Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

December 19, 2017 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Daughter of immortals.

Princess Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mortal. Diana will soon learn that she has rescued no ordinary girl, and that with this single brave act, she may have doomed the world.

Daughter of death.

Alia Keralis just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted by people who think her very existence could spark a world war. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

Together.

Two girls will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. Tested beyond the bounds of their abilities, Diana and Alia must find a way to unleash hidden strengths and forge an unlikely alliance. Because if they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

“Sisters in battle, I am shield and blade to you. As I breathe, your enemies will know no sanctuary. While I live, your cause is mine.”

This book honestly made me go through so many emotions that by the time I was done with it, I couldn’t help but cry.

This is the first book in the DC Icons series, where four YA authors write a brand new original story based on the teenage years of one DC icon. Leigh Bardugo, one of my favorite authors of all time, wrote about my favorite superhero of all time – Wonder Woman – and I honestly think it couldn’t have been any more perfect for me. I will have to say that if you’re expecting this book to follow the timeline of the movie, you are in for a big surprise. The movie and the book have nothing to do with each other, and honestly, I think that makes both of them that much more amazing.

Seeing Diana as a teenager at the present time was something that I certainly had to get used to. I know that a part of me wanted to envision Gal Gadot as Diana, but eventually, I was able to make her younger in my mind. Her character development from the time we see her beginning the race on Themiscyra through the ending of the book was absolutely amazing and so realistic to me. Diana is not perfect, and her development certainly wasn’t perfect to the point that it was almost godlike of her. She was just a seventeen-year-old girl learning about the new world by living in it and fighting for it, rather than just reading about it from the comfort of her own home. She is still full of wonder when she enters this world, especially when she is thrown into the heart and soul of New York City, and the name of Wonder Woman still applies. She may not be going by her moniker “Wonder Woman” in this book, but we all know who Diana is, and she is a wonderful woman.

Alia, this girl is amazing. I thoroughly thank Leigh Bardugo for creating so many POC characters in this book, and having them as actual main characters rather than just sideline characters. In fact, if you consider Diana to be a POC, then all the main characters are POCs. How rare is that though? I couldn’t believe it, and I loved how they were all written out! They weren’t all just black, or just one-dimensional characters to solely say that the book had POCs in it. No, this was well thought out on Bardugo’s end, and these characters were ones that I actually wanted to root for, that I could actually relate to.

Alia is half Black, half Greek, with her mom from Louisiana. She and her brother Jason attend a private school for the rich and fancy, and of course people like to assume that Alia is poor or a troublemaker because of her skin color. It’s sad, and it’s so racist, but it’s true. It happens in the real world and that’s something that I can directly relate to because I’ve been through similar. There was a passage during their time in New York City where Alia and Diana are in a convenience store, and of course, there’s a cop or security guard or whatever watching Alia because she’s dressed in dirty clothes. He automatically assumes that she’s going to steal something based on her appearance. Diana’s clothes are dirty too from their trip, but there’s no suspicion of Diana from the guard. Just Alia. That part – from the moment Alia noticed the guard starting at her to the time the guard stopped because she paid for their purchase without any issue – hit home for me and made me almost angry. I was angry like Alia was, and it made me wish that things weren’t an issue like that anymore. Alia knew it was because of her skin color, and so would the reader. Bardugo doesn’t hide the fact that racism and discrimination still exist in the world, and I’m glad she included a passage like that.

Alia is the rich one, and yet she was thought to be a potential thief.

Another quote that really stayed close to my heart was one when Alia was thinking about her mother, and when they were first going to the private school:

“Look them in the eye, she’d always told her. Let them know who you are. When someone asked where you were from. When a new kid at Bennett wanted to know if she was on an athletic scholarship. Look them in the eye.”

