did i read the 23 books i MUST read before i turned 23?

The last time I did a video like this, I came to you with the utmost of confidence. This time not so much. Hello everyone, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all doing good. Today we've got another reaction to a past TBR that I made video. Yeah. So back in December, I reacted to my 2022 TBR and I think I did pretty well. I think I read 13 out of the 22, which like anything over half I'm happy with in these videos. But today we're going to be reacting to the 23 books I wanted to read before I turned 23. When you're watching this, it will have been my birthday yesterday. Cue the Lisa Barlow clip. I'm using it in every birthday adjacent video. It's my birthday. It's my birthday. It's my birthday. Happy birthday to me. And for some reason I just don't feel as confident about this list. I feel like I haven't gotten round to as many of the books as I did for the last video. So we'll see how we do. Anything again over half I'm pretty much happy with. Going forward, I feel like with the TBRs that I'm making in 2023, like the 2023 TBR I made recently, and when I'll eventually make this equivalent video, like the 24 books I want to read before I turn 24, I feel like as time goes on I'm getting a better judge of the kind of books to put on the list. But yeah, let's just see how we do. Let's just see how we do. I have no idea what is on this list and we're going to find out together. Okay, here we go. 23 books I must read before I turn 23. Must read! So first on this list is a fairly new acquirement to my TBR and it's one of the most beautiful books. Oh, I don't think I've read this. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Su Lin Tan. I mean look at the spread. It is gorgeous. Okay. Yeah, haven't read that. We are off to a wonderful start. Well done everyone! I have not read Daughter of the Moon Goddess. It is wrapped up currently so I could unwrap it in an episode of Wrapped Up. I also have like a 50-50 chance I would say of reading it in a video next month. We could finally get round to it. Yeah, this is still one of the books I'd most like to read, one of the series I would most like to start this year. I'm definitely gonna start it this year. And like I said, I could be reading it in like a week or so if it turns out that I need to read it for that video. I'm doing a video that I have to do a lot of research for and I'm about halfway through the research and it has a strong chance of ending up being one of the books I read. So yeah, okay. Because one of them is my other favourite Fairyloot special edition that I own and that's Six Crimson Cranes. I haven't read Six Crimson Cranes! I don't belong here. I don't think I belong here. Six Crimson Cranes I've had for a while because I feel like I had that the summer before last because I remember taking it with me on holiday. Shit, that's bad. That's bad. I've had it for a long time. I wanted to read it. Well, I don't even know where that is right now. I couldn't tell you where that is. No idea. It's somewhere. Yeah, another beautiful Fairyloot edition. Huh, we're okay. Moving on. It's already not good. I have faith. I'm definitely gonna have read some of these. Then we have The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman. This is the sequel to the Thursday Murder Club. Yes, I have read The Man Who Died Twice. Go Megan. Yeah, this is my favourite murder mystery series. We're following a group of elderly characters at this retirement village, um, solving mysteries. The Village that Missed was the third one, which I have also read. I am up to date on the series. I feel like it's always a November book. I always read this. This book always, this series always comes out in like September and I love reading them in like November. November is murder mystery month to me. I don't know why but that just feels right in my soul. Okay, listen, we got those first two out of the way and I feel like we're gonna have good luck. And then finally we have Theatre of Marvels. So this, I have read it but Megan, check your excitement a little bit. Because all they're gonna do is disappoint me. Theatre of Marvels was, I want to say, in my like top three worst books of last year. I can't quite remember where I ended up on the ranking but it was not good. Yeah, I didn't like Theatre of Marvels. I had everything that I should love. Sorry, if I sound a bit funny, I'm a bit ill and I'm losing my voice a bit. So Theatre of Marvels is set in Victorian times at this, um, like kind of circus. It really tried to unpack like the race in the Victorian era and how that was perceived. But I just hated with a burning passion the writing. I'm so sorry. I hate being mean but it's true. I hated with a burning passion the writing. I thought it was really bad. So moving on swiftly, but listen, we're two for two. We're doing pretty good if you ask me. Next is one that I went and bought recently and it is A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle. Yes! I love you, Megan. It's getting weird. I read this, um, on when I went to Norway on a cruise because the book is set on a cruise. I enjoyed it for a debut. I thought it was a promising debut. I didn't love it. I thought it had flaws, but I'm excited for Tom Hindle's next book because it comes out I think in February. It's like a more classic stately home, English countryside home. I always say stately home, not stately home. I don't know what