 Have you ever bought a new release and then not read it for like a year after it's come out? Well Then this video is for you. Back to another video This is another experimental vlog that we're gonna do together. So basically I Often buy new releases when they're hyped up and then I don't read them It's pathetic You are I don't read them for like a year Two years after they've come out and it's becoming a problem where I've got lots of books that I Got last year that were big last year that I haven't read So what I thought would be fun to do and also just because I'm nosy and I like knowing this kind of thing is I'm gonna Find out what was booktube reading a year ago and I'm gonna read that now I might not be new releases from last year that everyone was reading But I feel like statistically it's going to be so I am gonna go back Through a lot of September wrap-ups from 2020 I'm gonna write down what books are most popular what books everyone is reading and I'm gonna read those books I don't know how this is gonna go don't know how successful this is gonna be But that is what I'm gonna read in September and then hopefully this video will be coming out towards the end of September ish I don't know what to expect. I don't know what books everyone's gonna be reading I don't really have any predictions for books that I remember being popular, but I'm excited I'm intrigued to see kind of what the trends are and what everyone is reading. So let's cut to Megan Doing the research and finding out what everyone is reading. So it's time for me to start the mammoth task of watching back People's September wrap-ups from last year and finding out what they were reading So I think I'm gonna aim to watch at least 40 ish Like I think 40 wrap-ups is a good number to standardize and see if there's any books that stand out I mean I could spend all day doing this and then it turns out like There's nothing like there's no books that everyone is reading, but I think there must be so I'm gonna start with Kayla aka Books and Lala because we have very similar reading tastes. So let's see What the first book she mentions in her September wrap-up is My favorite cover of the entire month that I read is a song of Raisin Ruin by Rosanne A Brown Like what? Oh Okay, so okay, so that that was like a release from last year a song of Raisin Ruin I own it which is good because listen money like if I can own some of these that would be great So if I got that like if more people read that I live like that would be great Fucking out, okay, they read a lot of books in September Meena's video is titled the month of three star reads. So that doesn't bode well for me The first book that I read in September was Jade War by fondly. This is the sequel to Jade City Let's quickly talk about Jade War another one of my favorite reads of the month, right you guys This video do is already a lot more time-consuming than I anticipated Do you see many pages of notes we've done That is 16 booktubers, so Firstly, can I just say can you pictures read less like can you read like what is reading 20 books? Like why why have you got to do that to me? And secondly, can't you read more of the same books? So we've only had a few and that's multiple people have read So we have a song of Raisin Ruin which Kayla read and then who else read that? Oh Sid read that Sid read that a song of Raisin Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown I believe this is her debut novel and I'm super impressed by that then we've got Jade War by fondly Which if you remember Mina Nicole and then Rue have all read that so I thought that's gonna be a frontrunner But with this book I have to take breaks after pause my audio book or like close my book and just do breathing Exercises because this book just freaks me out I feel like I'm gonna end up reading Jade City in this video, but we're gonna continue on and it may change Fuck me. We've also got The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, which is a long ass book I don't see it for me, but okay That was Becca and Reagan The third book that I finished was The Way of Kings part one by Brandon Sanderson I was only able to get to page 200, which if you know the length of this book, it's not very far But I'm still pleased with the 200 pages I read Becca only read I think the first half because in the UK it's published as two books And Reagan had only read the first 200 pages So like if I mean I don't want to read it I'm hoping other things are gonna surpass it in this time But if I do have to read it, I'm only gonna make myself read like the first half And then I think that's the only books we've had duplicates of That I haven't read, yeah That is the only duplicates we've had out of I don't want to know how many books Should we work this out? 33, 99 So I've written down the name of about 120 books, I would say And we've only had a few duplicate So I'm very much hoping Way of Kings is gonna be Nixed, don't want to read that But I'm up for reading Jade City, I own it and I'm interested in it So I hope that still stays up there We've also had one person read Jade City I can't remember if that was but I will put it in here From there I picked up another home run, a new all-time fave And that is Jade City by Fonda Lee So we've clearly had four for Jade City, I'm counting that as But yeah, Way of Kings needs to fuck off, I don't want to read that So I think I'm gonna go away and get to 40 booktubers And then I'll come back and I'll tell you what we're actually gonna read in this video So I've watched about 40 booktubers September, Red Pops from last year And there actually weren't that many duplicates We didn't get many new duplicates There were a few duplicates of books that I have read But we're only talking about the books that I haven't read Because I have the whole purpose of the video Jade War slash Jade City still remains supreme with four people reading either of them So we already talked about all