Scar (Skin Books, book 3)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
INK taught Leora that all was not what it seems on the surface.
SPARK taught her that there are two sides to every story.
Now Leora has had enough of lessons - she wants to make her own story.

The explosive finale to the best-selling INK trilogy sees Leora struggling to reconcile her past and her future - and recognising that there may be no easy answers.

Review: 
I’m sad to say that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the previous two. That doesn’t make this book bad, my main disappointment is with the ending which made me not give it a matching rating. I’ll go into more detail about the ending in the spoiler section. For now, I’ll talk about the none spoilers of the book.

First small change I noticed in this book is that the page breaks in the book had changed from a butterfly to a fox. Not a big change, just liked the butterflies better and wasn’t sure why this change was made.

A problem with this book that I didn’t find in the other two books is that there were a few mistakes, mainly grammar errors. Such as the use of speech marks or the lack of use of speech marks. It did have fewer mistakes, the more I read. But the publisher should have  took more special care with that. Page 193 had some random ink splodges, I guess from the creation of the chapter header. It was just a bit unprofessional.

Going into this book, I was aware that there would be a lack of story chapters as there wasn’t really any more stories to tell. There was the odd one and to compensate the dream sections were bigger. But I did miss those story chapters.

I don’t usually have a least favourite character but in this series I do. That is Veirity. I didn’t like her when she was friends with Leora, liked her even less when they fell out and then disliked her even more when they rekindle their friendship. I just thought she wasn’t a good role model for friendship.

*SPOILERS*

Seb a character we saw only in book 1 prior had made a good reappearance. I thought he was going to have a bigger role in the series, but I’m least happy he wasn’t forgotten about. Seb was basically helping Leora’s mother out while Leora was captured. 

One of the storylines I found really fitting was the return of Leora’s father’s skin book. Mel had found the real version of his book and gave it to Leora. Leora then gave it to her mother. The best moment was when her mother threw the actual book into the fire. I really enjoyed that, it was a really powerful scene.

A scene I really loved was the attempt to flay Leora. I had a feeling that Leora would be sentenced to death, I wasn’t sure if she would live or die but I did sense a public execution attempt. However, didn’t expect it to be as brutal as it was. The mayor was trying to flay Leora to death just like what happened in The Saint story. This is one of the recurring things I appreciate about Alice Broadway books. How she turns the expected storyline into something much better. She makes the expected, unexpected and I love it. 

There was however a few things I didn’t like. Such as the reveal of how the Mayor survived. I had so many ideas in my head but not one as basic as the truth. He just had an armoured vest on. I wanted something with a bit more umph. 

The ending was abrupt. We had a fire, then it skips a year later and Leora is feeling better but life is still a mess for everyone. How is that a final ending? The book was the smallest in the series, so she could have written the same amount as the others to achieve the right ending. For a series finale, it should have been more.

I think my main problem with the ending is that it felt unfinished. There were so many unanswered questions. Such as will there be peace? Why did Leora and the blank baby have marks that were naturally created? Storylines that went nowhere.

I do love this series, but this book is the weakest and for that I can’t give it 5 stars.

Rating: 4 runes out of 5 

Series Rating: 4.5 runes out of 5 

written by Lauren

Scar (Skin Books, book 3)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
INK taught Leora that all was not what it seems on the surface.
SPARK taught her that there are two sides to every story.
Now Leora has had enough of lessons - she wants to make her own story.

The explosive finale to the best-selling INK trilogy sees Leora struggling to reconcile her past and her future - and recognising that there may be no easy answers.

Review: 
I’m sad to say that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the previous two. That doesn’t make this book bad, my main disappointment is with the ending which made me not give it a matching rating. I’ll go into more detail about the ending in the spoiler section. For now, I’ll talk about the none spoilers of the book.

First small change I noticed in this book is that the page breaks in the book had changed from a butterfly to a fox. Not a big change, just liked the butterflies better and wasn’t sure why this change was made.

A problem with this book that I didn’t find in the other two books is that there were a few mistakes, mainly grammar errors. Such as the use of speech marks or the lack of use of speech marks. It did have fewer mistakes, the more I read. But the publisher should have  took more special care with that. Page 193 had some random ink splodges, I guess from the creation of the chapter header. It was just a bit unprofessional.

Going into this book, I was aware that there would be a lack of story chapters as there wasn’t really any more stories to tell. There was the odd one and to compensate the dream sections were bigger. But I did miss those story chapters.