the, like, the rung below a stately home, English manor? English manor home, murder mystery that kind of Agatha Christie loved. He's definitely an Agatha Christie fan. I love him for being an Agatha Christie fan and I hope that with his second book the, you know, he will have developed a little bit more and I can really enjoy it. So I'm really excited for this next one and I love myself because I've read it. Go, Megan. Okay, we're doing good. I'm feeling really good about this now. I'm feeling really good. We were all so happy that day. It's it's actually hard to even imagine how terrible things would soon become. Next we have another arc. Oh my god, this is coming out very soon. I'm not good at getting around to arcs. 3rd of May, this is coming out. This is When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. I have read When Women Were Dragons. Oh my god. I enjoyed this a lot. It was my first Kelly Barnhill and I loved the writing. This is about in the 1950s, like a mass exodus of housewives becoming dragons and flying away. And I thought it was a very unique, interesting book. It was a four star. I didn't completely love it, but I really did enjoy it. It was like a book I read towards the end of last year and it was a really good book to kind of finish off the year with. So, wow, aren't we? Happy, happy, happy. Happy, happy, happy. Next book, right? Next book, I want you all to contain yourselves. Like, I want you to try not to scream. I want you to try not to scream at this book that has found itself into my path today. It arrived this morning and I was like, it needs to go on the list. Sorry Megan, I couldn't contain myself. I had to scream. I have read I'm the Girl by Courtney Simmons. Oh my god, we're five for two. Am I actually gonna succeed? Hang on. I feel like it's gonna go terribly wrong at the end. This can't be going so well. Don't say that. Mona, don't ever say that. I'm the Girl by Courtney Simmons is a very difficult book to read. So beware, but I love Courtney Simmons. It's about abuse of power. It's inspired by the Jeffrey Epstein case. We're following a young girl who found a other murdered young girl. It's her kind of trying to figure out what happened whilst also falling into the Allure. Falling into the kind of trap of this hotel that lives nearby and the girls that work there. Next we have a book that's part of a series I absolutely love and it is A Picture of Murder which is the fourth Lady Hardcastle mystery. I have never loved myself more. I've read it. This cannot be happening. Really? I'm actually reading the fifth right now because it's set in January and I knew I had to get around to it. I'm not vlogging it but I'll tell you my thoughts in my wrap-up. But um, yeah, I'm like 70 pages into the fifth and I'm loving it. This might be one of my favourites. Lady Hardcastle mystery series in my opinion is the best cozy mystery series. The audiobooks are incredible. The narrator is amazing and I'm really enjoying myself listening to that. So yeah, I have read it. The best cozy mystery series to ever exist. Yeah, go read it. Go read Lady Hardcastle if you want to get into cozy mysteries, especially like historical cozy mysteries. I'm wanting to read more graphic novels because I just don't pick them up enough but I love them. And so the two that I absolutely want to make sure I read are the two that I have left in the Tea Dragon Society, the Tea Dragon Festival and the Tea Dragon Tapestry. I haven't read either of them. I haven't read either of them. How have I not read them? No, I know how I haven't read them. Oh my god, that takes us to 4v6. Oh my god. Okay, I haven't read these because they are the ultimate books I'm like saving for the- I have to save them for the perfect day. I have to save them. Like I could read these both today, couldn't I? I could have read them any single day in the past year. But I'd like save them for like the perfect moment, the perfect video. And I- I need to just read them. I am going to read them this year. I promise. I promise. This year I want to get out of the habit of say- is it called saving for best? Like when you're like, oh, I'll burn that candle on the perfect evening or I'll do that face mask on the perfect day. Do you know what I mean? And it's not doing that. It's incorporating that magic and that joy into your life because they're both going to be five stars. I know it already. Like I loved the first Tea Dragon book so much. I know the next one's going to be five stars. So okay, well that puts us a little bit in a more of a precarious situation. Next one that I had to put on this list was Finley Donovan is Killing It by L. Cosimano. Okay, we don't even need to talk about this because I think this is in my 2023 DVR. That's another one that I'm saving for best. I am so nervous to read it. It's perfect for me. Literally like a mystery series that everyone loves and thinks it's incredible. Like what- what- what am I asking for? What am I looking for? What am I hoping for other than that? Do you know what I mean? And I haven't read it. There's another one that I'm saving for the perfect moment. Oh, get over yourself, love. Silly cow. And I do this a lot with series that I want to start the most. I end up not starting them and I end up starting series that I don't even care about and just starting them like willy nilly. Willy nilly. I am gonna read it this year. I promise. I promise. I promise. I promise. I promise. I said I was gonna