It’s one thing to lose a loved one. It hurts, it’s hard, and sometimes it comes so suddenly, it’s hard to react to it. It’s another thing entirely to lose everyone you’ve ever known, your entire family completely gone. Everyone who has ever loved you and taken care of you is dead. So what do you do? How do you start over? For our main protagonist, Layla Weston, her journey started the day of her Grandfather’s funeral. After her parents died in a terrible accident, she was sent to live with her grandparents, although it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be. Her grandmother was ruthless, making her feel guilty for her parents’ deaths, and making sure that Layla knew that her grandmother blamed her every single day for the death of her beloved son. It was enough to make Layla lose herself completely, giving up everything that identified her as an individual to take care of her new guardians. She stopped going out with friends, doing the things she loved, anything to make her happy didn’t exist anymore. She was stripped of what made her Layla, and with the death of her grandfather, she had to figure out who she was.
The silver lining to her grandparents dying was that she was able to live with her aunt and uncle. Sure, she had never really spent time with them before this, and she did feel a little apprehensive about having to live with strangers, even if they are technically her relatives. But the longer she does live with them, the more she actually starts to feel happy again. They allow her to be a teenager again, they allow her to live her life without having to take care of anyone older than her. They even allowed her to do some of the things that used to be a part of her old life, like reading to her heart’s content and getting to know her classmates. She has a new set of friends, and a potential boyfriend who seems to think the world of her and is not afraid to show it. From a life full of tragedy, it finally seems like Layla is back on track.
Of course, not everything is as good as it seems, and although Will seems like he’s a modern day Prince Charming, there is a dark side to him that is very reminiscent of his power-hungry father. Layla may not see it right away, but it’s there, and if she’s not careful to tame that temper of his, things may happen that she can’t protect herself from. As sure of herself as she becomes, even to the point of standing up to Will’s father and declaring her love for his son, she needs to make sure that his father doesn’t take drastic measures to remove Layla and her new family out of the picture for good. Will’s father isn’t a stranger to… persuasive negotiations, and he has no problem doing it again.
I thought this book was pretty interesting. It’s different from losing your sister, like what happened in Love Letters to the Dead. Layla was left with nothing, and had to learn how to live with strangers that was never a part of her life before. She did well, though, and finally learned how to trust her Aunt and Uncle. I also feel like she did end up finding herself again. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself, whether it was to her boyfriend’s father, or just in general to the rest of the students at her school. She was never really bullied at her new school, which was lucky on her end, but she also didn’t allow anyone to make decisions for her. She just took her new life in stride, and became friends with a group of kids that really had her best interests at heart. The ending was surprising, but also makes me feel like Will’s father had something to do with it, and of course it ends as a cliffhanger because there are two more books in this trilogy to read. I look forward to reading the rest of the series, hopefully this year.
Rated: 4/5 Stars
Tag: Leelynn’s Reviews
The 5th Wave – Book Review
“Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity’s last war, then I am the battlefield.” – Cassie Sullivan
Remember watching all of those movies about alien invasions, and somehow the humans find a way to pull together and kick their sorry asses back to where they came from? Yeah, that’s a load of crap. If aliens really did come down to Earth and invade us, we would lose. Terribly. Most of us would die before the aliens finally won. And we would have no way to fight against them. The aliens would destroy us before we ever found a way to take back our planet, and by that time it would be too late.
The world would be theirs.
It started back in 1995, or even earlier. We don’t know it for sure. All we know is that in 1995, the first phase of their invasion happened. It was “the intrusion”, where they inserted themselves into the minds of fetuses, unbeknownst to the mother carrying them. This step, this one step that seemed so strange, so minuscule, only to be mentioned in the prologue and never again, was what turned the tide for the Others. This tiny step in their plan was what made them different all the other aliens we read about or watched about. The ones that inhabited our fantasies never thought to insert themselves into our world years earlier, to have sleepers in some very important positions in the government. They even had sleepers in normal people, those who would be least expected to turn on their families when the time came. Apparently, that’s all it took to destroy humanity as we know it.