This mentality of not backing down, not being afraid to be proud of who you are and where you’re from, making sure that when you tell people who you are you don’t give them any reason to doubt or make you feel inferior was something that I needed to hear in my life at that very moment. Alia has no reason to apologize or make an excuse for why she’s there. She has no reason to, and by making sure she maintains that eye contact, that silent strength about her, will tell the world that she belongs there no matter what they think. It was so important to her that she never forgot about it, and I can tell that she lives with that quote in her life during all of the difficult times that she’s been through. She rarely backs down, and as the book progresses she becomes so much more sure of herself and so strong that it only makes sense that her heritage is so commanding and demands respect. She’s descended from Helen, and she has something to be proud of.

I had so many good feelings about this book, and I loved it so much, in case you couldn’t tell. I hope there’s the potential to meet Alia and Nim again because there’s no way that Diana can only have them in such a small moment of her life. There’s no way. I would be so heartbroken if she never saw them again.

Rated: 5/5 ★

As Old As Time by Liz Braswell

December 5, 2017 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

What if Belle’s mother cursed the Beast?

Belle is a lot of things: smart, resourceful, restless. She longs to escape her poor provincial town for good. She wants to explore the world, despite her father’s reluctance to leave their little cottage in case Belle’s mother returns—a mother she barely remembers. Belle also happens to be the captive of a terrifying, angry beast. And that is her primary concern.

But Belle touches the Beast’s enchanted rose, intriguing images flood her mind—images of the mother she believed she would never see again. Stranger still, she sees that her mother is none other than the beautiful Enchantress who cursed the Beast, his castle, and all its inhabitants. Shocked and confused, Belle and the Beast must work together to unravel a dark mystery about their families that is twenty-one years in the making.

“Magic comes back to you, just as the actions of people do.”

Well, this book definitely didn’t end the way I was expecting, and I’m not sure if I liked it better than the original Disney version or not.

Besides the ending though, I liked the twist question of having Bell’s mother being the Enchantress. It makes the story have much more meaning to it, and such a twist than just having a random Enchantress curse the Prince because he’s a jerk that has an ugly personality. Sure, it makes for a good moral, but like, what made the Enchantress come there of all places, and why that test? With this addition to the story, it makes more sense, a lot more sense.

I also really appreciated the background of Maurice and Belle’s mom – who finally has a name! It’s Rosalind – and how they met, fell in love, and came to such a provincial town. They definitely didn’t start off there, and it was so nice to know that Maurice actually did have friends before we first met him in Beauty and the Beast. He wasn’t such an oddball that everyone ridiculed and didn’t take seriously, but he was someone that people actually respected and loved and care for… at least back where they were originally from.

The connection between the kingdom where the Beast is from and Maurice and Rosalind also comes into play, and the background on that is almost heartbreaking and reminds me of World War II. Maybe not as devastating with the concentration camps and an all-out war, but you’ll see what I mean when you read it.

We’ve always wondered what happened with Belle’s mother, and this book really explains what happened. It’s also true to its word on being a “twisted tale” as nothing is as it seems, and certain scenes that you may imagine to play out as it did in the original – or remade – Disney versions don’t always happen that way. Are you expecting everything to fall into place, even with the realization that Rosalind was the one that placed the curse on the kingdom? Will Rosalind even be found alive in this book, or will Belle have to face the fact that her mother left, and died? Will Maurice ever remember the loving wife that he adored and couldn’t imagine life without before he seemed to have forgotten about her?

So many questions came into my mind as I was reading it, and trust me when I say that it does not end neatly wrapped with everything explained. It leaves just enough for the imagination to grow, but still has the elements that made the Disney version loveable. I think I liked this book almost a little more than the Disney animated version. The live-action remake? Well, not so much.

See for yourself. And remember, it’s not always what it seems.

Rated: 4/5 ★

Fate of Flames by Sarah Raughley

December 2, 2017 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 1 Comment

Years ago, everything changed. Phantoms, massive beasts of nightmare, began terrorizing the world. At the same time four girls, the Effigies, appeared, each with the unique power to control a classical element. Since then, they have protected the world from the Phantoms. At the death of one Effigy, another is chosen, pulled from her normal life into the never-ending battle.

When Maia unexpectedly becomes the next Fire Effigy, she resists her new calling. A quiet girl with few friends and almost no family, she was much happier to admire the Effigies from afar. Never did she imagine having to master her ability to control fire, to protect innocent citizens from the Phantoms, or to try bringing together the other three Effigies.