of them We had Mina, Nicole, Rue and Reagan reading Jade War or Jade City So I am gonna be reading Jade City in this vlog I am excited to read it but I'm also nervous because it's quite long It's quite an in-depth fantasy that I didn't quite forward to start yet Especially when I've got like other in-depth fantasies that I'm reading But hey ho, we're gonna start it Then next with three people reading it A song of race and ruin We're gonna be reading this in this video So we've already spoke about Kayla and Sid who read it in September But also Natalie read it This is another one I already owned before making this video I own Jade City as well and I own this And I don't know much about this other than it's an African inspired fantasy It's YA, it's a debut And I'm excited I know we're following like two perspectives I think a guy who is trying to save his sister And then the princess but the guy wants to kill the princess Basically And then the third book we actually haven't spoken about yet It pulled through in that last round Basically of me since I've been looking at more stuff since I last spoke to you We are gonna be reading Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas So Reagan read this This is a book that completely melted my heart Turned me into a pile of goo and I loved every single second of it And that is Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas Which I think is really interesting because obviously Reagan's one of the biggest booktubers Reagan like pops up in two of these books And she also read Way of Kings which also got two votes So Reagan just has her finger on the pulse Reagan knows what she's fucking doing And also Ali and Mel read this Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas Definitely a new favorite of mine And I absolutely loved it I gave it 4 out of 5 stars I thought it was an amazing debut novel So I didn't own this before making this video I just know it's about a trans boy who's trying to prove himself and his family And I think a ghost? Like they're someone ghosts? But I'm really excited to read it It was super popular around this time It's another book that I kind of maybe could have predicted being on this list So I am excited to give this a go too So we've got three fantasy books Booktube was reading a lot of fantasy at this time Two that I already owned because I was interested in them And one that I hadn't But I'm excited I don't know what to predict I'm gonna think of these books But I'm excited to get into them and give them all a go So I'm gonna start now with Jade City Hello So I'm just about to pop out But I wanted to let you know that I'm about 80 pages into Jade City And I'm really enjoying it It's very much like this Godfather inspired fantasy Where we have this really powerful family Who's kind of in charge of everything And we've kind of just been getting to know all the different members of the family We've got like two brothers and a sister that we've met so far And in this country all the power is through Jade So you have these people, these ruling families That can harness the Jade And it gives them like strength Like supernatural strength basically And people are always trying to seal Jade Like people want the power that Jade gives them And I'm just really enjoying it Like it's been reading so easily It's been so captivating and interesting It's been a long time since I've read Like a detailed layered fantasy like this I haven't been reading a lot of fantasy at all the past couple months And this just feels like the perfect thing to be reading Like I generally can't remember the last time I read fantasy I don't remember love, I don't remember at all I really don't, I know for a long time ago And I think I've been reading a lot of YA fantasy And I've been missing a bit of like adult, gritty, really in depth fantasy I'm really like the characters so far I think they've all got very interesting dynamics Like familial dynamics Yeah really dramatic action The world building is so well done It's not info dumpy but it's really well done Yeah I'm really really enjoying it Good morning I just had to get ready I'm just doing my makeup whilst we're talking And I realised I want to listen to more of the audiobook Whilst I get ready So I thought let's check in now So that I can listen to some more of the audiobook Oh I didn't spring my face Hold up I'm enjoying J-City I am really enjoying it The one thing is that it is like a long book It's not for main park I feel terribly ill all of a sudden I don't think I've read a book this long in a hot second I do tend to read shorter bits I feel like nowadays So I am struggling about 12 full length of it I'm not gonna lie to you It is long And I've got the audiobook And I'm like holy shit I cannot remember the last time I spent this long reading a book I think I'm on page 295 I'm really enjoying like all the familial relationships in it I think the politics is very satisfying But I can't really make my mind up on how I feel about it I keep switching between Oh my god I'm really enjoying this And oh my god I'm bored I've been reading fantasy full stop The past couple months So I think it's just a bit of a different reading experience There's times where we get like super into kind of the law And the world building And the politics That's just quite repetitive That happens quite a lot By the way I look crazy When I just go my foundation online Probably should have spoken to you Once I had my foundation and concealer already on But hey ho Yeah there's quite a lot of sections where we'll just be talking for ages About the way that this like maybe familial dynamics work Or the society works Or the world works And stuff like that And I'm just like okay Let's just get on with the story Can we speed things up a little bit? Can we speed things up a little bit? Should we speed it up a little bit? Hang on I'm just gonna like finish my foundation And then talk to you again Oh but something