I don’t usually have a least favourite character but in this series I do. That is Veirity. I didn’t like her when she was friends with Leora, liked her even less when they fell out and then disliked her even more when they rekindle their friendship. I just thought she wasn’t a good role model for friendship.

*SPOILERS*

Seb a character we saw only in book 1 prior had made a good reappearance. I thought he was going to have a bigger role in the series, but I’m least happy he wasn’t forgotten about. Seb was basically helping Leora’s mother out while Leora was captured. 

One of the storylines I found really fitting was the return of Leora’s father’s skin book. Mel had found the real version of his book and gave it to Leora. Leora then gave it to her mother. The best moment was when her mother threw the actual book into the fire. I really enjoyed that, it was a really powerful scene.

A scene I really loved was the attempt to flay Leora. I had a feeling that Leora would be sentenced to death, I wasn’t sure if she would live or die but I did sense a public execution attempt. However, didn’t expect it to be as brutal as it was. The mayor was trying to flay Leora to death just like what happened in The Saint story. This is one of the recurring things I appreciate about Alice Broadway books. How she turns the expected storyline into something much better. She makes the expected, unexpected and I love it. 

There was however a few things I didn’t like. Such as the reveal of how the Mayor survived. I had so many ideas in my head but not one as basic as the truth. He just had an armoured vest on. I wanted something with a bit more umph. 

The ending was abrupt. We had a fire, then it skips a year later and Leora is feeling better but life is still a mess for everyone. How is that a final ending? The book was the smallest in the series, so she could have written the same amount as the others to achieve the right ending. For a series finale, it should have been more.

I think my main problem with the ending is that it felt unfinished. There were so many unanswered questions. Such as will there be peace? Why did Leora and the blank baby have marks that were naturally created? Storylines that went nowhere.

I do love this series, but this book is the weakest and for that I can’t give it 5 stars.

Rating: 4 runes out of 5 

Series Rating: 4.5 runes out of 5 

written by Lauren

Spark (Skin Books, book 2)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
Leora is reeling: questioning everything she has ever known about her family and herself.

As half-Marked and half-Blank, can she ever wholly belong in either fractured community? Mayor Longsight wants to use her as a weapon: to infiltrate Featherstone, home of the Blanks, and deliver them to him for obliteration. Leora longs for answers about her mysterious birth mother, and Featherstone may reveal them.

But will she find solace and safety there or a viper's nest of suspicion and secrets?

Review: 
This is the sequel to Ink. In this book, Leora is sent to the blanks community to learn more about them after her discovery of being half blank in Ink. One thing that really stood out to me in this book was how it had all the same stories from the last book but this time it was a retelling from the blanks perspectives. Be interesting to see if there will be stories in the third book, as I’m not sure where Broadway could go from here.

I think since the first book, Alice Broadways writing style has improved slightly. I just feel like it was a bit more visually descriptive and the dreams were definitely more detailed and more interesting. I think this slight improvement was only noticeable for starting the second book so quickly after the first.

I really enjoyed Leora’s new friend in this book called Gull, she’s one of the blanks that accepts her. I prefer this friendship over Leora’s and Veritys. It just feels more pure and real. They get along so well.

There’s not much to say about this book that I hadn’t already said about the first book. I just really loved it too. The twists in the series, I’d say are really unpredictable which I really appreciate and enjoy. That’s what keeps pushing this book to 5 stars for me.

*SPOILERS*

One twist that really stood out for me was that Sara who was believed to be Leora’s mother's good friend but she was actually a betrayer. All she wants is a war with the marked. So she kills the mayor so that the marked will want a war with the blanks. I just didn’t expect her to be extremely sour, I knew something was off with the way she talked but I thought she just wanted a confrontation not full blown war and didn’t think she would hate Leora for being half marked. 

I think the biggest mind-blowing moment is the fact the mayor didn’t die, he has the scar of the blade but lived. And healed fast. I’m totally fine with a back from the dead moment as long as it sounds feasible, I’m hoping to get a good explanation in Scar, other than him apparently being a god. 

Overall, this book series so far has been amazing and I would recommend.

Rating: 5 runes out of 5 

written by Lauren

Check out my review of book 3: Scar

Spark (Skin Books, book 2)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
Leora is reeling: questioning everything she has ever known about her family and herself.

