reading 10 BOOKS so i can BUY ONE 📚 🏁 TBR200 ep3

Okay, hello Welcome back to the next episode of TBR 200 where I am trying to get my physical TBR below 200. On the last episode, we got our TBR down to 305. We are starting this episode with a TBR of 306. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. No, but it's not funny at the end of the day, is it? It's serious. Here's the thing, guys. The last vlog I was working on took me a month and I read like three books off of my TBR for it by the end and people very kindly sent me a lot of books in that video, if you saw. So today we're going all out. This is serious. This video, we're seriously gonna get this TBR down. We're gonna get this TBR below 300. It needs to be below 300 for my mental health, for my emotional health. We are gonna read some serious books in this video. So today we are gonna be reading 10 books and as a reward I get to buy one. So we're gonna have a net negative of nine books in this video. We know where we're gonna end up, we just don't know the journey that we're gonna take to get there. I'm basically gonna mood read in this video. I do have six books that have been on TBR Quiddo so far this year that I do not have set plans to read and a lot of these are from June's TBR where I put books on there that I think I'm in the mood to read right now. So things like Not in Love, An Assassination on the Agenda, Graveyard Shift, those were all definitely meant for this video. So we'll see. I don't have to get to all of these in this, but they're definitely kind of like my priority. And then other than that, we're going to be mood reading, probably reading short books, quick books to get off the TBR. We've got to read 10 books in this vlog. That's a lot of books. Some graphic novels maybe I think would be good. I'm definitely in the mood for a graphic novel. So shall we just get into it? We need to read 10 books in this video. I'm getting serious about this now. TBR 200, getting my TBR down. It's happening. It's seriously happening. I think I am going to start. Guys, it's been a rough couple weeks and the whole time I've just been like, I need Lady Hardcastle. I need Lady Hardcastle and Flo so dearly. So I think I'm going to start with An Assassination on the Agenda, which is the 11th Lady Hardcastle. I love them so much. I love them so dearly. And this one, there's An Assassination on the Agenda. So I'm going to go read it. I'll let you know what I think, but this is going to be very quick. And it's my girlies, you know, it's my shalers. They're my shalers. I just love them. Ah, reading Lady Hardcastle makes me so happy. So shall we just dive into it? 10 books need to be read or DNF'd. 10 books need to be gotten off the TBR in this video and then we'll see what I want to buy. Because I actually haven't bought a lot of books so far this year that like haven't been for vlogs. Maybe like two. So I'd like to buy a book, you know, I'd like to buy a book. We'll do that as a reward at the end. But yeah, let's get going on reading 10 books from this TBR. I mean serious business. Hello. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, this is it. This is what I needed. Needless to say, I'm giving this bad bitch five stars. Talk about a club classic. If you're not on your feet tonight dancing, I don't know what's gonna make you. Okay, TLDR, this is what I needed in this moment. I'll talk about the plot and extension in a second. But like for anyone who doesn't didn't watch my most recent video, which is me reading the book award winners. Not many of you have, but that's okay. Life was ---- for the past month. I worked on that video for a month. A lot of things went wrong in life. The big thing that you really need to know is is that the the sale of the flat that I was purchasing fell through. The sellers pulled out at the last minute. We were devastated. We have since had an offer exception on another flat, a masonette. Two floors, baby. And I love it and I'm happy. But this vlog, this like reading 10 books vlog, was originally planned to be kind of like my moving out vlog. Like taking me through the process. That is obviously not happening. And I was sad and I was spent a month reading books that aren't my kind of book in that video. And I said, I need Lady Hardcastle. I need her. I need Flo. I need Lady Hardcastle. And boy, did they not disappoint. So this is the 11th Lady Hardcastle book. I'm in deep. I'm in deep. I mean, I've spoken about Lady Hardcastle 10,000 times. It's Lady Hardcastle, her made but really best friend Flo, solving murder mysteries in Edwardian England. There's a car. It's hot. The window's open. And it's usually in like their quaint little town. This is by far the biggest scale we've had yet. We've had like them travel to Bristol, which is their nearest city, or like Western Supermare they went once. But this is their first time in London, in the capital, baby. London, London, London. And they are helping Lady Hardcastle's brother, Harry, who works like the secret service. Yeah, there's a death and he's like, I can't tell you the circumstances, but I need you to figure out what's happening. It's maybe one of our men. And it's all to do with like, there's maybe spies or there's like assassination plots going on or like, yada, yada, yada. Five stars for Lady Hardcastle and Flo. It is coming home to me. I love them more than life itself. It's exactly what I need. Just the way, I think it gets better and better with time. This series gets better and better with time. The way it's written, the way that these characters talk to one another, the banter, the language is just so just cozy and quaint and I love it. That's real. Even though she's fictional, it's real and that's important to me. And I thought it dealt with the bigger stakes well, we were leveling up. This is like international espionage, like it's a little bit of a taste of what they talk about they used to do for work before they moved to the Twin Coastal, this quaint English village, which is the murder hotspot of the world. It's a little bit of a throwback to that kind of plot, but I just thought the pacing worked really well in this one. I just kept reading it. I'm going like, I mean we're 11 in, like I don't know what else there is to say to you that I haven't said before. But um, I am getting a bit concerned. However, the first book was like 1908. Okay. We are now in July 1912. And there is discussion in this one, basically to not, well, I don't want to spoil anything, but I don't know if this is a spoiler, but Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie come visit London in this book and they're like, there isn't a thought like maybe someone's going to try and assassinate them, which like, spoiler, happens two years later. I am getting a bit concerned. We'll, we're creeping up to 1914 in World War I. And I'm only probably really thinking this because they turn up in this book, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, but um, I'm getting a bit concerned. Have we only got two years left? I'm a little bit concerned. Of like, and here's the thing, we've had 11 books in four years of like, chronological time. So like, we've, that would be five more books, let's say. But like, I'm getting a bit concerned because, here's the thing, you could continue them through World War I, but it, would that fit the like, light-hearted, jolly nature of these books? I don't know. And I just really, I have to say, T.E. Kinsey, like, I don't, I can't take this series ending. I, I can't take it. Like, that's really, like, I, I, you have to keep writing this series until one of us dies, me or you, T.E. Kinsey. And I don't know, I'm not wishing that. I'm just saying, like, if I'm dead, you have my permission to stop writing. If you die, you have to stop writing. I love this series so much, and I'm just a bit concerned by that. So I'm just giving you a little bit of a side eye. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm monitoring that situation, you know? I'm a little bit concerned. Like, there is discussion in this one about, like, the people in the Secret Service, or Harry's kind of organization, thinking that war might be on the cards, and discussions around that. I'm just hoping that that doesn't happen. But yeah, wonderful time with this. Like I always say, if you're going to read these, listen to the audiobooks. The audiobook narrator does a wonderful job. Like, at this point, the Lady Hardcastle books, I'm in so deep that only me and other sickos are still reading this. Like, to get 11 books into a series, you have to love it. And so they're, they are, like, the highest rated books on my TBR. They were, like, 4.5 average rated now. And yeah, it just, the more you get into the series, you may read the first book, and you may think, that was nice, four stars. I can understand it. Maybe the second book. It's like, when you're in this deep with these characters, the love you have for them is indescribable, you know? But please go read Lady Hardcastle. This was exactly what I needed. So one book down. In terms of what we're going to start next, I'm going to pull out a big gun. It's time. It's time to read The Favourites by Lane Fargo. I feel like I deserve it. I feel like I really deserve this. I am, I'm ecstatic. I cannot wait to read The Favourites by Lane Fargo. We'll get into the plot when I'm a little bit of a ways through. But this is my, perhaps, most anticipated book of the year. Perhaps, it's up there. Top five, easy. Top three of the first half of the year, easy. Like, this is one of my most anticipated books of the year, and I think it's time to read it. So I'm going to dive in tonight. Probably see you tomorrow with some thoughts. But, um, yeah. I think, I think it's time. I think I can't avoid this and put it off any longer. Hello. I'm halfway through The Favourites by Lane Fargo, and I have thoughts, but also I have unformed thoughts. So, basically, all you need to know about this, I'm sure many of you know the plot. We've got Cat and Heath, and they are this kind of, like, messy love story, but they are also ice skating partners. They've known each other since they were children, but they're ice skating partners. And from the beginning, you know, something bad happened at the Olympics in 2014, and we're following Cat's perspective. She kind of takes you through their story from when they were children, but we're not even close. We're in 2006 at the halfway point, and then we're also reading snippets from the documentary, people who are in their lives, giving interviews, etc. Um, I am really enjoying this, but I'm not, it's, okay. It's doing it. What I will say is this book is going for it. It's shooting for it. It's got a real identity. It's got a real, like, purpose to it that I very much enjoy. This is a retelling of Wuthering Heights, and I have never read that. So I can't tell you, like, how, how direct an influence it is, you know? Like, there's certain scenes where I'm like, is that a plot beat from Wuthering Heights that you are, like, redoing, or is that an original plot beat, you know? And I can't decipher that. I am very much enjoying it. I don't know if it's quite a five star, and this is, like, a five star prediction. I've been so excited to read it. I'd say at the moment it's at least a four. I'm very much enjoying the documentary elements. I think they're very fun. I am very much enjoying reading these messy-ass characters. Everyone's a mess. Everyone's rumored to be dating each other in this ice skating world, and particularly Kat and Heath are both like, and I know this is the case in Wuthering Heights as well, are quite unlikable, both of them, for different reasons. They're both toxic. They're both, like, messed up. And I love the stakes of the ice skating, you know, element. I love, I love a sports setting book, because there's so much just inbuilt drama and stakes. Your whole career, your whole life is, like, based on this one performance. Like, whether you make it to the Olympics or not, whether you get the medal. But I'm not, I feel like I haven't sussed it out yet. So this isn't a very big check-in. I'm, I'm basically, I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it. I will say, what I will tell you, this is not a romance. This is not a romance. Goodry's categorizing this in their, like, mid-year check-in, which means it will be in this category, probably, for the Goodry's Choice Awards. It is not a romance in any shape of the world. It should be in contemporary, really. Or even historical. No, not historical. It's too recent to be historical. But, I mean, if we're saying a 1990s book from Taylor Jenkins Reid is historical, it's very Taylor Jenkins Reid in that it's, like, kind of, like, drama. Drama book, you know? But in no way is it a romance. In a way, it's a romance to toxicness. Or not even toxicness, to, like, these people are as committed to their careers as they are to each other, and it's as much a story about that. It's not a romance. I completely disagree with that categorization. But it's so interesting reading this from Lane Fargo, who I've only read a thriller from, and who I believe was only published to her beforehand, because you can see elements of that. It's got that suspense. It's got those hooks that a thriller has. This is dirty and dark and gritty, but, like, not, you know, it's still ice skating. But it's got an edge to it, that, like, a romance book. It's not a romance book. It's not a romance book. I don't think we should view this as a romance. You may not hold the space for me, and that's okay, but that's a hill I'm gonna ******* die on. But anyways, I'm gonna go finish it and, um, hopefully have a more strong opinion. My opinion at the moment is I'm enjoying it. Uh, and I have no idea how it's gonna go, and I'm reading it very fast. But is it gonna be a five star? I