 Hello, hello everyone. My name is Laura. This is my channel, Laura's Little Library, and welcome to finally my January wrap up. Sorry for how long it's taken me to film this. It is early March and I need to film my January wrap up and my February wrap up. So those will be coming, well my February wrap up will be coming shortly after this, don't you worry. But I read quite a few books in January. I read 17 books. That's a lot, even for me. It's a lot of books. So I think it was a little daunting to film this video because that was a lot of books. So I'm obviously going to give my reviews of these books. I might make them a little quick or quite concise into the point just because I don't want this to be a 40 minute long video. I don't think my technology can handle that. So without further ado, let's just jump right into the reviews. So the first book I will talk about was Spinning Silver by Naomi Novick. This I really wanted to read in winter. The Silver Recover gave me like strong winter vibes. The Rumpelstiltskin retelling. There were a lot of different elements in this book and like eventually they all came together but I did get kind of lost at some points but overall I was much happier with it than I was uprooted by Naomi Novick and so because of that I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I think it was a great winter like fairy tale retelling. Very unique perspective on it. I just loved that they were people who were in charge of loans and giving out money. That's just not something that outside of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale that people deal with too much in these fantasy books. So I enjoyed this. You know and again coming off of uprooted I had such high hopes for uprooted and it really disappointed me. So I was much happier with this book. So 4 out of 5 stars I would recommend. And then I read Saint by Edwin Young. This is the like not really prequel but like for the fable duology. This follows the main characters father in his story. 5 out of 5 stars. I love everything in this world. Everything this author has come out with has been amazing in this world and Saint was nothing short of that. It was exactly what I was hoping for. Maybe I was hoping for a little more morally gray in Saint but you know whatever. It was such a great background to have on his character and it's me want to reread everything now that we have this background on Saint so that I can truly understand him in the duology. But so good, so good. Third book I read was Rock, Paper, Scissors by Alice Feeney. This I gave 3 out of 5 stars. It was interesting because it had a fairly good twist. I will say if you liked I don't want to spoil it. There's another thriller that had a very similar twist and so I think if you liked that book then you would like this one. Okay I'm just going to say it so just be warned that if you don't want to know what book this is similar to skip ahead like 5 seconds. But the book is The Silent Patient by Alex Michael Ladies. But basically this book follows a husband and wife who are kind of falling out of love with each other and they're struggling in their relationship so they decide to go on a weekend away in Scotland to try and repair their relationship. Give it its last final push of is this going to work. It was a recommendation from their therapist and some spooky things start happening in this old church turned Airbnb in Scotland. So yeah 3 out of 5 stars. Like it was okay. I really wasn't interested in it in the beginning. The spooky things were not spooky enough in my opinion. Like it wouldn't have been things that would freak me out. But like the ending I admire the twist and what the author tried to do and so that's why I say it was a 3 out of 5. And I can see why some people really love to this book but I can also see why some people really didn't care for it. Then I read an entire trilogy first to third book and that is The Bear and the Nightingale trilogy by Catherine Arden. So the first book is The Bear and the Nightingale. Second book is The Girl in the Tower and the third book is The Winter of the Witch. So these are based in Russian folklore. And here's the thing I gave each of these books 4 out of 5 stars but for different reasons. So The Bear and the Nightingale it started off with a story from Russian folklore and I loved it and I loved the storytelling. I kind of felt like though as the book went on I was kind of waiting for it to get back to that and just kind of waiting for it to fall out of like love politics a little bit. But I really admire our main character because she really didn't want it's not even that in the first book she didn't want to get married it was that she didn't want to just get married off. And I mean the storytelling is a little slow and that is probably a choice that was made by the author and so it's something that didn't click with me but that's because of personal preference. But you know it was still really good. I still really admired the story itself and the ties to Russian folklore. Now the second book was quite different. So the second book went from your small little town to Moscow. And it just had a very different turn to it. I love how our character grew and changed in this book and I really admire the new elements that were tied into this with her sisters and her family. And kind of this is when like the big I feel like the trilogy plot really started to amp up in this one. Like the the first book was very introductory learning the characters getting the background on everything. This is where you're like okay these are the issues these are the problems happening with it. Main