 So remember when I said that one of my biggest goals this year was to have my best reading year ever? Well, we're going to be doing a year long video series to make that happen. I am calling it Year of Wrecks. It's going to be the Year of Book Recommendations, baby. I am so excited. I'm kind of nervous. I've never done a series like this where we're going to have one episode every single month of a reading vlog where I get personalized book recommendations from a particular source. I don't want to phrase it because I don't, I want to give away any of our feature episodes. But yeah, every single month I'm going to get personalized book recommendations in the hope that it helps me have my best reading year ever. And I'm very excited. So it will be one episode every single month. For the first episode, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. And it is when I think of like personalized book recommendation, the most fun thing I've ever seen. I've always wanted to do for a video. And that is paying a professional to give me book recommendations. You might need a lot of professional help. I first saw this with Books and Lala. Kayla did a video on this a couple years ago. It's a platform called TBR. And you give them information and they give you book recommendations based on that information. A few people have done it since. And it's my turn. It's my turn. I'm so excited. I always want to do it. So today we're going to be paying a bookish professional book recommender to give me book recommendations. And I'm really hoping like a lot of the other sources we're going to do, a few of the other ones are paid, but a lot of the other ones are free. So I'm intrigued to see what paying for the book works gets me. And I'm really, I'm setting my hopes quite high. So let me go take you through what I put when they asked me for the information that would determine what my book recommendations would be. So I cannot tell you how excited I was when I first made my account. So TBR, it sounds for tailored book recommendations. I'm sure some of you will be wondering about the price. There is a version where they send you the books, but that's only available, I think, to people in the US. It's $18 per quarter, which is about £14, which I think for like three book recommendations is quite a lot. However, you are getting someone who's really sitting down and spending the time to really think about what books would be perfect for you and you get the book recommendations within two weeks. So like it kind of feels like they, you know, they've gone away and they've really thought about it. They could have, you know, they could have been done in a minute, but so you first got asked what your favorite genres are. I told them that mystery and fantasy are my most read genres followed by thriller and horror. Then you get asked, is there anything you want to explore more of in your reading life? And I was like, you got to give me the big boys. I basically said I like reading widely in terms of genres, but I really like books that feel new, that feel like they're twisting genres, that feel like they're doing something innovative. And I said I would love to read more speculative slash sci-fi murder mysteries, which is interesting. That's interesting that I said that. Oh my God, I feel like actually this is so interesting looking back knowing what the book recommendations are, you'll find out in a second. Or fantastical horror. So I really like books that merge genres, right? I love fantastical historical mysteries, right? I love books that merge genres and it's not easy to pick what genre they are. Then they asked me what are the last two books you loved and why? And I was like, how can you ask me that? Wow, that's a great question. That was an expensive question. That's so difficult. So I told them the last ever to die by Richard Osman, which was my favorite book of last year, told them how much it made me cry. I love that it's a made of murder mystery series. I love my Bex Friends Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. I thought this would be a fun one to tell them that I loved because it's very like my flavor of horror. Like if I can only tell them, I thought maybe they'd recommend me horror. And if I can only tell them one horror that I love, it's like the camp, right? Grady Hendrix really is the epitome of my flavor of horror. And then I said Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. Because I thought the true crime element of that was very interesting. And I thought it was handled really well. And I really also enjoyed the characters and the way the characters have been handled in that book. And then you get asked, would you like your bibliologist? Check out, it sounds so official. To balance books that fit your current style or books that branch out. And I went back in the middle like a mix of familiar and also stuff that stretches my reading style. You then get asked, are you looking for recommendations on a certain theme? I said no. And then you get asked anything else you want your bibliologist to know before they pick your books. And I gave them my Goodreads link. And I was like, the books on the horror shelf or the fantasy shelf are books that I haven't read yet. Because I use that for TBR Cluedo. Every book that's unread on my TBR, I have on genre shelves for me to