The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – Book Review

January 10, 2016June 4, 2019 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The odds of the same pair of jeans fitting four different girls with four very different body types is pretty much impossible, right? Well, usually that would be correct, but in this case, not so much. Carmen Lowell, one of the main characters of this book, happens upon a pair of jeans at a second hand clothing store that she only buys because she didn’t want to leave empty handed. But then she forgets all about them until the day before her and her three best friends separate for the first time in their lives. It’s summertime, and all four girls will be off having their own adventures for once, without the support and companionship of one another. It’s then, in Carmen’s room, that the Pants resurface, where Lena gets the idea that all of them should try them on to see who should get them. This is where it all begins, where the Sisterhood begins.

This book follows the story of four different girls: Carmen, Lena, Tibby and Bridget. Four very different personalities but all very close to one another. They became the best of friends in part to their mothers, dubbed The Septembers by their prenatal yoga instructor. The girls were inseparable, during the good and the bad times. Since this is the first time that the four of them won’t be around one another, they are forced to deal with things on their own, with only the Pants to serve as their anchor when all hell is breaking loose.

This is a book that is very close to my heart, although it took me many years to finally get the nerve to finish reading it. I watched the movie when it came out, seeing all of my favorite characters come to life and finally getting to see how this novel ends. The character that I related to the most was Carmen, especially because she had to come to terms with the fact that she was angry with her father, and she needed to confront him with what was always bothering her: why he left her and her mom and what made his new family so much better than his old one. It hit me the most because this is how I feel personally, and I envy how brave Carmen was to finally tell her father how she really feels.

The Pants may not be something that’s real to me, something that I can hold on to when I feel the need to empower myself, but maybe I don’t need it. Carmen, Lena, Tibby and Bridget may feel like they needed the Pants that summer, as a way to encourage them to get through this tough time, but in reality they just needed one another. More letters, more phone calls, more communication between the four of them so that they wouldn’t feel like they were alone during the summer. Whatever happened to them, whatever they needed to get through in order to grow up, it made them stronger in themselves, and stronger in each other.

Rated: 5/5 Stars

Unfortunates by Lillian Graves – Book Review

January 8, 2016 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

This book came into my TBR list through the power of GoodReads. I don’t remember what group it was that was having an Read to Review event, but this was the book that I had to read for an honest review. So, here it goes.

This book was basically about a high school girl that finds out that her best friend has a secret, a secret that apparently isn’t as uncommon as we were made to believe. To keep this blog mostly spoiler free, the secret that Vanessa’s best friend has is one that almost every single person in the world has. Eventually, Vanessa ends up having a secret of her own, in the form of Adam, a boy who needs her help to come back from the dead. He isn’t really a Ghost, per se, and it’s not like he has an unsolved murder that will help him cross over.

Not everyone becomes an Unfortunate, which is what Adam is. Unfortunates are born when they die of an unfortunate event. You find out how Adam died in the book, and it is heartbreaking to hear it. In order for Vanessa to help Adam cross over, she needs to perform one selfless act of kindness, not just being kind to get something out of it. There is no exact number of acts that she needs to perform in order to change Adam back, to give him a second chance at being alive again, so she just has to continue to do what she needs to if she wants to help him.

The problem is: does she really want to?

It was very difficult for me to get through this book, mostly because of the main character of Vanessa. She was an extremely selfish girl, and it made sense that she would have to learn how to be kind without expecting anything in return in order for her to save Adam. There are different levels for each Unfortunate, and each level deals with a different task and emotion. The first level, the one that Adam falls in, is the lowest level and has the most shallow of the Unfortunates. I believe that if Vanessa were to ever become an Unfortunate, she would fall in this same category.

I also feel like Adam could be a little selfish as well, but much less than Vanessa could be. His time being an Unfortunate, and waiting until he was able to be seen with Vanessa changed him enough that he wasn’t as selfish as he was when he died. He tries so hard to get Vanessa to understand how to help him, to even get to know her, and yet it seems like it’s so difficult to get through to her. I could only imagine having to deal with her attitude.

There is a happy ending to this, and Vanessa does have a little character development to make her a little bit more bearable, but I feel like the story was rushed and needed some more editing. I probably wouldn’t read it again, but for those who like reading about ghosts and happy endings, then you should give this book a try.

Rated: 3/5 Stars

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – Book Review

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 1 Comment

“No. If I let myself love you, I won’t throw myself in front of her. I’ll throw myself in front of you.” -Dimitri Belikov

What would you do if your best friend had the power to heal you from the brink of death? Would you tell the proper authorities, or run away from the most heavily guarded place you know and risk the anonymity of the outside world to protect her from being exploited by those who may try to take advantage of her? This is exactly what Rose Hathaway had to decide on when she received disturbing news from a teacher at St. Vladimir’s Academy (fondly known as Vampire Academy by its students). So what did she do? The only logical thing she could do:

Break out.

This story takes place after they have been living in the real world for some time, and how they are found and whisked back to the Academy, where they find that their troubles are only just beginning, and not just in the form of petty high school drama. It is one event after another, things that make both Rose and her best friend Lissa cringe in disgust and realize that maybe they were safer outside the Academy’s iron gate. But will they be able to figure out who is after Lissa, and why, before it’s too late?

This has got to be one of the best vampire book series I have ever read. Not only does Mead completely give us a whole new look on vampires and what we know about them, but she brings a completely new species to the mix in the form of Dhampirs. The main character Rose is one such Dhamphir, and she is training to become Lissa’s guardian come graduation. But since she missed out on so much while they were away, the only way for her to catch up and graduate on time would be to have extra training sessions with the Russian God Dimitri Belikov. Now there’s a story all on its own that is enough to make you want to read the book, and it doesn’t take away from the main issue: Lissa is being hunted and it is up to Rose to protect her.

This is Book One of the Vampire Academy series, and I know that there are only going to be more dangers headed their way. I can’t wait to read them all.

Rated: 5/5 Stars