Book 6-7
Fullmetal Alchemist 20th Anniversary Book by Hiromu Arakawa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Happy 20th anniversary FMA. I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one as Fullmetal Alchemist is still one of my favorite manga/anime of all time (and I say this as someone who's been consuming the media for over forty years).
There was no way I was missing out on this one so why not five stars? I have to admit, there were things that disappointed me, namely there wasn't all that much new in it. Yes, all the letters of congrats from various voice actors, artists directors etc which I confess to having little interest in. I suppose I was hoping for something new for this, even a short story or a few character sketches (there is certainly plenty of post canon scenes we'd have loved to see)
To be fair there is a short story created for this, a missing scene of Havoc and Maria Ross, calling her back from Xing. I didn't find it all that interesting. Havoc settling in and working for Mustang post-injury or Ross IN Xing might have interested me more. Ah well.
Everything else was not new, but some of it was new to me as they were only ever offered in Japan and not translated...officially. So the first few never translated short story panels I have seen before because fans translated and posted SO much back in the day. Still, it was nice to see it officially.
The Start of the Journey short that was given away at the movie (sob, would have loved to have gotten my hands on that) was something I hadn't seen before. It was fun (even if I had trouble seeing Basque Grand like that!)
I did love seeing Arakawa's cover art and her comparison to the original sketch from 20 years ago.
So mild disappointment aside, I'm glad I have this on my shelf where it'll be staying for another 20 years (and I need to get back to my reread of the series) Thank you for giving use wonderful characters like this. They feel like old friends even after all these years.
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The Secret of the Lost Pearls by Darcie Wilde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This came in a big box of books a friend was giving away and I didn't know it was book 6 in a series (but I didn't feel too spoiled for previous books so I might chase them down) Rosalind is a 'useful woman' trying to survive in Regency era England without necessarily being married. She is wealthy adjacent in her upbringing and now she helps members of the haute ton (the most important, wealthiest of English society) find lost things and solve other problems.
Her friend, Bethany, has enlisted her help to find a very expensive string of black pearls that has been stolen and her husband, Lord Douglas, blames her sister, Nora who shamed the family by running away at 16 with his friend, Cantrell, in theory eloping (something not done at their social level). Bethany thinks Nora is innocent and wants Rosalind to help her.
Rosalind walks into a house in turmoil. ALL of Bethany's family lives with her, Nora, her parents (a hypochondriac dramatic mother, alcoholic father who lost his own fortune), her other sister Mariah who wants a life of science and Douglas's sister, Penelope who was in love with Cantrell. Douglas wants to marry her off and added to the mix is his uncle Sir Jaspar who made him the heir and holds the purse strings and wants Douglas's country raised family gone.
Adding to this, Rosalind's live-in friend, Alice wants them to get a bigger house they can barely afford and the man she loves, the bow street runner, Adam, is currently in Manchester doing something he can't believe in. (Both of them will struggle with should they be doing their jobs in this). And then Cantrell, whom Nora told everyone was dead, shows up.
And there is a lot more plot complications and twists which I felt were very well done. Rosalind and Adam are interesting characters (though I didn't get to see much of him) I liked her a lot. I do want to see more of her. I was happy to figure out the killer but there were twists I didn't see coming and that made me even happier.
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