then look through when I get prompts on TBR Cluedo to find out what fits. I was like, please, I don't mind if you recommend one of those because I already own them and thus don't have to buy them. I didn't say that. But I wouldn't have minded being recommended something that I already own. So that was the initial questions. And then I did get an email saying we have more questions for you to fill out, which I did film me reacting to. So I'll hand you over to Pass Megan, filling out those questions and then finding out what the three recommendations are, what the three books we're going to be reading are. I just got an email that they've asked me more questions. What could they possibly need to know? I mean, time to stop being so obsessed with me. I feel like Mariah Carey. I'm going to open back. I thought I'd be easy. Did I do this to everyone? Or is it just a me thing? Is it just me? I've just plumped you down. This is, I literally just got the email. Oh my god, there's loads of questions. Oh my god. What are your all time favorite, this is, what are your all time favorite books and why? I did a video on this. What was in my, what's my top five? Thursday Murder Club, Secret History, Babbel, Strange Casey, I Come His Daughter, Once and Future Witches. Okay. What do you mean and why? Should I just link my video? It's the life of a day for I. Is that, is that a bit ridiculous? Listen, they asked me my last three books that I, my favorite and this is all I can type. I have a, there's a character limit and I couldn't, I could barely type. I wanted for three books that I recently liked. Let alone you're asking me my favorite books of all time. Any books you absolutely hated? I'm trying to give big ones. They need to know the big ones. Alice Feeney. I just don't think about the books I've hated. I don't, unless I have to. I don't spend time thinking about them. Also Haven't Enjoyed the Housemade Secret. I've been, let's just say I've been enjoyed freedom at that. A few of your favorite TV shows and or movies. Favorite movies are Con Air, Die Hard and Mulan Rouge. The duality of a woman. Currently loving real housewives body. Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, finale. One of the best pieces of media ever. The seats, proof, timeline, screenshots, f***ing everything. Tom has been watching Real Housewives of Salt Lake City with me in the last couple episodes of Eminemita. Oh my god. There we go. More questions answered. I'm getting a bed nap. It's taking me off. Okay, wish me luck. Let's, we'll see how that goes. Okay everyone, the moment has come. It's almost midnight. I'm in bed. I was ready for bed. I'm wearing pajamas that I know I'm not gonna have to take away from me to Wales. I haven't worn in years. My heated blanket is on. Like I'm prepped for bed. And then I got the email that my pigeon has arrived. That's what they call that video. When your recommendations come in and I couldn't possibly sleep, you explain me to go to sleep knowing that my recommendations are in. Sorry. Couldn't possibly do that. So we're gonna find out. I feel sick. I'm so excited. This is so exciting to me. I am so excited. Wow. What a moment. What a moment. I hope they've given me a mystery. I'm really in the mood for a mystery and I haven't got any mysteries coming up lately. So I hope they've got a mystery for me. Okay, the recommendations. Hi, Megan. Welcome to TBR. I'm Ray and I'm here to help you find your next great read. For today's fix, I chose three books. You'll love it. Balance what you want more of your favorite genres. The first book is a fantasy book. Second one's a sci-fi novella. And the third one is a thriller. Enjoy. First book. Oh, the book eaters. Okay. I've heard really good things about the book eaters. I'm down for that. First, you want more genre-bending stories and even mentioned a fantasy horror mix, which is why I picked the book eaters with some seriously incredible world building and a nice horror atmosphere. This book follows Devon, a woman who belongs to the family. They are a clan of book eaters, so they feast upon the contents of any story for sustenance. Devon's life is ruled by her clan. So she's raised on a specific diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories, but her whole life is turned upside down when her son is born because his hunger is not for words but for minds. Okay, I'm down for that. I've seen other people read and enjoy the book eaters, and I think I will enjoy it, so I think that's a good pick. Okay. What is this? Tea and murder. The citadel of weeping pearls and the tea master and detective. What? Next, I think you're really lovely novella that is both a great sci-fi story as well as a murder mystery. Oh, and if you want the audiobook version, it is bound up with another novella under the name tea and murder. What one are we going for? The tea master and detective. Okay, the tea master and detective follows a scholar named Long Chow and the ship she chad was on named The Shadow's Child. Long Chow loves scientific study, so she asks the ship for a corpse. The Shadow's Child provides one, but when they discover that the person has murdered the two embark on an investigation that seems to point to Long Chow's own past, I haven't heard of that. That's exciting, a book I haven't heard of. That sounds great. That sounds, listen, sci-fi