character becomes a badass it's wonderful. And then the third book obviously wraps it all up and it does a great job of returning to the Russian folklore that this series was always rooted in. And so I really admire how it all wrapped everything up together and the ending. I mean it's not just your typical they lives happily ever after ending but it's not like a bad ending. It's not where the characters are unhappy or anything like that but it was definitely an interesting an interesting one. And so if you if you like folklore and you're okay with a bit of slower storytelling definitely check out this trilogy. Like I said each book was four out of five stars. After that I read a book that just about made me ball. I was listening to the audiobook for this at work and I listened to it my mom read this book and she loved it and I knew of other people who have read this book and loved it and then I was gifted this book um as part uh as a um like I won one of the Instagram giveaways so I was like okay I really do need to read this book and it just made me ball. And that is the Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. So this book it's a little bit of a chunkier historical fiction which is why I was like kind of putting it off but I really flew through it once I got into the story because this follows two sisters who it's you know during World War but they're in France and it's when like Germany comes and the Nazis come and occupy it and you follow um these sisters who don't really have the best relationships starting off but that's because of complicated relationships with their father because their mother died anyway. So one sister is super like rebellious, rambunctuous, wants to like fight back and so she does some incredible things in this book and then her older sister has a family and her husband is enlisted to fight against Germany and how and then a soldier a German soldier actually takes up occupancy in her home as he is stationed there and so it's her way of it's her it's her fight and but you have both sisters who are fighting for their rights and for the rights of the Jewish communities in France and kind of everyone who's going against Germany at this time and they have like I said they have two very different fights but they're very strong and very important oh my gosh like it's insane like obviously the rebellious sister is really cool and a badass and I loved reading about what she did but I personally loved the older sister who had her fight at home she made me cry and just oh my goodness so this I believe was a five star book yeah yeah this was a five star read I it makes me both want to read more from Kristen Hannah but also too scared to read from Kristen Hannah because I think they do the tearjerker historical fiction really well again my mom read I think the great expanse and she really loved it and they're they have a couple other books and I'm just like I think I need some time in between this one and another book to emotionally repair myself and to prepare for what could happen in those books because jeez moving on to a very different genre so in December I had read kingdom of the wicked by Karina Escalco and then in January I read kingdom of the curse and kingdom of the feared I see the turn it took there so this first book as I said in December was amazing it was five out of five stars um very great YA book uh you following twin sisters and one twin is murdered and so the other sister uh wants to find out who murdered her twin and so she ends up summoning a demon to help her but that demon turns out being the prince of wrath one of the seven princes of hell the second and third book are I swear they are no longer YA they are adults as adult can be half of it was just pure demon smut yes I loved it it was amazing so I would say kingdom of the cursed was five out of five stars but kingdom of the feared was four point five out of five stars I don't want to ruin the trilogy for anyone who hasn't read it but I will say kingdom of the feared would have been so perfect had it not just blown up so much I think but at the same time I admire I've been saying admire a lot in this video but I like how the author took the risk and kind of did a nod back to like explosive fantasies where you you start off like this start off like this and then by the end of the book it's like but I think they could have used a bigger and better I think it could have crescendoed more in the second book because yeah the second book I like like I said five out of five stars I absolutely loved it but then having read the third book after that I wish the second book could have crescendoed a little bit more so that the third book didn't seem so jarring but seriously highly recommend the series oh my word I will be talking about this and thinking about this a lot then I read monsters born and made and this is by Tanvi Berua and this was three out of five stars this is kind of loosely based off of uh south asian folklore a little bit but it's very dystopian I think what I mostly did not like about this book was just how hunger games it read to me so we are following our main character who her family captures these creatures and then breathes them and raises them to be used for this big dangerous game that the elite upper class participates in however our main character's younger sister is sick and they are running out of money and they cannot afford the medication that her sister needs so she decides that even though she is from the lower class people she's gonna enter in the race to save her sister you kind of see where the hunger game elements are already which like would be fine but