don't know. But I'm having a lot of fun with it, and at the end of the day, don't we all just want to have fun when reading? Isn't that basically the goal? No. I finished The Favorites. I had, like, last day of the month reading sprints with my patrons this morning, and I finished The Favorites, and I'm giving it 4.5. I was scared there that it was gonna be a four. Maybe even less. There were moments that I struggled with this. But on the end, oh, it's a 4.5. It's a 4.5. Let me talk briefly about why it's not a five, and then I'll end on why I loved it. There were a few moments where the writing style felt a bit, like, to me, like it was going, and then we did this, and then this happened, and then this happened, and then we did this, and then this happened. Like, just very methodically and without much kind of flair just taking you through it. And that sometimes made it go a bit slowly for me. And the other reason it's not five is sometimes what would happen to these characters and the way that they treated each other and the things they did to each other would, like, deeply upset me, but it didn't upset them. Like, they were fine with it. And I was thinking, oh my god, I would not be okay with that. But they were, because that's the kind of people they were, and that's the character they were, and so it's fine. But I was like, how are we okay with this? Like, how is everyone just chill? I would not be chill. I would not be chill. So, yeah, that's it. And it's not a romance. Goodreads, take it out of the romance category, read it, and then put it back in there if you really want to, because it's not a romance. Everyone in this is toxic. Everyone in this is awful in their own ways. I don't trust her. I don't think she's a good person. Um, I believe she's somewhere. Living with deep, deep regret. But I had so much fun with it. It is so readable. I read, like, 70 pages and half an hour at the end there. Like, it is so compulsively readable. You don't want to put it down. It's structured in a great way where you just have twist after twist after twist after twist. Just ---- keeps happening and ---- keeps going wrong. You just think, oh my god, how- anytime anything was going right for them, it was often, like, a paragraph spanning a length of time. It was like, we did this and this and this and it was all good. And then we know, okay, well, something else is about to go wrong. I loved the documentary element. I love that. I mean, that's just a bit of me, isn't it? That's just a bit of me. It's an easy way to get me. So I had a lot of fun with that. And I do love a sports book. I love a sports book. I know nothing about ice dancing. I've never watched it in my life. I'm not- I wasn't even a fan of Dancing on Ice. I was firmly a strictly come dancing girly. But just the behind the scenes of, like, the athlete boards and, like, the decisions people make or, like, how they have to do this at this point. I just find that so interesting. I love, kind of, any niche knowledge about that kind of thing. And at the end of the day, I think this book is very successful at what it's trying to do. I could understand people not liking what it's trying to do in terms of the characters, in terms of the plot, in terms of what's happening. I think that is why you would have a problem with it or, like, how it's reimagining Wuthering Heights. But I do think it does what it's trying to do very well. So that's going to be what determines whether you enjoy it or not. But I think it's a fun read. I am really excited to see more from Lane Fargo. I gave They Never Learn five stars. I gave this 4.5. I think she's a very interesting author and could become another one of, like, my favorite authors. Yeah, I don't know. I just had a lot of fun with it. I think it's a great book. I think a lot of people, again, I think it's a book I could recommend to a lot of people. I think if you usually read romance, you could read this. If you usually read thrillers, you could read this. If you usually, like, sports books, you could read this. If you usually read, like, historical books, you could read this. Because it has, like, it does span up until 2034, but really it's, like, 1990 to 2014, I would say. Maybe, yeah. And at every juncture in that, it is very rooted in its time. Like, it has references. It's kind of, like, nostalgic. Um, you know, references to, like, One Direction in 2013 and ----. I had a lot of fun with it in the end. I think the ending is very strong. I was gasp-gagged at moments. I literally had my hand over my mouth, like, oh, maybe I'll try and find a clip for the reading sprints. So, yes, it wasn't quite a five, but it's close. Close to being a 4.5. I just had a few issues with it. Originally, I was thinking I was going to read Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood next, but I actually think today it's Monday. I want this video to go up on Sunday. We have eight books to read. So what I think I'm going to do today is try and read loads of books and they're going to be quick books. You're going to see a lot of me. Maybe I'll try and change t-shirts. You're going to see my makeup and my appearance slowly disintegrate from the heat. Because today and tomorrow are one of the hottest days of the years, of the year so far, in the UK. So I think I'm going to start with Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio. Well, today I've already read, finished the book today. But second book we're going to finish today is Graveyard Shift. This is going to be very short. This is on TBR Cluedo. I'm going to be reading quite a few books on TBR Cluedo, also graphic novels. We'll see what I feel like. But I feel like I need to actually try and read some short books for this vlog. You know, I feel like I read quite a long one here and I feel like now a lot of these books, if we're going to read 10, need to be short, quick ones we can get off the TBR. So we did get the TBR down to 304 with the favourites though. However, I quickly need to open a parcel. It wouldn't be a TBR 200 episode if we didn't have, uh, Delivery. What's that from? It's from a, it's from a kid show when I was young. Delivery. It was like from like a CBB show. Delivery. It was the one in the shop. Mopper tops has got it. Everything to make your dreams come true. Delicious surprises before your very eyes. A scratch, a smile, a shake, a shine, a shoo. Anyone remember that? Anyways, we've got, we've got it back. Um, let me read the note first. Although I can kind of already see what book it is. Where's the note? Gift from Emma. I know you were trying to reduce your TBR, but sequels don't count, right? Emma! Emma got me Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire. This is like number 10, who knows, in the Wayward Children series. This may be perfect for this video. Maybe I'll haul it and read it in this video because novella, quick read, love them, love the Wayward Children series. I