[MUSIC]
Read, I didn't stop that quick enough.
It also doesn't make sense,
cuz the whole point of this video is having time to read.
Yep.
[MUSIC]
Hey everybody, my name is Michael from Team Epic Reads, and
you are watching the March 2020 Book Haul.
I don't know how it's March 2020, but
I have to stop having existential crises in these videos.
So let's just talk about books.
And we have a lot of books to talk about.
You can't see them all.
This is a big stack.
Get ready.
So first up, I am going to talk about the Year of Epic Reads Book Club,
which is a monthly book club we have going on over at Epic Reads.
Where we pick a theme and a book to fit that theme, and
we all read it together and discuss it.
And there will be a link down below if you wanna check out the club and
find out more information.
But the book we are reading and the theme this month, actually,
is to read a book with social media or about social media.
And so we are reading All Of This is True by Lygia Day Penaflor.
And this is a book about four teens who are like really,
really into this author's works and their writing and everything.
And they get to know the author and they're like, wow, this is amazing.
And then they find themselves as the subjects of her next novel.
And it's got some mixed media in here.
It's a really intense ride and I definitely recommend and
you should all read it with us.
[SOUND] And now I'm gonna talk about some of the books we have coming out in
the month of March.
The first of which I cannot believe I am finally holding in my hands.
Eye, do you get it?
So this is Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi, the sixth and
final book in these Shatter Me series.
And boy, this series has been nearly a decade in the making.
It's hard to talk about this without spoiling things for you, for
those of you who may not have read it.
If you have not read it, go read the last five books so you can pick up this one.
But this follows characters in a dystopian world.
And it follows specifically a girl named Juliette who has been through
some tough things and has the ability to kill with her touch.
And it follows Warner, who, no spoilers,
they all go through, it's fantastic, y'all.
It's a romance, it's got action.
It's got some insane plot twists.
And as the book progresses, you see the characters progress and
you just need to check it out.
Otherwise, I'm gonna do this more often and no one wants to see.
[LAUGH] And the next book I'm talking about actually came out at the end of
February, the very end.
And so that's why I'm talking about We Unleash the Merciless Storm
by Tehlor Kay Mejia.
This is the sequel to We Set the Dark on Fire,
which is an Own Voices Latinx, spy, low fantasy romance.
Yes, it has all of those things going for it.
It's set in this world where the ruling class
has all of the power and is very controlling.
And there's a wall where outside of it,
there is the lower class who's really really struggling.
And it's this girl who may have lied her way into this program for
her to have a prestigious future.
And then she ends up helping spy for the rebellion to take down the patriarchy.
And while doing so she's falling in love with her rival and it's fantastic.
The sequel is told from the perspective of her rival after the tumultuous,
dangerous events of the first book.
And all I have to say is, if I'm not falling in love against the backdrop of
taking down the patriarchy, I don't wanna fall in love at all.
[SOUND] And the next book we have is The Fire Never Goes out by Noelle Stevenson.
And Noelle Stevenson is the author of Nimona.
And this is a memoir told in pictures, and it's chronicling the highs and
lows in Noelle's life.
And everything she's been through in terms of being a creator in this world and
everything that comes with it.
And so it's a really personal, touching story told through words and
images that she drew because she is a creator.
And I, fantastic.
And I love the color scheme.
[SOUND] The next book I have to talk to you guys about today is
If These Wings Could Fly by Kyrie McCauley.
And this is a really personal,
touching story about a girl whose family life is pretty difficult.
Her father, there's domestic abuse going on at home, and
she wants to protect her sister and she wants to protect her mom.
And as all of this is happening,
she's trying to juggle having a life outside of that.
And as this is all happening, this town that she lives in is getting swarmed with
more and more crows until there are thousands of crows.
And so there is a little bit of magic in it.
And it's just a really touching, powerful story.
And in the back of the novel there are resources for
you to use if you're in similar situations.
And so, this is a strong one.
[SOUND] And then we have Be Not Far From Me from Mindy McGinnis,
which is a story about a girl who ends up in the wilderness.
She catches her boyfriend cheating on her and she gets in an angry rage and
stomps off and ends up getting lost in the wilderness.
And it is so an epic survival story.
