Unfortunates by Lillian Graves – Book Review

January 8, 2016 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

This book came into my TBR list through the power of GoodReads. I don’t remember what group it was that was having an Read to Review event, but this was the book that I had to read for an honest review. So, here it goes.

This book was basically about a high school girl that finds out that her best friend has a secret, a secret that apparently isn’t as uncommon as we were made to believe. To keep this blog mostly spoiler free, the secret that Vanessa’s best friend has is one that almost every single person in the world has. Eventually, Vanessa ends up having a secret of her own, in the form of Adam, a boy who needs her help to come back from the dead. He isn’t really a Ghost, per se, and it’s not like he has an unsolved murder that will help him cross over.

Not everyone becomes an Unfortunate, which is what Adam is. Unfortunates are born when they die of an unfortunate event. You find out how Adam died in the book, and it is heartbreaking to hear it. In order for Vanessa to help Adam cross over, she needs to perform one selfless act of kindness, not just being kind to get something out of it. There is no exact number of acts that she needs to perform in order to change Adam back, to give him a second chance at being alive again, so she just has to continue to do what she needs to if she wants to help him.

The problem is: does she really want to?

It was very difficult for me to get through this book, mostly because of the main character of Vanessa. She was an extremely selfish girl, and it made sense that she would have to learn how to be kind without expecting anything in return in order for her to save Adam. There are different levels for each Unfortunate, and each level deals with a different task and emotion. The first level, the one that Adam falls in, is the lowest level and has the most shallow of the Unfortunates. I believe that if Vanessa were to ever become an Unfortunate, she would fall in this same category.

I also feel like Adam could be a little selfish as well, but much less than Vanessa could be. His time being an Unfortunate, and waiting until he was able to be seen with Vanessa changed him enough that he wasn’t as selfish as he was when he died. He tries so hard to get Vanessa to understand how to help him, to even get to know her, and yet it seems like it’s so difficult to get through to her. I could only imagine having to deal with her attitude.

There is a happy ending to this, and Vanessa does have a little character development to make her a little bit more bearable, but I feel like the story was rushed and needed some more editing. I probably wouldn’t read it again, but for those who like reading about ghosts and happy endings, then you should give this book a try.

Rated: 3/5 Stars

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – Book Review

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 1 Comment

“No. If I let myself love you, I won’t throw myself in front of her. I’ll throw myself in front of you.” -Dimitri Belikov

What would you do if your best friend had the power to heal you from the brink of death? Would you tell the proper authorities, or run away from the most heavily guarded place you know and risk the anonymity of the outside world to protect her from being exploited by those who may try to take advantage of her? This is exactly what Rose Hathaway had to decide on when she received disturbing news from a teacher at St. Vladimir’s Academy (fondly known as Vampire Academy by its students). So what did she do? The only logical thing she could do:

Break out.

This story takes place after they have been living in the real world for some time, and how they are found and whisked back to the Academy, where they find that their troubles are only just beginning, and not just in the form of petty high school drama. It is one event after another, things that make both Rose and her best friend Lissa cringe in disgust and realize that maybe they were safer outside the Academy’s iron gate. But will they be able to figure out who is after Lissa, and why, before it’s too late?

This has got to be one of the best vampire book series I have ever read. Not only does Mead completely give us a whole new look on vampires and what we know about them, but she brings a completely new species to the mix in the form of Dhampirs. The main character Rose is one such Dhamphir, and she is training to become Lissa’s guardian come graduation. But since she missed out on so much while they were away, the only way for her to catch up and graduate on time would be to have extra training sessions with the Russian God Dimitri Belikov. Now there’s a story all on its own that is enough to make you want to read the book, and it doesn’t take away from the main issue: Lissa is being hunted and it is up to Rose to protect her.

This is Book One of the Vampire Academy series, and I know that there are only going to be more dangers headed their way. I can’t wait to read them all.

Rated: 5/5 Stars

Firefight by Brandon Sanderson – Book Review

March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I’d grown up practically worshipping the Reckoners, all the while loathing the Epics. Discovering that Prof was both … it had been like discovering that Santa Claus was secretly a Nazi. – David

The world is not the same as it used to be. Years ago, Calamity happened. What that means exactly, some still don’t know to this day. All we do know, is that with Calamity came the birth of strange beings with powers called Epics, and some of them were out for blood. But with coming of the Epics came something that could help turn the tide, help those who who still had some humanity left in them find a way to fight back. Those were the Reckoners, and they would do whatever they could to hold back the Epic plague, and bring peace back to Earth.

This book is the second in The Reckoners trilogy, and while I wish I had read the first book before I read this, I wasn’t completely lost going through it. That is very important to me when I read a book series out of order, especially if I don’t realize it until it’s too late. In this case, I read this book as part of a GoodReads buddy read, so I didn’t have much time to read the first book before this one started. It’s okay though, and I definitely don’t regret it.

David, the protagonist in the story, is one that I found very amusing and very frustrating at the same time. I didn’t realize it until much later on in the book that he really wasn’t that much older than I expected. In fact, he’s actually younger than I am, which was probably why I thought that some of his thought processes seemed almost juvenile. But his track record has proven to the world that he is very capable at doing his job, which to him is killing Epics. Throughout the book, he realizes that things aren’t always black and white, and his belief is tested even more than it was in the first book.

This book was one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. I couldn’t believe that I had never heard of this series before, but then again I know that there are so many books out there that I haven’t heard of yet, that are just waiting for me to explore their worlds. Firefight is action packed, tells an amazing story, and just really changes the way you think when it comes to the special things people can do, and the darkness that can consume them because of it.

Rated: 5/5 Stars