Tag: Review

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The Gunslinger by Stephen King

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Now a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba

“An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King’s greatest literary achievement” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series.

A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.

Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” The Gunslinger is “a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center” (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is “brilliant and fresh…and will leave you panting for more” (Booklist).

Book Overview:

Author: Stephen King | Series: The Dark Tower | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: George Guidall | Length: 7 hours, 20 mins | Publish Date: June 13, 2017 | Genre: Fantasy/Horror | Rated: ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Maybe

“I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.I kill with my heart.”



This was my very first Stephen King novel, and honestly, I think it may be my last…

For now, anyway.

For one thing, I hate horror, and I figured that this book wouldn’t be too scary like his other works so I gave it a chance. Not to mention, I watched the movie that came out recently and I absolutely loved it. Idris Elba was the best Gunslinger ever, or at least I loved him in this movie.

But this book just didn’t do it for me. For one, I just didn’t like all the sex happening in the beginning. There were also times where Roland would get suddenly aroused and I felt so uncomfortable with it. Yes, I get him getting aroused during sex. That’s a given, but when he’s in the forest with Jake – who somehow was killed in his world and was sent to Roland’s world as a result – talking to some oracle or entity, he’s getting aroused? It’s not like he’s lacking in the sex department.

I just didn’t get it, and I didn’t get to appreciate it the way that I got to for the movie. I’ve seen some people say that they didn’t understand it when they were younger and had to read it again when they were more adults, and maybe that’s what I’ll have to do. But for now, this just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Born: in Portland, Maine, the United States
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Literature & Fiction
Influences: Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Charles Dickens, Shirley Jackson, H.P. Lovecraft, John D. MacDonald, Richard Matheson, J.R.R. Tolkien
Goodreads Member Since: December 2013

Stephen Edwin King was born the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. After his father left them when Stephen was two, he and his older brother, David, were raised by his mother. Parts of his childhood were spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where his father’s family was at the time, and in Stratford, Connecticut. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children back to Durham, Maine, for good. Her parents, Guy and Nellie Pillsbury, had become incapacitated with old age, and Ruth King was persuaded by her sisters to take over the physical care of them. Other family members provided a small house in Durham and financial support. After Stephen’s grandparents passed away, Mrs. King found work in the kitchens of Pineland, a nearby residential facility for the mentally challenged.

Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums.

He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men’s magazines.

Stephen made his first professional short story sale (“The Glass Floor”) to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men’s magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies.

In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.
The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Sixteen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince, no one speaks to her. No one even looks at her. Because Twylla isn’t a member of the court. She’s the executioner. As the goddess-embodied, Twylla kills with a single touch. So each week, she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love her. Who could care for a girl with murder in her veins? Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to her touch, avoids her.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose playful smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he’s able to look past Twylla’s executioner robes and see the girl, not the goddess. Yet a treasonous romance is the least of Twylla’s problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies-a plan that requires an unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

Book Overview:

Author: Melinda Salisbury | Series: The Sin Eater’s Daughter | Format: Audiobook | Narrated by: Amy Shiels | Length: 9 hours, 4 mins | Publish Date: February 24, 2015 | Genre: YA Fantasy | Literary Awards: Edgar Award Nominee for Best Young Adult (2016), North East Teenage Book Award Nominee (2015), YA Book Prize Nominee (2016) | Rated: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: HECK YES

“I am the perfect weapon, I can kill with a single touch.”


I don’t know why I never heard of this book before, but I’m so glad that I was able to find it.

I fell in love with this book from the moment I started listening to it. It absolutely haunted me, and I don’t even know how to explain why it had that kind of effect on me. This world was one that I could see living in, whether it’s our world’s past or future. Not only was the main character Twylla considered the embodiment of the Gods’ daughter, but her birth mother is a woman in charge of eating the sins of the dead.

“My mother is a fat woman, made large from gobbling the sins of the dead, the meal prepared and served to her as if she were a queen for the day. For an Eating the mourners cover the surface of the coffin with breads and meats and ale and more, each morsel representing a sin known, or suspected, to have been committed by the deceased. She Eats it all; she has to – it’s the only way to cleanse the soul so it can ascend to the Eternal Kingdom. To not finish the meal is to condemn the soul to walk the world for ever. We’ve all heard the tales of the wraiths that haunt the West Woods because people less dedicated than my mother could not finish the Eating.” 