just the way I was reading through it just seemed so similar to hunger games but not in a way that I think was either unique enough or I want to say good enough but like it didn't impress me as much as I was hoping it would it just things just kind of happened and they kept going I didn't really feel for the characters all that much like like saying this summary I feel like I should have had more of an attachment to our main character and like her sister but I really didn't like she didn't have a relationship with her sister very much and she didn't she just never really won me over as someone that I really cared about and so then all the things happening and was like yeah okay but her relationship with the creatures was interesting I wish there was more there but yeah I just found this to be lacking in certain major areas but it was still three out of five stars like I would still say this was pretty good like if you really liked hunger games give this a try and let me know how how you think of it knowing that knowing the summary and everything I will say though this book naked it was pretty cute this is a pretty good naked book I I can't I also do really like the cover though so I can't decide if I want to keep it on or keep a naked on my shelf but it just doesn't seem it seems fantasy that was inspired by folklore so I don't know if I want to put it on my like folklore mythology shelf or just a fantasy shelf like I don't know I think I was just disappointed on how little folklore was in it when it just seems like there would be more the stolen air by Holly black this is the Barnes and Noble exclusive edition I wanted this edition because the regular one is white but the cruel prince and how the king of Elphame learned hate stories is white so I wanted to give Holly blacks some difference and get up and get the black one this so if you haven't read the cruel prince trilogy you really should before reading this because this follows a character in that trilogy later on it follows well okay it doesn't follow oak but he is one of the main characters it follows it's from the point of view of someone else but like oak is in that inner circle and is like the love interest and everything like that so you need to read the initial trilogy in order to read this um but I gave it four out of five stars you know I love the world building that Holly black does and I love her characters and I really love the cruel prince trilogy I just feel like this one I like oak I like oak a lot and I like her main character but it just felt like it was missing that Holly black spark it felt like I just wanted a little bit more like clarity and in-depthness from it because we're in a new element of the world that she has created you know like it still has to do with like the human world in the fame realm but I don't know I just I just wanted a little bit more from it but still I loved it and I can all wait for the next one I will probably have to reread this one before reading the next one though just because I do not remember much so yeah I just felt like all that's super memorable other than just like yeah they went in place they talked to a person they did some stuff next up I read legends and lattes by Travis Baldry cozy fantasy five out of five stars you follow an orc who has quit adventuring to open up a coffee shop and this is the cutest most endearing cozy fantasy and like I'm a nerd I I love playing dnd but even if you aren't a big dnd person still give this a try because if you it's it's basically a fantasy love letter to coffee and it just made me so happy I immediately made my partner read it and then they immediately loved it so there's nothing more I can say about this I feel like it hasn't already been said I just I love characters I love the backdrop conflicts were done really well I just I cannot wait for the the next one that's like a bookstore you know it's just going to continue to be cozy and happy then I read a book based off of Chinese mythology it is called strike the zether it is the first book in a duology and this was pretty good I I rated it 3.5 out of five stars like it was just a little it's just a little better than average but I keep going back and forth about reading the second book just I don't know so you're following a main character who's like a war strategist and she is on one person's side of like ruling the land but it's under an emperor I have a really hard time explaining this kind of like a warlord type situation and a lot happened in this book like at first I thought it was slow but then it really picked up and a lot happened in this book and the strategies were really interesting I'm not really one for like war strategy that is not something I typically care about but I was just barely kept entertained enough to keep going in the book so I'm not super sure about the duology I'll probably read it if I have a lull in my reading and it's available but like it was beautifully steeped in Chinese mythology like it really came clear in the end where the influences were and that's why I feel like I might still enjoy the second book because that's what I enjoy in folklore books I enjoy the mythology of it so yeah that's pretty much all I'm gonna say believe it or not I read a Christmas book so okay remember this is the January wrap up even though it's being posted in March this is the January wrap up there was one Christmas book that I really wanted to read in December and just I just did not get to it I mean I started it but I just didn't get to finish it and I was like you know what Christmas may be over maybe the new year but I don't want to finish this book because I was