A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – Book Review

September 25, 2017 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre’s presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

“There are those who seek me a lifetime but never we meet,
And those I kiss but who trample me beneath ungrateful feet.

At times I seem to favor the clever and the fair,
But I bless all those who are brave enough to dare.

By large, my ministrations are soft-handed and sweet,
But scorned, I become a difficult beast to defeat.

For though each of my strikes lands a powerful blow,
When I kill, I do it slow…

From everything that I’ve heard with this book, I had very high expectations. This was one of the books that was talked about in every single book group that I’m in on Facebook, with everyone completely in awe of this series and recommending it everywhere they go. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book get this much hype before, and I also think that this was the reason why I put off reading it for so long. I guess it’s just something about me but whenever a book gets too much hype, then I won’t read it until the hype is brought down or whatever the case be. Then eventually I forgot about it and it took years until I finally remembered this series for a book club. So thanks to the book club, I ended up buying the entire series and began my journey into Prythian.

One of the elements that seemed to be interesting after reading Hunted was that this also had some sort of Beauty and the Beast retelling. It seemed to be a story that a lot of people wanted to emulate in their books, and this was no different. I did like the fact that Feyre was a hunter as well, even if she only became one out of necessity and not enjoyment. It was also interesting to see that even though Feyre’s family did come from money before the events of this book, she wasn’t as educated and well-read as her fellow Belle counterparts.

In keeping with tradition, Feyre (spelled Fayre in English) means “Beautiful”, so there’s that as well.

I know that I’m in for such a wild ride here, and for the most part of me reading through this book I was at the edge of my seat. Especially towards the ending when Feyre had to go through her three trials, I was completely rooting for her and hoping that she would be able to break the curse that ravaged Prythian and all the Fae that lived there. Also her time within the Spring Court, her exploring the area and spending time with both Lucien and Tamlin was enjoyable to read as well. I personally like Lucien more than Tamlin, but that could also be because of all the comments people will say about Tamlin in the next two books. But without that outside influence, I thought that Tamlin was doing his best to figure out how to love again, or even how to like someone that wasn’t a Fae again. He started to become more “human” in an aspect, and I liked that he was able to open up to Feyre in a way that didn’t seem possible at the time.

I also loved seeing such a bad ass woman – even if she was an evil bitch – and no, I am definitely not talking about Feyre. Yes, she was pretty bad ass at some parts, especially with how she learned how to protect her family and feed them when her sisters and her father wouldn’t do anything to help out. She was basically the core of her family, and the only reason that they survived for as long as they did. I feel like they treated her like shit because she was the only one that would get her hands dirty and hunt for them. Her sisters were not always kind to her, and her father was pretty much useless. She deserved better, and I feel like her leaving her home to live out her days in Prythian was a complete blessing for her.

I can’t wait to read the rest, and my brain is so damn tired from everything else that I’ve been doing lately, but just know that I thoroughly enjoyed this book and now I understand the hype. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend doing it before the year is over.

Rated: 5/5 ★

Talon by Julie Kagawa – Book Review

July 31, 2017 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they’re positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.

Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.

Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon’s newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember’s bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

“Rnesh karr slithis,” I hissed back, which was Draconic for eat your own tail, the dragon version of go screw yourself. No extra translation needed.”

First of all, this book is about dragons. My favorite mythical creature in the entire world. So of course I was going to immediately want to jump on this book.

This book had an interesting premise, although it may seem a little cliche. Dragons have been hunted down by this sect of human hunters called the Order of St. George for centuries, pretty much to the point of extinction. It makes sense since we haven’t seen or heard of dragons outside of fairy tales. There’s no way that dragons are actually real, actually out there in the world, or else we would have seen them already right? According to this book, it is because dragons have the ability to shift into humans and blend in without us even realizing it.

In this story, we meet an anomaly in the dragon world, a hatchling that is actually a twin, something that is completely unheard of. According to everything that Ember and Dante Hill know, they are the only two twin dragons in existence, and they have never been apart. They have spent their entire lives being trained by Talon, the dragon organization that is dedicated to making sure that their dragons are able to survive, and whatever else they are supposed to in the world. Right now, it didn’t seem like the real objective of Talon is obvious, and this is something that Ember will have to learn throughout her journey. After their summer is over, where they have a chance to learn how to assimilate with humans, the real training will begin.