read it within the first three months of the year though and I'm not sure if that's gonna happen. Next we have Over the Woodward Wall by A. Dembaker, another start of a series. Okay, I have- I have read it. I have read it. I have read it. I have read it. I have read Over the Woodward Wall. I didn't love this as much as I was hoping to because it is Seanan McGuire and I love Seanan McGuire but it was like good and I'm excited to carry on with the series. I don't know how many there's gonna be in this series. It's like basically it's a kid's story that is mentioned in Middlegame by Seanan McGuire and then she's actually writing the books as well and it's like following- it's kind of I guess a little bit similar to Wayward Children series where we've got these kids who go into this magical world and it's them on this quest and I enjoyed it. I have the next one, Along the Saltwater Sea, so I know I should get to it soon, but yeah, I've read it. So who cares? Next, let's actually talk about these just together briefly. These are two like ends of duologies but we have Muse of Nightmares by Lenny Taylor and The Monarchs by Cass Morgan and Danielle Page. You are kidding me. I have read them! It's wrapped in nine versus five. I could cry. I could cry. Yeah, I have read both Muse of Nightmares and The Monarchs. They are both- I think I read them in the same video where I was finishing off some duologies. Duology is always good to finish off because I only have one book to read to finish the series. I really was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Ravens and The Monarchs. This is like a witchy coven story set at university and I thought they were just such solid YA books, right? They're not going to be like your favourite book of all time, but they're a fun read. A fun, easy, accessible read. Muse of Nightmares was a bit disappointing for me. I really don't think it matches up to how good Stranger Dreamer is. I just thought the plot was weird. I just thought it went in a weird direction, so didn't love it. But I've read it. I actually- we're doing really well. We've only got to get like, how many more? Let's say three more to get half and I feel like we can do that. Next we have one I haven't spoken about in a long time, so I don't know if people will be expecting to see this, but it is The Chosen and the Beautiful by Ni Vo. I haven't read The Chosen and the Beautiful. I have not read this or Siren Queen by Ni Vo and they're two of the books that are like on the top of my list that I want to read, so I really just need to get around to them. I feel like I just forgot about it a little bit. I love Ni Vo's writing with the Singing Hills cycle and I want to get into this more like historical-esque like fantasy stuff that she does, so I don't really have an excuse for that. I should have kept my mouth closed. Then we have one of the books I have wanted to read for the longest time and I just have never fit it into a vlog. I think at some point I am gonna have to do reading the books I couldn't fit into vlogs video because it's like gone on too long, but it is I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara. That one is bad because that is now one of the oldest books on my TBR and I want to read it. I want to say I love true crime because I think the true crime genre is something that I don't actually consume a lot of it, right? But when it's morally done, I do think it's interesting. So I know that this is the story of a woman who investigated, is it the Golden State Killer? I'm not quite remembering the name of the serial killer, but investigated that and this book is kind of her research that led to him being identified, but I think she passed away before that happened. So it does seem like, you know, a version of true crime that is putting victims first and trying to get justice for victims and so it is something that I do want to consume. But yeah, I don't really listen to true crime podcasts. I watch true crime stuff on YouTube sometimes, but I don't think I consume as much of it as like other people and I think it's something that should be critiqued. I don't really like watching dramatizations of true crime because I often think that isn't handled well, but if I do consume media about it, it probably is going to be like, must be unsolved basically. Or I like that chapter on YouTube. But yes, no, I still haven't read I'll Be Gone in the Dark and I've had that for years and years and years at this point. So moving on. Oh, then we have one that a lot of you have been telling me to read. It is the Marlowe Murder Club. I have not read the Marlowe Murder Club yet. I just feel like I need to slowly make my way through all of these similar to Thursday Murder Club books because if I read them too close to one another like it will all just blur. So I recently read Death and Croissants for my Patreon book club, which is kind of similar. I will read the Marlowe Murder Club soon, but it is kind of becoming one of those books that kind of sits on my TBR a little bit forgotten. So I do need to find a way to kind of uplift those books because otherwise they just languish forever. Oh, then we have an author that I absolutely cannot wait to start. This is The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James. I have read The Book of Cold Cases! I did enjoy The Book of Cold Cases. I read it for my Goodreads Awards video, but it wasn't- I'm glad it's not how I started with Simone St. James. I