will, um, maybe I'll leave, it's about Nagya, I think, this one, which is interesting, but maybe I will, maybe I'll read this. That would be exciting, wouldn't it? Maybe I'll read this in this vlog. Thank you so much, Emma. How exciting. Anyway, I'm gonna go, I won't pop out now, but when I come back, I will be reading Graveyard Shift and I think it'll be a very quick read. Hello. It's a few hours later. I just spent a lovely couple hours listening to the audiobook of Graveyard Shift out in the garden. It was lovely, the cats were with me, although I kept, like, wetting Deeda down because I'm afraid of her, like, overheating because she got so much fluff. Anyways, I finished Graveyard Shift. I was pleasantly surprised by this. I think I went into this with very low expectations because no one likes this book, or, like, the reviews I'd heard from people were, like, meh, you know, or, like, or actively not enjoying it. The plot of this, I'll tell you my rating in a sec, the plot of this is you're following five strangers who are brought together by, and they know each other prior to the book, but they only know each other because they all don't sleep. They're all struggling with insomnia for different reasons, right? And they meet up every night, or seemingly every night, at this graveyard to smoke together. And one night they turn up and there's a freshly dug grave and they're like, what the hellie? And thus ensues a kind of, like, horror, body horror, science-y plot from there. I don't really want to tell you much else. I'm giving this a 3.5. Which I know sounds, you know, not, like, incredible, but I did, for the most part, enjoy this book. I think with its very little page space, the audiobook's only three hours, this is, like, 108 pages, it manages to do a lot. And not a lot of that is plot. So if you're going to this expecting plot, plot, plot, I would not recommend reading it because not a lot happens. Nothing really happens. We don't have a lot of answers for even the things that do happen. They just pose more questions and we don't really get answers for them. But what it is, is you spend time with each of these characters. We have different chapters from each of their perspectives and you're learning more about them and why they're struggling to sleep. And really it's just a character study of what each of them are going, is going on in their lives, with a bit of plot driving the story forward, you know? And so I enjoyed the time that we spent with the characters. I enjoyed what we learned about them. I enjoyed our time with them. I feel like each of them are quite distinct and quite interesting and quite well fleshed out. You only have 108 pages. You have five characters who are fluent. That's like 20 pages each without even a counting plot. But I feel like we knew all of them. We knew kind of their quirks. We got to like know them beyond a surface level, which I feel like was quite successful. It does end very abruptly. It just ends. The book just ends and you're like, I could have sworn there were more answers coming. I could have sworn we would have got like, just a little bit of closure on that issue or that issue. But for the most part, it was, it was fine. It was fine. It was fine, you know? I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it and I enjoyed it a bit more than I went into it expecting to. Um, I'm now, I've got some work to do, some kind of add-a-mini bits. But then this evening, I think I'm gonna switch up and I'm gonna read Lore Olympus Volume 1, a graphic novel. I think it's about time that we read a graphic novel. I've only read one this year. It's about time! And this is one I've been wanting to read for ages. So I just think that's a nice way to spend the evening, isn't it? Reading a graphic novel. I'll check in with you once I've finished it. Hopefully shouldn't take me too long and then we're really motoring. I actually think we need to focus on reading short books for this vlog now. Like, I've got a week, let's read short books and get 10 books off the TBI. I feel like that should be the aim. Good morning, friends. Hello. Last night when I was tucked up in bed, I read the entirety of Lore Olympus Volume 1 and I thought this was okay. I'm giving it a 3.5. So I thought it was good. I thought it was good. So basically, this is a Hades and Persephone retelling inspired book. I'm gonna do some close-ups quickly that I can overlay over me talking so you can have a look at what the pages look like. Um, yeah, basically that's all you need to know is that it's a retelling. I enjoyed this, but I didn't love it. And I think with graphic novels, a lot of that is down to the art style. I don't know if you could see in those pictures, but the art style is kind of like comic book inspired. So you have a lot of little scenes on a page. And I don't know if that's my preference with a graphic novel. Like, I sometimes felt like I couldn't really see what was happening. I couldn't make everything out in the way that I wanted to. And the facial expressions of the characters, I wasn't quite getting the humour. Like, I- me and this were not on the same wavelength. When, like, characters make a facial expression, I'm like, why are you making that facial expression in that circumstance? I don't understand. Oh, don't make that face. It felt like it was making inside jokes and I was not inside on the joke. I wasn't in on the joke, is what it felt like to me. But I mean, it's a fun story, you know. This book is obviously only volume one. I think there's like 12 or something out. There's a lot out. Um, this is only volume one. And so, you know, there's not a lot of resolution because we're very early on in the story. I do think not a lot happened for what is quite a chonky graphic novel. Like, I've read very short graphic novels that feel like they've got a lot more substance to them, but I had fun reading it, you know. Like, I don't think it's bad, but I do have those uh, critiques of it, you know. It also skirts an interesting line of- of sexiness, of raunchiness, that I don't know if I've ever read in a graphic novel before. Like, obviously, Hades and Persephone, you already know that's going to be quite like a sexually charged probably retelling. And I don't have a problem with that. I don't have a problem with a sexual graphic novel, but again, the sexiness, I was sometimes like, I don't know if I'm getting what you're putting down. Or it would be cutesy and then sexy. I know where he'd be like, you little tart. That wasn't Hades, I think. That was another character. But like, whoa, you're such a little tart. Whoa. Whoa. Okay. I also think there's a lot of girlies out there who are real Greek mythology girlies, and I am not that. I've enjoyed my time with it, but there's certain things in fantasy, like I prefer fairytale, maybe, more inspired fantasy than Greek mythology inspired fantasy. And there's people who prefer Greek mythology. You know, I like, I've enjoyed Madeleine Miller. I've enjoyed Greek retellings that I've read, but I'm not obsessed. Like, that is not my thing. In the way that murder mysteries are my thing, Greek mythology is some people's thing. And thus, they would eat this ---- up. And they probably wouldn't eat up, like, your guide to not getting murdered in a quaint English village by Maureen Johnson. So there's something for everyone, you know, and I enjoyed my time with this, but I didn't love it. And so it kind of, like, a 3.5. I was saying this, I think, to my top two patrons on our Zoom call the other night. Was it them? It was someone. About how, like, if I give a book a 3.5, the first book in the series, I'm very torn on whether to continue the series or not. If I give a book four stars, I'm continuing the series. If I give a book three stars, I'm not continuing the series. 