 It's the middle of the year, so apparently it's time to freak out. And for the mid-year freak out tag. If you don't know, I said that very like I didn't want to do this. I'm like held a hostage, like mid-year freak out tag. I don't know what the tag that a lot of booktube does. I've done it the past two years. This is my third time, third time lucky. And it's basically a tag that gets you to reflect on your year, essentially in your reading so far. Actually, I need to tilt this down a bit. I haven't quite got used to where to place the camera. Focus on me, but focus on me. Anyway, I've got the questions prepared, but I haven't looked at them. And I cannot, I'm going to be honest, I know the gist, but I can't remember what they are. I usually pre-plan this, I think. But this year I decided let's just answer off the cuff. Let's just see the questions and see where life takes us. So we're going to basically be chatting about the best and worst books that I have read so far this year. I have read 62 books so far this year, which is pretty, like I'm pretty much on course for my best reading year ever in terms of numbers. But I feel like I've been doing shit because I set my reading goal to 150 and I'm behind. And also I feel like I haven't been making the vlogs that I want to make. I think I've been reading a lot of books, short books, that haven't been books for vlogs. So I haven't been getting as many vlogs done as I wanted to. So perhaps I need to stop reading those short books just because they, you know, heighten my goal. My progress was my goal on a site shooting the books I'm supposed to be reading. First question. Best book you've read so far in 2022? Absolutely horrible. Absolutely. How dare you? That's hot. What a horrible question to ask me first. Jail. Jail. I have no idea. I plead the fifth. Right. I've just cheated a bit and I've looked at what the next question is. This is top four because there's one book that applies to the next question. So I'll give you top three but include the book I'm going to answer for question two in this. Top three are Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee, Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins-Reed and The Broken Girls by Simone St James. I don't feel like I've had a favourite book of the year yet. Like when I've read my favourite books of the year previously, it's been a momentous moment, right? The ground has shifted. Like, you know, we've felt the wind breeze through our hair. I don't feel like I've had that yet. This was an amazing end to a series. This was just Taylor Jenkins-Reed, like fucking pulling it out the bag again, making me cry, being some of my favourite writing I read. Like, I love her. And this was an introduction to a new author who I loved. So these are my top three, slash four. You'll see the fourth and a second of the year so far. If I had to pick one, today it's Malibu Rising, but like tomorrow it will be Jade Legacy. Do you know what I mean? These are pretty much all on the same level. It's going to be hard at the end of the year when I need to rank my top 10, because I feel like I've had a lot of good five stars, but I don't think I've had a lot of like absolute all-time favourites. Do you know what I mean? That hasn't really happened this year for me. So one of these is my answer. Question number two is best sequel you've read so far in 2022. So actually Jade Legacy could count for this as well, but my other answer, we're not surprised, is as good as dead by Holly Jackson. I loved this. I know it's Marmite, right? I know it's hit or miss. The way that this series ends, this is the last in the series of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, it's controversial, okay? Everyone loves me, well the old bastard hates me, but they're just wrong. Listen, it's doing a lot. It's doing something and some people hate it with a burning passion. They say you shouldn't even read this last one. And the rest of us say it's the best in the series, it does what needs to be done, it goes there, it's outrageous, and I loved it. So this series is this girl called Pip, Solving Mysteries in her small town, and this last one is about her having a stalker. So this time she is the mystery, essentially that she's trying to solve. She's getting notes saying who will look for you when you're the one who disappears. And this book, hmm, yeah, she's that bitch. She's that girl. It went somewhere where I could never have wanted the series to go and yet it was perfect. And I won't say anything more because I don't want to spoil anything, but like, oh my God, I can't wait to reread this series one day. Just thinking about where this goes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Next question. New release you haven't read yet, but I want to, all of them. Sorry, can't do this. Absolutely diabolical behavior. I haven't done very well at reading new releases that have come out so far this year. In fact, I've done terribly, terribly, atrociously. Which one, I mean, all of them. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Su Lin Tan. It's probably one of my number ones. It is arguably the most gorgeous book I own. I mean, like, I've shown this many times, but I mean, look at it. It's stunning and so many of you, particularly my patrons, have told me how much I'm gonna love this. I just know it's this mythology inspired fantasy, fairy tales, magic, beautiful. I mean, anything that has this kind of design I know I'm gonna love. So that's definitely up there. And let's just say one more, because otherwise we'll be here 10 years. Yerba Buena by Nina Lacour. This is Nina Lacour's adult debut, and I have just heard such wonderful things about this. Some people who have read it, I love Nina Lacour. And this is about these two girls or women, I suppose, who have both been through a lot and life is kind of bringing them together and apart. I really cannot wait to read this. I'm very, very excited to get to this one. So those are probably the two books that have already come out so far this year that I'm like, holy shit Megan, like, get your shit together. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year. Absolutely. Without a doubt. I'm the girl by Courtney Summers. I already have it in my clammy paws. Courtney Summers is one of the only authors I've read. Two books from. They're both five stars, both impeccable for me. This is inspired by Jeffrey Epstein and that story. We've got a girl who's murdered and then two other girls, her sister and another girl, pair up to kind of try and uncover it. And I think that they uncover this terrible world, essentially. I cannot believe I have an arc of this. I'm holding out for a moment where I feel like my life is great so that I'll be in the best mood possible to read this and give it the best chance possible of me loving it. I mean, I know I'm gonna love it. But yes, absolutely my most anticipated release for the second half of the year. Everyone needs to put it on their wish list, pre-order it. I am so excited. Next question, biggest disappointment. Let's whip out the good reads. I mean, I've had quite a few two stars. I've only had one less two star this whole year so far than I had in the whole of last year. That's kind of crazy. I've been a bit more liberal with the two stars this year. I would say biggest disappointment is Shiver by Allie Reynolds. I think this might have even been like a 1.5. I was so disappointed because I heard Mara speak about this and if you watched my Bookshed Twin Test video with Mara, you'll know we're twins. Like we're the girlies. So she really liked this. And I was like, right, another thriller, you know, another mystery. I'm set. Like I know I can rely on Mara. It turns out this time I couldn't. Because I didn't like this. This is like an isolated murder mystery, which is my kind of thing in a snowy landscape. I mean, like this is Brennan Butter, but I just really didn't enjoy this. I found it boring, uninteresting. The character is one dimensional. The book a bit up itself, predictable. I just didn't like anything about it. But I'm quite honest. If I'm honest, if I bear my soul and I'm honest to you, this is probably my biggest disappointment. I mean, there's a lot. Because there's a lot of two-styles so far. There's, yeah, I've just been giving them out. All their friends enter. I'm like, two-star, two-star, two-star. I didn't feel like this really had any tension. The characters, like, I didn't like any of them, but I didn't particularly hate any of them. I was just like, you're just like boring. Like give us something. Like it was just very boring and so predictable and leaned into some tropes that I don't appreciate. And just didn't enjoy it. Perhaps also Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney should be up there. I'm not having good luck with three landscapes because I was so excited to read my first. Alice Feeney actually perhaps is this one because this is more hyped than Shiva. There's a lot about this book that's egregious. And I, again, this book even more than that. I knew what was happening the entire time. So I decided to go and investigate it. It was so incredibly obvious. I actually don't understand how this book is, works. It's a husband and wife going to this weekend away to try and salvage their marriage. He has face blindness, so he supposedly can't recognize his wife. The face blindness treatment in this still outrageous me. Like if he, oh, I think about this often. It will be like if he walks into a restaurant and she's already exceeded, he won't know her, right? If I walk into a restaurant and my boyfriend or my mom or my dad or whatever was wearing a full face mask, like literally I couldn't see their face, I would still know it was them. Especially if we agreed to meet there, I would still know it was them. I just feel like it was used for pot and for convenience-y. Okay, is that a word? And it very much annoyed me. So I don't know if I'm going to continue with Alice Feeney in the future. Biggest surprise, oh, definitely. My biggest surprise was a skin full of shadows, by Francis Harding. This was another five-star. I worked with the book app Novelict, do a reading vlog where it picked what I read and they have this really cool Ask the Community section where you can put like a book request in and people can answer you. And this is the book I picked to read from that request and I loved it and I'd never even heard of it. And now I want to read all of Francis Harding's stuff. So this is following a girl who can kind of absorb spirits and she absorbs this bear spirit and she gets sent to live with her dead father's rich family. And it's historical. It's fantastical. It's got a mystery running through it. The way it examines family and self and sense of self. It was amazing. This should probably have been in my top five of the year so far. If I'm honest, this could probably kick out one of those top three books I showed you on any given day. It should have been up there. And I was so surprised. I wasn't, I mean, never even heard of it. I'd never heard of the author, like ever in my life. So it was such a shock to love this book as much as I did. It's like the kind of writing I love. It's just gorgeous and lyrical and beautiful. So loved it. Favorite new author, debut or new to you? Yeah, I think it would have to be Simone St James or Francis Harding. One of these two. They're both authors who I now have other books from them to read. And I'm super duper excited. So neither of these are debut. I don't think I've given a five star. No, I haven't given a five star to a debut author this year. And these are some of the only two five stars I've given out to authors I've never read from before. So one of these two. I've got a book of cold cases from Simone St James to read. And I've already got deep light and the lie tree from Francis Harding to read. Right, the next one, fictional, newest fictional crash. I don't have one. I don't have one. I can never answer this. I don't have one. I don't crush on fictional characters because you are not that kind of girl. Newest favorite character. Now that one, that one's interesting. I've really loved the families I've read from this year. So Jade Legacy. Obviously I read Jade City last year, so they're not new characters to me. But I really fell in love with Andan and Wen from the Greenbone Saga this year. Listen, Justice for Wen. People shit on Wen and I'm not having it. I love her. I will defend her the day I die. Newest love hate character, Hilo. Hilo is a great character. He's probably one of the most interesting characters to read from. But like, he's in my bad books sometimes. Sometimes we're just not friends. And I'm like, uh, mm-mm, nope, nope. I would say