My Life as Mrs. Cooks: The Hamelin Stoop Series Book Review

Have you ever read a book that was not a genre you would normally be interested in, but then found yourself flipping page after page with excitement, anxiously waiting to see what would happen next? Well, that has been me with our latest read aloud! I am normally not a fan of young adult fiction or fantasy books, however, when the opportunity arose for us to review The Hamelin Stoop Series, I decided to give it a try. First, let me just say that I am so glad I did! We received Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge (Book 1) and Hamelin Stoop: The Lost Princess and the Jewel of Periluna (Book 2) in exchange for our honest review. Both books are published by 12 Gates Publishing. Normally I would be giving you guys the review, but my oldest daughter enjoyed the first book so much (she is just about to start book 2) that she asked if she could tell y'all about it. I will check in later to add my two cents.

Oh my gosh, you guys there's a new book series I've been in love with and have literally tried to get all my friends to read. It's The Hamelin Stoop Series. It's a young adult fantasy book, I know a lot of people have pre-conceived ideas on fantasy books whether good or bad, but this one is so amazing. It's nothing like I've read before, guys it's filled with adventure, heartache, mystery, and a whole lot of cliffhangers.

The series is written by Robert B. Sloan and published by 12 Gates Publishing. Both books are paperback and about 300 pages each.
The first book is titled Hamelin Stoop: The Eagle, The Cave, and the Footbridge. It's about a remarkable adventure that shows great heroism, love, and hope despite what cards you've been dealt in life. Hamelin Stoop was only two weeks old when his mom set him in a tomato crate on the porch stoop of the orphanage that she grew up in, located in west Texas. She was determined to keep him from being captured by Ren'dal's trackers. He was quickly the talk of the town seeing that no one could find his parents. He was given a home at the orphanage, but with constantly being passed around between adults and children who grew to love him deeply, he despitefully felt a longing for a family of his own. He quickly grew and fell in love with a brother and sister, Bryan and Layla, who becomes the closest thing to a family to him. Bryan and Layla grow up just as quick as Hamelin and have to leave the orphanage after they turn eighteen. This leaves Hamelin sad and lonely because he can't quite understand why they have to leave. A year later one of the ladies who helped take care of Hamelin as a baby leaves the orphanage to go help her children with her grandchildren. The following year, another person he has grown to love leaves also, so within four years Hamelin has lost the four people who mean the most to him. To top it off all the other people at the orphanage forgot about his birthday leaving him really broken and hurt. So he devised a plan to run away since nobody could remember him. As he was running to the woods he spotted a great eagle who leads him to a cave, which bought him to a footbridge, but he is too scared to cross. So he runs back to the orphanage before daylight and pretends nothing happens. He later tries again, however, the great eagle is not there to lead him. Will he ever be able to cross that footbridge? Okay, that's all I'm going to tell you guys I would hate to spoil it for you. You should go order it like right now! I personally suggest this for later middle schoolers and early high school children just because there are a few physical altercations and parents might not want younger children exposed to that. I started listening to this as a group read but quickly took over and read it independently. I would most definitely recommend this book it has action, adventure, heartache, mystery, cliffhangers just about everything you think a good book should have in order to be considered a good book, it has it. I loved absolutely everything about this book from the cover art to the plot, it's honestly one of the best books I've read with a male as the main character.

My thoughts

As Kaela mentioned above I started reading this as a read aloud. I begin reading it only with my two older children, who are 13 and 16, the two younger children (10 and 12) started sitting in with us after hearing how good the story was getting. At the end of every chapter, they would beg me to read more, but I will tell them they would have to wait until the next day. Kaela finally couldn't take it anymore and asked if she could read it on her own. I agreed only if she promised to not spoil the story for the rest of us. The younger kids and I are still on Book 1 and Kaela will be starting Book 2 today. For a teen or adult that enjoys reading, I think it would take about 1 to 2 weeks to finish each of these books.

So far this is definitely a page turner, each chapter ending has you wanting to go on! The author is normally a non-fiction author, I am so glad he tried his hand a fiction! We quickly have gone from reading one chapter a day to a few. The kids are so into the story that I don't even have to ask a lot of questions to make sure they are listening they are freely discussing events from the story and what they would do if this or that. I agree with my oldest daughter that this is better suited for teens and adults. However, my youngest listener is 10 and he is doing fine with keeping up with the story and handling the physical altercations. There was a bullying situation and the word "fool" has been used several times, which is why it may be better for older kids. I cannot wait to finish this book and start book 2!