started with The Broken Girls, which was- I loved it. I think that was in my top five books of last year. It was one of my favorite kind of thriller mysteries that I have read recently. So I'm still really excited to read more Simone St. James, get into her back catalog, read all her new releases when they come out. This one's following like a murder that happened many years ago. There's a woman who everyone assumes committed it, but she never got convicted for it and she lives in this house that is perhaps haunted. It was fun, but it kind of was lost in the blur that was the Goodreads video. Oh, we've mentioned Agatha Christie a little bit. So the next book that's on my list is Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie. So okay. Yeah, I haven't read I haven't read Lord Edgware Dies yet. I read Peril at End House last year. I didn't get around to a lot of Christie last year. I think I read two. So my goal this year would be to read Lord Edgware Dies. And then is it Murder on the Orient Express or is there another one before that? I don't know. I'd like to read three Christie's in the Poirot series this year. And I would also really like to start Marple because I have the Marple anthology to read which I really want to read because there's a lot of my favorite authors who have contributed to this like Ruth Ware, Leigh Bardugo, Lucy Foley. But I know that I shouldn't really read this before consuming at least like one or two Miss Marple stories. So that's on the list this year a bit more Christie than last year because yeah, I think I only read Peril at End House and I read Death on the Nile which isn't in the series. Like it isn't the Poirot series, but it's not where I was chronologically. I had to read it for another video. Then we have one of the top books I want to read which is A Spindle Splintered by Alexei Haro. Oh Megan, I have read A Spindle Splintered. Okay, we're at 11 now. I feel like whatever happens it's okay. I would like to get to 12, but we're almost there. I feel like we can go on one more maybe. Sure, Jan. I didn't love it as much as I love the ones Future Witches, sadly. But it was fine. I've heard so many good things about the Saint novella, the short story that she's written that's unaudible. I have got it. What is it called? The Last Lives of the Saint or something? Everyone is reading it and giving it five stars and I need to know what's happening. So I'm gonna read that next month. My next Alexei Haro. Next we have Until the Last of Me by Sylvain Neuvel. This is the next in- ----. Haven't read it. Yeah, I haven't read Until the Last of Me. I really want to get around to it because the series and I don't know if the series actually does finish with the one coming out this year. It could be like a quartet maybe. I don't know. Yeah, this is a really unique sci-fi series, but I am gonna have to refresh my memory of the first one because it is quite an intense sci-fi series. But I really did enjoy it. I enjoyed it I think more than the general populace did. So I need to read it and see what I think of it. Next we have Only a Monster. Now this one, ----. Shit. Shit. I haven't read Only a Monster. A lot of you have told me I'm gonna enjoy this. I just know it's like a YA fantasy series. I think it's maybe a bit dark academia-y. I don't know. A lot of you for some reason have told me this is my kind of thing. But I haven't read it and I'm- I don't- let's not even talk about that because we've got one book left and it will either go- It will like determine the balance. I can't believe it's come down to this. I don't know. I just don't think this is like great for me. I don't want to do it. I want to go home. Like I can't take the pressure of it. We have got 11 that I have read and 11 that I haven't. The last one determines whether I get over half or not read. I actually- I've never had this happen before. Oh, no. Okay, right. Let's see, shall we? Let's see what the last book is. And then finally is another book of the month that I have and that is Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins. I have read half. Oh my god. Yay. I was shocked. I was shocked. Oh my god. I can't believe it came down to that. What the hell? What the hell? Yeah, I've read Reckless Girls. It was a fun thriller. It was- I keep always saying when I mention it, it was one of the like quickest fast-paced thrillers I have ever read. It was such a fun quick read. It's like a- and then there were none kind of retelling set on this like abandoned island that some of our characters go to and I enjoyed it. It was like- it took me two hours to read it. It was such a fun read. But who cares because we've read over half. I'm so happy. I feel like the last video I did where I read- where I reacted to my 2022 TBR, so I'm gonna take my headphones off so I can hear again. Yeah, the one I did in December reacting to my 2022 TBR and this one are the best I've ever done at these videos. Thank you guys for watching this video. Let me know whether you thought I was gonna do better than I did, whether you had little faith in me and you actually hate me and you thought I was gonna do worse than I did. No, actually you have much reason to think I was gonna do worse because I've always done worse. And yeah, I hope you enjoyed the video. If you got to the end comment a happy face emoji because I'm so happy. Comment that down below if you got to the end. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!