Andan and Wen I love unconditionally. And I would also... I'm just like chucking books in my bed. Once I'm done, I'm like... Like a boomerang. I really loved the family in Malibu Rising. We have Nina, Kit, Jay, and Hud. And Nina. I think Nina... If I were to say Crush, I think I could fancy Nina perhaps in a lifetime. I just really loved their family dynamic and their mum as well. June, I'm pretty sure. I really loved all the characters in this book and particularly the family dynamics. I think I'm having a bit of a... I'm thinking... I'm going home. I'm thinking I'm having a bit of a thing for families this year in fiction. I've been really enjoying that. So, yeah, those are probably my favourite characters. Book that made you cry. Oh, I mean, I'm a broken record. Jade Legacy, screaming, screaming, crying. Like, I was listening to the audiobook and my boyfriend, he took my earphones out and he was like, listen to how loud you are. You are screaming. It was like dead of night. Like my poor neighbours. I was like, sorry. I was like, I don't care. I'm sobbing the end of this. Prepare yourself. If you haven't read this yet... Girl. You got a big storm coming. Is there anything else that made me cry this year that I gave five stars? Two short stories that actually made me cry are The Giving Tree and Ark. Ark is like a sci-fi novella from this forward collection. This is by Veronica Roth and The Giving Tree is like a short kids illustrated story essentially by Shell Silverstein, if I remember incorrectly. Both of these are only like 30 pages, particularly The Giving Tree is a picture. 30 pages. But they both made me cry and I really... I read these around the same time and I just thought it was so interesting and so amazing that these 30 page stories could elicit that kind of reaction from me. Like really crying. So I really appreciated both of them for that. I think that's very, very hard to do so those were both five stars as well. Book that made you happy. Books don't make me happy. I don't read books that would make me happy. I read sad shit. Perhaps. I mean, I don't know. Under One Roof by Ali Hazelwood? That's the first in the Steminis novellas. I gave that a 4.5 star actually and that was my favourite of the Steminis novellas. I really liked their relationship. So I mean if we're saying enjoying the sex scenes is making me happy, I mean there we go. I can't even think of anything else. I read thrillers and sad books. I want to cry. So that question again doesn't really apply. The rules don't apply. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year. This is it. Like this is it. This is, I mean, nothing else compares. So, so gorgeous. I mean, I just love it so much. Probably the most beautiful book I own. What else? I mean, I haven't bought that many books this year. I did also really like, I mean, it's just fairy-loot, isn't it? They always take this spot. I really like The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea. It's very, very pretty. Again, I love, sorry, I always have the cards in the books. When I read the books, I read them. I love the illustrated end pages that fairy-loot have started to do. I just think it's so gorgeous. So that has to be up there as well. I mean, like, come on now, come on. I will say actually also, I love The Cover of Siren Queen by Nevo. I got this last. I mean, like, it's simple. It's just a woman's face, but I love the tones they've used. I think it's gorgeous. I'm very irritated. Can you see, let's like, get close up here. Can you see it came from Amazon? Look at that, like, grease mark that's on it. I don't know how to get it off. And there's some, like, more up there. I don't know if you can see, but that's very upsetting to me. It is an experience for me to go through how warm I am. The final question, it always upsets me. Because the final question is, what books do you need to read by the end of the year? Fucking all of them. Like, what do you want me to say? My priority is getting through as many 2022 releases as I can before the end of the year, because I haven't done a very good job of reading them so far this year. I've also got lists on my channel that you can go watch, like my 2022 TBR or the 23 books I need to read before I turn 23, which is January 28th. So it's kind of basically this year. A few other new releases, I guess, like releases from this year that I haven't mentioned yet that I would really like to get to. I've just got this, Murder Before Even song. I always call it Ever Song. For some reason, Even Song just doesn't flow. Even Song. Like, you have to close your mouth and open it again. It does Even Song. Like, it's very hard to say Ever Song. You can say it. I don't know. Why do I have to call it Even Song? It's like, it's very upsetting for my mouth. But this is like a cozy murder mystery written by the Reverend Richard Coles, who's a big celebrity basically in the UK. He used to be in a band. Now he's a Reverend. And look how cute the end pages are with all the dogs. How cute. So that's definitely one I would really, really love to get to. And then one that's been one of my most excited ones to get to for a while, but I actually know I'm reading this like next week, is A Fate to a Crossing by Tom Hindle. This is a debut, I believe. And it's very Agatha Christie inspired. We have this cruise ship which has 2,000 passengers and a guy dies. And someone else is investigating it. And I'm very, very excited to read this. I've always said I've looked up Tom Hindle and he seems like a bit of an Agatha Christie stan. Like he feels like he loves the girl, you know? So I feel like he's gonna do like a classic murder mystery very well. So there we have it. That is my mid-year freak out tag. I can't believe it's the middle of the year. I've been telling everyone this second half of the year, I mean the new hair. Like it's my bitch. I just want you all to know the second half of the year, we're about to like, you know when Dua Lipa couldn't dance and then she like learned how to dance and suddenly she was like the best dancer ever and the best performer. I'm doing her dance move right now. That's the vibe. So good vibes only for the second half of 2022. I feel like I've said to 2021 at least three times in this video when referring to this year. Thank you, thank you so much for watching and I will see you very soon in another video. Bye.