 I don't know how I let it get to this many books before doing a book haul, but here we are. Let's chat about it. Hello friends, welcome back to my channel. Today we're doing perhaps one of my biggest book hauls I've ever done. We've got over 30 books here. Usually I do book hauls about the 20 mark, but for some reason this time I thought, let's do like 30. Yeah, let's do 30. So this is my first book haul since January, since the end of January when it was my birthday. This is all the books I've bought between now and then, which is like, I don't think that's bad. Like 30 books in three and a bit months. There's still like 10 books a month. Okay. We are going to pretend we didn't hear that. We're going to chat about all the books. I'm going to try and not make this video an hour long. We've got over 30 books to talk about. When I see some people do like 50 book hauls and it's a 20 minute video, I'm like, how are we doing this guys? Like what is the secret sauce? Because I just, I like to chat about books, right? I just talk too much. So we're going to try and constrain that and not make this video an hour long. Half an hour, it's fine, you know, but whatever. So a lot of these are 2023 new releases. I've got my, by the way, this is like my pirate. It's caused my, I feel like I look like a pirate. Like a kind of gay pirate, you know? Okay. So yeah, what was I saying? Focus Megan. Don't start three sentences and not finish them. A lot of these are 2023 releases. I'd say pretty half a 2023 releases. So why don't we just start then? Fast as go is actually one of my most recent purchases. It is a death of a bookseller by Alice Slater. I've heard mixed things about this one. Okay. I think this is more literary mystery thriller than like my usual flavor of mystery thriller. All I think you need to know is that we've got one bookseller. She's kind of a loner. She likes her murder podcast or whatever. Then Laura joins the bookshop. And she's like outgoing, sunny, like woo, you know? And it says as curiosity blooms into morbid obsession, Roach, who was the first kind of, you know, loner, bookseller, becomes determined to be part of Laura's story, whether Laura wants it or not. So I've heard mixed things. I've heard this is more literary, but I love the cover. This is one that a lot of bookstores have been pushing. It's been super hyped. So I have a good feeling about this. I'm trapidatious, oh, vocab. But I think, let's give it a go, you know? Then one that's been getting incredible reviews already, already is Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice to Murderous by Jesse Santanto. I have heard such good things about this already. So this is about a 60 year old Vera Wong. She works in the middle of the night to find a dead man in the middle of a tea shop. And instead of like going to the police, she's like, I can do a better job than them. I have never read anything by Jesse Santanto. Isn't this the author of three aunties, four aunties, and I'm reading Dali for aunties, those ones. Yeah, okay. And those ones didn't excite me as much, but this one I've just already has been getting incredible reviews. And I saw it in Tesco. I think it was like two for six pound or something, two for five pound, I don't know, something like that. Maybe even two, no, it was like two for nine pounds. So the books were like four pound, 50 each. But I was like, you know what? I'll accept that deal. You know, it's a murder mystery. I feel like I have to read every mainstream murder mystery that comes out. And I don't know, I've heard really good things about it so far. Then we have Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez. This was very commonly gifted to me by Erika. And Erika is actually one of the people coming with me on my Costa Rica trip, which is so exciting. I feel like I don't want to bother you, but I also realize I've never really spoken about the Costa Rica trip on YouTube other than the announcement video. And if you missed that, you don't even know about it, right? I've spoken about it on Instagram, but I know a lot of you don't even have Instagram or like don't use it or like don't follow me because I barely use it. But if you don't know, I'm hosting a group trip to Costa Rica at the end of this year in November and I am beyond excited. I literally, it's gonna be the, it's my dream holiday. It's a dream vacation of a lifetime. It is gonna be incredible. We are gonna be kayaking, snorkeling, seeing baby turtles hatch or sea turtles, laying eggs, exploring one of the most beautiful places on earth, eating incredible food. I am so excited. So I'm hosting a group trip. Erika is one of those people coming. If you wanna come on vacation with me, I'll leave the link down below. We can find all the details. But yeah, I've been getting to know everyone coming and everyone seems so lovely. And I just, like the fact that I get to go on vacation, you guys is freaking crazy. It's mad. I can't really believe it. I feel like I don't talk about it on here a ton because I kind of don't believe it's happening. But if you're interested, I'll leave it down