did just happen It was so shocking Like I was gagged I was gooped I was shook I did not expect that to happen And I'm singing to myself If this was like a simpler fantasy right Like maybe a YA fantasy Or if it was just a bit more like simple That would have been the end of the book Like the book would have finished there And we would have gotten into the repercussions Of that happening in the next book But it hasn't It just like happened randomly in the middle of the book And so I feel like that's a sign Of what a good like series this is going to be And what a complex series this is going to be And how it constantly keeps you on your toes Like I was starting to get a bit complacent And then that happened and I was like Holy shit I'm kind of sad it happened without spoilers Like I didn't want the story to go in that way But like I kind of understand that It may be a bit better for this The story to go in that way But I'm kind of annoyed that it happened But I think it is interesting that it happened So out the blue and like in the middle of the book And I just feel like this book could be shorter I'm going to go listen to more of the audio book And then I'll come back to you once I've actually finished it I don't want to talk about this book I was not expecting that Here's the thing The reason I don't want to talk about it It's not all bad things Don't think bad I'm like I just want to preface it by saying I think I think I'm going to give this a 3.5 Rounded up to 4 on Goodreads So you think okay that's fine But I wanted to love this even more And the biggest problem is I cannot put my finger on Why I was a bit disappointed by it I can't put my finger on why it's not getting a 4 Or a 4.5 or a 5 Because I was going and looking at reviews Right And I saw my friend Mina's review And she is one of the biggest reasons that I Picked this book up that I wanted to read this book And I was reading her review And I agree in principle with everything she's said There's just a little something A little Genesee That wasn't it for me That meant I wasn't fully drawn in That I wasn't fully excited to read the book Let me find Mina's review The cool family have sold in every bit of my heart And their dynamic had me close to tears many times The world building is rich Full of politics Magic Theology And culture The plot and pacing are exceptional And I found myself shocked at every turn Do I agree with every aspect of that? Yes, I do I think objectively this is a massively done book I love the politics I love when there's a good amount of politics In my fantasy I feel like when Hilo Or Lan Or Shea The siblings got talking about the politics And the kind of the strategic decisions that they were making And why they were doing that I was like oh my god they're so clever And the politics as well has been so well thought out But it didn't I didn't I wasn't excited to read the book Oh my god T central over here And I didn't feel fully drawn in And I didn't feel any kind of special way about it But there were points that I love I don't know I have a very mixed feeling about it I feel like I went through a lot of peaks and troughs in my enjoyment of it But at the same time there aren't any points I can remember where I'm like That bit wasn't good Or that bit was good Usually if I'm a bit disappointed by a book I can give you a fucking 5000 word essay on it Right? Like why it wasn't it Why it was a bit off Why it wasn't what I was expecting This I'm speechless But I enjoyed it I loved the audiobook The audiobook was really good I'm definitely going to continue on with this series Eventually I need to like plow through some series We may do that in November or December Maybe it would be fun actually to get you guys to vote on which series Maybe I'll do that in a vlog Which series you would like me to make progress in So maybe you'd vote for this Maybe you won't Who knows It was it was okay I enjoyed it But it wasn't outstanding The other day I went and I stocked up on some candles Hang on Let me get the other one Because I was just burning it I love this brand Woodwick candle I feel like they burn so much more evenly Than Yankee candle Because it's a very soft wax I got vanilla bean from Woodwick candle Look at her Isn't she just like cute But she's beautiful Right I was burnt I just started burning this It took me back to when I obviously had another vanilla-y candle I think the one I had then was a Yankee candle And it was like vanilla cupcake or something But it smells pretty much the same And like I don't know You know when you burn a candle scent That you haven't burnt in a long time It took me back to be like 15 And like being really productive and working And I feel like it got me into like the right like Worky vibe today And then I also got Because my other favorite scent is caramel And usually I had their I've just finished their salted caramel one But this is caramel toasted sesame And it's really nice Because it's like caramel But with like a bit more like earthiness Or spiciness to it Oh I'm very excited to burn this one So I treated myself What can I say But I love a good candle So now I should have got this when I got up to get the candles I am going to read Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas Obviously another book that a lot of people were reading last year This is obviously the one in the vlog I didn't already own So I'm intrigued to see how this one goes And if I maybe prefer it to the ones Or don't Because I wasn't as interested in it beforehand They all want to go We dance till the morning We'll dance till we drop When morning starts rising We'll leave them with all that is all All right listen up everyone I am tired I'm reading a Cemetery Boys I'm about 120 pages in I did want to get a little bit further Before I spoke to you But hey ho A bitch is going to turn the lights off Hit the lights Look at you Speak to you You need to step right I'm enjoying it Kind of We've got