 Hello friends, how are we doing? Welcome back! It is time for episode six of Wrapped Up Retro where I have wrapped up the 50 oldest books on my TBR and each of these vlogs we unwrap one, we find out one of these together and then we read it. So basically yeah, I'm excited, I love Wrapped Up and I'm just feeling like we're gearing up towards episode 10, which you remember episode 10 last year? It was a certain kind of thing and I'm just feeling like I want good vibes leading up to that video. I'm not going to say what it is, if you know, you know. If you get it, you get it. If you don't, you don't. If you know, you know. If you don't know, I honestly feel bad for you. Okay, let's take a book. Okay, I'm going for this one. I'm going for whatever this is. I just like, I just let my eyes, please stop, we're leaving that. I just let my eyes glance over the books. Oh, this is straight. I think I know what this is. I've got to go with it. I just got to go with what I pick. I actually don't even let myself double think anymore. I don't let myself like grab another book and like I just have to, I think I know what it is. I think, I'm going to put my predictions in. It feel, it's like a big, but it's paperback. I think it's when the stars go dark, which is a book I can't really tell you anything about. It's like one of the old books in my TBR. Yeah, that's what it is. I am so powerful. My mind, oh, it amazes me sometimes. This is a thriller. This is a arc I very kindly got sent by the publisher. Oh, we've got a, Anna Hart is a seasoned missing person detective living in San Francisco. When unspeakable tragedy strikes, she turns to the Californian village of Mendocino to grieve. Seeking comfort in the chocolate box village she grew up in, Anna instead arrives to news that a local girl has gone missing. The crime feels frightening reminiscent of a crucial time in Anna's childhood when an unsolved murder changed the community forever. As past and present collide, Anna is forced to confront the darkest side of human nature. It will satisfy something in me, reading an arc that is this old. I'm not very good. I don't request arcs anymore. I like if a publisher asks me, do you want this book? And it sounds like something I'm really interested in, I'll accept, but I don't request them anymore because I'm not very good at reading them quickly. That's this one. Also, when I started Booktube, I just accepted loads and loads of books that I wasn't probably super interested in, but that's not so sounds good. So I'm excited to pick this up. It sounds like a good thriller mystery hybrid. I'm excited. Okay friends, it is March, so it is time to read our March book club. No, it's not book club. I just read a book club book. I'm patron. Wrapped Up Retro. Our March Wrapped Up Retro book, which is, as you've just seen me unwrap, it literally just happened for you me unwrapping this when the stars go dark by Paul McClayne. I'm really excited for this. I've never read anything by Paul McClayne. I know she is a fairly well known author, but this is going to be my first from her. I think this could be a good pick for me. I think this could be like a fun, not fun, because I think it's quite depressing what it's about. But do you know what I mean? Like a fast paced, easy to read thriller. It's kind of what I'm hoping for and expecting from this. So yeah, I'm excited to get into this. I'm going to start it today. We're actually going for a walk today, but it's about a 40 minute drive either way. So I'm going to start this on the way down the way back and hopefully I'll get maybe a third of the way through in that time. And when I get home, I can check in with you on my thoughts. But yeah, I'm feeling really positive about this one. I'm very much looking forward to starting it and also getting a book that's been on my TBR for many years off of it. It's come up to three years, I think, that I've owned this. That's quite bad. Okay, I'll see you in a bit. When the Stars Go Dark by Paul McClay get crazy feelings, like I'm like, oh my God, I love this book, you know? I think this is kind of your quintessential thriller. I don't think it's pushing the boat out. I don't think it's doing anything new, nothing new, nothing seen. I don't think it's doing anything imaginative, but I think it is a pretty good version. Hang on, it's just annoying me the angle you're on. But I think it is a pretty good version of what it is. So we're following Anna, who is a missing persons detective. And when we open the book, she has obviously gone through something very traumatic recently to do with perhaps giving birth or to do with her family. We're not entirely sure. I'm still not clear on what that is. And so she kind of leaves her husband or maybe he's told her to leave her. Again, we're not sure. But she goes back home to the town where she grew up. She moved around a lot. She was in foster care, but this seems to be the town that really was home to her. So she's gone back there. She's meeting some of the old characters and people she was friends with and she was in her teens. And one of her friends is the local sheriff and he tells her that there's these girls going missing. And she decides to, even though she's in like a very fragile state, she decides to help out on the case and try and uncover what's happening with these girls because it's obviously what she does back home in her work. I am enjoying it. It feels like a very easy read. It feels like no thoughts had empty kind of with the true crime element. And as a very interesting character, we're getting a lot of her back story. She's a very turbulent childhood in the foster care system. Then we're kind of getting some of that. There's a lot of characters that are referenced to that we don't know much about, but obviously are at the core of her life. So it's very much her knowing more than we do. And I think the missing girl mystery is interesting so far, but it's only really just begun. It's been a little bit of a slow start. It's kind of eerie. It's kind of, you know, settling into the book. We're not going like fast-paced. I think it's a book you can read fast, but we're kind of easing into the book. And I enjoy the writing. There's been a few times where something's been said and I'm like, oh, where they're just something that the phrasing has thrown me off. But for the most part, I think the writing is good. I've never read anything from Paula McLean, but I think the Paris wife is fairly well known, which is another one of her books. At the moment it's done what it needs to do and got me a little bit hooked. I feel like I could finish this today. I might end up doing this today. It's very much a book you can read fast and want to read fast because you want to find out what happened. So it's done what it's needed to do in this first third and got me hooked. Nothing, no action has happened yet. We've just got a few little hints of things. We feel all moments of intrigue. So this could go either way still. I feel like the first third has been promising, but I feel like sometimes we throw others like this. You can't really make your mind up how you feel about it until it's finished. So yeah, I'm going to be reading this today in between doing some other work, but I do feel like this is the kind of book you can read fairly quickly. I'm enjoying the audio book. We'll see how it goes. I also do like detective, small town police. Like I think there's often very interesting dynamics there, which is why there's so many thrillers written in that setting. But we shall see. My first check-in is I am intrigued. We shall see. Also the walk yesterday was probably one of the worst walks I've ever had. We just like we followed this app, like this route on this app, which we don't usually do. Usually we just turn up to a place and kind of like walk, but we tried following this thing and we like got as far out away from our starting point as the walk we could get. But then every route was flooded. The whole place was flooded. And so we kept trying to find new ways to kind of carry on the walk as it was telling us to, and every route was flooded. So we had to just double back on ourselves. We walked like 10K, but we like didn't really see anything. The beach at the end was lovely though. We found the beach at the end and that kind of saved it a little bit because that was beautiful. But majority of the walk were kind of just in this weird path. It wasn't even like in a forest, it was just like a road. And it was all flooded. A failure of a walk. But I enjoyed listening to this in the car. And yeah, we'll make more progress then I'll let you know what I think. But so far I'm attached to the characters. I like the setting and I'm intrigued to see where the mystery could go. And that's kind of all you can ask with a book like this I think. Hello gorgeous cuties. Good morning. I am 2000 the way through when the stars go dark. And I don't have much to say to you other than I am still really enjoying it. This is a very easy read. It's kind of slow paced. It's kind of eerie and it's town. I feel like the image is very vivid. I don't know if I've said all this to you before. My opinions have not changed so much but I'm just enjoying being taken along the ride in this story. I will say I think that this is a bit more of like a literary mystery. I think the writing is quite a high caliber and it's quite, you know, sometimes a bit more descriptive, a bit flowery, a bit like serious. I don't know. It sometimes isn't that like I don't need to think it's a fast pace like crazy thriller. Do you know what I mean? It's slower. It's spooky. I feel like this cover does a good job of like the vibe with the fog and the trees, you know? But I'm really enjoying this and I don't think it's going to be a five star. At the moment in a year it's feeling like a very, very strong four that I can recommend to a lot of people. But like a five star for me is like a favorite, a favorite, a favorite like bloating of my feet. But I also can't wait to read more of this. Like I am throughout the day on yesterday, I'm having to do stuff. I didn't read any of this yesterday and I was so sad about it. But I don't think it's going to do anything to tip it. It might be like a 4.5. It might end up being a 4.5. It's somewhere, I don't think it's going to quite get a 5 but it's hovering around that 4, 4.5. But we've got all these different mysteries going on. It's doing a good job of having these multiple missing girl mysteries. We're focusing on one more than others but we're also going and speaking to the consulting detectors of the other ones and trying to find out if they're linked. I think it's doing a good job of having separate mysteries with the possibility of them being linked or not. And I'm just interested to see because this book at the end of the day has to make a point. I think it's gearing up to making like I feel like the resolution, the ending is going to make a point around this whole idea of also what the character's going through and these girls going missing. And I just feel like I'm interested to see how it all comes together. Because I think the ending perhaps does hinge a bit. My enjoyment does hinge a bit on the ending and kind of what the ending says. I'm going to finish this today because I'm starting a big reading vlog tomorrow that I need to start tomorrow. So I started today actually but I wasn't able to finish this before today. And I can't start the vlog on the same day that I read this if that makes sense. A little tease. So I'll be the next vlog next weekend. You naughty, naughty. You teasing me, you naughty, naughty. Yeah, I'm starting a really big vlog that I'm very scared for tomorrow. So we need to finish this today. So I'll check with you a little bit later. I've got some editing to do and some work, but I'm going to listen to the audiobook whilst I do some cooking and stuff today. And I will see you probably this evening with my final thoughts. But right now I'm enjoying it. And this is a book that I felt very ambivalent towards for a very long time. That's why I hadn't read it. It was an arc I got. I hadn't really heard of the book. And it's obviously been on my TBL for very long. Hence why it's unwrapped up retro. And it was a book I'd kind of forgotten about. And so whenever that's a great thing about this series is these are books that for whatever reason I have not felt as incentivized to pick up. And reading it finally is like this weird sense of satisfaction, but also like almost proven myself wrong that like this book had more to offer than I than I expected. So anyways, I'm gonna finish it. I'll let you know what I thought once I finished it. But I'm really enjoying it. I'm having a good time. I can't speak. I'm having a good time. Morning friends. I did finish last night, but I didn't check in with you because I was tired. But I finished When the Stars Go Dark and I'm gonna give this a four star. This for me is a really successful wrapped up retro episode where yeah, I'm just so glad I finally read this book. Finally! It was some book I really was not expecting this from it. I thought it'd be like a low three. This is a high four, almost a 4.5. Just wasn't quite there for me. But I really enjoyed this. I think this is a thriller I could really recommend widely. I think a lot of you could enjoy it. I think a lot of different people could enjoy it. I've been reading a lot of thrillers slash mysteries. I would say this thing's more mystery actually. I was referring to more the thriller early on, but I think on reflection it is more of a mystery. I've been reading a lot of thrillers and mysteries like Bright Young Women or I recently read Death of a Bookside of my Patreon book club. I've been reading a lot where it's making me consider the ethics around the way we handle certain topics in thrillers and mysteries. I think like a murder mystery is a bit different because that's often a bit tropey, a bit caricatury, you know. But with these more serious mystery and thrillers, it has to be thinking about the ethics of that. And I think this handled the topic. I don't necessarily want to go into, I don't know if it's a spoiler because it kind of all came wrapped up for me in the ending. But the angle of the crime that this one is really examining, I think it handled really, really well and with such care and with such nuance and was, well not really nuanced because it's only a topic you need to surround. But I just think it handled it with great intelligence. And to top that all off, I think the writing was great. It's an incredibly atmospheric book. I've seen some reviews on both Goodreads and I think someone commented on one of my videos that they went and visited the town. This is set in after reading it and I can see why someone would want to do that because it really brings the town and its people and everything in it alive and it all feels very real. So I am so glad that I finally read this book. I am so happy because like I said, this has been on my tbf for so long and was a book that I've I've like debated unhauling a couple times because I was like, I don't just don't know if I'm interested in it anymore. I think this was really well written. I think Paula Hawkins, Paula Hawkins, Paula MacLaine traditionally publishes more like literary historical stuff and it's on a memoir. So I don't know if how other stuff really enticed me but I really think that this is like a really good mystery thriller that I can recommend to a lot of you and would do so. So I had a great time. Wrapped Up Retro picked well this time. I'm scared for what we're gonna get and the rest of the months, the rest of the books. I don't know, I'm feeling nervous. Yeah, this was very successful and I had a great time reading it. I would really recommend the audiobook. It was just the kind of book I didn't want to put down. I don't think it's gonna be the most memorable book I've ever read but whilst I was reading it, I had a really good time. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed this little vlog, this little Wrapped Up Retro vlog. If you have read this please let me know your thoughts down below because like I said, I think this would be one that a lot of you could enjoy. The audiobook was great. I think it handled its topic and I had other topics like foster care, living in foster care, traumatic, uprooted upbringing as kids. The vlog is finished but I just think this book had a lot of really good things to say. So anyways, I hope you enjoyed the video and I'll see you very soon in another one. Bye!