below. Anyway, so yours truly is the sequel to, kind of sequel to part of your world by EpiHemines, which I read with my Patreon book club earlier this year and everyone loved it. Everyone gave it like four or five stars. I gave it a four, but like, you know, it's pretty hard for romance to get a five star from me, but it was really good. And this one is following the best friend of the protagonist of part of your world. And I'm just so excited. EpiHemines, I feel like could become a new favorite romance off of me. Try not to say mother challenge, failed. The only two authors I really refer to as to romance authors are Ali Hayeswood and Talia Hibbet. And I just feel like EpiHemines is gonna be up there. And Brie was such a fun, interesting character in the first book. She was such like a, I don't know, like the perfect best friend in a rom-com kind of role. So I'm excited to see how that translates to her being the start of the book. So thank you, Erika, for giving this to me. I'm very excited. Then we have A House with Good Bones by Teaking Fisher. This is not the only Teaking Fisher we're gonna see in this haul. I have yet to read a Teaking Fisher, but I have decided obviously that I am gonna be obsessed with Teaking Fisher. So I'm just buying all the books. This one, we're following a woman who goes back home to live with her mother or like, I feel like her mother's ill maybe. And she goes there and the house is completely changed and her mother is changed. And it's kind of this creeping horror about her mother and what's going on with her. And I've heard amazing things from people who have read this already. Mara loved it. And like that's basically, if Mara loves something, I'm like, okay, sign me up. It's just time that I read all of Teaking Fisher. It's time. I feel like Teaking Fisher is gonna be a new favorite author for me. So I knew I wanted to get the new release and I got this one from Book Depository because I liked the US cover. I don't know what the UK cover looked like anymore, but I remember it being ugly. I think it's kind of an analogy from what I've heard of parents of millennials suddenly becoming more right-wing and like how disturbing that is and like the shift that the internet access like Facebook and stuff and misinformation causes within people. So I'm very interested in this. Then we have one that I kind of just picked up on a whim and that is Godkiller by Hannah Kinnear. This is one of the big books in UK fantasy this year. I've heard, like I feel like I've seen a comment or two that is like not available in the US. I don't know what's happening there. I don't know if that's true. Might be spreading information, misinformation myself. Oh look, I also got this cute bookmark with it. How cute. That was from Waterstones. So it's this person who makes a living of killing gods. She finds a God that she can't kill. It seems like a fairly typical fantasy, but the cover gives me these incredible, like autumnal fairy tale like vibes. So I think it's a standalone as well, which excites me, which intrigues me, which tintolates, scintillate, is tintolating. I don't know. Girl, find the note, find the note. I saw this and I was like, you know what, let's just pick it up, let's pick it up, let's assemble. I'm like assembling all of the 2023 releases. Next we have a release that actually, Courtney Summers recommended to me. If you haven't seen the video I did with Courtney Summers where she picked what I read, I think when we did the Zoom interview, she recommended this to me, and it is Throwback by Maureen Gu. So the idea of this is we've got like a mom and a daughter who have been butting heads, fighting, and the daughter actually goes back to the 90s, like time travels back to the 90s, and is with her mom having to deal with living in the 90s, think 17 again. 17 again, what a film. Zac Efron, where are you? I will look out, no, okay. And listen, if Courtney Summers recommended it, I gotta get it. I'm excited for this one, and excited always to have like a kind of more contemporary wreck, why a contemporary wreck. We've got a few more on the list actually, I'm trying to assemble a few more of them. Quick mention for this one, because I've already spoken about it quite a few times, but it's Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire, the next in the Wayward Children series. This was a pre-order for me. We're following Ansie, who is in the Lost World. No, where things go, ooh, we'd have to get words out today. Where things go when they are lost and she can find lost things. And I spoke about this in my five star predictions video that I just uploaded, spoiler alert, it's in there. And so many of you have warned me once again that this is an incredibly tough read, it's incredibly heavy, it's emotional, it's hard to read. So I'm putting it off until I feel like it's the right moment, but I love the Wayward Children series so much. Then we have one that I'm super intrigued to read, The Drift by CJ Tudor. I'm really excited for this one. So we've got three storylines on this. We've got an overturned coach full of students, all of