As half-Marked and half-Blank, can she ever wholly belong in either fractured community? Mayor Longsight wants to use her as a weapon: to infiltrate Featherstone, home of the Blanks, and deliver them to him for obliteration. Leora longs for answers about her mysterious birth mother, and Featherstone may reveal them.

But will she find solace and safety there or a viper's nest of suspicion and secrets?

Review: 
This is the sequel to Ink. In this book, Leora is sent to the blanks community to learn more about them after her discovery of being half blank in Ink. One thing that really stood out to me in this book was how it had all the same stories from the last book but this time it was a retelling from the blanks perspectives. Be interesting to see if there will be stories in the third book, as I’m not sure where Broadway could go from here.

I think since the first book, Alice Broadways writing style has improved slightly. I just feel like it was a bit more visually descriptive and the dreams were definitely more detailed and more interesting. I think this slight improvement was only noticeable for starting the second book so quickly after the first.

I really enjoyed Leora’s new friend in this book called Gull, she’s one of the blanks that accepts her. I prefer this friendship over Leora’s and Veritys. It just feels more pure and real. They get along so well.

There’s not much to say about this book that I hadn’t already said about the first book. I just really loved it too. The twists in the series, I’d say are really unpredictable which I really appreciate and enjoy. That’s what keeps pushing this book to 5 stars for me.

*SPOILERS*

One twist that really stood out for me was that Sara who was believed to be Leora’s mother's good friend but she was actually a betrayer. All she wants is a war with the marked. So she kills the mayor so that the marked will want a war with the blanks. I just didn’t expect her to be extremely sour, I knew something was off with the way she talked but I thought she just wanted a confrontation not full blown war and didn’t think she would hate Leora for being half marked. 

I think the biggest mind-blowing moment is the fact the mayor didn’t die, he has the scar of the blade but lived. And healed fast. I’m totally fine with a back from the dead moment as long as it sounds feasible, I’m hoping to get a good explanation in Scar, other than him apparently being a god. 

Overall, this book series so far has been amazing and I would recommend.

Rating: 5 runes out of 5 

written by Lauren

Check out my review of book 3: Scar

Ink (Skin Books, book 1)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
Every action, every deed, every significant moment is tattooed on your skin for ever. When Leora's father dies, she is determined to see her father remembered forever. She knows he deserves to have all his tattoos removed and made into a Skin Book to stand as a record of his good life. But when she discovers that his ink has been edited and his book is incomplete, she wonders whether she ever knew him at all.

Review: 
Sammie is a big fan of this series and recommended I read it and I’m glad I did. Sammie really likes books to be fast paced, I’m not bothered if a book is slow as long as it is worth the anticipation. This book was definitely a more fast paced book than my more recent reads, which was a nice uplifting change. Especially since I was reading this book as part of The Reading Rush. Which involved me reading as many books as I could in a week. I managed 2 of the 3 Skin Books. So I was quite happy with that and received 5 badges. It’s the quickest I’ve ever read any books.

The book started with the main character Leora explaining how she got her name by her parents. This was a good insight into the whole marks situation of the book whilst also not making it confusing. The book was really good at explaining the setting which made things really easy to understand. As this book is about a community that has split into segregated sections of the blanks and the marked. Leora is a member of the marked society.

Leora father had recently passed away so in the book when someone dies their marks; which are basically tattoos; get turned into a book for the family to enjoy but Leora’s fathers book goes missing which causes a whole bunch of secrets to come out. Even though it could be said that the book is fast paced it does take a while for the drama to occur as it’s building it up but it still feels fast because you’re learning so much about the communities and Leora herself and watching her life change from a student to a worker.

Ink is the first book Alice Broadway has published but you can’t tell as it is really good and well written. It was a really easy to read book and I liked how descriptive it was. It was basically just like every other writing style I like, such as Cassandra Clare, it had that vibe.

I really appreciate her decision to make the chapters small, it makes it easier to read more as you aren’t put off by the size of the next one. Although the 2 page chapters maybe were a bit too short. It basically changed chapter per scene which is the way I think all books should be like, but aren’t commonly. However, I’m a bit disappointed as the cover has faded from my sweaty hands during the heat wave that hit the UK whilst I was reading.

The books are one of the most prettiest I have on my bookcase. All 3 are beautifully designed and in lovely colours. The inside of the books match the covers, as they have pretty chapter heads and butterflies to split the scene.