3.5 is this murky area where I'm like, if you put the second volume down in front of me and told me you have to read it right now, I'd be like, yeah, okay, great, fun, you know? Like, I might not love it, but I'd be like, yeah, okay, let's read it. But graphic novels are expensive for, like, how little amount of time you spend with them. Rightfully so, because, I mean, it takes so long for these authors to draw this stuff. But am I ever going to, like, want to pick up volume two over something else? I could get them at my library, but I'm 50-50 on whether to continue this series or not. So I'd be interested in your thoughts. But yeah, it was a fun time. It was a quick read. I found it interesting, but I did have a few moments where there was, like, a miscommunication between me and the book, where I was like, what is the meaning behind that, you know? But anyways, I'm glad to have read it. It was on my 25 books in 2025 list, which I'm getting through. We may read a few more. I'm kind of, like, incentivized. Although I do usually stop looking at it about this time of the year, so that when I react to it at the end of the year, it actually is a surprise. But I want to read a few more of that list, maybe. I mean, maybe this is on there, which we got gifted earlier. Maybe I'll pick that up. But I think today I want to make some progress in Poirot. I want to read my next Poirot. This is Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie. This is, I don't know, like number 12, I think, in the Poirot series I'm up to now. And this will just be a fun quick read today. I'm excited. Today, again, we're just reading. It's the hottest day of the year so far. I'm gonna go sit in the garden and read this. I'm gonna drown, not drown Dita. I'm gonna, like, put a lot of water on her. I get nervous about her being outside when it's hot, but she wants to. If I'm going out there, she will be at the door going, so I just cover her in water. I just drench her in water. And yes, hopefully I will check in with you before the end of today. I should be able to. I don't think it'll be that long. On my thoughts on the next Poirot. I think this will be super fun. I just, I like, I love a bit of Agatha, you know, they're just palette cleansers. I'm just gonna take us up to five finish, which is very exciting. I have been editing today, but I did just finish Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie, number 12 in the Poirot series. I'm getting through them. Only, like, 30 more to go. But we are hitting, like, her peak era now, you know. Murder on the Orient Express was two books ago. The ABC murders is next, which I'm very excited about. Like, this is peak Aggie era. The plot of this one, very simply, is a woman dies on a plane. I wasn't expecting that at all. And Poirot's on the plane. He should never travel, ever, because he curses anyone he travels with. She's killed by a blow dart, it seems, of poison, which is quite an interesting method. And so Poirot is trying to figure out which of the cast of characters murdered her. It opens up, we have, like, a diagram with where each of the people on the plane were sitting. I'm giving this four stars. In truth, it's between a 3.5 and a 4. It's a 3.75, but I'm feeling kind. I think this is a good basic Agatha Christie. For me, the Agatha Christie's that stand out are ones that have a very interesting reveal. Like, a really crazy reveal to them. Look forward to craziness, kookiness, outlandishness, hoopla, loud, weird, frantic, everything crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. To who did the murder, which I can't spoil, but I feel like you know a few of them. Like, okay, I'll just say murder of Roger Ackroyd or murder on the Art Express have incredible, like, genre-defining reveals, right? Or there's ones, like Death on the Nile, for example, that have an iconic setting, an iconic location, because obviously she was married to an archaeologist in the latter part of her life, or after her first husband, who we hate, who caused her to go insane. You can check out my video about that, which is severely underrated, if you want. But yeah, we love her archaeologist husband. So, usually those are the ones that stand out. This is, I mean, it has, I guess, a cool setting on the plane, but unlike Murder on the Express, sorry, I can feel Adida fur on my face. That's why I'm touching my face. It just floated through the air and hit me. Unlike Murder on the Express, where you're stuck on that and it's claustrophobic, we're out of there within the first couple chapters, and it's mostly just set in London, right? So it feels more like a bog-standard Agatha Christie mystery, and I think it's a good version of that. We've actually got Poirot in this book, which my last, the last one in the Poirot's three-act tragedy, no Poirot. Like, he was not in this book. Whereas we have a lot of Poirot in this book, and I really feel like she has hit her stride with what Poirot is by this time. Like, I feel like the first maybe five books, she's kind of figuring his character out. Whereas by now, he is just ridiculous. This man is dramatic. He is, like, over the top. He is a bit... What's the word I'm looking for? Proud? Or... He's just a very interesting character to have as your main detective. Like, he has very interesting quirks, and I feel like they're very much on show in this book. No Hastings. Thank god. I think Hastings narrates ABC Murders, though. I just have to accept it. I have to accept it. I think I'm almost done with him until, like, the last book. Alas! I hate him. I found the, like, whodunit very satisfying. Not particularly, like, crazy, but a satisfying whodunit. I enjoyed the cast of characters we have in this book and their interactions. It has your classic young, clever woman that is the Agatha Christie answer. But you gotta love it. You gotta love it at the end of the day. And I also thought it was interesting having... I'm glad I'm reading the Poirots in order because there were things that she's played with before in this book. I don't want to spoil