them are trapped, a stranded cable car full of strangers, one of them is dead, an isolated chalet full of friends, soon they'll be enemies. Dun, dun, dun. It's a locked room mystery, a dystopian thriller, a nail-biting horror. Listen. That's quite dramatic. I enjoy books that combine genres. Yes, I know mystery thriller, like it's sometimes treated as one, but they're different. Like giving me mystery thriller and horror all in one book. Oh, and I've really enjoyed all the CJ Tudor I've read. Have I only read one? No, I've read two with the Burning Girls and the Chalkman. And they were both like solid four stars for me. I don't mind an author being like a solid four star. That's good, right? If I know I'm gonna go into, I'd rather it be that, than like sometimes I give five stars, sometimes I give two, three stars, right? I know I'm gonna have a good time, a solid time. Not gonna give it five stars, why am I, am I? That's not kind of out. But I don't mind an author being that, where I know, yeah, it's solid, we'll give it a four. Do you know what I mean? Anyways, I've heard really good things about this. CJ Tudor's an exciting author. I get really excited about like she's got short story collections out. I just heard about her next book that sounds really interesting. So yeah, super excited to read this one. Nexus, The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell. I've spoken about this one a little bit, but it is Great Bitch Bake Off, Madden Mystery. That's all we need to say. This is camp, it's camp. I don't want to tell you it's camp. A baking show with a murder girl. I'm so excited. Now this is a debut and I have heard mixed things. I'm not expecting literary fiction. I'm not expecting the greatest plot advisory ever. I'm expecting a fun time. That's what I ask for. I just want to have a fun time reading this and I think I'm going to. Another one that I have heard mixed things about is I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Mackay. This synopsis is like every other dark actually, fuck out there. Nothing new, nothing changed. Same old shit, same old fucking shit. It basically is If You Friend the It Girl by Ruth Ware. It sounds exactly like that. So we've got a girlie whose roommate was murdered. She was integral to like, I think, getting the conviction of the person who was convicted for the murder. She starts thinking, did actually, was that the person? Did the right thing happen? Did I do the right thing? And I think goes back there to find out. Now, I'm aware that Mara DNF'd this pretty early on and didn't enjoy it. This again, it seems is more like literary mystery and it's not necessarily been pictured that. This has been pushed both in the UK and the US as a big release at the start of this year. Like I am embarrassing it getting massive US pushing. So I'm a bit nervous now after Mara, Mara read it on my recommendation and DNF'd it, I'm a little bit nervous. I'm still hopeful. I'm still hopeful that I can enjoy it. I think it's tackling a lot about like true crime and our perception of women being victims and obsession with true crime and what have you. We'll see. We'll see, we'll see. Okay, so she has been finalized in the past for the Pulitzer Prize. So I feel like that gives us the certain vibe that this may be. Okay, we'll see. Let's just chat about two arcs that I've got quickly. First we have Reach for the Stars by Michael Craig. I've spoken about this a little bit as well. But this is nonfiction about kind of 90s, naughties, Brit pop basically. Think S-Cup 7, think Sugar Babes, think who else have we got? Five, Spice Girls, J.L.S. J.L.S. is a bit later, I feel like. Westlife, who else? Steps, did I say steps? I don't know, all of those people. And it's a big kind of, the whole book is just interviews with different people. Craig David I just saw. Talk about the club classic. If you're not on your feet tonight dancing, I don't know what's gonna make you. Following Brit Pop at that time, and this is just made for me. I'm so excited to read this. I think it's gonna be so fascinating hearing from all of these people themselves. And yeah, it's like one of those topics that I've always wanted to learn more and hear more about. So super excited for that one. Then the other arc that I got was The Lake House by Sarah Beth Ders. I'm gonna be honest, I don't know much about this one. I'm on the email list for Harper Teen. And so they send out like a list of like, these are our books, do you want one? And this one just sounded interesting and so I picked it. And I liked the cover. I feel like the cover's cool. Three girls find a dead body in the woods. Someone's hunting them. I'm intrigued, okay? I feel like I do like a good like summer camp, Lake House, like kind of stories, a summer camp. Like I think back to the last time I lied by Riley Sager, I think it's a very fun, campy, again, we're gonna say camp again. I want camp setting for a book to be out, like a summer camp. Oh my God, it's, wait, my mind. Campy, camp, it's a summer camp, but it's campy. It's campy. I amaze myself. I am so powerful, my mind, oh, it amazes