Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 1 Comment

The #1 New York Times Bestselling Series!

A wicked mash-up of fairy tale and Terminator—set in a Star Wars kind of world—Marissa Meyer’s Cinder is a fresh and fiercely ingenious futuristic retelling of Cinderella

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Book Overview:

Author: Marissa Meyer | Series: The Lunar Chronicles | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Rebecca Soler | Length: 10 hours, 1 minute | Publish Date: January 3, 2012 | Genre: YA Fantasy/Dystopian | Literary Awards: Kalbacher Klapperschlange for Altersgruppe 7. -9. Klasse (2015), Pennsylvanian Young Readers’ Choice Award Nominee for Young Adults (2014), Lincoln Award Nominee (2014), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2012), Premio El Templo de las Mil Puertas Nominee for Mejor novela extranjera perteneciente a saga (2012) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: HECK YES

“We all have our weaknesses.”“I know,” said Iko. “Mine is shoes.” 


Oh. My. Gosh.

I absolutely loved this book. I don’t know why I didn’t take the time to read this before! I think it was probably the length of the book, and I was getting intimidated by the size. Boy, what a huge mistake I made. I can’t believe that I am only now getting to this amazing series.

Technically this story is supposed to be a retelling of Cinderella, in case you couldn’t guess by the title and the leg with the heel on the cover. But if you’re thinking that this is going to be similar to the Disney version, or even the Grimm Brothers’ story, you would be dead wrong. This is nothing like Disney’s Cinderella, and it’s so much better. Yes, there are some elements that are similar: the stepmother and stepsisters, not being allowed to go to the ball and being treated like trash, a handsome prince that Cinderella ends up falling in love with, and all that jazz.


“Even in the Future the Story Begins with Once Upon a Time.” 


However, it gets so much better than just a typical love story. Not only is Cinder a freaking cyborg, but she’s also the best mechanic on her side of New Beijing, and that’s how she ends up meeting Prince Kai. She can fix pretty much anything, and when Prince Kai needs his favorite android fixed, he went to her booth in the market. But things start to go downhill when there’s an outbreak in the city, a plague that has a 100% kill rate once you get infected, and somehow her stepsister Peony gets infected. Peony is the only human stepsister that actually likes Cinder -Iko is an android, but she loves Cinder too – and Cinder believes that everything is hopeless. Nobody has ever survived the plague before, and was it her fault that her sister got sick? She certainly thinks so.

So when her evil stepmother sends her away to “volunteer” to be a test subject for the research to find an antidote, she’s basically going to her death.

But she doesn’t die, and that’s where the real fun begins.

Not only is there a plague infecting the Earth, but Queen Levana of Luna (yes, literally the queen of the Moon people) has a plan to either take over the Earth and everyone in it, or go to war with them and destroy them all. What could go wrong, right?

If you haven’t done so already, you seriously have to read it. I loved this book. I couldn’t get enough of it. And it doesn’t end with Cinder! There’s more books! And more people become involved in this amazing adventure. Just trust me, you won’t regret reading it.

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: In the United States
Twitter: marissa_meyer
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Literature & Fiction
Goodreads Member Since: March 2011

I live in Tacoma, Washington, with my husband and beautiful twin daughters. Represented by Jill Grinberg. Learn more about me and my upcoming books at http://www.marissameyer.com.
Looking for Dei by David A. Wilson (ARC Review)

Looking for Dei by David A. Wilson (ARC Review)

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Fifteen-year-old Nara Dall has never liked secrets. Yet it seems that her life has been filled with them, from the ugly scar on her back to the strange powers she possesses. Her mysterious father refuses to say anything about her origins, and soon, she and her best friend must attend the announcement ceremony, in which youths are tested for a magical gift.

A gifted youth has not been announced in the poor village of Dimmitt for decades. When Nara uncovers the reason, she uses her own powers to make things right. The decision sets her on a path of danger, discovery, and a search for the divine. In the process, she learns the truth about herself and uncovers the biggest secret of all: the power of broken people. 

Book Overview:

Author: David A. Wilson | Series: None | Format: eBook – ARC | Length: Unknown | Publish Date: March 23, 2018 | Genre: YA Fantasy | Rating: ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe


And the phyili was put asunder; separated, but not destroyed. Each defied the other, bringing conflict, pain and death to many. In the end, only one remained. – Cataclysmos 18:10


Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you again, Netgalley for the opportunity to review ARCs. I love this chance, and I’m always ready to read the books you have available.

Now, on to the book.

