The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey

January 11, 2016 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother–or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

The Demon King – Book Review

January 11, 2016 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Magic is prevalent in this world, even if it’s not highly liked. The world has changed a lot since the Demon King tried to destroy the world, almost succeeding in his quest. Because of the Demon King’s actions, wizards and clans are in a precarious situation, so close to being at war with one another. In this land, we meet two very different people from two very different ends of the spectrum. Han Alister, a former head of one of the city’s gangs, comes across a special amulet that has a dangerous history, and brings his world crashing down around him. The amulet he found is supposed to belong to the Demon King, the same one that almost caused the world to end.

Enter Raisa ana‘Marianna, the Princess Heir of Fellsmarch, the future ruler of her country. Not only is she royalty through her mother’s side (it is a Queendom, after all, and the monarchy is a matriarch), but also through her father’s side. Her father is a very important figure in the clans, and she has to somehow combine both sides of her heritage into her life. When she feels like her mother is making her choose between her crown and her father’s family, she has to decide where her loyalties lie, and why she even has to choose in the first place.

The queendom is on the brink of an all out war, and Raisa doesn’t realize just how bad it really is. She ends up running away when a plot to change the rule of succession is hatched, which also involves her marrying the High Wizard’s son without her approval. On her journey across the land, she meets Han, and they find out that their journey together is more intertwined than they initially thought.

This book was so amazing to me, and it is the first book of this four part series. Han never knew who his father was, and when he does end up finding out the truth of his ancestors, it goes to show just how powerful he really is, and the potential of gaining even more. Raisa also discovers just how much she needs to learn about being the next Queen, and how she needs to learn how to trust her own instincts. I especially loved the fact that this is a matriarchal society, something that I rarely see in the books I’ve read so far. I need more of those in my life for sure. Granted, the current Queen is not doing such a good job, but that doesn’t mean that all of them were bad at their job. In fact, it was the first Queen that was able to prevent the Demon King from destroying the world in the first place, and that’s saying something.

I know that this is only the first book, and I know that both Han and Raisa have a lot of growing up to do, but I can already tell that their journey is going to be a crazy one. It looks like there’s another pair of teenagers that are bound to save the world, and I’m actually very okay with that. I look forward to reading the rest of the series, along with the companion series that takes place after the events of The Seven Realms series.

Rated: 5/5 Stars

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – Book Review

January 10, 2016June 4, 2019 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The odds of the same pair of jeans fitting four different girls with four very different body types is pretty much impossible, right? Well, usually that would be correct, but in this case, not so much. Carmen Lowell, one of the main characters of this book, happens upon a pair of jeans at a second hand clothing store that she only buys because she didn’t want to leave empty handed. But then she forgets all about them until the day before her and her three best friends separate for the first time in their lives. It’s summertime, and all four girls will be off having their own adventures for once, without the support and companionship of one another. It’s then, in Carmen’s room, that the Pants resurface, where Lena gets the idea that all of them should try them on to see who should get them. This is where it all begins, where the Sisterhood begins.

This book follows the story of four different girls: Carmen, Lena, Tibby and Bridget. Four very different personalities but all very close to one another. They became the best of friends in part to their mothers, dubbed The Septembers by their prenatal yoga instructor. The girls were inseparable, during the good and the bad times. Since this is the first time that the four of them won’t be around one another, they are forced to deal with things on their own, with only the Pants to serve as their anchor when all hell is breaking loose.

This is a book that is very close to my heart, although it took me many years to finally get the nerve to finish reading it. I watched the movie when it came out, seeing all of my favorite characters come to life and finally getting to see how this novel ends. The character that I related to the most was Carmen, especially because she had to come to terms with the fact that she was angry with her father, and she needed to confront him with what was always bothering her: why he left her and her mom and what made his new family so much better than his old one. It hit me the most because this is how I feel personally, and I envy how brave Carmen was to finally tell her father how she really feels.

The Pants may not be something that’s real to me, something that I can hold on to when I feel the need to empower myself, but maybe I don’t need it. Carmen, Lena, Tibby and Bridget may feel like they needed the Pants that summer, as a way to encourage them to get through this tough time, but in reality they just needed one another. More letters, more phone calls, more communication between the four of them so that they wouldn’t feel like they were alone during the summer. Whatever happened to them, whatever they needed to get through in order to grow up, it made them stronger in themselves, and stronger in each other.

Rated: 5/5 Stars