 And welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new here, my name is Megan and it is time for another episode of BookTuber's scavenger hunt. So if you don't know, this is a series on my channel and it's probably one of my favourite videos to make. I love making these videos so much. Basically, the way these videos work is I start with a BookTuber. That BookTuber is the only element of control I have in the whole video. Are you comfortable? I'm scared. Are you scared? You should be. I start with one BookTuber, they give me a reading prompt. It can be anything they want. I go away, I read a book based on it and then they tell me which BookTuber to go to next for my next reading prompt. So I literally have control over the first BookTuber and I don't even have control of what they say. I ask. I still can't believe this. I ask one of my favourite BookTubers, people on YouTube, Cindy. I ask Cindy if she would send me the first reading prompt and she very kindly said yes. I still really can't. A bit self-tracked with my mind. I'm gonna watch the video that she sent over. I've had it for a while now, but I haven't been ready to film this video. So I'm gonna watch her video now and let's see what reading prompt she has given me. Hey, Meg. Thanks for inviting me to be on your channel. I was trying to figure out what prompts I should give you for the next book to read and I figured instead of deciding on whether I should be mean or whether I should be nice, I'm gonna go ahead and leave it up to fate. So my challenge for you is to pick your book based on the first book that you see on your Twitter feed. So I want you to log into your Twitter and keep on scrolling until you see someone mention a book or post a picture of a book and that will be the next book that you read. And obviously if you have already read the book, then you can just keep on scrolling until you see the next one that you haven't read yet. So yeah, it's just gonna be totally dependent on what your Twitter feed is gonna be like that day. It's mean. That's not, that's not leaving up to fate, that's straight up mean. I can't. Get out. That gives me no, here's the thing, that gives me no wiggle room or like, choosing information. I'm hoping against all hope that it's gonna be a book I own. This is why these videos are so fun because booktubers are just horrible to me. We're probably gonna have to scroll for quite a while because I just have loads of shit on my Twitter feed. I mean, look, the first thing we see is football related, right? Okay, so let's, hmm. Do you know what honey? See you later. Take care, my love. Call me again. The first one that's come up is Dreams of God of Monsters, but isn't that a sequel? So does that mean I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Lainie Taylor? I think it does. I think that means I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Does it? I don't, okay, here's the thing. When I have no guidance on the rules, I don't know whether this is me breaking the rules because I can't read the third book in a series, right? But like, I don't know whether I should keep scrolling to find another book or because I've hit upon that book, I should read the other book in that series. I'm gonna go with we read Daughter of Smoke and Bone because I own it. But I mean it's a long book, so like. B, I feel like I would be breaking the rules if I went and I scrolled for another book. Do you know what I mean? I feel like that would be against the rules. So we're gonna read Daughter of Smoke and Bone. So I have the Illuma Crate special edition of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the first one. I don't have the whole series, I only have the first one. I'm very excited to read this. I'm very excited to read this. I'm gonna collapse. No, I don't. I feel faint. I've struck gold later. I Love Stranger Dreamer by Lainie Taylor. I've only read Stranger Dreamer. I haven't read Muse of Nightmares and here's the thing. I don't really want to be starting more series when I haven't finished like the other series by this author because I feel like it could get confusing. We're just gonna go with it. I feel like it's what we have to do. We're gonna go read this. Oh my god. I'm terrified. I'm really excited. I can't wait to read like the whimsical, magical writing. So thank you Cindy, it actually worked out well. I hope that was what you would have done in this situation. I feel like if I didn't read Door to a Smokin' Bone, I'd be breaking the rules. But I don't know. Let's go start it. I'm so excited. Okay, so it's been a long time since I last spoke to you. I started this video and then I promptly stopped it. But I am halfway through Door to a Smokin' Bone. I was really intimidated by this but it's actually been such a quick read and it really wasn't what I was expecting. This is predominantly set in our world. I think having read Strange to the Dreamer by Lady Taylor, which is so fantastical in this other world, I thought this would be the same but it's not. It's mainly set in Prague but there is another world that our main character goes into. So we follow a crew who has basically grown up with this group. I think they're called Seraphins? No, they're not. That's the