murder mystery. Put me down. Put me down for that. Okay, what's our last one? I haven't heard of this one either. River Woman, River Demon. A great thriller that's some witchy magical elements as well as some horror ones. So once again, it mixes several of your favorite genres. We follow Eva Santos. I'm going to not, I can't pronounce these words. It's midnight. I am bad at pronunciation as we know to begin with. An artist who practices these things. She's going through a tough time, especially since her husband was arrested for murder that was eerily similar to one from her childhood. Soon enough, Eva herself becomes a suspect and the only way to find out the truth is if she comes face to face with her own past. Thank you, Ray. That is so exciting. Wow. What an interesting selection of books. Only one I've heard of, but the other two sound really good as well. I'm really happy with that. I think that's a really, really good selection. I gotta go get my hands in these books. But what an exciting beginning. Oh, okay. I love that. I love that. Okay. All our books are here. We need to decide what we're going to read. We've got the T. Marston Detective, Nice Short, Sci-Fi novella. We've got the Book Eaters, which can I just say has like the smallest font known to map. That is diabolical. What is going on there? And then we've got River Woman, River Demon. Here's the thing. These are the two I am most confident I'm gonna love. Right? This one, well, I don't know anything about it. This one, these two I've had about lots of people on the Book Eaters. And I remember Mara read this, I think quite enjoyed it. I haven't had anyone read this. However, my first three books a year have been fantasy. And I think I'm fed up. And I don't know if this has fantastical elements, but it's from what I know, like a psychological thriller. And I think that might be what I need. But also I've had such a bad reading year, like I want what I'm going to give a five star. And this is bottom of the list for me. I should really read this in the middle as like a little break in between the other two longer ones. I mean, they're not too long, but they are longer. This is such a difficult decision. And I read the first page of all of them. I often, when I haul books, I like to read the first page of them. And I really loved the first page of the Book Eaters. No, I'm going to start with River Woman, River Demon. That might be a mistake, but these are all supposed to be my perfect books, you know? So I'm going to start this, I'll let you know what I'm thinking when I'm a little bit of a ways through. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see. I'm hoping I'm gonna love it. Listen, these should all be five stars. Basically, it's my logic. Okay, I feel like I made the perfect choice with the book that we chose first. So I started with River Woman, River Demon. I'm 100 pages in. I'm semi-obsessed. I'm really enjoying this. So it has got a little bit of a fantastical element. Apparently I'm just like, fated to read fantasy for like my first 10 books. But essentially what we need to know about this is we're following this lady. I don't even know what her name is. You know what you're following? Oh Eva, you know when you follow her main character so much, you hear her say everyone else's names, but you don't like you're in her head so much, you don't hear everyone else say her name. So basically one of her and her husband's friends is found dead in the river behind their property and her husband might have killed her. It basically all the evidence is pointing towards her husband. But as the reader you're kind of like, you know, when you read a lot of these books you're like, I don't know, you know, he's being framed, you know, he's a black man so the police maybe assume, you know, with our biases and racism that they've got that it's him but there's a lot of evidence that's pointed to him. So unless that evidence is somehow falsified or something's going on, like, there's something weird going on. Also she's finding out now, I don't want to tell you, but something we just had a bit of a plot twist at the like, just before 100 page mark of like information or something she did that she doesn't remember that really points to her husband having done it or her. And so basically it's her trying to figure out who killed their friend but she is kind of grappling with does she trust her husband? Does she think he did it? And I started this last night, I read like the first 30 pages and I knew I had to go sleep. So I was like, okay, I got to put it down now. But you know, you know the thing where you're like, you're like, okay, I'm going to finish reading. But then you flick through the next like 30 pages scanning it. Do you want spoilers? Even though a lot of what happened was in the synopsis, I wanted to see it happen like through her eyes. I think she's such an interesting character. The fantastical element she practices magic and kind of like spiritual magic. And so that's an interesting element. She's also suffered with postpartum depression and kind of talks about like, still being in a fog, stuff still happening to her, like, am I still in postpartum depression like 10 years on? And she's got her own insecurities like from the beginning, even before the murder happens, you can see she kind of like doubts