Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

January 19, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Book Overview:

Author: Marissa Meyer | Series: The Lunar Chronicles | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Rebecca Soler | Length: 11 hours, 19 minutes | Publish Date: February 5, 2013 | Genre: YA Fantasy/Science Fiction | Literary Awards: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2013), Premio El Templo de las Mil Puertas Nominee for Mejor novela extranjera perteneciente a saga (2013) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: HECK YES

“A relieved grin filled up Thorne’s face. “We’re having another moment, aren’t we?”
“If by a moment, you mean me not wanting to strangle you for the first time since we met, then I guess we are.”

This series honestly just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?!

We continue on with Cinder’s story, with her breaking out of prison in order to escape certain death from the evil Queen Levana. She somehow gets stuck with “Captain” Thorne, a criminal sentenced to six years in prison in New Beijing, who has a spaceship that sends them off to Europe. Why Europe? Well, with Cinder’s revelation in the previous book (spoiler alert, I’m not going to tell you!), she thinks she can find the answers she’s looking for by searching for a woman named Michelle Benoit.

“He gaped at the controls. “Why is my ship talking back to me?”

Now we don’t just follow Cinder’s story in this book.

In the meantime, we meet a girl named Scarlet Benoit (hmmm…. relation to Michelle, maybe?) who has been trying to find information on her missing grandmother. She believes that her grandmother was kidnapped since it is not like her grandmother to disappear without saying anything. From there, she meets a mysterious fighter named “Wolf”, who has information on where Scarlet’s grandmother is and why she was taken in the first place. From their tiny village of Rieux, they travel to Paris to find out what secret Scarlet’s grandmother is hiding and try to rescue her from her kidnappers.

In Paris is where our two heroines meet one another, and that’s when things get extremely interesting.

I love Cinder with all my heart, but I have to say that I love Scarlet too. From her French accent, and her fierce loyalty to her grandmother, she is a stubborn, hardheaded girl that will stop at nothing to rescue her grandmother. Even when the police tell her that the missing person’s case is closed because there is no evidence of foul play, she doesn’t allow that to deter her from trying to figure out what’s going on. Her adventure with Wolf is filled with danger and excitement, as they go across the country and find out exactly how dangerous Queen Levana really is.

Not to mention, back in New Beijing, Emperor Kai is still having to deal with the fallout of Cinder’s incident at the Royal Ball and keeping Queen Levana’s wrath at bay. Will he be able to hold his own against the Lunar Queen? Or will Earth be attacked and go to war against Luna?

I can’t wait to find out what happens in the next two books! The story is just so intense and I constantly get lost in this world and I just want Queen Levana to lose this battle! Also, Kai, you are irritating me right now and you need to get better. Here comes Cress!

Don’t forget to check out Marissa Meyer’s Author Spotlight here!

Dreadmarrow Thief by Marjory Kaptanoglu

January 18, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

“A novel that celebrates life and love the way only the best fantasy tales can.” -Kirkus Reviews

SEEKING LOVE, REVENGE, AND A CURE FOR DEATH…

In this thrilling fantasy adventure, sixteen-year-old Tessa Skye shapeshifts into a sparrow using a windrider—a forbidden magical amulet. When she accidentally reveals herself to the wicked Conjurer Lord Fellstone, the tyrant has her papa killed. Overcome by guilt and remorse, Tessa sets out for the castle to steal Fellstone’s Dreadmarrow, his most prized magical artifact, which has the power to restore life. She’s joined by Calder, searching for his lost love, and Ash, whose growing attraction to Tessa distracts from his plan to avenge his murdered twin.

DREADMARROW THIEF is an enchanting coming-of-age story about a girl who seeks to wield great power, only to learn it comes at a terrible price.

“The quest narrative is exciting and compelling… a work of classic fantasy.” -The BookLife Prize

Book Overview:

Author: Marjory Kaptanoglu | Series: The Conjurer Fellstone Series | Format: eBook – ARC | Length: 225 pages | Publish Date: October 9, 2017 | Genre: YA Fantasy | Rated: ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe

“Even Ryland often told me how he loved that I wasn’t a “typical” girl, but I rejected the notion that girls were all of a type instead of each being unique.”

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

I usually love fantasy books, and I feel like my bookshelves are full of them. However, for some reason, I just wasn’t able to get into this one as I would have liked.

One of the facts that I thought was cool was the idea that an item can make someone change into an animal. In the beginning of the book, the main character Tessa is in the form of a sparrow, thanks to an amulet called a “windrider”. She’s not an expert in using it by any means, but she has learned quickly how to use it to her advantage. Her entire world changes when her father is murdered brutally in front of her eyes, and she is almost captured by the evil Lord Fellstone and his cronies. However, she is able to escape, and it’s up to her, a shady fortune teller name Calder, and a boy named Ash to figure out a way to save her father from being permanently dead. They have to do all of that without being killed themselves.

I was glad that Ash was the one that went on the adventure rather than Tessa’s almost husband Ryland. That dude was a complete coward, and he wasn’t even that good of a swordsman. I think I would have been disappointed if it was Ryland that went on this adventure, as I feel like he would have been pretty much useless. The story is written well, and the pace is there, but I just couldn’t appreciate it the way I wanted to.

Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t think you shouldn’t read it. To each their own, and while I may not have loved it, I didn’t hate it either. I would say give it a chance, and you can come to your own conclusion. I may read the next book that comes out just so I can know what happens next.