me sometimes. So yeah, don't know anything about this one, but hopefully I will get onto it soon and see. But I think of it. Okay, Tom just interrupted my filming to help him book a train ticket. So I don't know where we were. But next is one that I've spoken about quite a few times as well, hellbent, hellbent. I don't know how to even talk about this apparently, but I don't know how to express to you guys how nervous I am to read this. Like I can't believe how long I waited. I waited so long. I read Ninth House right when it came out as my first Lee Bardugo. I've waited for the continuation of the series. And now that it's him, I can't read it. I keep going up on my mind whether I wanna reread Ninth House. I don't think I do. I think I just wanna read it really in depth, but I just, I want it to be the perfect conditions for reading it. I don't know what those perfect conditions are. If you don't know, we're following Alex Stern in this. You do know. You know, right? She's gone to Yale. She's managing, like looking, not managing, but like, what's the word, supervising, I guess the magical secret societies there. It's dark, it's twisted, it's atmospheric. It's so good. Ninth House is so good. And I just, I want hellbent to be the same. So wish me luck. And I think both of these next two were on my five-star predictions list as well. First, we have the writing retreat. I've been called crazy. You guys are in the comments. I uploaded it last night when I'm filming this and you guys are in the comments like, no, you are insane. I believe, I believe it's gonna be five stars. All I know, we've got these friends. We've got a frictitious female relationship. And I think they're both going on this writing retreat that gets bonkers batshit crazy. I'm ready for it. You guys don't understand. I'm ready. It's gonna be five stars. I'm ready to cause absolute havoc. Watch everyone draw a strap when I say it's five stars. I believe, I've been looking forward. This has probably been one of my most anticipated 2023 releases. And I'm so excited. I'm ready. Everyone's like, oh, it goes crazy. Why? Tell me. I need, I'm ravenous. I need to read it straight away. I love the cover. God, the UK cover sucks ass guys. I'm so glad I got the US one. Oh, I feel nervous, but I'm really excited. And then I believe this is the last of the 2023 releases. There could be some hiding in the other stacks that I've got, but is in the Lives of Puppets by T.E. I was gonna say T.E.Kinsey. This is T.E.Kinsey. Different, different things. All I know is we're following this like family of, I think robots who live in like secrecy. Their location gets exposed. One of them is taken away and they've got to like try and save the other ones. I, again, this was in my five star predictions. I expressed concern that some people haven't been loving it as much as House of the Surinian Sea and under the whispering door. But I've been assured that I'm gonna love it. I'm gonna love it. I'm gonna love it. It's T.J. Quinn, come on. His fairy tale like writing, impeccable. Okay, then we just have other books. All the other books that aren't, I don't think any of these are 2023 releases. Let's get into it. First, we have the other T.Kinfisher book in this list and that is What Moves the Dead. I know this is a retelling, a reimagining of an Edgar Allen Poe short story. I feel like I wanna say. It's super short. It is like 150 pages. And I heard such wonderful things between last year. I love the cover, but I hate it, but love it. It's so disturbed and it's so cool. And I just, it's time that I know what everyone was talking about with T.Kinfisher. Then this was gifted to me by Sophie and it is Fangs. This is a graphic novel about vampires, I think. This is one that whenever I've gone into a graphic novel shop or something, I've seen it and I've almost bought it. I love it. It's like cloth bound. Oh, it makes me excited. This makes me so excited. A love story, oh, a love story between a vampire and a werewolf. Get into it, guys. Get into it. So yeah, super excited to see what I think of this. It'll be a really quick read. Good for like a readathon or something like that. Next we have Amari in the Great Game by BB Alston. This is the sequel to Amari and the Night Brothers. I mean, no greats that I absolutely loved were following Amari whose brother is missing and she gets like wrapped up into this supernatural world that her brother was in that she didn't know about. Turns out she has magical powers. Turns out there's this whole world of magic that she didn't know about and it's so much fun and I'm really excited to read the sequel. I think this is such special, unique middle grade. Amari and the Night Brothers is one of those books I have a really fond memory of looking back on and reading like I remember I sat in the Waterstones Cafe and Leeds and pretty much like read it all. And so I'm excited to continue. Then we have one that we've all been waiting for. Finley Dunlop and Noxom Dead by Elle Cosimano. All right, I have to ask what is going on here? I bought the paperback. I bought the paperback. What is going