whether her husband is faithful to her. But he's always like, he seems like a nice guy when they're talking, but then if they're apart, he's like, he fucking someone else. She believes it quite readily. She's just a very interesting character to read from the perspective of. And also she's got stuff happening in her past where her best friend drowned in a river. And people thought that she did it. I just think there's a lot of really interesting layers to it. And I think it's written really well. There's something about it that I'm finding just so propulsively readable. And I don't know if that's just because they haven't been reading books that are like, readable. Do you see how that's incredibly offensive? Yes, I do. That's why I said it. I just don't know. I don't know how much of what I'm enjoying this. It's like me really, really enjoying this book or just that it's like finally something that I don't hate. Do you know what I mean? But I'm loving it. I'm eating it up. I'm really enjoying it. And I love when I come across a book through like a challenge video or hopefully I'll come across quite a few books like this throughout doing this series where I'd never heard of the book, right? The other two books in this video I had heard of, I had never heard of this. And it's such a pleasant surprise. I'm loving the, obviously the author's own culture, how that's been infused into the book. I think it's dealing with social issues very well. And I felt like we're only just getting the beginning. So I'm going to try and read another 100 pages tonight. I don't know if I'll check in with you tonight or first thing in the morning, but it's a very interesting, interesting perspective that we're reading from. So yeah, I'm really, really enjoying it. This could be a hit first thing, first book of the series. It could be a hit. Okay. We're like, I'm 200 pages in now and we've got to amend my statements a little bit. Oh no. This has now gone downhill. Tom is making no downstairs, by the way, if you can hear noises, that's what that is. Okay, I'm 200 pages in. Here's the thing. Throughout this whole book, our girlie has been doing things that I haven't necessarily agreed with, right? And I've been kind of like up until the halfway point, I was of the opinion that, you know, characters don't have to be perfect. Our main characters on a race is any characters don't owe you moral perfection, right? They can do things you don't agree with. They can do shitty things. They do not have to be like this perfect person. However, at the end of the day, her husband has just been arrested. Not only is she going through it, but her seven-year-old and 11-year-old are incredibly going through it. Her seven-year-old has stopped speaking, right? And her sister is the one who has to tell her this. And throughout the book, it seems that she's been completely detached from any care for her children. She's asking them to do shit for her and protect her and their children. There seems to be like no care for them and no support for them through what they're going through with their father. And at the halfway point, she's just started doing something that makes that 100 times worse, not only negligent, actively harming her children. And I'm not sure that the author, the character's sister sometimes is making comments to her like, you need to be there for your kids. You need to stop doing what you're doing. But also the sister is like in the narration being painted as like, oh, she's just so like annoying. She's always on my case. She thinks she's my mom, you know, and other characters are saying that about her. So it's not being adequately rebuffed in my opinion. And like, like I said, characters are not IU perfection, but it's just pissing me off now. I was fine with it for the first half. I was fine with her doing things I didn't agree with. And I think it made her an interesting character to read from. But now her actions are just making this book a little bit unsufferable for me. And it's just all that the book is. Do you know what I mean? It's like, it's overtaking the whole book, this new development that happened at the halfway point. And it's just, it's beyond selfish. It's like, it boggles the brain. I don't understand how anyone could behave like this. I don't want to get any deep into it without spoiling it. But it's just really pissing me off. And like, she's become a villain in my opinion. Is it me? Am I the drama? I don't think I'm a drama. Maybe I am. Am I the villain? I don't think I'm the villain. Like it's what it's doing to her kids that really upsets me. And they, so this is a fictional character, right? But I can't root for her anymore. And like up into the halfway point, she was from the beginning, she does stuff that's morally a little bit, you know, sometimes like, okay, you know, but I was still rooting for her. I can't, I can't do it. And I understand some of the reasons why the character is doing this. But just as the reader, it's not some of the morals around the other aspects of it is what it's doing to her kids that and she just doesn't seem to care. She doesn't seem to care like when her kids are being actively upset and obviously active that she's like, I don't know why I can't just get over it. Anyways, I'm going to finish it. I'm going to finish it tonight. At the moment, his thing, the