We are taken into a post-apocalyptic world where over 97% of the world’s population has been killed. The alien invasion took place in “waves”, as we are told from Cassie Sullivan. Each wave was deadlier than the last, and now what’s left of humanity is waiting for the 5th wave to happen. They know this can’t be it. They know that the Others aren’t done with them yet. They just don’t know what’s coming. We follow the lives of Cassie Sullivan, Ben Parrish, and Evan Walker: three very different people all trying to survive in this world. They all have that one thing that was keeping them alive, and they have to hold on to it with all of their strength and will.
This book was breathtaking. I usually don’t enjoy a book when the narrators switch back and forth, but this time I really appreciated it. It actually makes it better to understand, especially since our characters aren’t omniscient. It feels like mostly everything gets explained in this book, although there are two more books before the story is completely over. I really rooted for Cassie to find her little brother, especially after finding out how they got separated in the first place. She mentioned how much this attack on the world made her lose her trust in everyone, feeling like the only way to survive is to be alone. It seemed to be working for her until she’s almost killed by an Other, and then she had to learn how to trust the guy who saved her life.
I wrote about Cassie a lot because she is my favorite character. I feel like she has so much more to go through before she can really trust again, but she’s getting there as much as she can. She finally found her brother, and although he has been through so much more heartbreak and struggle than any normal five year old should, he still looks up to his big sister the way he always will. This book is so much more than a girl trying to save her brother from the Others, and it’s so much more than your typical alien invasion book. This is a story about family, survival, finding yourself, and maintaining your humanity no matter what.
Rated: 5/5 Stars
The Demon King – Book Review
Magic is prevalent in this world, even if it’s not highly liked. The world has changed a lot since the Demon King tried to destroy the world, almost succeeding in his quest. Because of the Demon King’s actions, wizards and clans are in a precarious situation, so close to being at war with one another. In this land, we meet two very different people from two very different ends of the spectrum. Han Alister, a former head of one of the city’s gangs, comes across a special amulet that has a dangerous history, and brings his world crashing down around him. The amulet he found is supposed to belong to the Demon King, the same one that almost caused the world to end.
Enter Raisa ana‘Marianna, the Princess Heir of Fellsmarch, the future ruler of her country. Not only is she royalty through her mother’s side (it is a Queendom, after all, and the monarchy is a matriarch), but also through her father’s side. Her father is a very important figure in the clans, and she has to somehow combine both sides of her heritage into her life. When she feels like her mother is making her choose between her crown and her father’s family, she has to decide where her loyalties lie, and why she even has to choose in the first place.
The queendom is on the brink of an all out war, and Raisa doesn’t realize just how bad it really is. She ends up running away when a plot to change the rule of succession is hatched, which also involves her marrying the High Wizard’s son without her approval. On her journey across the land, she meets Han, and they find out that their journey together is more intertwined than they initially thought.
This book was so amazing to me, and it is the first book of this four part series. Han never knew who his father was, and when he does end up finding out the truth of his ancestors, it goes to show just how powerful he really is, and the potential of gaining even more. Raisa also discovers just how much she needs to learn about being the next Queen, and how she needs to learn how to trust her own instincts. I especially loved the fact that this is a matriarchal society, something that I rarely see in the books I’ve read so far. I need more of those in my life for sure. Granted, the current Queen is not doing such a good job, but that doesn’t mean that all of them were bad at their job. In fact, it was the first Queen that was able to prevent the Demon King from destroying the world in the first place, and that’s saying something.
I know that this is only the first book, and I know that both Han and Raisa have a lot of growing up to do, but I can already tell that their journey is going to be a crazy one. It looks like there’s another pair of teenagers that are bound to save the world, and I’m actually very okay with that. I look forward to reading the rest of the series, along with the companion series that takes place after the events of The Seven Realms series.
Rated: 5/5 Stars
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 