January Wrap Up!! Part Two...

 January Wrap Up: Part Two!

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Small Spaces

by Katherine Arden

⭐⭐⭐.5

𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋

As someone who grew up reading the Goosebumps books I was looking forward to starting a new, creepy middle grade series.  And I got just what I was looking for.  This is a story about Ollie, who lost her mom and isn't really fitting in at school.  She doesn't seem to care about anything anymore but getting lost in a book.  Suddenly, she comes across an old diary with a mysterious past and some creepy entries about a Smiling Man.  When her dad sends her on a school field trip to a local farm, she starts to see similarities between the diary she found and the history of the farm.  The legends say that two brothers mysteriously vanished at this farm and were never seen again.  Things start to get weird and her and her classmates might just be in more danger than Ollie realizes.  Definitely check this one out if you enjoy or enjoyed reading Goosebumps!

𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋

Anne of Windy Willows

by L. M. Montgomery

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋

"Nobody is ever too old to dream.  And dreams never grow old."

Every time I pick up another Anne of Green Gables book I get so sucked into the stories in each one.  I'm happy to say that this one was no different!  In this fourth installment, Anne is now the principal of a school in the town of Summerside.  As she is working there she writes to Gilbert, her fiancé 💕, about her every day adventures.  And boy are there a lot of them!  Each one she goes on is just as good as the last.  Starting off, Anne discovers that the town is run by a very prominent family, the Pringles.  They are super exclusive, and if you aren't one of them they will make life very miserable for you.  Will Anne, who can make friends with anybody, be able to overcome their prejudices and finally be able to settle in to her new job?  Or will they make it so difficult for her that she finally decides to give up and go back to Green Gables defeated?  This book was so charming!  And there were so many times Montgomery had me laughing out loud one moment and in tears the next.  Definitely deserves all five stars.  If you haven't picked this series up I implore you to do so.  You won't be disappointed!

𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋

Hunted

by Meagan Spooner

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book was so hard for me to rate!!!  It started out as a five star read up until about 100 pages from the end and then dropped to three stars, but then the ending happened and I had to give it that extra star. 😂  My feelings were all over the place!  Hunted is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  It follows Yeva, her father, and her two sisters as they live a comfortable life in town.  Except... Yeva longs for the life she knew growing up outside of the towns outer limits next to the forest where her father taught her how to hunt.  Now she feels stifled, having to go to parties and entertain indoors when she would much rather be enjoying the freedoms of being outside in the forest once again without having to go through all of the social etiquettes of her time.  But when her father makes a sudden bad judgment and loses all of her families money, she finally gets what she wants.  Her and her family pack up and move back to the cabin just outside the woods.  With her father out hunting the girls have to make a life for themselves together in isolation of the town.  But one day their father doesn't come home.  In fact, it's been months since they've seen him.  With Yeva being the only one who knows how to hunt she packs up and sets out after him.  But will she find him before it's too late?  This book took an interesting turn I wasn't expecting and that's why my ratings were so up and down.  That didn't hinder my enjoyment of this book though and I had a hard time even putting it down!

𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋𑁋

Fullmetal Alchemist books 1-3

I've been trying to pick out a new manga series every year to read and Fullmetal Alchemist is my pick this year!  I watched the original anime a loooooong time ago and had heard that the manga is a lot different.  After finishing this series I want to dive straight into watching Brotherhood, which is a more closely related story line to the original plot.  So far so good!  It's a lot darker than I remember and I find myself kind of wishing that I had picked a lighter story for this year. 😂  But oh well...  I'm still overall enjoying it!  This manga series is about two brothers, Edward and Elric, who set out to learn alchemy so they can bring their mother back from the dead.  Unfortunately, while trying to bring her back Edward loses his arm and a leg, and Elric ends up being just a soul attached to a suit of armor.  Now they are on the hunt to become the most powerful alchemists, so they can not only bring their mother back, but regain the bodies that they lost in the process.  Three books down and twenty-four to go!