other thing. Let's get it together before you want to read. She's grown up with them and it's basically these creatures that are half resembling human, half resembling these other animals. And for as long as she can remember she's kind of done errands for the lead guy and that's been her setup. That's been her family throughout all of her life. But now they're these angels, these seraphins, which have come to Earth and are starting to burn, put their hands on the doors and scorch the doors that are portals into this other world. What's the other world called? Elsewhere. So you have our world and you have elsewhere. And then the doors begin to close basically. Karu gets disconnected from them. That's in the synopsis so I don't think it's really a spoiler. Yeah, I didn't expect it to be so grounded in our world but I am enjoying it. But I feel like reading this I do prefer Strange the Dreamer but this is still very good. I love Lady Taylor's writing. It is so beautiful. Lady Taylor's writing is some of my favorite writing I've ever read but I just, I never, I haven't given any of her books five stars yet. Which is strange to identify writing as some of your favorite writing but to not connect with the stories in a way that lends itself to giving five stars. I don't know. That's something I hadn't thought about. But if you ask me what's your favorite style of writing, Lady Taylor is probably what I would quote. It's this fairy tale, this whimsical, this sarcasm, it's everything I love in writing. But yeah, this isn't a five star. This is probably like a four star and Strange the Dreamer I think was like a 4.5. Maybe even a four. So there's something maybe about the plot or the pacing of these books that I don't fully connect with. It's sad. It's sad. You know? It's, it's a shame. Part of me thinks that Lady Taylor's writing does lend itself better to being a completely fantastical world that is nothing like our own because it gives it less boundaries. This book maybe feels a bit constrained but I am really enjoying it. And listen, it's like 10 years old this book and it does not feel 10 years old. It feels like a modern romance, modern fantasy book. I feel like a lot of fantasy you read from like 2011, 2012 is so dated, like incredibly dated. Whereas this does not feel like that. This doesn't feel dated at all. I'm really enjoying it. I didn't really want to read this now if I'm honest because I wanted to finish Muse of Nightmares to like finish off that series before I started a different Lady Taylor series so that I didn't get confused. But I'm really enjoying it. It's such an easy read. Such a quick read. Right. You alright, Nicky? No, I'm not alright. Everything's just stressing me out at the moment. So I finished this a couple of days ago. Um, I don't really want to talk about it, you guys. I am avoiding talking about this book. So I'm giving it three stars. Oh! Everyone's going to be so mad at me. Everyone is about to be so angry. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Without spoilers, the last 100 pages of this book goes off on a completely different plot and I was just like, why? Like why? Like I understand why, but it still pissed me off. Me when the book changed plot to a story that could have been told in like three pages. It made me angry. I wasn't happy. I was like, bitch, what do we think we're doing here? Like why? Why have I spent the whole book getting attached to these characters and suddenly you're like, whoop, let's go talk about something else, shall we? No! What? It felt like a short story. You know when authors do like short prequel stories, like short novellas to go along with a series? It felt like one of them had been lumped in a book. I never bought into the romance in this. I think if you want to love this book, you've got to be obsessed with the romance. You've got to feel like the earth is fucking moving, the stars are aligning, the moon is shining. I don't know. Like all of the celestial power is coming together for this romance and I was just, I was a bit let down by it. I felt like I turned a page and 20 pages had been missing and suddenly they fell in love and like I'd missed the 20 pages when they started falling in love. Like it was literally instant. Never have I seen more of like an instant love. And listen, I understand why before all of you stands come for me. I know why. It doesn't mean I agree with it. It doesn't mean I enjoyed it. This book reminds me of the phrase, beautiful gowns, when something is beautiful but lacks substance. This book, beautiful writing, beautiful gowns, some of the most beautiful writing ever. No substance. Really. For me. Oh! If beautiful gowns was a book, it would be this. Beautiful gowns, beautiful gowns but not much else. Number one, please judge me. Number two, please hate me because number three, I love it. I'm going to continue on the series. It's Miss Lady Taylor. I want to read the series but it has been bumped down my priority of series. I'm not going to lie to you. What once was a top series for me to like read and get into is now like now what elements I really enjoyed. I really liked our main character, Karu. Like I said, the writing itself is some of the most gorgeous writing ever read. I