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.

Dead Serious: Breaking the Cycle of Teen Sucide by Jane Mersky Leder

January 13, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Are you under a lot of stress? Feeling too much pressure to get good grades? Trying to avoid social media because you’re being bullied? Grappling with your sexual/gender identity? Feeling depressed—even suicidal?

What are the reasons why teens decide to take their own lives? What can be done to stop them? Through stories, studies and strategies, Dead Serious helps teens, parents and educators navigate the choppy waters of adolescence and provides tools that can help break the cycle of teen suicide.

Teen suicide is preventable.

Book Overview:

Author: Jane Mersky Leder | Series: None | Format: eBook – ARC | Length: Unknown | Publish Date: January 23, 2018 | Genre: Nonfiction Psychology | Rated: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

“Truth is there is never one reason why someone takes his/her own life. And never just one person to blame.”

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

This was an extremely hard book for me to read because it hit home for me. I have known people that have committed suicide, not as teens but as young adults, and I myself have almost gone down this dark path in the past. Reading this book was almost an eye opener for me, bringing this hard topic to light.

There were so many statistics in this book that I had no knowledge of until I read this. There are so many teens out there that either know someone who has committed suicide, have attempted suicide, or still have thoughts of suicide. So many stories in this book show that suicide affects everyone, not just the person who commits it. There is never a clear reason as to why these teens killed themselves, and no matter how much their friends or family try to find answers, there just aren’t any. They now have to figure out how to heal during this dark time, and it doesn’t completely go away.

“If only he had done something then, maybe Brad would be alive now.”

The thought that maybe if these people who were brave enough to tell their story had done something earlier, they could have prevented it. They are so full of guilt, not understanding why their loved one could do such a thing, and beating themselves up for not seeing the signs before. Would they even know what those signs were if they had to go back? Would they be able to stop it? Would their loved one be alive today? All of those thoughts are going through their minds, and their pain and hurt of reliving these moments can’t help but make you feel for them. It hurts, and all we can do hope that their loved ones are in a better place now.

As the cover of this book states, this book is for teens, adults and educators. I would say that this book is for anyone that has ever had to deal with thoughts of suicide, or someone in their life that has committed suicide. Even if they haven’t done it yet, this book helps you to determine what the signs are, and how to get them the proper help before it’s too late. Suicide should not be a taboo topic, and more people need to discuss it to make sure that we can help those suffering by themselves, begging for help before they do something that they can’t take back.

I really do recommend this book. Keep it as a resource, and hopefully you will be able to help someone in your life get the help they need.

Author Spotlight

Courtesy of Goodreads

Twitter: Reflectzen

Goodreads Member Since: June 2014

No biography for this author at this time.

Sweethearts by Gemma Gilmore

January 13, 2018 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

When seventeen-year-old Ingrid Harper realizes she may not have the talent to pursue a scholarship for the most prestigious art school in Australia, she turns to pink hair dye as a distraction.

Her new hair captures the attention of a fellow art student, Kat, who introduces Ingrid to the LGBT clubbing scene, and although Ingrid enjoys partying with her new friend, she becomes caught up in confusion about her sexuality. Her fear is overwhelming—she can’t think about anything else.

Until her best friend, Summer, reveals that she is pregnant.

As her best friend faces the realities of being pregnant at seventeen, Ingrid is shown the true definition of courage. It motivates her to come out about her sexuality—she likes girls. Only girls. Now she just has to work out what that means for the other areas of her life.

Book Overview:

Author: Gemma Gilmore | Series: None | Format: eBook – ARC | Length: Unknown | Publish Date: January 29, 2018 | Genre: YA Contemporary/LGBTQ+ | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes

“We question each other’s reality; we make each other look into things just that little bit deeper.”

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

This definitely did not go the way I expected it to, but I’m actually okay with it. Almost coming to terms with this.

Long story short, this book is about a girl named Ingrid, a high school senior who refuses to acknowledge that she may actually be a lesbian. It’s something that’s hard for anyone to admit, especially if they have always been hiding their true selves from the rest of the world, so I understand that. It’s the way she lashes out that confused me though. The object of her obsession – yes, an actual obsession if we read it correctly – is a girl at her school named Amber, who just so happens to be a really amazing singer. It’s at the point where Ingrid knows Amber’s YouTube upload schedule and will be the first person to watch her video and leave a rude ass comment for Amber to see. That part didn’t make sense to me, but Ingrid ends up explaining it later on. Why is she so rude to Amber when she can’t get enough of her? Ingrid’s two best friends, Summer and Jackson, even try to call her out on it, and try to get her to accept that she may very well be into girls.

But she constantly punishes herself for having such thoughts. She refuses to identify as a lesbian, even when she finds herself at a gay club full of beautiful women that she is so clearly attracted to. The thing that makes her finally admit it is seeing her best friend Summer be brave in finding out that she’s pregnant, and her actions to make sure that she keeps her unborn baby healthy and safe. Seeing her friend show strength made her want to do the same, and Ingrid’s life starts to change.

I think the main character flaw that Ingrid possessed was her using alcohol to deal with her problems. It was like she was an addict, and maybe she really was. Anytime that she would start to battle against herself, she would resort to getting wasted, going to Cloud Nine to drink her problems away and dance to lose herself in the music. The dancing I get. I sometimes do the same, but the constant drinking wasn’t healthy, and her friends told her that as well.

“I feel like you’re relying on the alcohol.”

It wasn’t good for her, and she needed to come up with some other method of dealing with her problems, her rejections, anything else that she ended up overthinking about that caused her to freak out.

There were also times where I would think that the book would have a happy ending or at least a happy outcome that everyone was waiting to hear about, and then it would be completely different. It was like life. Nothing ever went the way we think it will be, but we have to keep going.

This wasn’t the typical book that I would read, but I appreciated it. I liked that the people in Ingrid’s life didn’t shun her for finally accepting her sexuality, or push her to make a decision when she was struggling with it. They were happy for her no matter what, and they just wanted her to be true to herself. It was good, it was the way I would expect anyone to be if they had a loved one struggling to come to terms with their sexuality. I appreciated it so much, that I feel like it influenced my rating to be what it is. I liked this book, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to read it.

Author Spotlight

Courtesy of Goodreads