Tag: 2018

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning debut.

Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy League—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can’t escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.

Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it’s Justyce who is under attack.

Book Overview:

Author: Nic Stone | Series: None | Format: Hardcover | Length: 210 pages | Publish Date: October 17, 2017 | Genre: YA Contemporary | Literary Awards: William C. Morris YA Debut Award Nominee (2018) | Rated: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: HECK YES


“Yeah, there are no more “colored” water fountains, and it’s supposed to be illegal to discriminate, but if I can be forced to sit on the concrete in too-tight cuffs when I’ve done nothing wrong, it’s clear there’s an issue. That things aren’t as equal as folks say they are.” 


This book almost hit me as hard as The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Both deals with racial discrimination and police brutality, but they are two different stories that need to be read.

I think this one made me angrier because of the way the story was told. For one, this has a lot more dialogue driven chapters, almost as if I’m reading a script for a movie than reading a story. It worked for me though, and it allowed me to really feel the emotion that Justyce was feeling as soon as he felt it. I was so angry with everything bad that happened in this book, and I hurt for Justyce and Manny whenever they would be treated inferior by the white people in their lives.

It hits home for me a lot because I’ve been there. I’ve been looked down on solely for my skin color. I was told that I would probably be “ghetto” because of my skin, pretty much telling me that I’m supposed to be uneducated or something. And this was before I even opened my mouth to speak. What kind of first impression is that? Heck yes, I was angry when I heard that. How can a complete stranger judge me in such a way to diminish me and everything that I’ve worked for to get to where I am today, all because of how I look? How am I supposed to be okay with that?

How were Justyce and Manny okay with that for so long?

Unfortunately for Justyce, it took him being racially profiled by a police officer to really open his eyes. It didn’t matter that he was at the top of his senior class at this super fancy preparatory school and that he was an early admit to Yale. In the eyes of that police office, Justyce was a “thug” trying to carjack his ex-girlfriend’s car, even though it’s clear that he was helping her get in the BACKSEAT of her car because she was drunk off her ass and was trying to drive home. Here we have Justyce doing a good deed for someone who doesn’t even treat him right for the most part, someone he technically doesn’t have to help given their past history, and he gets arrested for attempted carjacking.

This isn’t the only case of injustice in this book, and it’s not the worst thing that happens.

Turn on the news, another black man slain. They say “It’s okay. Save your voice, don’t complain. This isn’t about race, so stop using that excuse. Now look at this funny picture of Obama in a noose! See how color-blind we are? You’re not really black to me. Underneath, where it matters, we both bleed red, you see? So put away that race card, it ain’t 1962. There’s no more segregation… isn’t that enough for you?”


All throughout the book, I just couldn’t believe the audacity of some of the characters and their actions. But I really shouldn’t have been so surprised because it happens every single day. We see it in the news, some of us experience it in our own personal lives, and it’s not just a work of fiction that came out of thin air. It’s a real problem that’s happening in our world today, and something needs to be done to handle it.

You will feel uncomfortable reading this book, and that’s the point. At least feel something when you read this, even if you are one of the lucky ones to not go through any sort of racism, discrimination, or anything else that makes you feel inferior for something that you have no control over.

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: Atlanta, GA, The United States
Twitter: getnicced
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Goodreads Member Since: September 2013

Nic Stone was born and raised in a suburb of Atlanta, GA, and the only thing she loves more than an adventure is a good story about one. After graduating from Spelman College, she worked extensively in teen mentoring and lived in Israel for a few years before returning to the US to write full-time. Growing up with a wide range of cultures, religions, and backgrounds, Stone strives to bring these diverse voices and stories to her work.

Stone lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @getnicced or on her website nicstone.info.
The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Now a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba

“An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King’s greatest literary achievement” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series.

A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.

Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” The Gunslinger is “a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center” (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is “brilliant and fresh…and will leave you panting for more” (Booklist).

Book Overview:

Author: Stephen King | Series: The Dark Tower | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: George Guidall | Length: 7 hours, 20 mins | Publish Date: June 13, 2017 | Genre: Fantasy/Horror | Rated: ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe

“I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.I kill with my heart.”



This was my very first Stephen King novel, and honestly, I think it may be my last…

For now, anyway.

For one thing, I hate horror, and I figured that this book wouldn’t be too scary like his other works so I gave it a chance. Not to mention, I watched the movie that came out recently and I absolutely loved it. Idris Elba was the best Gunslinger ever, or at least I loved him in this movie.