really loved a lot of our like familiar relationships with Karu and those kind of people in her lives. Brimstone is my favorite character. Brimstone has riots, everyone else, not so sure. I'm sad about this but I'm also glad I didn't buy the second and third books in this Aluma Crate special edition. I'm glad I didn't spend like 60 pounds on that. I'm glad I'm just going to spend about 12 pounds on the paperbacks. So Cindy, despite me not loving this book, she has chosen Maddie from Book Browsing Blog to be the next to Booktube to give me a prompt because Maddie loved this book. We're going to wait and I will check back in with you once we have that reading prompt. Okay, so Maddie just sent me a prompt so let's go watch it. I'm nervous! Hi Meg, thank you so much for asking me to do this. I'm so excited and here is your prompt for the next stage of your Booktube, a Scamander Hunt. So what I'm going to ask of you is to read a book that you missed the right time to read. This could be anything. It could be a new release. You said you were going to read on release day and it's two years later and you've still not read it. It could be a book club pick you wanted to read along with or read along and you didn't get around to it. It could be something that you put on a previous TBR and not quite got to when you plan to or maybe like a seasonal read that you, for example, really want to read a spooky book around Halloween but you missed Halloween and now you're debating whether to wait longer or read it now. Anything like that, just something that you missed the correct time or the right time to read it in, pick that up now and give it a go. I'm so excited to see what you choose and so excited to see this video. Have fun. Okay. So, oh, I have a few. What one do I want to read? Okay. I am so excited that I am finally reading this book and it's going to be in a reading vlog. I am going to read The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Tertin. This has been a book I've been constantly like waiting for the right time to read. It's one of the oldest books on my TBR. I think I bought this before I had my channel. I'm so happy I'm finally going to read it. It's been on, I think, two reading vlogs. I've said at the start of the video I'm going to read this book and then I haven't. Not just one. I think it's two. So this is the book I've definitely like tried to read multiple times. I haven't actually ever started it but it's a book I've said so many times I'm going to read. So this is a five star prediction. I'm so excited. I gave Stuart Tertin's newest book, The Devil and Darkwater, five stars as well. This is a murder mystery where Evelyn Hardcastle is murdered at this party that her parents are throwing and the perspective we're reading from is waking up in the body of a different party guest reliving that day over and over to try and figure out who the killer is. This is such a good prompt. This is such a good prompt. She came through. Oh my god. Take a deep breath, calm down. This is like one of the books I feel like I've won at life. I'm so happy. Okay. A hundred pages in. I'm a hundred pages in and I can really tell this book is about to like mindfuck like I don't think I'm quite ready. Our guy is living the day of the murder. I believe the murder is going to occur in the evening. In the morning he sees a woman running saying help me and we don't know who this woman is and a gunshot go off. And he thinks I was like okay that's Evelyn, she's been murdered, but then Evelyn did it. Evelyn's two of them about having a little chat so she's alive. So I assume Evelyn's going to be killed that night but we don't even know that at this point but I mean it's in the fucking title. I'm figuring this out. I'm like Scooby and Shaggy, I'm solving a mystery. And every day our person wakes up in a different body. His eight bodies he's going to cycle through and if he doesn't figure it out in the first eight it goes back to the start. And also there's other people trying to figure out the murder mystery too because whoever figures it out gets to escape from like this purgatory hell that is waking up in this place every time. It's like a race as a murder mystery which is so much fun to me. It feels very different to The Devil in the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. That's more of a linear story whereas this already is like jumping around the place. We've got to remember who all these characters are, what their roles are, the kind of people that they are, whether we can trust them. His writing feels very different to me and I'm not sure if I'm gelling with it like just the authorial voice. I'm not sure if I'm a hundred percent on board but I'm starting to get more into it. And now I think he's going to try and confer with future hymns so like he's on day four and he's going to try and confer with day eight hymn because they're all reliving the same day and he's just a different person in the house so he's going to try and like figure out what they all know together and piece it together so I'm very interested. This is like an elite idea. This is like one of the best ideas for a murder mystery I've ever heard. It's just going to succeed. Keep saying it. Just keep saying