ok i'll mood read for a week i guess!🥴

So in my most recent vlog I expressed how I don't feel like I'm enjoying reading that much at the moment. Not that I don't feel like I'm enjoying it, I feel a little bit of a rut with it and like always when I express a sentiment like this a lot of you guys suggested that I need to try mood reading and usually when I get those comments a noise isn't the right word but I just kind of ignore it because for me I expressed before you know making fun vlog projects is as much a hobby for me as reading is. You know I have so many creative ideas that I want to fulfill and so that's as much of a hobby for me as reading is. They've always kind of really been hand in hand. I didn't read for long when I started reading again outside having booktube you know so that really is a hobby for me however I do feel like I need it. Guys I'm actually gonna listen to this time and we're gonna try a mood reading for a week. It's Friday today so I guess we'll go to Thursday next week and we're gonna try mood reading for a week. I'm gonna not set any kind of like goals on how much I have to read this week or what I need to read. We're just gonna try and mood read and you guys are gonna find out very quickly I'm not very good at that. It's not for me Mark. I feel terribly ill all of a sudden. I can't see. I've gone shaking. I'm not very good at mood reading. I'm not good at mood reading guys because I have no... I'm used to just knowing what I'm gonna pick up next. I don't like the decision making. However we're gonna try and read some books that get me out of my rut a little bit and get me enjoying reading. So shall we go pick what I'm reading best? It's a lovely Friday. I'm actually probably not going to get a lot of reading done today because I have quite a lot of editing done. However let's try our best shall we? Let's let's let's pick some books. Okay friends there's a loud plane going past. Let's ignore that. Calm down. We're here in my little TBR corner. I was like my hair looks crazy at the start. It's all very good. I've just taken out a bun. Anyways let's focus shall we? We're here in my TBR corner. So this is my TBR cart. This is double stacked TBR books and so is this but those are probably books I'm less interested in if they're all the way back there. So I think what we should do is narrow down some options because I'm also going around Toms this weekend so I need to take some options with me around there for in case I finish the first book this weekend. So let's like make a grouping of books that I'm kind of interested in and then we'll pick one from that to start off with. I think I'm in the mood for spooky stuff. I'm starting to get in the mood for like mystery thriller horror, dark academia, witchy stuff, spooky stuff. Look at these freaking bats. I have got a video coming out in October that I'll be able to read like more spooky stuff in, more kind of like autumnal mood reads in. But I will have some control over what I'm reading in that video so it's okay. But we're doing it as well in this video. So some books that I have also, wait I didn't show you also, as well as all that we have got two stacks of all the books you guys got me in the book she bought me because my cat died video. So I have got one of those as options as well. So we've got some graphic novels. Maybe I'll read some graphic novels this week. That might be fun. Okay let me put these books back. I have been wanting to read for ages Queen B by Juno Dawson. I've seen some of my subscribers reading this and it looks really interesting. It's short, it's a novella, so I think it will be a good quick read. This is like a spin-off of the Her Majesty's Royal Coven books where it's Anne Boleyn, who I was obsessed with as a child. We'll just run through these quickly. I mean let me try and contain myself. But yeah it's a spin-off. I've only read the first in the series. This is published obviously after the second, The Shadow Cabinet, which I'm not in the mood for. That's too long right now. But I've been told you can read this having just read the first. So I'm interested in this. Also in witches I would be interested in reading In Defence of Witches, Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Shalott, which is non-fiction about kind of like the legacy of witches. I do really want to read at some point this year. I would like to soon. This could be a good one for this week because of the audiobook. The next in the Lady Hardcastle series. This is like number 10. I have no idea. 9, 8, 10, 11, something around that. This one, There's a Murder on a Sage. There's a sage! Oh my god look at Lady Hardcastle. That's like the clearest I've ever seen their faces. That's interesting. But I feel like I want to read another Lady Hardcastle. Oh my god guys, there's so much I want to read. Of the stuff that I got in that video, there's quite a few. Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan is like vampires and women in the 1990s. Similar to South London Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. I'd love to make progress in the Truly Devious series now that I own the box in the woods. And this is like a summer camp murder case. So that might be good to read now versus in October when it's like, this is like a spooky summer. We're now on the dregs of summer. I'm just picking loads from this stack. Let me pick two more from this stack and then, well there's the graphic novels down here but let me not pick them out. The next in the Three Dahlias series, mystery series. There's a lot of mysteries I'm picking out. And then also, one that I got from the publisher, The Final Act of Juliet Willoughby, which sounds really interesting. Kind of Evelyn Hugo but murder. So those are kind of, I feel like, our initial options. Let me show you them. That's quite a lot. Can I calm down? I mean there's like so many. I'm not a good mood reader guys. How do I decide? Which of these do I fancy the most right now? I feel like I'm leaning, and again I'll probably take this stack with me around Tom's, I feel like I'm leaning towards Queen Bee by Juno Dawson. You lot have made a damn well good decision. I hope you're pleased with yourselves. I think this could just be a good pick to start us off. Like I'm not expecting necessarily a five star from this but I love a bit of Anne Boleyn, you know? I love Anne Boleyn. And I just think this would be a quick read, you know? I don't think this is gonna put me in a slump. So yeah, I think I'm gonna pick this. I think I'm gonna pick this. Quick read, short read. I mean after that I feel like what I'm leaning towards is Lady Hardcastle but I don't know how interesting that is to you guys. It's like the dead to the series. Okay, I think I'm gonna go Queen Bee by Juno Dawson. Super excited. I'm actually feeling very excited for this. I'll check in with you once I'm a little bit of the way through this. I probably won't see you tonight, I don't think I'll get very far in tonight. Like I said, I've got a lot of editing to do. If I don't end up reading anything today, we'll do this from Saturday to Friday next week. If I do start today then we'll stop Thursday next week. So yeah, I feel like when I mood read I just pick short books though, let's be honest. Okay, so it's Saturday. I read nothing yesterday. Like I kind of predicted I would. So the vlog is gonna run from Saturday to Friday but before we start reading I actually want to chat to you guys about something that I've been trying and loving. So let's go chat about it. So something I've really been struggling with lately is being productive, being time efficient. I feel like when I'm trying to work, at the moment I am wasting so much time procrastinating, getting distracted by social media is probably the biggest one. I just, it's so bad. I just start scrolling on things. I get distracted so easily at the moment. I have been finding that I'm being very stressed and anxious and thus I can't, you know, you can't work to your best when you're feeling stressed and anxious. And then, like fate, Magic Mind reached out to me and offered for me to try some of their shots and see what I thought of them before then sponsoring this video and guys, I have to tell you, I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. Dida actually wants to tell you, she wants to tell you that I love it. Don't you dudes? Okay, let's talk about it. So Magic Mind is a mental performance shot that you drink in the morning. You can drink it with your coffee, you can drink it mixed into another drink, or you can just drink it as a shot like I do. It gets you focused, mentally clear, motivated and productive whilst also reducing stress and it is 100% safe. All the ingredients are third-party tested and all the ingredients are also sourced from the best places. So I've personally been using it for over a week now and I have noticed a massive, massive, massive reduction in stress. That's the biggest thing I've noticed for me personally. I have felt so much calmer, I felt like I've reacted to stressful situations a lot better, I felt like a lifted mood, I felt a bit happier. And yeah, just calmer, just less stressed in general, just able to like face the day a lot more easily and also I've felt more motivated. I've done stuff in the past couple days I haven't done for like months and months and months, maybe a year. I've started calendar blocking again, I've started focusing on some bigger projects that I really want to achieve. It's made me feel, yeah, a lot more motivated and like those work projects are within reach. So you guys can go to magicmind.com forward slash megwithbooks and use the code MEGWITHBOOKS20 to get up to 48% off your first time subscription for the next 10 days or 20% off a one-time purchase. I really recommend you guys try it out if you've been struggling with productivity and motivation because, like I said, I've been using it for about seven days so far and I'm going to continue to use it because it really has been helping me. Okay, let's go start reading. Right, hello friends, it's been a while. I didn't film much at the weekend. You want to see the bit of B-Roll. I went and read on the beach which was lovely. We had pizza for dinner one night, went for some nice walks but it's Tuesday morning. It's Tuesday morning. I have played some Sims the last couple days. I got a little sale on and I got 50% off the Get Famous pack. I have a lot of thoughts. Let me tell you them briefly. The game mechanics, wonderful. Like the going to work on an acting set and like being an actor, obsessed. The world, awful. Diabolical. The like group plots and the homes, just like so disappointing compared to now what they do with worlds like the cottage living. Cottage