locked cabin with a key inside and no gun to be found. Locked room murder mystery. So yeah I'm really excited this one comes out in January next year so good to get this number. I've got some 2024 books that is scary that is very scary. A quick mention for a book I know I'm not going to be reading for a year and that is Ariadne by Jennifer St because this is going to be the book club pick for my grease trip. I'm hosting other travel trips some of you may know to Greece which I am so excited for. Since doing the Costa Rica one I just feel so excited for the Greece one. I'm not stressed at all. I don't feel worried. I know it's gonna go great. I'm so excited to meet new people. I'm so excited to see some of the same people who came to Costa Rica. I'm just so excited. Guys these trips are amazing and like they're legendary for the Greece one they're so good but our book club is going to be Ariadne because we are visiting the palace of Nosos where the whole myth of the minotaur and the labyrinth and Ariadne is set. So I figure since we're going there we've got to read this so I'm very excited but I'm not going to be reading this for like a year but I needed to pick it up to show everyone like when I announced the grease trip that we were going to read this and listen I have a I always tend to give Greek mythology books four stars because I love them but there is always something at least some ones I've read. I haven't read a lot. I've kind of read like from two or three authors but there's always like a distance kept between you and the character but I just feel like Ariadne might be different. There might be something different about her. So I'm very excited to pick this one up and then finally the last of the ones I haven't read yet were ones I picked up from the works. The works is this shop in the UK that sells a lot of things but it does sell some books and they usually do have they don't have the biggest selection. It's very TikTok inspired now I would say but what they do have they have for very cheap so it's good I always pop in whenever I walk past it. Have a little praise and sometimes I see stuff I want and sometimes I don't but this time I think there was an offer on for however many for three and so I picked up three. First I picked up a witch's guide to fake dating a demon by Sarah Hawley. Listen I figured it's blurred by Ali Hazel word so I figured it might be Ali Hazel's flavour of romance with a little bit of fantasy a little bit cozy fantasy thrown in um it's a witch fake dating a demon I mean the cover does tell you everything you probably need to know. These three books are ones that like I I kind of picked up on a whim you know they're not ones I know much about not ones I've heard much about but I was like you know I've heard a few people reading you so I'll pick it up. I also picked up love in the time of serial killers I just love the cover for this one and I remember seeing a few people buy it when it came out. I think one of them's got a true kind of obsession and she convinced that her new neighbour might be a serial killer but I think they fall in love. Interesting, TikTok bestseller and then I also picked up oh I haven't taken the oh yeah these were all three pound each with three pound for a book it's fucking crazy. I think I'll take them all what a good deal. I haven't taken the sticker off this one I'm not going to attempt it on camera that's too nerve wracking. I picked up how to kill men and get away with it. This is about how to kill men and get away with it she just kills nasty nasty men. Nasty men she's got addiction to killing nasty men and honestly good for her. Good for her. This reminds me of like I feel like this might be Finley Donovan flavour of like comedy mystery and listen good for her good for her I'm here for it. Okay that is all the books I haven't read then we've got a few books that I have read which we'll just run through really quickly. All right I'm just gonna mention these quickly because the vlog is coming this weekend but I had to pick up some books for the Goodreads mystery thriller award choice of whatever there's so many words the awards choice of the Goodreads choice awards vlog I'm doing the mystery thriller category. I picked up All The Sin Is Bleed by SA Cosby none of this is true but I used to do I picked up before I picked up these other ones because I knew this one would definitely be nominated so I picked that one up a while ago. Homecoming by Kate Morton and The Housemade Secret by Frida McFadden so all of my thoughts on these will be coming. I need a drink. All of my thoughts on these will be coming this weekend I don't trust myself to say anything because some you'll you'll start getting a hint of some of what I think about some of these so I'm just saying zilch never like you don't hear a peep at me but my vlog is coming this weekend so then a little while ago I held a patron meet up in London with some of my patrons got to meet them which was so much fun and we did a little book shop crawl. I bought Ariadne on that trip but I also bought two books I've already read which were Mr Magic by Kirsten White and The Girl from the Sea by Moni Nox Osatag. I liked both of these this one I thought is very it's a very interesting horror that I think is tackling interesting things that I haven't heard a ton of people speak about. This one was okay it was beautiful but I'm trying to be harsher with graphic novels because I feel like I just give them all five stars and so I just didn't feel like the story in this really made me feel much you know like I really connected with it so it was fine. Mr Magic it makes me I am intrigued I don't think I'm going to read Hyde but I am intrigued to read more of this horror from Kirsten White because it's very weird and very unique so it's not going to be everyone's flavour I can understand why some people don't like it but and then I'm going to be intrigued and then I did do a vlog recently where I made progress or finished seven theories in seven days and two of the books that I got for that I had pre-ordered this one Lights by Brenna Thumbna and I also picked up an Eldie Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tersten. This one was okay it was a bit different than the first one it wasn't as fun as the first one and I had a few issues with some of the topics discussed in this one but this one I just I loved I loved I cannot recommend the Sheets graphic novel series from Brenna Thumbna enough I was spoken about it a ton lately so I've spoken about my series of you I can't shut up about it but Lights was just the perfect ending to this series this series is so wonderful when you compare it to something like The Girl from the Sea I feel better the help my ratings of each of them because I just think the topics or the grief is unpacked the way the friendship has unpacked the way the belonging impact whether it's bullying you know this is middle grade at the end of the day the way that I feel like so many topics that would be so valuable for so many kids to read I just think it does it wonderfully so yeah I love Lights I love it so much there we have it I think that is all the books I have hauled recently can't be missing a few but I hope not because I try and keep track in my notes app and make sure I don't miss any so that is all the books that I have hauled in the past couple months and now I'm saving any book packages that arrive for Christmas which is very exciting but thank you guys for watching let me know what you thought of any of these particularly ones I haven't read yet I'd love to know your thoughts um what are the ones I'm most excited for how to set a haunted house the Christmas appeal and shark heart and monster video probably the ones that I'm most excited for but I'm excited for all of them so let me know what you thought of any of these if you got to the end of video comment a snowflake emoji because it's getting it's getting frosty out there and I'll see you guys soon in another video bye