One of the main ideals that Ember and Dante were taught is that while they need to learn how to blend in, they will always be better than the human species. They were not supposed to show any real human emotions because it got messy, and would get into the way of Talon’s objectives for them. But as we can see with Ember, she has a lot more human tendencies than she anticipated to have. She wants to enjoy this sliver of freedom that Talon has allowed her to have in Crescent Beach, making human friends and learning how to surf among other things. So everything that she was taught seems to contradict what she’s been experiencing.

Not only do we follow the summer of Ember Hill, but we also hear from one of the soldiers of the Order of St. George, dubbed The Perfect Soldier by his teammates, named Garret Xavier Sebastian. He grew up having his family killed by dragons, and indoctrinated into the mindset that all dragons were monsters that needed to be destroyed no matter what. They even knew that dragons could shift into humans, and that they were good at mimicking human behavior. For some reason, they even knew when a dragon was in the area and would be able to set up house at least a month in advance before they were even placed into human society. How were they getting their intel on where the dragons would be, and how would they know who the dragon would be?

From the moment that Ember and Garret met, their entire world will change, and everything that they thought they knew will be tested. There’s moments of love and fear, heartache and betrayal, and all the human emotions that both Ember and Garret were forced to hide from themselves and others. All it really took was for them to bring it out of one another in a way that made them learn more about who they are as people, whether they are a human or a dragon.

I really rooted for Ember and Garret to be free to feel something other than what they were told to feel. I wanted both of them to have that teenage experience of enjoying themselves in the summer, having friends and learning how to love. I wanted them to be teenagers again, something that they haven’t allowed themselves to be. It made me cheer for them when things were going well, and broke my heart when they were having issues being real with themselves. But throughout the entire book, all I could do was enjoy the ride and hope that things would get better all around. The ending absolutely killed me, and I need to get my hands on the entire saga as soon as possible.

Rated: 5/5 ★

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco – Book Review

July 26, 2017 by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite. But the girl was fiercer.

Tea is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in the kingdom. For theirs is a powerful, elemental magic that can reach beyond the boundaries of the living—and of the human.

Great power comes at a price, forcing Tea to leave her homeland to train under the guidance of an older, wiser bone witch. There, Tea puts all of her energy into becoming an asha, learning to control her elemental magic and those beasts who will submit by no other force. And Tea must be strong—stronger than she even believes possible. Because war is brewing in the eight kingdoms, war that will threaten the sovereignty of her homeland…and threaten the very survival of those she loves.

“Then perhaps we should carve a world one day where the strength lies in who you are, rather than in what they expect you to be.”

This is a world where the idea of being a witch is not so far-fetched or shunned upon as most would think. In fact, there are so many witches in this world that there are many different kinds, each one in charge of a specific element over another. And of course, there are always going to be some witches that are seen as “less than”, even among them as a species. In this case, it is the necromancers, the bone witches, that are deemed as freaks and the witches that nobody wants to really get involved with.

That’s the kind of witch that Tea ends up becoming, despite her sisters having control of the more calmer elements. It’s not like she meant to raise her dear brother Fox from the dead, but she did it anyway, and that was the moment that changed everything.

Tea was set on a path to adventure, one where she had to learn very quickly about what it meant to be a bone witch, how to control her powers, and why so many people grew to fear those that ended up controlling the dead. From the young age of fourteen years old, Tea is whisked away from the comfort of her hometown, and with the help of another bone witch, an Asha named Lady Mykaela, she travels far to a land where she becomes one of the most powerful Asha alive, and all before she hits her eighteenth birthday.

This book is told in an interesting format, where not only do we get to hear Tea’s side of the story when she first found out what she was, but we also get a sneak peek into what happened after all that, when she is no longer in a safe place with Lady Mykaela, and where she is one of the most feared women in the world. With power, the kind of power that Tea has, is bound to come those that fear those that have such power, and that’s what happened to Tea. Did she deserve it? Was she really that scary that the time jump shows her in a place of exile from those she grew to love and care about? We won’t know until the next book comes out, so I’m hoping that happens sometime soon.

It was very difficult for me to take the time to write down my thoughts for this book for the longest time. It even took me a while to read this book because there were moments where I wasn’t really engaged. It was interesting, but there was something about it that made it such a weird book to get through. I loved Tea, don’t get me wrong. I loved her story, I found her to be such a powerful girl at such a young age and she really grew into herself more than I could ever dream of, but I feel like the disconnect between when she was first learning how to be a bone witch and the bard’s time with her in the present left a lot of holes to be filled in. There were times where the bard would touch upon a subject, and then the chapter following it would semi answer the question, but there is still so much of Tea’s story to be told, and I can’t wait to find out more of what exactly happened between the events of the past and the current timeline as it stands today.

Rated: 4/5 ★