beginning was like a 4.5, the first 100 pages. These last 100 pages have been like a 2.5. So at the moment it's a 3.5. We'll see what the last 100 pages do to this book. Okay, alas, I don't even want to talk about it. It's going to be a 2.5. I feel completely crushed right now. Am I cursed? I have not had a read above a three star yet this year. I actually don't know why this is happening to me. I finished it this morning. And really, it was the way that my girly was acting in the second half of the book just kept me from having any emotional attachment to the book. We started off on such a strong star. I thought it could be a five star from the beginning and we just, I obviously can't say much about, you know, what she was doing that was annoying me, but it did like, it's all that's consuming my brain. Everything that I want to talk about is pointless. But I am just so angry with her. And yet, but also understanding, like you do, I, she's, she is an interesting main character to read from. That's why I was enjoying it from the first half because you do kind of feel for her, but then she just keeps making these stupid decisions. You know, there was so much I loved about this. You know, our main character and the author described as being Chicana, which I think is of Mexican native heritage. And I thought the way that that was infused was beautifully done. I thought the way the trauma exists within the body, within the mind was beautifully done. But I was just so pissed off. It pissed me off. So I'm really upset about this. It had such a strong start. And I don't necessarily hold it against the, you know, the recommendation because I think, you know, this is a murder mystery with a speculative element with kind of horror elements. I really should have loved this if girly hadn't fucked up. So as I'm getting ready, I'm going to get ready for the day now and I'm going to go listen to the audiobook of a team master and the detective and they'll probably finish it off once I'm ready. It's only like 80 pages. I'm only going to listen to this short story that I've got the audiobook and there's like two short stories, but I'm just going to listen to this one because this is the one that was recommended. And I think this one has like a murder mystery element as well. Yeah, this is the one where there's like a corpse given to her by the ship and it's the, but the corpse has been murdered and they try and figure out what happened. So I'm, listen, I'm going to read probably most of this and the bookie to today. I'm going to have a cozy reading day is the vibe for today. So I'm hoping we're going to have our first at least 3.5 of the year. That's not too much to ask for. Does that sound like something you want? It is. But let me tell you, you'll never get it. It's 3.5 too much to ask for. So I'm going to go start this and I'll let you know once I finished it because it's really short. So I'm just going to read the whole thing and then check in with you. Okey dokey. I have finished the team master and the detective. What do I want to tell you first? So the synopsis is basically all that I've told you is that we've got these two characters, one who is a detective, one is a team master, but it's like a ship, which I didn't know going into it. It's like a, there's this thing called mine ships, which I think are kind of ships, kind of people. They're like a strange amalgamation of the two and they're in space. They're in deep space and a body, they find a body and it's been murdered and they endeavor to uncover what happened together. And what I did not know, and I found out when reading a review about 20 pages in, it's a study in Scarlet retelling, aka the first Sherlock and Watson novella, I guess. That made me enjoy it a lot more. Now, I'm going to give it a three. I'm going to give it a three. And not because there was anything wrong with it. I just don't think I fully connected to it. Is that okay? Can I say that? It's the same space. The stuff that's had about trauma was very beautiful. I really, really enjoyed the writing stuff. I would definitely be interested in reading from Aliette de Bodard in the future. And I think this is like a universe. I've marked this as a companion book on my spreadsheet because I don't think this is a series, but there's lots of books set in this universe. But I just felt at a distance from everything the entire time. This is only 80 pages long. Like this book isn't all the book. Let me show you where it ends. It ends there, right? That's all like other stuff. So this is all that the book is. And when I think of other novellas that I love, I do think I prefer things that sit around the like 150 to 200 pagemarks or a little bit of a longer novella. Because I just don't feel like I really have enough time to get connected to the characters. It reminded me a lot of Binti in that it's sci-fi to do with ships, slightly sentient ships. I mean, this one more so. But in both of those books, I just felt like I didn't get emotionally attached. And also a problem with this one for me, I mean, I really struggle when I can't picture stuff that's happening. I know not everyone can picture stuff when they're reading, but I really struggle when I don't have a clear vision of what's going on. And I loved the idea, for example, of the mind ships. But did I actually understand like