living is my favourite pack ever to exist. I love cottage living. But yeah, I think it's very interesting, this whole Get Famous pack, because I'm enjoying some of the gameplay but it feels very empty at the same time. Anyways, I have finished Queen Bee. I decided to read the whole thing before coming and speaking to you because it is, like it's only 160 pages and the font is like absolutely mahoosive so it's like a pretty short novella. I'm giving this five stars. This is not like an all-time five star, it's not the five star that like I'm craving, craving, desperate for. It's the kind of book where like 50% of the way through I was like, oh it's a solid four star. Then 80% of the way through it was a 4.5 and then the last few pages made it into a five. You know what I mean? But I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. So this is the story of Anne Boleyn's Coven. You remind me of a witch. And it's told in the present day just after she's been killed, because spoiler alert, you know Anne Boleyn gets beheaded. She's the first beheaded. This is something I'm intrigued about. Like those of you in the US or anywhere in the world, how much do you know? Like when I say Anne Boleyn, do you know she was the wife of Henry VIII who was beheaded? Is that like common knowledge? Because it's common knowledge to us but like worldwide is it common knowledge? Like you guys in America sometimes say stuff about your presidents. I'm like who the hell is that? Who the hell is that? What I know about Theodore Roosevelt having teddy bears named after him and I think that's so iconic. Like that's a better legacy than anything you could do as president ever could be. Having teddy bears being named after you. Imagine that. The plot of this is basically we're following Grace Fairfax who was a member of the coven trying to avenge Anne's death because someone within the coven betrayed her and it's told, it is split timeline a little bit but it's one of those ones that I like where it's like predominantly the present and a few flashbacks to the past. And I just want to say one thing, this healed something in me from when I was a child. I just love Anne Boleyn. Try not to say mother challenge. Failed. I just love Anne Boleyn. Like if you were a girl when you were younger, you loved Anne Boleyn. You just had an obsession with Anne Boleyn. Can't tell you why. Loved Anne Boleyn. Like I remember going to the Tower of London and like I was so obsessed. There's like a, at least when I went, there was like an exhibition of like some of her dresses and jewellery in there and there was like a little bit of Anne Boleyn or like going to Hever Castle which isn't that far from me as a kid and like that's like her family home. Anyways, I just love it. Just love Anne Boleyn. And so reading this was so fun. She's obviously only in the flashbacks because she's like in present day but I just found it so interesting and so this is basically a prequel. It's a companion novella to the Her Majesty's Royal Coven series which is a series where like witches are in government. It's like a branch of government in the UK and it's the story of like childhood friends in that. But this, I could read a whole series based on like Tudor witches. Like the little coven of witches and I think it's so interesting. Like obviously the historical setting for witches is so interesting because that's the time they're being hunted down like there's literal witch hunters in the street. I just loved it. I loved how it built. There's moments at the ending that almost made me cry. I love how it tied in. There was just like, there was a letter at the end that got me and there was like the last chapter like the epilogue got me. They got me. They got me. There's like a romance in this as well that is very, is done with such, is deftness the right word? I don't even know what that means but just like, just a lovely like touch. It's not overdone or there's like kind of multiple romances or feelings that people have that is just done so well. Guys, I had so much fun reading this. It's super short. I would really recommend it. I do think, I've obviously only read Her Majesty's Royal Coven. This came out after The Shadow Cabinet which is the sequel which I haven't read. I would say I would recommend reading Her Majesty's Royal Coven before this because it makes some of the ending why it became a five star for me and I just think it's, I think it's good to get used to the world and get used to kind of, yeah, the rules of everything through the first book but I don't mind. I haven't read The Shadow Cabinet so you don't need to read The Shadow Cabinet before you read this. I loved it. Anne Boleyn, one icon. I just, I had so much fun. The setting was wonderful, the peeks into the way that Gina Dawson really researched history and real people that are in this book. Oh, I loved it guys. I just love witches. I love witches. I love witches. Anyways, today, obviously whilst I've been finishing that I've been thinking like, oh what should I read? What should I read? And I thought about like taking you down there and like having a little look through my books again but if I'm honest with myself, I know what I want to read. I know what I want to read. I want an audiobook and that audiobook is An Act of Foul Play by T.E. Kinsey, the next Lady Hardcastle Mysteries. Let me actually tell you what