But with the arrival of the mysterious Saul—a man who seems to be able to control the Phantoms using the same cosmic power previously only granted to four girls at a time—Maia and the other Effigies must learn to work together in a world where their celebrity is more important than their heroism.

But the secrets Saul has, and the power he possesses, might be more than even they can handle…

“Technically, this was what I’d always wanted, in a way… To fight like one of them. To save lives like one of them. And now I was one of them. An Effigy. Careful what you wish for, I guess.”

So my library was doing a “Blind Date with a Book” thing, and the description is what made me get this. I had no idea what the title was or anything because of course, it was wrapped up in brown packaging and only had bullet points as a summary. I took a chance, but I liked what I saw.

I definitely have to say that I’m so glad I read this book, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to get it as a blind date. To think that the author herself described this book as a mix of Sailor Moon and Pacific Rim made me want to devour it as quickly as possible. I could see those aspects of it for sure, but as I was reading it, I got more of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibe from it, and I’ll tell you why in a minute.

Basically the book is about Maia Finley, a Jamaican-American high school student who learns that she is the next Fire Effigy, one of four girls that are tasked with saving the world from the creatures only known as Phantoms. This wasn’t something that she knew she was going to do until this feeling came over her. It was then that she knew that the previous Fire Effigy, a Russian girl named Natalya Filipova, known to the entire world as the Matryoshka Princess, was dead. The Buffy reference comes into play here because once one Effigy dies, another girl is called to take her place. Just like a Slayer, when one dies, another one is called to battle evil. In this case, there are always four at a time, one for each of the elements (Avatar the Last Airbender, anyone?): Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. These girls must work together to stop the world from being destroyed, all while being followed and talked about by the media and other fans that dedicate entire forums to them.

Sounds pretty crazy, right?

One of the main things that I loved about this book was that the Effigies are usually from different parts of the world. They are never all from America, or all from Euope. It’s diverse, and I love that. I love reading about POCs in books, especially having them as main characters in books and not one-dimensional people just there to claim diversity. In this case, our two POCs are Maia Finley and Chae Rin Kim, who is Korean but grew up in Montreal. Chae Rin is the Earth Effigy, and it screams Toph all over to me, with her temper and sarcastic quips and all. Only difference is Chae Rin isn’t blind like Toph, but she is still really strong and has amazing control over her powers.

We also have Belle Rousseau, the longest standing Effigy after Natalya’s death, the Ice Effigy since most of her powers manifest into ice rather than water. She is as cold as her power, and it’s hard for any of the other girls to really get her to let her walls down. Natalya was her mentor, her sister in arms, and with her death, Belle takes it hard and shuts down completely. She’s the hardest of the four girls, and also the one that’s been hurt the most. Victoria “Lake” Soyinka, a British pop star trying to stay away from all the death and destruction to focus on her music career, has powers over the wind. Although she was scared to be an Effigy, to the point of flaking out of her training and resorting to the celebrity life, she was able to come together with the others and work together.

I adored this book so much. There were times where I would get extremely frustrated with Maia, especially since she didn’t seem to have any handle on her powers, and I just wanted her to be brave, but it didn’t deter me from enjoying this book. I get it. To have to follow in the footsteps of someone as formidable as Natalya, there’s no wonder that the pressure would be much to handle. Her powers seemed to manifest during times of emotional distress, basically when she wasn’t even aware of it. When she was scared, her powers came out. When she was in a fit of rage, her powers came out. But when she was concertrating, and I mean really concentrating, nothing would happen. This kind of reminds me of Aang when he was trying to master Earthbending. I know she will get it, and I know that she will be great, especially being a part of a team like the Effigies.

I can’t wait to read the second book, and I’m a little bummed that it’s only going to be a trilogy, but I’m also hoping that we get to explore more of the other Effigies backgrounds and what makes them tick. I believe the author did an amazing job of getting these girls to be three-dimensional. None of them were perfect, and that’s what made me appreciate them even more. I highly recommend this book.

Rated: 5/5 ★