it. Keep saying it out loud and maybe you will convince hope. I have stumbled already across the fatphobia that people mention in this book. It does feel overly as gratuitous the way I'd, I don't know, I'm very tired I don't know what the right words are. I think it can be difficult to separate and this is me speaking as someone who you're growing up, I was very, very overweight. I think in books like this it's difficult to separate where the character himself like the one whose perspective we're reading from is fatphobic and that's a flaw that he has and you're a flaw that he has from being socialised in the fatphobic society that we live in or if it is the fault of the book and the author. I think it's difficult to separate and I could not tell you at this point and I probably won't be able to tell you even by the end of the book which of those I think it is. If you just, if you are aware that like description of being fat as disgusting on stuff like that is going to trigger you or upset you, I wouldn't recommend this because it's already been quite heavy in the sections of the character I'm reading right now. But I'm very intrigued as to where this is going to go. I'm going to go read some more. I feel like the first 100 pages we now understand everything that's going on. We understand the rules of the game. We cannot escape this house. We cannot drive or run away as much as we may try. We are stuck here. We're in a race to figure out this murder mystery. There's pressure because we're competing. The rules are here. Now it's go time. About page 300. It's a very interesting book. I don't really know. I don't really know how to take it. I am enjoying it, but you definitely have to constantly be aware of everything that's going on because I got a few bits wrong. Basically, he does have these eight lives to go and live through. There's one rule that I don't really understand in that he jumps back to some of them if the person he's in falls asleep. I don't really understand how that works and who gets skipped over. But I said it would loop around. So he goes to the A and if he hasn't figured it out, it goes back again. But he loses his memories of anything he's figured out in that first loop. It's intimated that this has been going on for a long time. This isn't the first loop. This has been going on for a long time. And he's been trying to figure this out, this murdered out for a long time. But it's such an interesting murder mystery. If you love murder mysteries, this is so unique and unlike anything else. Anyway, this may be... You're going to drag me for this. You guys go drag me for this, huh? OK, this may be a bit of a weird like comparison, but the way that he's having to figure things out reminds me of when I used to play Nancy Drew games as a kid, like the Nancy Drew mystery games. You know, you've got to figure something out. You know, you've got to do something in action to unlock the next piece of the story. And you're just like, you'll just click around blindly until you get lucky. And that's what I feel like he does. He kind of just like chuck shit at the wall because he's so confused. He doesn't even know who he is. You just chuck shit at the wall and you just hope that something lands and you find like the right combination for something to move on. And that's kind of what I feel like this has been like. There's so many secrets in all of the people at this house. The house almost feels like its own character. It's been left in the state of decay because of the like financial situations of the hard castles. And I feel like that griminess, that dirt, that decay is kind of like seeping through the rest of the story. It's very confusing. My brain sometimes when I'm reading this, I'm like, huh. Well, that's clever. That's clever. But I don't understand any of it. How do I explain it? But I do feel like I'm glad I read The Devil in the Dark Water first by Stuart Turton. I can see how people may be scared off by this book. So if you read this and you found it too confusing and too like strange, I would still recommend you give The Devil in the Dark Water ago because they're completely different. The Devil in the Dark Water is much more easy for the reader to follow. It's a linear story. Another aspect of this that I actually really like is how being in someone's head is interesting. So he finds himself thinking in the way that the body he's in thinks. So if the body he's in is really analytical, clever, like he's able to make those decisions. But if the body he's in like gets distracted easily or doesn't understand things, he's left really confused. So that's an aspect of it. I found really interesting beyond like the physical sense because you're obviously trapped in the body. You can kind of expect to move as they do. But the idea of like your consciousness being tied to the way that they think is super interesting. So I'm enjoying it. I don't. I think I'm not going to fully know how I feel about it until I finish it. It's a strange book to be able to tell you how I feel about it in the middle. It's like a spider web of a book. I've never read a book that's so like interconnected and confusing. I finished it. And I actually think I'm going to give it like 3.5 stars. I