number this is. Okay, this is number nine. This is number nine in the Lady Hardcastle Mysteries series. Part of me didn't want to pick it because in my brain I'm like, well this isn't interesting for you guys because it's like number nine in the series and they're all the same. But it does mean I can tell you about the plot because there won't be any spoilers for like the rest of the books. But um, I don't know how interesting it is for you guys but the whole point of this video is I let go of that and I just read what I want to read and I want to read Lady Hardcastle. I fucking love Lady Hardcastle and I cannot tell you how excited I am to start this audiobook today. I'm gonna aim to get halfway today, maybe check in with you. We're just going to go out, I don't know if I'll film it because it's not very interesting. We're going out shopping, like clothes shopping. I need some socks. We're going to like a, like a, what's the word? Outlet? We're going to an outlet near us. So yes, but I'm just so excited for this one. I'll let you know about the plot when I'm halfway through but it just gives me good vibes. It just gives me good vibes. I love Lady Hardcastle, I'm so excited. Hello cuties, it is Wednesday evening and where's my book? It's over here. I am halfway through An Act of Foul Play by T.E. Kinsey. So I mean, if you haven't heard me talk about this series before, Lady Hardcastle and her maid Flo are solving mysteries. I feel like you're a little bit tight in. Should we move back a bit? Yeah, they solve mysteries, often murder mysteries together and this is the ninth in a series and it's my favourite cozy mystery series ever. The big snob is this one. Oh guys, I love it, I love it, I love it. They are investigating Lady Hardcastle and Flo are at a play with some of their friends one night and the curtain comes up on act two and there's a dead body on stage. One of the actors has been murdered and there's been a few, well, there's been one more murder since then and it's all of them investigating the murders going on within this theatre company and within this stage production and interviewing the actors and the writer and the director and the stagehands. It's so fun! As someone who loves theatre and having so much fun with this setting, I just love it. I just love, I just love this series so much. There's something about this series, guys, I don't even know if I can talk to you or if I'll have many interesting things to say to you about this because there's something about this that I just find so comforting and warm and cozy that like, it's one of the only books these days that I kind of just switch my brain off. It's like Real Housewives for my brain. Like, at lunchtimes, I can only watch mindless television at lunch in between work because I just want to give my brain a rest. Hang on, I'm gonna lower you a bit. And so I watch Real Housewives. This is like the equivalent, not that this is bad, I mean, I think it's really good writing, really good mysteries, but I just find it so easy now. I'm so, it just feels like coming home. Like, can I just turn my brain off? I absolutely adore this series, guys. I love it. I love it. I love Lady Hardcastle and Flo's relationship. Flo's twin sister is in this one, which is really, really fun. And yeah, there's something about the writing, the world view that, like, Lady Hardcastle and Flo have in the way they talk to each other and their sensibility and their humour that just, like, sets me at ease. It's like just being in the I love Venn diagrams. I really do. I love Venn diagrams. It's just something about those three circles and the analysis about where there is the intersection, right? I don't know, guys, I love it. But I don't have, like, I turn my brain off. I'm loving the setting in this one, you know. I love theatrics. I love drama. I'm hoping that even more of that is gonna be made in the second half. But I just can't, I just can't tell you how much I adore it. I just love it so much. I just love it so much. I'm glad that I'm reading it. I think it's, these, I would say, are really great palate cleansers. Like, if I just need, like, a bit of a refresh, these are always kind of what I turn to. And I've only got two more until I'm up to date in the series. I mean, he publishes, like, one or two every year. So, like, I can, you know, there'll be more. But I am almost caught up. And like I said, I've read basically this entire first half with just the audiobook. The audiobook is where it's at. If you're gonna read these, listen to the audiobooks. Don't, don't bother getting the books. You don't need them. Listen to the audiobooks, because it's just one narrator, but she is incredible. And I always say she does the voices of all the different characters so well. And there was, like, points in this book where she's doing characters impersonating other characters. And hearing how she does that, and how you can hear it's not quite the right accent, but really resembles the accent of the character, is incredible. So yeah, I'm gonna have a cosy evening. I always feel bad when I reach a point in the vlog where there's been no b-roll. I don't give a shit about b-roll. Do you guys give a shit if vlogs have b-roll? I don't think I'm the b-roll kind of girl. You know, I'm not an aesthetic. Not that I'm un-aesthetic, but that's not what you're here for. You're here for