I can't remember names I'm so tired We've got one boy He comes from this family of Brutos And he is a trans boy And so he wants to be recognized in the role That the men typically have in the family But they want him to fulfill the role That women typically can fill in the family There's a lot of like misgendering and stuff That he is suffering within his own family And he meets this ghost Of like a local travelmaker boy He's just been killed And they're trying to help that boy Figure out how he died What is happening I'm enjoying it But also I don't feel like much has happened yet Like I don't feel like much has happened Like barely anything's happened Like I want us to get him moving a bit It's a little bit slow paced A little bit character focused Shall we say for me I'm not necessarily a character focused gal If we're honest If we're honest with ourselves People who read for character development Watching this The cheek The nerve The gall The audacity And the gumption I like all the characters But like just nothing is happening And that's like all of my critique for you I have nothing else to say I like that I'm reading from a trans author Trans rep But I also feel like I don't know if I'm vibing with YA At this current moment Like I feel like increasing with YA It has to be amazing For me to vibe Some of my favourite books ever are YA We know that I read like a lot of YA I like read 50-50 But what books do I have this trouble with lately Oh Ace of spades Everyone else fucking loves this I really struggle to get into it And I cry myself to sleep Every night thinking about it This read so young to me And I just couldn't get into it And I'm feeling a little Fuck I'm feeling like that To a lesser extent with this Like a little bit just discombobulated Not sure if we're Bezzy mates But it is reading fast Which I shall say that I appreciate I have a problem with the quality of the book at all The book is probably A five star book For so many people It is a five star book For so many people And I can see it But it's Do you know when a book and you just aren't like Bezzy mates? You know what I mean? Alright Okay Alright, okay I've finished Cemetery Boys I've finished Cemetery Boys And I didn't love it Fuck off I I'm gonna give it three stars I'm gonna give it three stars Here's the thing Here's the situation I We'll speak about this more in again in a second But I'm I'm feeling a bit disconnected from YA at the moment And I don't know why Because I never have a problem with YA And it's not a problem I have with I'm having with middle grade But something about the way that YA is written I'm not like vibing with it Like it just This read to me I think if you removed the swearing from it It didn't read as the YA I enjoy I think this is like YA for like 10 to 13 year olds Rather than YA for like 14 to 16 year olds Which I think is the YA I tend to prefer I want to say None of my negatives about this book Are about the next trans gay representation I thought that was all handled amazingly Basically the premise of this is Is a romance between this guy and a ghost Right? And I never let myself become attached to that relationship Or invested or care about it at all Because it was temporary Right? Like this guy is dead Regardless of how the book progresses Early on I was like This ain't going nowhere It's a temporary thing And I couldn't let myself get attached to it anyway One of my biggest problems with this book was the ending I think if the ending had been better It would have been like a 3.5 But the villain Girl The villain in this was so predictable So predictable I literally I was reading this around Tom's And I literally closed the book I went I was angry I was angry You know when a villain is so obvious So obvious But you also feel like it hasn't been set up well enough It was like a combination of those two And I also just felt like personally The villain never reached their full potential Like it was kind of like The romance took over so much of the plot And I don't like when this happens in fantasy The romance took over so much of the plot That the actiony plot side of it Was kind of rushed towards the end So I just felt like the villain I wanted more And I also didn't want it to be you Because it was obvious Was my kind of feelings I will read more of Aiden Thomas' stuff We were talking about this actually in my Patreon Discord And we were talking about authors who We see the potential for them to be a five star read And I was saying how I had that with Mona Award So I am going to read all's well eventually Because I didn't love Bunny But I saw the potential for Mona Award To be a favourite author I feel the same way with Aiden Thomas And someone else was saying that in the Patreon as well I see the potential With this author for them to be an all time favourite author for me But something about this book Just didn't work for me We didn't vibe And it also may just be my disconnect From YA at the moment Speaking of I am actually already halfway through a song of writes and rumours I was around Tom's And I forgot to bring my camera So I couldn't film But I could read Because I remember to bring my books I am on page 220 Again, I'm enjoying it But I'm feeling a disconnect Maybe I need to be a bit more selective With the YA fantasy series I'm picking up Or just fantasy YA fantasy in general Because I think I'm becoming a little bit more picky About what I want And I think I'm tending to prefer like older YA But I am still enjoying this I'm listening to the audio because wow And I am enjoying it So in this we're following Malik and Karina Karina is the princess of this land And Malik is this kind of refugee Who wants to kill her To save his sister He's made this deal His sister's in trouble His little sister And he has to kill the princess In order to fulfil that And Karina also without really knowing it Has intentions for him as well He gets into this contest And she offers her hand in