can't believe that. I actually can't believe that. I ended up feeling quite disappointed by the ending. There's this twist in regards to like why we are stuck in this cycle and why this has been happening. And it just felt like it didn't fit with the rest of the book for me. And like I think that's the point. I think it's supposed to feel really separate from the reality that has been created in the setting that we're in at this party. It just left me feeling a bit underwhelmed for the rest of the book, particularly on how the character reacts to it and how that spurs on the end of the book. I just thought the end of the book was weak. And I did think that about the devil in the dark water too, but I let it slide because the ending to that seemed so unusual to me. And unlike anything I'd read before, but this just felt a bit like easy and a bit convenient. And at the end, there's this big explanation from a certain character about why everything happened and how it all happened and how the murder was done. And I just didn't care by the end. You did your best, but I guess your best wasn't good enough. And I'm really sad because this was a five-star prediction. This was like one of my number ones five-star predictions because of the murder mystery. I love the atmosphere of it. It's very much timeless. Like you could be in the 1920s or you could be in modern day at this party in a way, I think. So I liked that aspect of it. I loved the kind of like Cluedo Agatha Christie setting. I loved the premise of us going into these different bodies. But I think maybe towards the end, the book ended up getting a bit clever for itself. And listen, I could be just dumb. I could be just dumb, but I feel like it started to like trip up over itself. But there was a lot I still loved about it, but the ending was just a bit unsatisfying. So I'm gonna give it like a four on Goodreads, but it's a 3.5 overall. In this video so far, we haven't had the best success because they were both books I've been super excited for and they've both been like three, three and a half stars. So that's fun. There's this whole relationship in this book. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's between our character and this woman. It's sort of like middling for me. And I kind of go in treat. And then there's the book when I was like this, I don't understand. Let's just... It was supposed to give, but it did not give what needed to be gave. I feel like it spun so many different threads that it failed to answer them for me in a satisfying way. So... You guys, I'm so sad. This book, I've been waiting for like three years to read it and I hope that it was gonna be a five star. Look at me now. Maddie chose India for what India read as the last person to give me a prompt. I'm very nervous. She has just sent me the video. So let's see what it is. Ah! Hi, Megan. Hello. I hope you're doing well. I've been thinking about what I most associate with you and your channel. And let's be honest, it has to be your killer editing. So in honour of all the random stuff that you throw into your videos that make me laugh every single time, my prompt for you is to read a book with some elements of mixed media. So you can have diary entries, emails, letters, whatever you want. I will even be nice to you and say you could have just maybe one page of text messages between characters because I know this might be a difficult one. So yeah, happy reading. Can't wait to see what you choose. Thank you. Do I have any books with mixed media on my TBR? Do I have any? Okay, so I'm actually around Tom's at the moment. I guess you didn't know. And I bought like six books with me that I thought like, if they fit for this last prompt, I'll read them. If they don't, I'll drive back home. And I went and checked and one of them actually has mixed media. And it is Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers. This has like text messages between characters, emails, letters, that kind of thing. It's not like loads, but it is quite frequent throughout the book that some characters are texting. So I'm gonna go read this. Halfway through Honey Girl. It's only like 280 pages long. So it's not long at all. And I'm really liking it. So basically we are following Grace who has just finished her PhD in astronomy. She has been living this really strict life for 11 years in terms of academia where she's been pushing and pushing and pushing herself to achieve this goal. And now she's achieved it. She's feeling just so like burnt out and hollow. And like as I'm reading it, I can definitely feel myself relating. I mean, I have not been out here doing academia for 11 years. But I think I'm the kind of person that through secondary school and then GCSEs and A-Levels, then university, I was constantly putting myself under so much pressure to be the best and to achieve so much. And now that I'm done, like I finished academia forever, I'm kind of sitting here like, you know, feeling like I need a break from it all. And that's what this summer really is for me before I start thinking about my next steps. So I feel like I'm reading this at a really fortuitous time where I can really relate to it. And basically she went to Vegas and when she was drunk, she