fun. I'm not the aesthetic of a fan. Oh, I don't know. Stop while you're ahead. Stop while you're ahead. Okay, but I feel like they break vlogs up nicely, b-roll clips. But sometimes I just don't have it in me. I don't want to be perceived. I find filming simple b-roll clips harder than just sitting down and talking to the camera. I can yap. I can yap for days. But yeah, I'm gonna go have dinner, and then I'll probably read a lot more this evening. Maybe even try and finish this this evening, because it is really quick. And Tom and I, we're gonna play some Pokemon together. Having a lot of fun playing Pokemon at the moment. Maybe watch something. We've started watching Buffy again, after having stopped for ages, because we just ran out of stuff to watch. And we're on season four, and it starts season four as a struggle. Like, seasons one turns into a Buffy amazing, and then four is a bit of a struggle season, isn't it? Um, I keep saying, we keep saying, we're watching these episodes that are thematically- no one cares about my Buffy opinions. But the way that it's plotted and paced is incredible. The way the arc that these- these episodes go on, sometimes in an episode, is amazing. The tense- how tense you feel. Amazing. But the writing is a bit shit. The, like, dialogue is sometimes really cringe. Like, how can it be both things at once? So anyways, that's my evening. I'll see you tomorrow morning, definitely having finished this, either tonight or tomorrow. And yeah, it just gives me- it gives me such joy. That's- there he is. 🎵Was it all just a dream, just all in my head? Floating with Versa-🎵 Hello, cuties. How's everyone doing? I don't know why I went like that. Okay. I finished an Act of Foul Play. I'm gonna give this one a 4.5. I'm giving this one a 4.5. I still really- I loved it. I loved it. I'm this close giving it a 5. Do I want to give it a 5? No, it's a 4.5. And I can't really tell you why it's not a 5. I think, really, I know I can tell you why. But I did tell a bit of a lie there. I just wasn't very comfortable during the last 100 pages, which I just read. And I kind of got comfortable, but I chose not to. I chose just power through, and that meant that my reading experience was tainted a little bit. And thus, it's a 4.5. I like the fact they were actors, because people confusably lie. I really enjoyed some of the twists in this. I thought they were handled well. And at the end of the day, I just love Lady Hardcastle made flow. These aren't like the craziest mysteries in the world, in terms of reveals. It's always a fairly safe time. I just let my brain be shut off, and when the murder is revealed, I'm like, oh, okay. But I liked the kind of contained group, the contained setting that we had in this one. And I'm just so excited to read two more. I can't believe there's only two more. Well, there'll be more. There'll be more. I hope he writes like 15,000 Lady Hardcastle mysteries. I hope we never end. I also love he does author's notes at the end with all the kind of like historical relevance, with like what he's made up, and what is actually true. So in this one, like the theatre doesn't actually exist where it's set, but things like there are certain stories that characters write that he's gotten from the Bristol Times when this is set, which I just think is marvellous. So yeah, it's getting a 4.5. I'm so glad I read it. We now have to pick our final book, because it's Thursday night. I am going to do some reading tonight. I've also got reading sprints tomorrow with my patrons, so I reckon I will get quite a lot of reading done. Let me show you the books I should choose from, okay? I'm going to show you the stack of books that I've been on TBR Cluedo this year that I have not yet read, that I do not have set plans to read. All of these, right? So I should really read one of these, but I don't really want to. None of these are calling me. If I'm honest with you, the book that is calling me, and it's another book in a series, I think there's something when I'm mood reading at the moment, or when I want to get out of a slump, or just kind of like, feel a bit safe in my reading, I'm going back to characters and authors I've read from before, you know? So I haven't read this series in years and years and years, because I thought it was finished. I thought this was an original trilogy, and then there was gonna be some spin-off series, but it doesn't seem like that. It seems like it's gonna be a six book series. So I'm gonna be reading The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson. I was editing the start of this video the other day, and hearing myself talk about how this is a good time to read it, because it's like set during the summer, and well, summer has really ended. When I was saying that a week ago, it was sunny, I went to the beach the next day, and then today it's raining. But I feel like I've talked myself into it. This is a mystery where we follow Stevie Bell. The first few books are set at Ellingham Academy, which is this school for gifted students that she goes to, but this one is set at a summer camp. So I'll check in with you when I'm a little bit the ways through it. But yeah, I just kind of want, well it's good for series progress. I don't know how interesting it is for you guys, but I just want to go back to series and authors that feel safe. I mean, I feel like I've