on? Why is this so big? What? Why? You guys, I'm very disturbed. Anyways, this is the sequel to Finley Dunlop and is killing it. You guys waited approximately 10 business years for me to read Finley Dunlop and is killing it and I loved it. So I had to go ahead and get the sequel. Finley Dunlop is a single mom, trying to provide for her kids and she gets wrapped up in the world of being an assassin basically. And I loved it. It's so fun, so lighthearted, so easy to read. I cannot wait to continue with this series. And then we have Agatha Christie, a very elusive woman by Lucy Worsley. You guys would have seen me mention this when I did my Agatha Christie Disappearance video, which is still one of my favorite videos I've ever made but it's like it flopped majorly guys. It really floporina, floporana, flop, gagatronja, everything. Like it didn't do well. In this book, I read the section about her disappearance and I loved that section. It was so great. Lucy Worsley is such an accomplished historian. The way that she paints the pictures of certain things and tells stories was incredible. So I'm excited to read the whole of it. I'm not really interested in reading other Agatha Christie biographies because they often seem to be written by men who aren't very sympathetic to like certain shit she went through in her life. So I'm not really interested in that. But this one, I'm really interested in reading. You know, I think Lucy Worsley, whenever I've watched her speak or whatever, she's so interesting. And it seems like she really got to the root of a lot of Agatha stories in this one. Then we have the May Book Club pick for my patron and that is Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall. I did have this on script but I had to get the physical version for the book club. We've already got the proclamation from one of my patrons that it is like one of their favorite books ever. Like favorite book of the year, favorite horror book ever. Like we've already had that kind of praise and it were only like 10, whatever, 11 days into the year, into the year, into the month. And so I'm super excited to read this with everyone. I don't know too much about it. A girl went missing in these woods. I think everyone's searching for her but I know that it has like, it's mixed media. It has interviews, it has evidence files and that gets me going. It gets me going, you know? It gets me so excited. Evidence mixed media. I praised this one already. I'm feeling good vibes. Then I was in Waterstones the other day and I saw this and I had to pick it up because it's only just come out in the UK. I know it came out last year in America and I think other places and it was nominated for the Goodreads for YA Awards but it only just came out in the UK and it is Lesbianes Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes. Look at this. Look at it, look at it, look at it, look at it, look at it. So cute. So I don't know much about this. I think it's about this girl who's like in the closet at Catholic School. She doesn't want anyone to know that she's queer and she I think gets to know like the only openly queer girl at school. I don't know. It sounds like a really fun, lovely but like tackling some important issues, YA contemporary and I just want to read some more of them. I used to read a ton and I usually don't give them five stars so I think that's why I cut back on reading them a little bit but I do really enjoy reading them so I wanted to replenish my stock a bit. Then the other book that I picked up in that if I won't get one half price at Waterstones is The Dance Tree by Kieran Millwood Hargrave. I got this solely because my friend Tasman from T-Books and Tasman over on Instagram has been shouting about this book, how it's the best book they've ever read. So I knew I had to pick it up. I don't know much about it. It's about these women. It's historical. Again, this has, I mean, look at that. Beautiful, beautiful sprayed edges but this was solely on Tasman's recommendation that I got this. That's it, basically. I was looking for another book to buy one get one half price because I got to make use of a deal. A deal's a deal, you know? And this is the one that I picked up. A dance plague. I'm interested. I'm excited. But yeah, don't know anything about it. And the other book that I got for the two for nine pound at desk, guys. I think I'll take them all. What a good deal. Was How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie. I did a video, what video was it? Oh, I think it was my Barnes and Noble versus Waterstones video that I did. I saw this on there. I think it was the best seller for Waterstones. And I thought, let's just get it. Like, let's just see what I think. I've heard quite mixed things about this. It's got a tiny font. This is gonna be quite a long read. Yeah, I've heard really mixed things about this. I think we're following like a serial killer, maybe, of some description. And I'm just intrigued to see what I think of it. I think it might not be entirely my thing, but it's been so popular that I would love to know what I think of it. And then a