The premise was pretty interesting, at least I think so. There are certain people in the world that either has gifts (they are called gifted if they have more than one special power). Then there are others that are plain, and others that are considered cursed. The ones with powers are conscripted to the government, whatever entity their abilities would be the most useful, and it gives them an opportunity to send money back to their village. The cursed are usually killed almost immediately as they are seen as an abomination to the church that needs to be put down. Pretty nice, right?

So it seems like the main character, a young fifteen-year-old girl named Nara, has so many abilities that she’s developed at such a young age. Her father figure, a man named Bylo, told her from the moment he saw her exhibit some powers to keep them a secret from the rest of the village. It seems like she has a combination of all the known powers, and yet she is so much stronger than what she seems. So when her power is discovered on the day the village finds out that her best friend is cursed, that’s when things hit the fan.

I feel like the book got way too descriptive about things that didn’t seem really important. There was a character that was introduced in a chapter, only for that character to be killed off mere pages later. And it wasn’t just a mini introduction. It was more like the character’s life story. So you feel like you have to invest in one more character, and then they are ripped away from you in seconds. It’s so hard to read a book that does that, or to introduce characters that don’t seem to have any significance until later – or never – and still keep track of everyone.

I understand that this is an ARC, so I’ll be forgiving about the grammatical errors I’ve found. I’m hoping those will be fixed by the time the final comes out. All in all, I think it could have flowed better, but it wasn’t terrible. I wouldn’t mind reading something else from this author, but this book just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads
Born: The United States
Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Goodreads Member Since: May 2017

David A. Willson lives in the great land of Alaska with his wife and five children. His passions are faith, movies, books, coffee, traveling with his beautiful lady, and hanging out with his wonderful kids.


Firebolt by Adrienne Woods

Firebolt by Adrienne Woods

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Dragons. Right. Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales, and sixteen-year old Elena Watkins was no different.
Until the night a fairy tale killed her father.
Now Elena’s in a new world, and a new school. The cutest guy around may be an evil dragon, a Prince wants Elena’s heart, and a long dead sorcerer may be waking up to kill her. Oh. And the only way Elena’s going to graduate is on the back of a dragon of her own.
Teenage girls don’t believe in fairy tales. Now it’s time for Elena to believe – in herself.

Book Overview: 

Author: Adrienne Woods | Series: The Dragonian Series | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Erin Moon | Length: 10 hours, 37 minutes | Publish Date: September 19, 2014 | Genre: YA Fantasy/Paranormal | Rating: ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe





“ The leaves of change will come at last, when the fate of two heart’s bond is cast. Souls intertwined and hearts no longer torn, through their love Paegeia will once again be born.”


So I should start by saying that usually I really love books about dragons… But that’s only if it’s written really, really well. I actually hadn’t really heard of this book before until now, and that was because I decided to join a series buddy read on Goodreads. I saw the brief summary on this, and I was so excited to read this.

I was kind of let down.

For starters, I felt like Elena was such a damn crybaby. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that she’s going through such a life change – with her dad being murdered, and finding out that her dad was a FREAKING DRAGON – but the more she learns about Dragonia and all that stuff, it’s like she’s still, for the most part, pretty clueless. You would think that the more she’s in this Academy for dragons and dragonians (not the same thing, by the way) that she would start catching on to what she’s being taught. But nope. That’s not the case at all.

You can even tell that the rest of the kids that she interacts with are pretty over her lack of knowledge from the get-go. They are constantly sighing and saying “Duh, Elena” and all that jazz. Maybe it’s just kids being mean as heck, or maybe they just need the main protagonist to get it together! I loved the sarcasm though from Becky and Sammy though. I love those girls.

Also, what’s with Elena being so Lucien crazy so fast? It’s like she can’t even function without him at times. That annoyed me very fast. Sorry Elena, but I need you to get it together real quick if I’m going to invest a lot of man hours in this series.

If you notice, these are my thoughts about how the main character behaves, not the author. For the most part, the book is alright. I just really, really, really do not like Elena right now. Hopefully, she gets better? Here’s hoping she does.

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: In Johannesburg, South Africa
Twitter: erichb3
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance
Influences: Desiring God, without him, I’m nothing, and He is present in everything I do.
Goodreads Member Since: January 2012

I was born and raised in South Africa, where I reside with my husband and two beautiful little girls till this day.
I’m very passionate about my writing. Published my first novel in 2013, titled Firebolt and three years later the entire series have been published with Fire Quill Publishing.

Love, love, love my family, and wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without their support.

Pen name for Contemporary Romance is Isabella White. Debut novel Imperfect Love was released in 2015. Secret Love to be released soon.