which books they are, but there's elements of, like, the reveal that happened in this book. And I think, is she about to do it again? Actually, let me just say it. Merge on the Aura Express. You're more likely to read Merge on the Aura Express than this. Like, the reveal of Merge on the Aura Express. There's little things that happen that make you think, is she about to do the same thing? And this is only two books after Merge on the Aura Express, I think. Makes me wonder, was Merge on the Aura Express, like, an instant success when it came out? Like, was it iconic as soon as it came out? Or what did it kind of grow in that? Because it felt like a little nudge, nudge, wink, wink. I mean, I don't even know if it would have been published by the time she was writing this because she was doing, like, two a year or something crazy. So that was fun as well. It was a fun time. It was an easy read. It was enjoyable. It's not gonna, you know, none of you are gonna be rushing out to read this as your first Agatha Christie. There's a lot that I would recommend over it, but it was fun. I love spending time with Aggie. She's my girl. Her and Janie. I'm actually getting an itch to read a Jane Austen. Either fiction or non-fiction. Is Jane Austen July? And it's 250 years since our girl was born. But I can't fit that. I mean, like, let's be honest. I need quick books in this video. We're halfway there though. We're halfway there with the books. Five down, five read. But yeah, I am getting a Janie itch, which I need to not think about because I have not got any space for Janie. Anyways, reading this. I was actually thinking of reading Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood next, which I do think I am going to read. But reading this made me fancy, like, another mystery. Like, more a contemporary mystery that's maybe fast-paced. And so I'm going to pick up The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. I wasn't actually planning on reading this, but this was on the quarterly TBR Clue note I just posted. I would not be reading this if it wasn't for that. But it kind of put it back on my radar. Goodreads says it's a great summer read. And so I think I'm going to get to it. I've looked up the audiobook. I wasn't going to read the audiobook either, but it's, like, for narrators. So it would be rude not to, you know what I mean? And I think it's a pretty quick read. So I'm going to get into this one next. And then maybe I'll read Not in Love, I'm thinking. But yeah, this was just a fun time. I had a good time with it. It's not particularly memorable. But it was... I like Paro, you know? But let's get into a modern mystery next and see how we go. Next book finished for the vlog, The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. I'm giving this a 3.5. It probably is even more like a 3.25, but I don't do quarters. It's just... fine. Forgettable. I won't remember this in a while, you know? Basically, there is an heiress who had all this money. She dies, North Carolina's the richest woman, and we're following a guy who is her heir. But has, like, refused to take any of the money, refused to have the house. He's going back to the house with his wife. There's all the family that he hates there. And that's it. Here's the thing. I don't think it's a bad book. I think the writing is strong. I think Rachel Hawkins is a really good mystery author. I really like her writing style. I find her writing very compelling. But I had craft issues with this. Firstly, I, at 80 pages, was like, what is driving this plot forward? With a mystery, you need, like, an inciting incident. You need, like, a reason to read, you know? Like, fantasy, you know, you know you're in magical worlds. There's world building. Mystery, you need to kind of be, like, straight in with, like, something to care about. What's the hook? There isn't really a hook. There's not a reason to read with this book. And it has kind of my cardinal sin of dual timeline. We have the present timeline, and then we have a lot of letters from the heiress telling the story of her life, basically. And it just, I just don't like dual timelines, especially ones that are basically 50-50 throughout the book. Because, again, there is the issue of, like, you split both of these things up so that they're both just kind of half-baked. The present-day timeline's half-baked, and the backstory of her life is half-baked. Whereas one of them, to me personally, as someone who doesn't like dual timelines, would have been much more interesting if it'd all just been about her life, because she had a lot of husbands who died, basically. I don't believe in the glorification of murder. I do believe in the empowerment of women. If it'd been a whole book about that, it would have been more interesting. Or if it'd been a book all about the present day. Actually, I don't think the present-day storyline's very good. Am I going to lower this to a three? I don't know, because I didn't mind reading it. Like, I had a fun time. I think I'm lowering it to a three. I think it's more of a three. I don't think it's quite a 3.5. I think it's a three. There are some fun twists in this. There's some fun reveals. Yeah, okay. Three. I'm settling on it. I'm gonna need to go change my spreadsheet. I'm gonna keep reading some Rachel Hawkins stuff, you know, in the future, because I really did enjoy Reckless Girls. But this just felt like forgettable, bland, unoriginal, just your basic thriller. And when I started reading it, though, I was like, oh, I'm so glad. Sorry, it's more mystery than thriller. I'm so glad to be reading, like, a modern day mystery. I feel like I haven't read a lot. I feel like I'm reading more... a modern day mainstream mystery. Mystery thriller. Like, 70% mystery more. Because I read a lot of now 100% mysteries, right? Like, you know, your Thursday Murder Club, your murder mysteries. I read a lot more of them. Whereas there's this kind of genre, I would say, that Riley Sager falls into a lot, Ruth Ware falls into a lot, where it's, like, mostly mystery, but you're still a little bit in the thriller genre. That's what this is. And it feels... that kind of genre feels very nostalgic to me. I used to read a lot of that. And so at first I was like, I'm really happy to be reading this. And then I was like, womp-bomp. It's just fine. This I will... if you ask me to give you the synopsis or even spoilery synopsis of this book in, like, six months, I won't be able to give it to you, you know? And I will be able to give it to you, but because I hate it. I didn't hate this. Her writing is good. That's the thing that saves this. Rachel Hawkins' writing is good. But none of the characters feel fully baked to me. None of the plot feels fully baked to me. It was just meh. It was just fine, you know? That's where we are. That's sad. Let me talk to you, because I actually have read another two books already. I finished this last night and then I read some more. So, um, let me tell you about those books next. So last night I went away and I read Saga Volume 4, and then I read Saga Volume 5. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. If you're doing the math, that puts us below 300 books on the TBR. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a reason to celebrate. I'm very happy. Below 300. Never to go below it again. Never. Ever, ever. I read these. They're very quick. I knew they'd be very quick. I thought, we've got to get our skates on. It's Friday and I want this vlog, I want to keep on track with my vlogs. I've got a lot of vlogs that I want to do this summer and I want to keep on track with them. So we're going to be reading short books for the rest of the vlog. Let me just tell you that as well. I read these together because I knew I would not have like a ton to say about them. They are quick, easy, fun reads where we're following basically a family who the mother and father are from different planets and like everyone has got it out for them because people don't believe that these people from these planets should be together. They've got people trying to kill them. They're like trying to save their daughter and their family and these are just fun. I feel like I don't have a great vocabulary for these because they are so different to anything else I read. Like this sci-fi that's kind of dark and bloody and like violent. I don't read a lot of stuff like that. But these two, I gave them both four stars. They are very very fun installments in the series. You know, we're further into it now and I'm just really enjoying my time with them. I really am like attached to the family, the young family and their relationships with one another and I'm rooting for them. There's also in both of these but particularly more in number five. Let me try and find a close-up. There's this little creature who is helping them out, helping the father out in particular. Look at him. I am so obsessed with him. So it's like this comic book, no spoilers, but it's like this comic book style. It's very different to like other graphic novels that I usually read. Look at him. I'm so obsessed with him. Like **** the boobies. I want a whole plush of this guy. I love him. That was cute. I kept showing him to Tom last night like look how cute he is. But yes, I enjoy this graphic novel like comic series. I have a lot of fun with it, but I never have much to say. It was fun. It was fun. It's an interesting saga. It's interesting. It's violent. It's very sex heavy and it's sci-fi and I don't read anything else like that really and so I feel like I'm better at reviewing books when I read a lot of other books like them, you know? Like romance I feel like I'm getting better because I'm reading more romance. Mystery, I think I'm very good at it. But like there's there's such as I just This was fun. This was fun. It's intense. Nasty stuff happens and sometimes I'm like, oh because my graphic novels are usually cutesy, you know? I love cutesy graphic novels. That's really my genre. Tea Drag Society, Heart Stopper, Sheet, graphic novel series. I don't really like violent stuff. I had fun with these. Okie dokie. And then we've got two more books to read before I can buy a book as a treat and I think next I'm going to go with a book that's on TBR Cluedo, but it's nice and short, which is The Moving Toy Shop by Edmund Crispin, which is a golden age murder mystery about a there was a dead woman in a toy shop and then the toy shop disappears. I'm excited to read this and see what I think of like another golden age murder mystery. Hello friends, there's some kind of work going on outside my house, but we must film so I'm sorry about it. I have finished The Moving Toy Shop by Edmund Crispin. I'm giving this like a three. Here's the thing, there's pros and cons to this and I would be interested in reading another in this series because this is like a another golden age of crime detective series. But something about this one in particular didn't work for me. So the hook is there's this poet who stumbles across an Oxford toy shop with a dead woman in it and he's like, holy ----. Oh my god, I need to get help. He gets knocked out. Someone knocks him out, hits him in the back of the head. He wakes up. It's no longer a toy shop. It's like a greengrocer or something and there's no body and he's like What? What? And so he meets up with his friend Gervais Fenn, who is like the detective, but he's not a detective but he's like the detective role in this series. He's actually a professor at Oxford and they endeavour to solve this together. What I will say, I really enjoy the character of Gervais Fenn. So that's why I'm like, I could read more in this series in the future. Like if you presented me another one, I'd go Yeah, okay. Yeah, let's read it. I'm interested because he's like crazy. He's crazy talented and I enjoy that. He's wackadoodle. He is so a wackadoodle energy Gervais Fenn. He's just like, he just says crazy stuff. It's wackadoodle time. It is wack-a-doodle time. At one point, I think this may be a little bit meta as well. I think he's like, I'm trying to think of chapter titles for Crispin, like the author. So like, is this a bit meta? I don't know. I got a lot of hints of that, but I need someone to tell me if it is or not. But on the whole, I found the murder mystery of this one a little bit lackluster, you know? I didn't care about any of the characters. Like, unlike if I'm comparing it to Death in the Clouds, which is the other kind of golden age of crime book that we've read in this video. Like, I felt like all the suspects in that one were very distinct, had very distinct characters. Whereas I cannot tell you any of these people are. The resolution of who it was, I was like, when did we meet that man? Sorry, it's a man. Spoiler. And then like in our second interview with him, he said this and I'm like, we had one interview with him? Who the **** is that? Who the **** is that? I hate to say it. I hope I don't sound ridiculous. I don't know who this man is. I mean, he could be walking down the street. I wouldn't, I wouldn't know a thing. Sorry to this man. So yeah, that's why it's a three, but also why I'd be open to reading more. Maybe I'll go back and read number one. This is number three in the series. I liked, there was a girl called Sally, I liked her, although a dog died as well and that really upset me. A dog gets shot. And that really, like, don't you know the dog doesn't die? Like that's like the cardinal sin. Like that really deeply upset me. But what I really think is the problem is we are nine books in now. We're nine books in. We're going to talk about number ten in a second. I, if you actually think about it, I filmed this over a fortnight, which you'd think five books a week, which is already a stretch for me because I'm really at my core three book a week girl, but I constantly am trying to