probably forgotten so much from this, the first three books in this series, because I haven't read it for a long time, and I thought the series was finished. You know, I know that her boyfriend really annoys me. So anyways, I'll check with you a bit way through, but I'm excited. I'm excited to pick this series back up again. So it is Saturday, but I'm just gonna keep doing this vlog until I finish this book, which I think will be today. I am just under halfway through The Box in the Woods by Lauren Johnson. I am loving it. I don't want to see any comments, by the way, that are telling me, oh my god, this vlog has done so well for you, Megan, that you should definitely just mood read forever. I don't want to hear that. I want to see a single comment. If you've commented, go delete it. I don't want to hear it. Okay, first of all, I hear you, but I'm not listening, so we're done. Okay. Because there's so many vlogs I want to make that make me happy, that like, I get excited. Like my next vlog, I've been teasing it for a while, I am so excited to make. I think it's such a fun vlog to make. I am gonna hate the books I'm about to read, and that's okay. That's okay. I'm really excited to make this vlog, so I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear that. However, I am loving this book. So this one is set after the original three books, which you could read this without having read them. I wouldn't recommend it, but it is written in a way that you could read them. You could read this without having read them. Like, you'd miss out on character development, knowing who these characters are, but it does kind of set it up in a way that you could. So like, it references what's happened. This is minor spoilers. I mean, I don't think it's a spoiler, but if it is a spoiler, I've warned you. Like, it says in those first three books, she's solved the mystery that she went to Ellingham Academy to solve, basically. It doesn't tell you how. It doesn't tell you what she found out. It just is like, oh, she solved it, you know? And so, and it does reintroduce everyone, so you could read this without having read them. And in this one, she's invited to a summer camp to solve a cold case of a murder that happened there in the 1970s. And I'd say for the first maybe 80 pages, it is split timeline between present day and the 70s, going through what happened when that murder happened. But now, it's kind of mostly the present day. So I don't mind that. And I really liked the flashbacks. I am just having so much fun. I actually went back and looked at what rating I've given the previous three books. So I gave Truly Devious four stars, The Vanishing Stair four stars, and The Hand and the Wall three. I don't remember why. I didn't like that one as much. But like, this is like, closing in on five star territory. And again, not five star, you know, favorite all time. Five star favorite of the year. But I'm having so much fun. The summer camp setting is so fun. Like, it's a very interesting setting to read as a British person. Because like, I was talking about this with my patrons when we had a parent trap movie night. And like, summer camp is not a thing here. Like, you'll go, you'll do like week long, like, I used to do a week long drama and dance event where you'd go there from like nine to five every day for a week in the summer, and then you'd punish her at the end. It was like, my favorite. I loved that so much. Like, you'll do maybe like a week long tennis thing. But we don't have camp. And like, the Americans were saying it's because you have like 10 years off in the summer. We have six weeks. Our summer holiday is six weeks. Yours is like, a third of the year. It's absolutely insane. So the parents need to get rid of the kids to summer camp. So it's a very kind of interesting setting for us as like, as an international UK reader, because it's kind of like, able to be romanticised as like a, as a very evocative setting without actually having to have lived it. But I'm really loving it. I've loved the story back to the 70s. I thought the way the characters were introduced, the way that the murder kind of played out was really, really fascinating. And I forgot that these books are kind of a little bit funny. There's a little bit of humour to them. Maureen Johnson is really funny. I love, from Maureen Johnson, there's this little, almost like graphic novel called Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village that is really funny, that makes fun of the kind of classic murder mystery in a quaint English village, and the kind of tropes and the characters that you have. And I just, I guess I forgot, there's like really moments of a great humour in this that I'm really enjoying. And I think I'm also really enjoying it because David, Stevie's boyfriend, is not in it. I don't like this man. I don't remember why I don't like this man, but I don't like this man. Don't like him He's vile. Vile. I wouldn't wipe my arse with him if I had diarrhea. In fact, I think he's about to appear, which is sad. But I don't, I'm hoping he won't be in it too much. Like I'm hoping, oh I see his name. I think he's about to turn up. But I've gone half the book without having to encounter David. I just remember I don't like this man. Don't like this man. But yeah, the writing's really fun, the mystery's really fun. There's really, I think Lauren