marriage To the winner of the contest So that she can then kill that person To revive her dead mother I didn't know any of that going into synopsis I didn't really know anything But it is in the synopsis So I can tell you And I'm enjoying it I think the world building is very rich I think our two main characters Have such unique voices Like they're really They're really vivid characters to me Our two main characters I think all the characters in the book are really good I think the plot is moving along at a really great pace It doesn't feel rushed But it doesn't feel like I felt with this one Sometimes it felt slow Like oh nothing's happening It doesn't feel like that with this Something is always moving the plot on Really really well But I am just not personally loving it Like this is a problem I'm having a lot In this vlog So sorry it's been a bit one note Like I kind of felt like it with Jade City as well Where I'm reading books I can recognize that they're good Like they're really really good books But I'm just not personally like obsessed So that is the issue Yeah like I said I really love the main characters It's got great action This doesn't feel like a debut to me Whereas this kind of did This doesn't feel like a debut It's got really rich action Rich world building So many layers It doesn't feel like expositiony at all Which I think again I felt a bit with cemetery boys It doesn't feel like over explained So it's great It's a really good book I think it will probably end up being like a 3.5 I'm just not loving the reading experience I am just kind of having to make myself finish it Which is strange I don't know why I'm in this kind of headspace at the moment With fantasy I am going to go finish this today I've only got a couple hours left of the audio book So I'm going to kind of do both So I finished a song of race and ruin And I'm going to give it 4 stars I really really enjoyed this Yes! Yes! Something about this in the last like 50-ish pages Really clicked for me I found the majority of how it ended Really satisfying I'm going to give it 4 stars I'm going to give it 4 stars I'm going to give it 4 stars I'm going to give it 4 stars I'm going to give it 4 stars I just want to say also I read this book in less than 24 hours Pretty much Like most of it I think I'd read the first 60 pages A couple days ago But then the rest of it I had read in the last 24 hours And it just flew by Considering the rest of this video took me like 20 years to make And I had to push this video back like twice This was like a marvel I just flew through it And it's long It's you know it's over 450 pages I loved the West African inspired folklore to it I loved the dynamic between our two main characters I loved that it ended in a way that was very unpredictable In that I really don't know where the second book in this series is going to go Like where we're even going to start Like I feel like the next book could start in a couple years time onwards And I find that always really really exciting When when books end in a way That means the next book in the series is unpredictable And I really don't know what I'm going to be picking up I do just want to say I had the same problem with Cemetery Boys In that I called the villain And I didn't you know I felt like it was obvious You know I want you to trick me with your villain If that is a reveal If it's not something we know throughout If the villain is a reveal I want you to trick me with it somehow That's very important to me And again I just felt like I know I called it like 200 pages in I felt like it was really really obvious And I was a bit disappointed by that The pacing was incredible for how fast I read it I really loved all the family dynamics in this I think our characters are really fun You know our girl Our main our main character who's the princess Is like very like headstrong She's got a lot of walls up She knows what she wants She knows what she wants to achieve And then our other main character He's very soft and like gentle And there's a lot of like anxiety And panic attack representation through him And I think just by the end of it Do you have a book where you're like By the end you appreciate it even more Being able to look back and see The path of the book Like when I look back I look back on the book with like rose tinted glasses Even though I like I've only just finished the book Does that make sense? I don't know We're back on We're back on my appreciation of YA fantasy I wasn't bit worried For a while I was thinking this was gonna be like a 3.5 But it It upped itself to like a solid solid 4 And I'm really excited to read the second one in the series It comes out in November And I'm really excited to read it Probably won't read it straight away Probably won't read it for a while But I am excited to read it When it comes out And yeah I just thought it had so many twists and turns I really could never predict where this story was going So thank you for watching this vlog I'm sorry You know For a while there was a bit monotonous Like 3.5 3 4 I did feel similarly about a lot of the books But I really loved this video concept I would love to do it again If it's something you guys would want It was so interesting to go back in time a year And see what was popular on BookTube And see that I already own two of the books Because my assumptions were correct In that I was buying these books And then not reading them And it was really fun to read them And to kind of like feel like it was a year ago All of a sudden So yeah I really really enjoyed doing this vlog If you've gone to the end of the video Comment the green heart emoji For this gorgeous green gown Let me know what kind of books you read last September Maybe go on whatever kind of book tracking thing you have And let me know what books you were reading last September And thank you so much for watching as always I hope you had a good time And I'll see you very soon in another video Bye