very much enjoying it that was a cat cafe Christmas by Cody Gary but I'm glad I finished it because this was a four out of five star I loved it it was cute it was cozy the romance was good it followed the typical like pattern of contemporary holiday romance but whatever the cats were adorable there was a lot going on in the book well I mean not even just a lot going on but like there were elements that were important and that were major in the book that were fine I just wish it had been a little more intertwined in the cat cafe specifically but it was a cute romance I liked I liked the romance a lot because it was kind of enemies to lovers but done differently like they got off on the wrong foot and then they turned into like a teasing friendly banter but like I don't like you but you're helping me and they would banter until they became friends and then became lovers so I liked that swing I very much liked that swing and again the cats were adorable so glad I finally finished that book then I read book of night by holly black book of night I also gave four out of five stars this was like a really good reading month I did not have any like bad books there was nothing below a three star in this month which was pretty cool book of night different book for holly black it's her first adult novel I believe and it does not take place in the cruel prince world which is just fine this book has to do a lot more with shadows it's the idea that you can alter your shadow and then that kind of affects you but mostly your shadow it kind of took a little bit to understand and get into but I liked it I mean that's such a cool concept right alter your shadow like give your shadow wings or a tail I'm fascinated I want to dig deeper into that I wish we had gotten more build off of that in the first book but there will be more and so I will read more I've got two more books for this month and both of them are middle grade so I read the other side of luck by ginger johnson this was a 3.5 out of five stars you know I kind of it gave me a couple different like fairy tale lives but it wasn't specifically based off of anything but like how the summary made it sound versus like kind of what happened didn't really match up as much as I was expecting but basically you have like the princess whose father issues a challenge to find this super rare and super beautiful flower and then you've got this like kind of poor boy who goes on that challenge and then both the princess and this boy are going to the challenge and then they team up and you know blah blah blah it's middle grade it was fine I am I liked the direction it took but the summary was misleading which was kind of a bummer and so that really threw me off and it really threw off my expectations going into the book um but yeah I just I feel like there was so much potential this book could have been and it just missed the mark like I just got confused because I was like I thought this story was this and I thought this was the purpose of it and like at the beginning this was the purpose of it but then by the end it was like no so 3.5 the final book the final book that I read in January was Dust and Grimm and this was by Chuck Wendig this is a very different middle grade than the one I just read this is a good like spooky season middle grade so you've got this brother and sister who were separated and the brother doesn't actually know that he has a sister until she comes and is like hey I want part of our inheritance which is like this huge house and the business and the brother's like huh because he's 18 and their parents have died and he just inherited everything he's continuing on the business but then all of a sudden this girl comes along he's like hey I'm your sister um I have been declared a uh like she's been emancipated she got away from their abusive father while the brother got to live with their better mother and so she basically has been living on her own she's been acting like an adult and so she wants part of the family inheritance and everything like that and to kind of re-establish that business and everything except what she doesn't know is that their like mortuary business is a lot more than what she knew and it's spooky it's dark the sibling relationship is could have been better but again 3.5 out of 5 stars like this one I don't know why I think it was better it just hit me wrong in some points it was a little weird in some areas and I was like almost and then the ending was it was an ending we'll just say that so it's a standalone but like I wanted more of the uniqueness of the book I would still recommend this I still think this was a great fast-paced spooky middle grade read whoo so those were all 17 books that I read in January I will say I'm pretty proud of the amount of like series because I started series but then I read the entirety of it or I finished it except for the series that I started and didn't finish but whatever those are the 17 books I hope you like this video comment down below if you've read any of these books I would love to hear your thoughts and discuss them with you in the comments if you like this video give it a thumbs up make sure you subscribe I try and post videos on Sundays and Wednesdays and like I said February wrap up will be coming soon and that'll be another fairly sizable wrap up so if you enjoyed this subscribe hit the bell to be notified when it posts probably like next week but yeah otherwise I have bookish social media linked down below where I post what I'm reading when I'm thinking about it so you should definitely follow me there but until I see you all in the next video I wish you happy reading