Johnson does come up with really interesting mysteries, like they're like clues in a mystery, you know? Like really interesting little events that sprinkle in throughout the mystery. I'm loving it. I'm having so much fun. The audiobook is great. I am probably going to finish this today. I'm having so much fun. And the box in the woods, the murder, is horrible. Like it's got this great drama and true crimeness, but it's YA and it's easy to read. Guys, I'm loving it. I'm loving it. It probably won't be a five star. I don't know. I don't want to talk myself out of it, but it'll probably be like a 4.5, you know? But this vlog has been very successful. But I don't want to hear it. Made weird Megan. Don't want to hear it. Don't want to hear it. I'll do this once in a blue moon, okay? Not all the time. So anyways, I'm gonna go finish it. But I love the camp setting, I love the clues, I love the little elements of mixed media that we have throughout it. It's really interesting as well, the owner of the camp is this like tech guy, or like he's the owner of something called BoxBox, where like it's a subscription service for boxes and he wants to start BagBag, which is a subscription service for reusable bags. And it's just like making fun of that kind of like culture and the kind of guy he is. It's very funny, like making fun of these, this kind of stereotypical dude bro tech hustle culture, vegan meditation. I mean, I like a good meditation, but you know what I mean? That kind of person. It's really funny. So there's just like a lot of elements to this I'm enjoying. So I'm and I'm gonna keep reading this today and hopefully I will get close to finishing it because I'm, yeah, I'm really loving it. Hello, hello, hello. Um, a bit of a strange note to end this vlog on. The ending of this book is diabolical. It's not good. The ending of this book is not good. And so I'm really struggling with how to rate it because the last 30 pages of this, 40 pages of this are a two star, but I loved the rest of the book. So what I'm, I wasn't giving it a four, but maybe I'm leaning towards a 3.5 because that ending is so ridiculous. My problem with the ending, essentially, it's not fair play. It's not a fair play murder mystery. Without spoiling anything, the resolution involves characters you've never met, right? The reveal revolves, centers around a character that appears in those last 30, 40 pages. And that's just not fair. And I would expect from someone like Maureen Johnson, who seems to really revere the, you know, art of a murder mystery and the kind of tropes of murder mystery to then pull that out the bag. And also it's kind of crazy. Like the reveal, like the kind of topic that it's based on is also just insane. Not like problematic or anything, but just like out of left field, like beyond, like no hints that that is the route we're going down. It's a sharp turn into what this book, it's a really bad ending. It's a really bad ending. I think I'm gonna have to give it a 3.5. I also didn't love the second half as much as I loved the first half. I still really enjoyed it, but David appears. He actually redeemed himself a little bit in the second half. Like I didn't hate him as much as I hated him before he appeared, but I just don't think this book needs a romantic subplot. I don't think it's even very like, at this point they haven't seen each other in six months face to face, you know? I don't feel any chemistry between them. I don't feel any romance between them. I don't, I don't want this romantic subplot. David can get gone. I love her friends and Nate, Nate is great in this. He's like this kid who wrote, or a kid, they're teenagers, who wrote like a really well-known book when he was younger that was indie published and then got mainstream published and it's like a cult success, but he's only written the first book and he has like writer's block for the whole series. He can't write the rest of the series. He was great in this, but yeah, that ending, I almost want you guys to read that so you can understand what I've just experienced. Like it's so out of left field. The character we've never met and the topic are just like, we don't get any hints to that, we don't get any like suggestions. I'm just like, hold up, what the hell is going on? So a little bit of a strange end to the mood reading, but um yeah I've enjoyed mood reading. I can't mood read for longer than a week like I'm already itching to get back to like planned TBRs and kind of bigger vlog projects, but I think this has been really good taking this week for me to mood read because it has, I have had some successful books, particularly the first two and the first half of this one. Just that ending, babes. Crazy. But anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this vlog. Remember to check out Magic Mind below and use the code MEGWINTHBOOKS20 to get up to 48% off your first subscription for the next 10 days or 20% off a one-time purchase. Let me know what you thought of any of the books I read in this vlog. I particularly recommend Queen Bee, that was iconic, but I do think you have to read Hermes's Royal Coven first. And we made some good series progress in this vlog. Didn't finish any series, but we read three books that are part of a series. That's pretty good. Anyways, I love you guys, thank you so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!