push myself for more because, you know, I want to make a lot of vlogs. I have so many vlog ideas and I don't read quickly enough. But I read the last like 140 pages of book number two, The Favourites, on Monday. On Monday. So really I'm gonna have read like eight or nine books this week and if you split the amount of pages I'm gonna read, because I've read a lot of short graphic novels and stuff over like four books, I wouldn't be as like, my brain wouldn't be struggling as much. But I struggle with reading so many stories. I've read so many stories. I've heard I've read so many like beginning, middles and ends. It's too much for my brain. I'm like, I've had enough. I've had enough. So we're on number nine. For our final book I'm gonna read another graphic novel because I just want to read something quick. I'm gonna read Bloodlust and Bonnets, which is like vampire version of classic romantic literature. Lord Byron? I don't know who Lord Byron. I mean, I know who Lord Byron is, but I don't know who Lord Byron is at the same time. So we're gonna give this a read. I'm excited to read it. Graphic novel, I'm literally gonna go sit and read it now. And then we'll have read 10 books. Listen, well, I've got 10 books off the TBR. That is an achievement that we should be proud of. Hello, hello. Um, I've been out on a walk today. Apologies if I look a bit windswept. I don't know if I do or not. It was hella windy out there. But I have come home and I have finished Bloodlust and Bonnets by Emily McGovern. I'm gonna give this 3.5. 3.5. I had fun reading it. It is kind of like Regency England inspired historical fantasy where there's vampires and Lord Byron's in it and our main girl Lucy's in it. And um, also oh, what's the other character's name? I forgot the other character's name. Sham. And it's them trying to like hunt down these aristocratic vampires basically. I think this is a very fun graphic novel. I think it's a fun time. I think you can enjoy Regency books like Jane Austen, for example. It's kind of a fun It's how many times can I say fun? I'm a massive fan of the dictionary, you know, we should be like promoting the dictionary anyway, because it's a funny witty poking fun at that kind of era. It has jokes. It has jokes. I think the illustration style let me show you a quick flip through. The characters have like no faces. They just have eyes but they still manage to be very expressive. There's a lot of like body humour, like expressive humour in this that I enjoyed. But not a lot happens. There's not really like any semblance of plot at all throughout the entirety of this book. There's even one moment where like one of the characters is like, how did we end up here? I don't even know what's happened. I'm like me neither, babes. Me neither. So I had an enjoyable time whilst reading it, but I honestly have nothing to say to you about it. Other than those two things I just said. I don't really have a lot of opinions on it. I enjoyed reading it. It is not particularly memorable though, to me. However, the thing I am much more excited about, I have read 10 books off of my TBR and you know what that means? We get to go buy one. I'm so excited. So I am gonna pop to Waterstones now and I'll come back and tell you what I got. But yeah, I get to buy a book. We've read 10 books, guys, off the TBR. This is amazing. Most of them are short books or graphic novels, but they were still books or TBR. You know what I mean? So, um, yeah, I'm excited to go pick something out as my reward. Down on the banks of the old man river Heavy air calling rain They say if she keeps up and delivers Let evil break again Tell me what could you do then When the river comes a-calling Okay, I'm back. It was so hard to pick only one book. There were so many in there that looked good. So many. A lot of murder mysteries looked pretty good. Both ones are on my radar. Like, this is not a test. Um, they had the next The Maid book that's just come out in there, but lots that I've never heard of that I'm now intrigued about and wanted to get. However, there was one book that as soon as I saw it I knew that this was going to be what I was going to get and that is Story of a Murderer by Hallie- No, Story of a Murderer by Hallie Rubenhold. This is non-fiction. This is the author of The Five, if you've heard of that or read that. Uh, which was about Jack the Ripper's victims. This one is about Dr. Crippen. If you've ever heard about his story I think it's like he murdered his wife and him and his mistress tried to flee to America on a boat with him- with her disguised as his son. I don't know too much about it, but it's a book about that and the women that he encountered. I think he might have maybe even killed his first wife too. I don't know. Hallie's gonna tell me. I loved The Five. It was one of my favorite non-fictions I've ever read. I think she managed to research these historical topics with such detail. I'm like- I'm like, how do you even find that out? Like, and takes you through a narrative with such deftness. And so I was very excited for this one. I also love how cool is that? I like had to get the hardcover of this because of that. Like, how cool! So yeah, it is non-fiction, which I am not reading a lot of non-fiction this year, which I need to like, I need to get a handle on, but I'm very excited for this book. And this is also my 25th book stream in 2025. This was the only non-fiction I put on there. It was like my most anticipated non-fiction of the year. So, um, yeah. I knew when I saw this, this was the perfect, perfect treat for reading 10 books. So, at the end of this video, I believe that places the TBR at 298 books! Oh my goodness, guys, we did it! We're below 300, never to be seen again. My TBR is never going above 300 ever again. I'm very happy. I'm very proud. Only 98- no, 99, I guess. Is that how math works? I don't know. Books to go until we're under the 200 needed for TBR 200. Yeah, I'm very happy. We managed to get- I feel like I haven't made this substantial negative progress in my TBR in so long. It's just been gradually creeping up forever and ever and ever. But we've got a lot of videos coming in the next couple months for TBR 200. I'm really gonna ramp up the amount of episodes we have. We're gonna have multiple episodes a month. And, um, yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself for getting 10 off the TBR. Even though a lot of them, like I said, were short or graphic novels, it still counts. It still counts. But anyways, I love you all so much. Let me know your thoughts on any of these books that were on my TBR that I read. Your thoughts on any of them if you've read them. Also, let me know if there was any other books you think I should have got at Waterstones, but I just knew as soon as I saw this that I was getting this. But anyways, thank you so much for watching what I'm sure is a pretty long vlog and I'll see you very soon in the next one. Bye!