But this book just didn’t do it for me. For one, I just didn’t like all the sex happening in the beginning. There were also times where Roland would get suddenly aroused and I felt so uncomfortable with it. Yes, I get him getting aroused during sex. That’s a given, but when he’s in the forest with Jake – who somehow was killed in his world and was sent to Roland’s world as a result – talking to some oracle or entity, he’s getting aroused? It’s not like he’s lacking in the sex department.

I just didn’t get it, and I didn’t get to appreciate it the way that I got to for the movie. I’ve seen some people say that they didn’t understand it when they were younger and had to read it again when they were more adults, and maybe that’s what I’ll have to do. But for now, this just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: in Portland, Maine, the United States
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Literature & Fiction
Influences: Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Charles Dickens, Shirley Jackson, H.P. Lovecraft, John D. MacDonald, Richard Matheson, J.R.R. Tolkien
Goodreads Member Since: December 2013

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father’s family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen’s grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men’s magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale (“The Glass Floor”) to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men’s magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Sixteen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince, no one speaks to her. No one even looks at her. Because Twylla isn’t a member of the court. She’s the executioner. As the goddess-embodied, Twylla kills with a single touch. So each week, she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love her. Who could care for a girl with murder in her veins? Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to her touch, avoids her.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose playful smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he’s able to look past Twylla’s executioner robes and see the girl, not the goddess. Yet a treasonous romance is the least of Twylla’s problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies-a plan that requires an unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

Book Overview:

Author: Melinda Salisbury | Series: The Sin Eater’s Daughter | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Amy Shiels | Length: 9 hours, 4 mins | Publish Date: February 24, 2015 | Genre: YA Fantasy | Literary Awards: Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult (2016), North East Teenage Book Award Nominee (2015), YA Book Prize Nominee (2016) | Rated: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: HECK YES

“I am the perfect weapon, I can kill with a single touch.”


I don’t know why I never heard of this book before, but I’m so glad that I was able to find it.

I fell in love with this book from the moment I started listening to it. It absolutely haunted me, and I don’t even know how to explain why it had that kind of effect on me. This world was one that I could see living in, whether it’s our world’s past or future. Not only was the main character Twylla considered the embodiment of the Gods’ daughter, but her birth mother is a woman in charge of eating the sins of the dead.

“My mother is a fat woman, made large from gobbling the sins of the dead, the meal prepared and served to her as if she were a queen for the day. For an Eating the mourners cover the surface of the coffin with breads and meats and ale and more, each morsel representing a sin known, or suspected, to have been committed by the deceased. She Eats it all; she has to – it’s the only way to cleanse the soul so it can ascend to the Eternal Kingdom. To not finish the meal is to condemn the soul to walk the world for ever. We’ve all heard the tales of the wraiths that haunt the West Woods because people less dedicated than my mother could not finish the Eating.” 


Twylla was born with a destiny but ends up having another one. Either way, she doesn’t seem to have much of a choice in what she has to do in her daily life. After being taken by the Queen of Lamere to become the newest Princess, Twylla finds out that that’s not the only thing she has to do. She is deemed Dornan embodied, the daughter of two Gods – the God of Life, and the God of Death. To fulfill both Gods, Twylla now has to be Lamere’s executioner, tasked with killing traitors with her touch and watching them die in front of her.

Since everyone in the kingdom knows that she can’t be touched, nobody wants to talk to her unless absolutely necessary. Nobody barely looks at her either, and it makes for a lonely life. She only has the friendship of her main guard – that is until she gets another one named Lief. A friendship blossoms between Twylla and Lief, and while she learns what it’s like to have a companion, there is more at stake for her and the rest of Lamere. Will she be able to save the kingdom, or will she be betrayed when she least expects it?

The ending of this book absolutely broke me, and I’m left with a feeling of heartache and wonder. The survival of Twylla and her people lies in the balance, and I don’t know whether they will be able to handle what is coming.

I can’t wait to find out what happens!

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Twitter: MESalisbury
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Melinda Salisbury lives by the sea, somewhere in the south of England. As a child she genuinely thought Roald Dahl’s Matilda was her biography, in part helped by her grandfather often mistakenly calling her Matilda, and the local library having a pretty cavalier attitude to the books she borrowed. Sadly she never manifested telekinetic powers. She likes to travel, and have adventures. She also likes medieval castles, non-medieval aquariums, Richard III, and all things Scandinavian The Sin Eater’s Daughter is her first novel. She can be found on Twitter at @MESalisbury, though be warned, she tweets often.