what physical form they were taking? Not really. And so when they're having conversations between the two of them, like in a tea shop, I'm like, what form are you? Like what's going on here? For me not to be able to picture it is a problem for me, you know? So that kept me at a distance. But like I said, I love the writing. Having read a study in Scarlet not too long ago, I really enjoyed seeing the parallels between them. And I really enjoyed Long Chao's character, the character who is the Sherlock equivalent, a lot more once I was able to kind of make that parallel and see the way that they differed or were similar. But yeah, it's a three. It's a three. Maybe like a 3.25. But I think that's pushing it. I think it's a three. I'm glad I read it. I'd be interested in reading more in this world. But it just felt a bit short for me. I would have liked a bit more. You know, I mean, it's not really a murder mystery when you only really meet one character who it could be, right? And it ends up being like you only meet one character other than these two, the person's murdered, or maybe two, we met two characters. But I mean, it's pretty obvious who's going to be responsible. So it's not really a murder mystery then in my opinion. Okay, time to get into our last one, the book eaters. Like I said, I'm going to try and read this entire thing today. I'm going to edit a bit more of this video. And then I'm going to sit down and read loads of the book eaters. And when I read the first page, this was the one that I enjoyed the most. Just I just hate how tiny the font is. I don't know if you guys can fully tell. I mean, this has large font, this. So I'd say normal font is in between these two. But can you see that difference? It's like psychotic. Anyways, I'm going to start the book eaters. I'll check with you when I'm a little bit of the way through. We'll see. I really love the idea of these. Let's hope I love it, shall we? It's very late. I'm tired. But I am halfway through the book eaters by Sonny Dean. And I'm happy to say I am enjoying it. My hair has gone crazy. What is going on up in here? Can you? Wigs. Can we calm down? What is happening? Okay. Yeah, I'm really enjoying it guys. I'm really having a fun time. So basically, all you need to know is that there's this like long lineage of six old book eater families living in England. They eat stories. They eat books to survive. They're like this. They're not human. They're a special breed. They eat books to survive. And we're following Devon in the present day. She is looking after her five year old son who is like a mind eater, which is like a, I don't know, like offshoot. I think they happen, I guess, where kids could be born that like, don't want to eat books. They want to eat people's brains. Unless they have this very specific drug. So she's like, you know, she's willing to do it for her son at the start of this book. She's getting brains for him. I don't believe in the glorification of murder. I do believe in the empowerment of women. So we're following them as they're trying to get safe. She's trying to help her son. But then we're also following Devon in the past timeline kind of we've already spanned about four years, four or five years, I think, in the past timeline of her as a woman in this bookie to society. They're kind of pressures on them to birth children because it's a dwindling. There's only six families. They've got to like carefully arrange the marriages so there's no inbreeding. Oh, it's terrible. So she is like, basically, they, what they do is they force the women to go get married and they give, they give birth to a baby and they're allowed to stay with the child for like the first three years, but then you've got to get out of here and Devon ain't happy about that. She's missing her daughter. So that's basically the plot. And as you can already start to guess, yes, it is your timeline. Yes, it is your timeline. It is your timeline, which we all know is not my favorite thing. But I'm not hating it in this. I am becoming, I think, more attached to the past timeline. There has been some one twist in the present timeline, which I wasn't expecting. And we're kind of interesting. And I, they're kind of twists that we still don't know a ton about. But part of the reason we don't know about them is because it's a split timeline. I agree. I've had it. And I've had it. People love, like in the book world, love saying that dual timeline or split timelines work because they leave you as the reader wanting more, right? As you finish one timeline, you go to the other one, you want to know what happened in the other one, and then you want to know what happened in the other one. But it doesn't work that way for me. Maybe I should have put I don't like dual timelines on the thing. Would you guys be interested in me trying this out again as another episode? I don't know if we want it to take up space in another episode considering, like, so because I wouldn't run the burst. But if I were to do it again, maybe I would put like the list of the things that I found I loved in my five-star audit and then tropes I don't like in my one-star audit and give them that list because that might be helpful. It's partly on me. But I am really enjoying it. I'm really enjoying it in spite of that. I think the writing is very interesting. I'm really