Twylla was born with a destiny but ends up having another one. Either way, she doesn’t seem to have much of a choice in what she has to do in her daily life. After being taken by the Queen of Lamere to become the newest Princess, Twylla finds out that that’s not the only thing she has to do. She is deemed Dornan embodied, the daughter of two Gods – the God of Life, and the God of Death. To fulfill both Gods, Twylla now has to be Lamere’s executioner, tasked with killing traitors with her touch and watching them die in front of her.

Since everyone in the kingdom knows that she can’t be touched, nobody wants to talk to her unless absolutely necessary. Nobody barely looks at her either, and it makes for a lonely life. She only has the friendship of her main guard – that is until she gets another one named Lief. A friendship blossoms between Twylla and Lief, and while she learns what it’s like to have a companion, there is more at stake for her and the rest of Lamere. Will she be able to save the kingdom, or will she be betrayed when she least expects it?

The ending of this book absolutely broke me, and I’m left with a feeling of heartache and wonder. The survival of Twylla and her people lies in the balance, and I don’t know whether they will be able to handle what is coming.

I can’t wait to find out what happens!

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Twitter: MESalisbury
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance

Melinda Salisbury lives by the sea, somewhere in the south of England. As a child she genuinely thought Roald Dahl’s Matilda was her biography, in part helped by her grandfather often mistakenly calling her Matilda, and the local library having a pretty cavalier attitude to the books she borrowed. Sadly she never manifested telekinetic powers. She likes to travel, and have adventures. She also likes medieval castles, non-medieval aquariums, Richard III, and all things Scandinavian The Sin Eater’s Daughter is her first novel. She can be found on Twitter at @MESalisbury, though be warned, she tweets often.
Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

by Leelynn @ Sometimes Leelynn Reads ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Schuyler Van Alen has never fit in at Duchesne,her prestigious New York City private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes to the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates. But when she turns fifteen, Schuyler’s life changes dramatically. The death of a popular schoolmate haunts her in unexpected ways. And strangest of all, Jack Force, the most popular boy in school, is showing a sudden interest in her.

Once an outcast, Schuyler is thrust into Manhattan’s most exclusive social circle. Its members are the powerful, the wealthy, and – as Schuyler soon discovers – the unhuman. They are Blue Bloods, an ancient group of vampires, and for centuries they’ve been invincible. Now something is preying on this elite group, and Schuyler wants to find out the truth. But is she the most vulnerable of them all?

Book Overview:

Author: Melissa de la Cruz | Series: Blue Bloods | Format: Paperback | Length: 302 pages | Publish Date: April 1, 2007 | Genre: YA Paranormal | Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ | Recommend: Yes


“Black is the color of night. White is the true color of death” 


So this is actually a reread from many years ago, but I’m glad that I was able to find the book at my local library because I actually missed this series.

Like I’ve previously mentioned, I am a sucker for vampire books – no pun intended. I’m always looking for good ones, and with the popularity of vampire books lately, I know there are some that I will end up missing if they don’t get as much publicity as others. Blue Bloods was one of those that I didn’t hear much about in the public eye, but just so happened to come across it at my library many years ago. I’m so glad I did though because it is one of my favorite series about teenage vampires.

Well, okay maybe they seem to be teenage vampires, but that isn’t completely the case.

“One minute you could be getting a smoke in the alley on the Lower East Side with your friends, having drinks and dancing on tables in a popular nightclub. And the next minute, you could be dead.” 


I don’t want to spoil the twist on these vampires completely, but let’s just say that they were on the original Mayflower trip to Plymouth Rock, and that doesn’t even begin to describe what else they have been through. Rather than staying in one form their entire lives, these vampires are able to go through cycles, where they live out their lives as one person, “die”, and be raised again as another person. This at least takes cares of anyone being nosy and looking through many photos throughout history and finding a familiar face throughout the centuries. Am I right?

This was a good start to the series, and I’m glad I got to reread it and adjust my initial rating of the book. It could have been better, but I still love it. I can’t wait to actually finish the series this time!

Author Spotlight
Courtesy of Goodreads

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fiction, Fantasy
Goodreads Member Since: February 2012

Melissa de la Cruz is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat.

Her books for adults include the novel Cat’s Meow, the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and the tongue-in-chic handbooks How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less and The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-inch heels and Faux-Pas.

She has worked as a fashion and beauty editor and has written for many publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, The San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. She has also appeared as an expert on fashion, trends and fame for CNN, E! and FoxNews.

Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from The Convent of the Sacred Heart. She majored in art history and English at Columbia University (and minored in nightclubs and shopping!).

She now divides her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and daughter.