Mindy McGinnis is a fantastic writer and this is just tense and
it goes there and you're on the edge of your seat.
And you kind of wanna look away but you can't not look away at seeing the story of
if this girl is going to survive the situation she is.
And get ready.
[SOUND] And the next book I have here is Bone Crier's Moon by Kathryn Purdie.
And this follows a bone crier, who is someone who must sacrifice their
one true love to prevent the dead from preying on the living.
And so it follows a bone crier who's to sacrifice her one true love.
And it also follows a boy whose dad was slain by a bone crier,
who wants revenge for this happening.
And so you can see the dynamic happening here.
There's no possible way this ends well, and it is a really epic tale.
[SOUND] And then we have The Alcazar by Amy Ewing.
This is the sequel to The Cerulean.
And without any spoilers, this is a story about a girl who lived on a city in
the sky and she was sacrificed by the people in the city in the sky.
But she actually survives the fall.
And so now she has to make her way back to the city in order to save
them because they're in peril.
So she's gone through a lot.
It's a really, really interesting tale.
And she meets a lot of interesting people along the way while she is on
the ground below.
And can she save them all?
[SOUND] So the next book we have is Moment of Truth, the newest book from Kasie West.
And this follows a girl who's always known her path, and
that she wants to be a swimmer, and get a swimming scholarship to go to college.
She knows that's what's set for her.
And then one of her swim meets gets crashed by someone who's dressed up as
a really recent Hollywood action hero, whose name is Heath Hall.
And this person's been showing up to lots of events and crashing them dressed up as
this action hero in Hollywood, and she wants to figure out what's going on.
And so in the process of trying to figure out this mystery,
she learns more about herself and finds herself falling for
the last person she'd expect she would fall for.
And Kasie West does fantastic romance.
[SOUND] And here we have Thorn by Intisar Khanani, and
this book is a Goose Girl retelling.
And it follows a girl who's a princess who's not super excited about the life
that she has ahead of her.
And then one day, a sorceress robs her of her identity and her title as princess.
And so she finds herself as a goose girl in this kingdom.
And through her time there and being not the princess she once was, she
learns of sort of all the wrongdoings and that this sorceress needs to be stopped.
And so she has to decide, does she want to stay just an everyday person?
Or does she need to take her power and help the people?
And so I love a good retelling.
[SOUND] And then next we have Frozen Beauty by Lexa Hillyer.
And this is a book that's told in before and after, and it's before where
everyone knows of the three Malloy sisters and their relationship in this town.
And then it's told in after when one of the sisters has been found dead and
frozen in the woods.
And she was the perfect big older sister.
And so they don't know how it happened exactly.
And so it's their story before but also after,
the piecing together of what happened that night.
What's the truth of what went down.
And it's just a really beautifully written,
haunting story about love and loss and the power of sisterhood.
[SOUND] And the next book I have here is All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban.
And this follows a group of students who find themselves at what
they think is a scholarship dinner.
But once they get there, they realize and receive information that they
have to choose one of the people at this dinner to die or they all die.
And so it's a thriller mystery where they have to figure out who wants them dead or
who could be threatening them in this way,
because they don't wanna have to kill one of them.
But will they be able to solve it in time to save themselves?
[SOUND] And the next book we have is We Are Totally Normal by Rahul Kanakia.
And this is a novel about a boy who is having his junior year and
he just wants to have a totally normal, chill, really good junior year.
And then as year progresses, he realizes and
starts to have feelings for another guy.
And it makes him sort of question his sexuality and
wonder what that means for him and what it means for his life.
And so it's really a novel about this character who is coming to terms with
their sexuality and learning more about themselves.
So the next book I have is The Survivor,
the sequel to The Pioneer by Bridget Tyler.
And this is a sci-fi novel, where without spoiling anything,
the characters find themselves on this new planet.
And they cannot go back to Earth because it is uninhabitable.
But the beings that exist on this planet, the Sorrows, don't wanna share.
And so there's no peace and there's a little bit of a war brewing.
And they're gonna have to find a way to sort of save everyone and
stop this war from destroying everything.
[SOUND] So that is the March Epic Reads Book Haul.
Thank you all so much for watching and I will see you next month with more books.
Comment down below with what you're most excited to read this month.