book I'm super excited to get to is The Floating Admiral. So this is by members of the Detection Club, which was a group of detective crime murder mystery authors, like in the 1920s, I wanna say. So Agatha Christie, as Frank really tells you, has a chapter in here. And the only other author that I've read is Anthony Berkeley, who wrote the Wynch and Him mystery, which I read, but Dorothy Elsayers is here as well. And my belief is that each of these authors, each wrote a chapter of this murder mystery, which is so unique. It's so different. I'm so intrigued to see what I think of this. It's such a fun idea. And I'm intrigued to see, like, is there a cohesive writing style? Like, can I tell this is written by so many different people? What's the tea? What's the tea? Then I recently worked with Pam McMillan for a video on their YouTube channel, and I just wanted to show you some of the books they sent me for that. So we've got The Promise Boys by Nick Brooks, which sounds incredible. It sounds so good. We're at this, like, elite prep school, and I think that, is it the head teacher? Yeah, the principal is murdered, and the police come sniffing around. And these trio of boys are the prime suspects, and they are all boys of color. And it's, I think, tackling a lot about, like, privilege, about racism, about ingrained racism, also about, like, school control, like, how schools try to control teenagers. I've heard really, really good things about this one. Then we've got, like, a campy fun one, The Headmaster's List by Melissa Dila Cruz. I think this one is set in, like, LA. There's a tragic accident where four of the members of the school were, like, in this car crash, I believe. And we don't know what the truth is. This is one of them was driving, one of them was high, one of them screamed, one of them died. Then we have The Changing Man. I think this is kind of, like, middle grade adjacent. This is, like, an arc that they sent me. This girl joins this elite boarding school. She's, like, trying to make friends. She makes friends with this boy whose brother is missing, and it seems like there is some truth to the legend of The Changing Man. There's, like, horror legends. So, in truth about that one. And then we've got The Murders at Fleet House by Lucinda Riley, which is seeming to be really popular in the UK at the moment, and it's following a detective who goes to this private boarding school where there's been a murder and no one wants to speak to her. It seems like everyone's closing ranks, which is, you know, suspicious of the murder because truly, do you want to help find the perpetrator? So, yeah, super intrigued by that one as well. And then I've just got three books which we'll just hold up and mention very briefly because I've read them already in the time between hauling and doing this video. First, we've got The Mysterious Case of the Alpine Angels by Janice Hallett. This was a five-star for me. I'll link the videos where I read these books down below. In this, we're following the story of this cult who tried to convince a young girl to kill her baby, and we've got these journalists kind of trying to uncover the truth 18 years on of what really happened that night. Then we've got The Murder Game by Tom Hindle. We're gonna move on very quickly. This was one star for me. It's very disappointing. It espoused to be like a murder mystery party where murder happened. There was no murder mystery party. The characters were boring. I felt insulted by this book because they just didn't do it for me. Anyway, it's moving on. I'm not enjoying it. I'm not. I hate it. I fucking hate it. And then finally, we have several people are typing. I also got nothing to see here, both for the Courtney Summers video or Courtney Summers picked what I read, but I actually lent nothing to see here to my boyfriend's mom and she loved it. This one is about where a guy's consciousness gets sucked into his company's slack channel and he's just trying to get out again and it seems like the slack channel has gone into his body, very strange. But yeah, I liked this. I didn't love it, but go check out the Courtney Summers video to hear all my thoughts. So there we have it everyone. Oh my God. I don't actually know how long this video was because I was rudely entrapped halfway through in filming. So I don't know how long this was. Hopefully it wasn't too long, but I'm so happy with all the books I've hauled. I am so beyond excited to read all these. God doesn't hauling books make you excited to actually read books. By the way, if you're wondering, my one of my goals this year is to get my unread TBR under 200 books. That's not going very well. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed this haul. Please let me know what you thought of any of the books you've seen here. I would love to know which ones you've loved or not liked or give me a better idea of what to read quicker. So let me know what you thought of any of these. If you've gotten to the end of the video, comment your favorite animal in emoji down below and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye.