 Hello friends welcome back to my channel and welcome back to the second episode of Wrapped Up Retro. Wrapped Up is a Christmas series I always do on my channel and this year Wrapped Up Retro I have wrapped up the 50 oldest books on my TBR. And I'm kind of regretting it but I'm also excited. I feel very excited to finish the books and read the books that have been on my TBR for a long time. There's a deep sense of satisfaction about finishing a book and reading a book that you have owned for a very long time. So it's our second episode. First episode I won't spoil anything if you haven't seen it yet go check it out but it wasn't the most successful. What's that got there? And it's time to pick what we're going to be reading today. I don't know what you guys are. I'm not feeling a super long book once again. Okay it's between two. Let me grab them. I feel like it's always between two for me. This one's heavier. This is like a cloth bound one maybe. Interesting. That means it's a classic. No one's reading that book. That does scare me off a bit a bit. No okay. I don't think I'm ready for that. I'm gonna do this one. I'm gonna do this one. Okay are we ready? I'm not. Let's have a look. Let's see what it is. Am I really doing... I've started unwrapping it. I don't have a choice in the matter. Okay I'm not looking. You can maybe see what it is. That might be the back. I don't know or it might be the front. Oh you're having a giggle. Was this in the books I need to read or unhaul video as well? Am I just reading books from that video? No way. What's it? I can't remember. I think it was. The first book was in that video as well. Okay we've got The Wife Between Us by Graham Hendricks and Sarah Pecklin which truly is one of the oldest books in my TBR. This is one of the few books in this stack that were on my TBR when I started my channel because I started my channel in like September of 2019 and I think some of these books go up to like 2021 in terms of the oldest books on my TBR. But this is really one of the oldest and I still remember where I bought it. I bought it in this charity shop at this like Stately Home that I used to really like going to and it was in this era where I just picked up anything and everything. It's the life of a day for I. I shut the shop stand for me. I truly like I did not know what my taste was and so I think I'd heard someone I'd just started watching Booktube and I'd heard someone review this and so I just recognized it and so I got it. I read The Golden Couple by Graham Hendricks and Sarah Pecklin last year. Oh holy shit I should have picked this. A classic is better than this. I do not have the highest hopes for this but there is gonna be such a sense of satisfaction for finishing this because this is kind of the book when I think of like the books that I own when I started my channel. There's a few more here but this is one of the ones I really think of and really think of in how my reading taste has changed or how I've learned what my reading taste is. So I think it'll be interesting to read a book that I picked up when I didn't really know what my reading taste was yet. I'm excited to give it a go so I'll see you when I'm a little bit of a waste to it but I'm not... I haven't got the highest hopes in the world. Let's just say that. Hello friends it looks like it's night time. It's midday. It's the middle of the day. It has just gotten so dark and rainy and stormy outside. It's kind of a vibe though. I do love reading when it's all rainy and I'm inside and like cozy. I am about 100 pages into The Wife Between Us by Graham Hendricks and Sarah Pecklin. Guys I'm actually shocked by how much I'm enjoying this. Now it's not gonna be five star. It's not gonna be any favorite book. It might not even get a four star but my expectations are quite low and I'm just having a lot of fun reading this. I wasn't expecting that at all. So basically all you need to know about this is we're following the perspectives of two women the ex-wife and the new wife or new soon-to-be wife of this man but he's like we don't care about him. We care more about these women and their stories. The ex-wife is struggling with the breakup and is kind of a bit obsessed with the whole situation and the new one is younger and she's a bit more naive and she's trying to navigate like her new life with this rich ass man and like she's a preschool teacher and a waitress and like she's gonna leave it all behind and like there's part of her that you feel like is gonna miss that lifestyle. And I just think I can see why this was so big when it came out in what like 2018. God that's like five years ago. God Jesus Christ. Don't even talk to me. I started uni in 2018. I'm getting older. I don't know if I can if I want all this drama all the time if I'm being honest. I'm listening to audiobook. This is actually my first audiobook through Boroughbox, my library. I'm a library girl. I'm not very good at like checking ahead of time. I've done that for some books. I've got a read in like January February and like reserve them now like new releases that I will probably get the audiobook for in January. But this one because like it's old, no one, no one has reserved it so I got it straight away. And yeah the audiobook, I'm enjoying it. I think there's something compelling about how the story is being told and how the two perspectives you're kind of obviously it's got that dual timeline kind of issue of a following two separate stories but they're converging enough to keep me interested. You know it's not incredible but I can see why it was so successful. Like it's got over 300,000 ratings on Goodreads. I can see why it's so widely read. I can see why it had a bit of a moment. You know domestic thrillers are never gonna be my kind of thing but this is less about the man and more about the women. Women. I just don't like domestic thrillers where the husband is like he takes up too much screen time. Do you know what I mean? I'm like get out of here. And yes they're talking about him and they're he's interacting with them in their perspectives but like he's we can ignore him if we really if we really want to and I do really want to. I also feel like it's gonna get twisty. I feel like there's gonna be a twist maybe at the halfway mark that really turns the book on its head and I'm excited to see what it is. I'm not I mean if you guys have been here a long time you know when I read mystery thrillers I really do not try to theorize. I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I want you to shock me. I put myself into the palms of the earth and I just say shock me. Strange sound from somewhere in my house. I'm sorry if that's annoying. And so if I do come up with what the twist is then you know it's obvious. You know it's bad. If I say oh I saw it come in. So I can't really theorize. I got some like hints but I can't really theorize what the twist is gonna be and I'm really excited to see because there is gonna be a twist. It has to be. I'm like we've reached a point now 110 pages in where like it's needing something else to move the story along but I'm really excited to see what twist is gonna be. I'm like I'm saying it's probably like a 3.5 at the moment. I'm enjoying it. It's inoffensive. I'm turning my brain off. It's requiring no headspace and that's kind of what I need today. I was saying to my patrons I uploaded my Goodreads vlog no the day before yesterday Sunday night and I was saying to them I felt like yesterday where how I'd feel mentally after I finished exams where like my brain would just be trying to decompress and be like incapable of doing anything and like you're you've been thinking about something for so long you know I've been thinking about like Goodreads Choice Awards mystery show for like basically the whole year in some capacity like thinking about what is gonna be nominated and when when it has been nominated think about what I'm reading like for the past month it's been you know really at the forefront of my brain and like when you lose that it's a bit disconcerting. Your brain's like uh what now what's going on. So yesterday I was supposed to film a video to go up on Tuesday and I just I've never admitted defeat guys I've never gotten ready to film a video set up the camera started filming I got like a minute in I couldn't do it words were not coming out of my mouth I couldn't talk to you I never have issues talking like I just turn up and chat shit you know I mean I could not I could not for the life of me do it so I feel like this is kind of what I need right now where it's light fun but I do I saved something to open you guys I'm very excited to open I got this parcel I think it's from Viper Books I can't remember they asked me I cannot remember what the book is so we're gonna find out together I did agree this is not your answers did Viper Books publish the Janice Hallett books I'm very I'm very excited to see what this is and like it's a little it's a little Christmas present isn't she so cute and let's see what's in here what in the heck oh my goodness oh my god this is loads of stuff oh my goodness oh my goodness it's like a hard but what so I think this is like a food themed a food themed book because we've got a little menu here that it comes with oh telling us what to have and then this is the book oh my god it's like a hard part back it's like the finished version my goodness I wasn't expecting that oh my gosh helly and death a snowstorm a country house old friends are united it's going to be murder shut up oh my god guys shut up there's a fucking fought floor plan oh my god that's what we've been waiting for it's what we wanted all along snowed in oh oh my gosh this is so exciting there's a little envelope with my name on it with a seal it's got like a letter from the author with like a train ticket what is going on this is fun okay because it's like we're guests at the at the dinner wow okay Janice Hallett says a glorious feat that intrigues the present defeats wow i'm very excited for this so this comes out in 2024 how exciting my goodness one exciting gift okay wow compared to a christie scandy cozy oh scandy how exciting okay thank you so much for sending me that that is so exciting now once this rain has let up this option we are going to get our Christmas tree and decorate it so i'll take you along with me for that but i am going to go keep trying to make progress in the life between us because i think i could finish this today i'm really really enjoying it so i'm just gonna go ahead and keep reading it and i'll let you know what i think kind of a little bit of the way is through every christmas baby every christmas because maybe by next christmas me and tom will hopefully have our own place and i feel like this i mean this is all my doing the color scheme the kind of gold royals gold bronzy color scheme we went to the garden center and i really like the look of all the kind of red like vintagey red baubles so maybe i'll have a new color scheme true next year but then you go make it timeless you can't chase trends anyways christmas tree organization is very serious still to me seriously i've got big plans for this place and i'm not gonna stop yeah till i get there but i am now on page 224 of the life between us so i've gotten a really good chunk of the way through it i was right there was a big reveal at like the halfway mark the 150 page mark and it's not a bad reveal i was like okay you know yeah okay but here's the stitch when a book comes out like this that is pretty popular it's gonna this is gonna spawn a lot of inspirations right and then what i think has happened oh my god meiko just made the cutest face he's sitting pressed up against the radio over there i'm obsessed with you okay what i was saying was this book came out in 2018 it will spawn a lot of inspirations i have then read a lot of thrillers me personally published 2020 2021 2022 2023 right and so i've read this twist happen a lot now i don't know if this was a progenitor oh my god vocabulary i'm a massive fan of the dictionary i don't know if this was an originator of this twist or if it had been done many times but i do think sometimes when you read an older thriller that has then become very popular but you've read a lot of things that have been inspired by it it doesn't hit the same as it would have done at that time now here's the thing i think it's a fairly common twist however i can think of some books that i have read that seem a little bit similar to this in its execution you know i felt the same way when i read gong girl obviously gong girl's a much bigger book but i felt like i've read this a thousand times right but when gong girl came out it was the first to do it but then i have personally read the books have been inspired by it and so it doesn't hit the same for me and that's kind of how i'm feeling with this i'm just like it's fine but it's so done it's so played out and i found this past section a little bit more boring the the structure of the book changed from that alternating pov to a different kind of pov and it just doesn't been working as much for me i don't know i don't know i've been a little bit bored this can't have been the originator of a twist like this it must have you know even this was copying it from somewhere so i'm gonna finish it this evening hopefully i've got some sprints with my patrons later this evening i feel like it could have a further twist i'm questioning i'm not going to tell you i'm questioning because it's but i am glad to finally be reading it i keep having like this really deja vu moment where i thought i'd never read this book i just at the rate i was going it was never getting read now here i am reading it it's kind of a moment it's kind of a shock it's kind of like wow who am i so i'm enjoying it but i'm not in love with it i'll check them with you once i've finished it oh kidoki everyone i finished the wife between us by grohenjix and sarah peckinen i'm giving it a three star it's very average but it's aggressively average one could say it was fine it was fine it was it was fine it does have twists twists are present they're fairly predictable it's nothing new nothing new nothing changed same old shit you know what i mean like it's same old shit but i did have a fun time reading it so where does that lead us it leaves us as a three star i cannot explain to you guys enough the satisfaction i feel you you got i could not communicate that to you i feel so happy it's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders that i have finally read this i'm at who you are where you come from if you've got a dream there's no one out there that can stop you from achieving it was just one of those books that's emblematic of me not having read a certain amount of books for a really long time and for a young time this was one i this is always the fourth front in my mind of those books and so to have read it i mean that's a five star feeling that's a five star plus feeling that's a five star five star five star feeling you know what i mean that is the highlight of this to me that i finally finished it i don't really have many more thoughts about the booktube it kept having a few twists there are a few good twisters epilogue and a good twist you know i'm satisfied with how this book went it was a fun time it didn't require me to think much turn the brain off check it out the window bob's your uncle have a good time you know what i mean and you know it's not much for win because our first episode we got a two star second episode we've got a three star however that does mean next episode we're gonna get a four star and the episode after that we're gonna get a five star absolutely that's the way this is gonna work absolutely absolutely there's not a shadow of doubt in my mind it's a conspiracy theory that i'm actually interested in i don't think i'm gonna pick up anything else by gary hendrix and sarah peckin and though i've read now two books from them that has been aggressively mediocre like i think i gave the gold couple two stars and i gave this three stars i'm not interested in any of their solo work i mean we're just putting ways we're putting ways it was a good way you know it was like a nostalgic satisfying last meeting but we're gone we're done we're separated so yeah that was the vlog and that that was i'm so happy that one came up really because i'm so happy that i finally read that so that was episode two of wrapped up retro i hope you guys enjoyed it if you read this let me know what you thought and also let me know when you read it did you read it back in 2018 when it came out have you read it more recently because i do think that does have an effect on how someone would feel about this book so yeah i hope you enjoyed this vlog there'll be two more coming throughout december i'm about to go and wrap the book for episode three to see what we get i'm feeling a bit nervous but we will see and thank you guys so much for watching i'll see you very soon in another video bye