married another woman there. And it's a story of them kind of like reconnecting and falling for each other. And she's just gone to visit her in New York. And that's kind of where I've gotten to. I really love the writing. This is a really beautiful writing style and a writing style I haven't read a lot of before. There's like a lot of moments in this where I like wanna write it down. It's just a really beautiful style of writing, but it feels very different. It feels like poetic. There's this really great element of like found family and like queer found family. And Grace has a really difficult relationship with her dad in particular. He's very strict. Like he expects so much of her. And it's very angry when she deviates from that path at all. And there's just these great characters and friendships and love that she has surrounded herself in with her friends that she lives with. And me every time Grace and her friends speak. That was beautiful. You did such a good job of expressing yourself. I just feel like I haven't read a book as well in a long time where the friendship group expresses such great adoration for each other. Yeah, such great love and affection and like showcases that to one another. So I've really been enjoying that as well. And it's just like kind of a beautiful book. Don't go into this thinking it's a romance because it's not really romance. It's more about Grace finding herself. I feel like it's what it's gonna be and realizing that like this constant push to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing isn't all that it's cracked up to be and you have to find balance. So it's not really romance but there is this soft and gentle growing romance between them and it's really beautiful. I don't often love romances but I think maybe romance is like this where there is that romance but it's also paired with a main character like going through a journey themselves is maybe what I prefer. So, and we have had quite a few like before they met up her and Yuki were texting a lot. So it fits the multi-media challenge before anyone says it doesn't. So I popped into Waterstones yesterday and this is like through the month I got influenced by one of the sellers in there to buy it. The appeal by Janice Hallett is this murder mystery told completely through texts and emails and transcripts. And I just wanted to mention it because how perfect would this have been for India's prompt? I just didn't own it but it would have been perfect but I'm really good for reading this but like imagine if I had owned this I probably would have read this because it's all mixed media but anyway, back to Honey Girl. I finished it. I think I'm gonna give it four stars. I really, really loved it. It was just this beautiful quiet book. I don't feel like there's much for me to like update you on because it's a very quiet book. There's not much plot points, nothing big happens but it's just about Grace like coming to terms and how she hasn't allowed herself to look after herself and pay attention to her mental health. The plot kind of veers off from what I was expecting it to do. It goes in this like different even more quiet direction but I think it was like the perfect thing to happen in the book. I thought, you know, A examined the ingrained racism in a lot of work, community, scientific communities how difficult it is for like black women in particular to achieve what they wanna achieve but also just like burnout culture and the culture that says you always have to be working even at weekends and stuff. That's something that I'm trying to like find the balance with as well. So I felt like for me that element of it came at a really great time. I felt like this book did a really great job of exposing like really difficult parts of our culture like whether it be relationships or work or, you know, self-belief or whatever and like shining a light up to them and examining them and speaking about why it doesn't have to be that way. The writing for me is the number one thing I keep coming back to. Like it was just fucking beautiful. Like it was beautiful. If I could marry writing, it would be this. She's a beautiful person. Her talent and brilliance is beyond. So that is the end of my booktubers scavenger hunt, episode three. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you so much to the booktubers who contribute to this. I'll leave all their channels linked down below. You should definitely go subscribe to them if you're not already. All three of the books I read in this video are books I've been highly, highly anticipating. So I'm really glad that I've read them. The first two maybe were a bit disappointing for the high hopes I had for them but this one was a really nice surprise and it was just like a really pleasant reading experience. It wasn't like this big show. I was like shocked and like felt all these emotions. It was just a really nice experience to read. So I have a lot of fun in this video. I hope you did too. Make sure you subscribe down below if you're not already. If you've gone to the end, comment a B emoji. Honey girl, B. There is a B emoji, right? There should be, yeah. And I will see you very soon in another video. Thank you so much for watching. I love you. Bye.