enjoying this world of like the book-eater families that has been built up. I think it's the kind of thing that if you looked at it closely for too long, there might be some plush holes or some things that don't really make sense. Like, oh, they don't like humans because they're so much more powerful, like the book-eater is so much powerful than humans. But we haven't seen a lot of evidence of that. Joe, I mean, there's certain things like if you really look, there could be like problems with the logic. But if you like stand back and squint, it's fine. I'm having a fun time reading it. I'm really invested in Devin's story. But I would say I am currently more interested in the past timeline, which isn't the best situation to be in because that is not what is moving the plot forward. Like, eventually it is going to have to leave the past timeline. Like, there is probably going to be a point in this book for like the last 70 pages. We don't have any of the past timeline is my guess. So that doesn't bode well. You know, you want the past, you want the present timeline to be what is propulsively moving this story forward for me. But at the moment, I would say it's a tentative four star, which I'm not one to knock a gift or to the mouth. That is the best I have seen in quite some time. So I'm going to finish this probably tonight or in the morning. And I'll check in with you once I finished it and we will work out and we will see how we feel this vlog has gone. Bearing in mind, this is supposed to help me have my best reading ever. Okay, good morning. I have finished the book and I'm going to land on a 3.5 for this. So we can celebrate the fact that it is my highest rated book. I've read so far to see it, but that's not much. It hasn't got much competition. Let's be honest. It wasn't a four on the end because the second half had a few pacing issues for me. I feel like it dragged a bit. And I feel like the issue was that the past timeline was catching up too much with the present timeline. And thus it wasn't as interesting to me. And it just, I really should have put on my, it's my fault. I should have put on my feedback. Don't give me dual timeline. I don't like it. On the whole, I do think this is a very successful book. It's a little bit weird. It's a little bit experimental. I really enjoyed the themes of motherhood in this. I really enjoyed any books really with a theme of motherhood or sisterhood. I thought it was a very interesting way that the story left off. This could definitely become a series. I don't think it is. I think I read on Goodreads like she would love to do a sequel but doesn't necessarily know if that's going to happen. But it does definitely leave it open to a sequel. I thought the alternative England was very interesting. There was a lot that I thought was successful about it. But I think this is also a debut or I think maybe she published like short stories. But I think this is her debut novel. And I think for a debut novel it's very successful. So we're landing on a 3.5. Something that I can't remember if I told you guys is that this series, there's actually going to be a battle between each vlog to see which one gets me the best book. So the average rating of these three books here is a 3. So I'm deeming a vlog a success if it gets a 3.8 or higher which is what I need my average rating to be this year in order to have my best reading year ever. And so this vlog unfortunately or deeming it a failure. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I do think this service is so much fun. I think it'll be something that'll be so fun to gift to a bookish person in your life. I think maybe I could have specified more what works me and what doesn't. But also there's like a character limit so like you can only do what you can do. Do you know what I mean? But I don't know. I was originally thinking I would do a second part of this in the series. I would do another one because I love the idea of these professionals picking what I read. But I don't know after this if that should happen. I'll be quite honest with you because these weren't 100% me. I was hoping for like a murder mystery recommendation. I don't think my tone of fantasy was really there either. But I think they gave me what I asked for you know. But you can mean so many things with words. Like I maybe meant something a slightly different tonally than what they picked up on based on what I said you know. So unfortunately this vlog is not a success. But let me know if you've read any of these what you thought of them. These two I think I would recommend. This one had so much promise at the beginning and really went downhill. But thank you guys for watching this video. Let me know if you have any suggestions for future episodes of this series. I've got ten of them planned. I've got two free spots that I'm open to suggestions. But I'll probably come up with them throughout the year. But if you guys have any suggestions on sources that I can find these book suggestions from. I want it to be me talking to a person so I don't want it to be like me going on Goodreads and them recommending me books based on you liked this. Do you know what I mean? I want it to be like me with another person getting recommendations. So I've got most of them planned. But yeah let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!