Author Spotlight

Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: in Cohasset, MA, The United States

September 03

Website: https://www.marjorykaptanoglu.com/

Twitter: margiebk

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Influences: J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin, Philip Pullman, Jonathan Stroud

Goodreads Member Since: March 2015

Marjory Kaptanoglu is a produced screenwriter and novelist. The indie films based on her scripts have screened at international film festivals, including Santa Barbara, Woodstock, San Diego, Nashville, and Cinequest. Her screenplays have won First Place awards at the Slamdance Film Festival, Table Read My Screenplay, the International Horror & Sci-fi Film Festival, and the Harlem International Film Festival, and have been recognized by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. She co-wrote the feature film, SLANDER, a political thriller adapted from Christopher Bram’s novel, GOSSIP, currently in pre-production.

Marjory Kaptanoglu’s debut novel, DREADMARROW THIEF, is a semifinalist in the 2017 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, Novel-in-Progress category, under its previous title, FELLSTONE. The screenplay version of the novel won the Grand Prize in the 2016 Cynosure Screenwriting Awards.

Before turning to writing, Marjory worked as a software engineer at Apple Computer, where she designed the text-editing software for early versions of the Macintosh. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in English.

Marjory writes in many genres, probably because she also loves reading different genres. What she looks for is a good story, well-told and well-written.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

January 18, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf–her wolf–is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human–or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Book Overview:

Author: Maggie Stiefvater | Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls | Format: Audiobook | Narrated By: Jenna Lamia, David LeDoux | Length: 10 hours, 43 minutes | Publish Date: August 1, 2009 | Genre: YA Fantasy/Supernatural | Literary Awards: Georgia Peach Book Award (2010), Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award Nominee (2011), Children’s Choice Book Award Nominee for Teen Choice Book of the Year (2010), Florida Teens Read Nominee (2010), Teen Read Award Nominee for Best Read (2010), The Inky Awards for Silver Inky (2010), Lincoln Award Nominee (2012), The Inky Awards Shortlist for Silver Inky (2010), Missouri Gateway Readers Award Nominee (2012) | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

“It is possible to be in love with you just because of who you are.”

I haven’t read a good werewolf book in a long time, maybe a couple of years ago. This was pretty up there in one of my favorites, and I was extremely happy with the ending.

The premise of this werewolf story was certainly unique for me. In this case, those who were werewolves would shift into their wolf self only when it got too cold. During the winter, they became wolves, and during the summer, they would shift back into their human form. The catch was: that wouldn’t last forever. The time itself would vary, but there would come a time where they would have one final summer to be a human, and they would live out the rest of their days as a wolf, unable to go back to their past life no matter how much they tried.

When Grace was a little girl, she almost died. Twice. The first time was when she was sitting on the tire swing, and she was captured by the wolves. They bit her and almost killed her until one of them saved her. What made that particular wolf save her, she had no idea. It didn’t even seem like she was afraid to die. She was just… waiting. The second time was when her father accidentally left her in his car on the hottest day of the year. The doctors said she should have been dead, but by some miracle, she had survived.

Ever since that fateful night with the wolves, she would look forward to winter, when she would see “her wolf”, the one that saved her life, the one with the yellow eyes that would stare at her from his spot in the forest. She became intrigued by him, almost obsessed. Even her wolf, a boy named Sam, started to feel the same way. He would think about her in the winter when he would watch her, and in the summer when he found out what her name was. They were falling in love with one another from afar, and it was about time they actually met.

“I fell for her in summer, my lovely summer girl,From summer she is made, my lovely summer girl,I’d love to spend a winter with my lovely summer girl,But I’m never warm enough for my lovely summer girl,It’s summer when she smiles, I’m laughing like a child,It’s the summer of our lives; we’ll contain it for a whileShe holds the heat, the breeze of summer in the circle of her handI’d be happy with this summer if it’s all we ever had.”

One thing that I’m glad the author pointed out was that both Grace and Sam had a sort of obsession with one another. Both of the characters even called themselves out on it, and I’m glad they did. From the outside, it didn’t seem like just an infatuation about the wolves or one another. It got to the point that they just could not leave the other’s side, and hated to be separated. It could be cute, but I also thought it was more of an obsession. Nothing wrong with it, I guess. At least it wasn’t too dangerous.

I think if this happened to be a standalone, I would be mostly happy with the ending. I am curious to know how the series ends, knowing that it’s a trilogy (four books if you include the last one that isn’t about Grace and Sam). Hopefully, it ends on a high note, and I don’t have to stay in my room crying my eyes out like I almost did with this one.

Author Spotlight

Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: in The United States
Website: http://www.maggiestiefvater.com
Twitter: mstiefvater
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Romance
Goodreads Member Since: June 2008

New York Times bestselling author of The Shiver Trilogy, The Raven Cycle, and The Scorpio Races. Artist. Driver of things with wheels. Avid reader.

All of Maggie Stiefvater’s life decisions have been based around her inability to be gainfully employed. Talking to yourself, staring into space, and coming to work in your pajamas are frowned upon when you’re a waitress, calligraphy instructor, or technical editor (all of which she’s tried), but are highly prized traits in novelists and artists. She’s made her living as one or the other since she was 22. She now lives an eccentric life in the middle of nowhere, Virginia with her charmingly straight-laced husband, two kids, two neurotic dogs, and a 1973 Camaro named Loki.