Leora as a character was a very relatable teenage girl and the book is in her perspective so we get all her thoughts. Leora would talk sometimes about how she looked and how she didn’t like how she looked. She would go on about how amazing Verity her best friend is whilst putting herself down. The low self-esteem she shows is just typical teenage thoughts, which helped build the character in my opinion.

Since the community in this book are all about reserving stories it was good having a few chapters of the historic stories. They were usually at the time that related to the main story too, a mirror image as time repeats itself. I appreciate history within a book, it just builds the world up.

There would also be very little snippets of what Leora is dreaming about. They weren’t big or really necessary to the plot but they were interesting and just added that little bit more. It was more about showing the emotion of Leora, by using metaphors for her distress and worries. 

Like Sammie, I would recommend reading this series. I reward this book 5 stars and below in the spoilers section I explain why.

*SPOILERS*

Now it’s time to get into the juicy bits of the book. In the early chapters, Leora witnissess a public marking of a man with a crow symbol. Mayor Longsight, says it is to mark the man as forgotten which means his book will be burned rather than given to his family when he dies. From seeing this, Leora has a flashback to when she saw that mark on her father's head. This makes her worried but it isn’t till near the end of the book till we find out why he was marked.

One thing I really liked about Leora’s character is that she would confront her mother about any new information she discovers. Normally characters in books will just go hunting for information themselves rather than going the faster route of asking someone. Sadly, to begin with her mother didn’t cooperate but I was just glad to see some child to parent confrontation. 

Something I disliked about the book would be how it could be a bit repetitive scenes wise. Leora would find something out, go confront her mother. Then she gets mad and goes to Verity’s house then in the end decides to not tell her and returns home. During these scenes, not much was achieved with the new information and it happened a few times.

I think what really took this book from a 4 star rating to a 5, was the ending. It was a really good ending and a great set up for the next. It had loads of drama and unexpected twists. A twist I really enjoyed was during the hearing to decide if Leora’s father’s book would be burned or not, she decided to burn it. Despite fighting so hard to keep it, as she felt betrayed by him. She found out during the hearing that she was half blank and she sees the blanks as these horrible people so she doesn’t understand his reasoning.

Rating: 5 runes out of 5 

 written by Lauren

Check out Lauren's review of  Book 2: Spark

Ink (Skin Books, book 1)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
Every action, every deed, every significant moment is tattooed on your skin for ever. When Leora's father dies, she is determined to see her father remembered forever. She knows he deserves to have all his tattoos removed and made into a Skin Book to stand as a record of his good life. But when she discovers that his ink has been edited and his book is incomplete, she wonders whether she ever knew him at all.

Review: 
Sammie is a big fan of this series and recommended I read it and I’m glad I did. Sammie really likes books to be fast paced, I’m not bothered if a book is slow as long as it is worth the anticipation. This book was definitely a more fast paced book than my more recent reads, which was a nice uplifting change. Especially since I was reading this book as part of The Reading Rush. Which involved me reading as many books as I could in a week. I managed 2 of the 3 Skin Books. So I was quite happy with that and received 5 badges. It’s the quickest I’ve ever read any books.

The book started with the main character Leora explaining how she got her name by her parents. This was a good insight into the whole marks situation of the book whilst also not making it confusing. The book was really good at explaining the setting which made things really easy to understand. As this book is about a community that has split into segregated sections of the blanks and the marked. Leora is a member of the marked society.

Leora father had recently passed away so in the book when someone dies their marks; which are basically tattoos; get turned into a book for the family to enjoy but Leora’s fathers book goes missing which causes a whole bunch of secrets to come out. Even though it could be said that the book is fast paced it does take a while for the drama to occur as it’s building it up but it still feels fast because you’re learning so much about the communities and Leora herself and watching her life change from a student to a worker.

Ink is the first book Alice Broadway has published but you can’t tell as it is really good and well written. It was a really easy to read book and I liked how descriptive it was. It was basically just like every other writing style I like, such as Cassandra Clare, it had that vibe.

I really appreciate her decision to make the chapters small, it makes it easier to read more as you aren’t put off by the size of the next one. Although the 2 page chapters maybe were a bit too short. It basically changed chapter per scene which is the way I think all books should be like, but aren’t commonly. However, I’m a bit disappointed as the cover has faded from my sweaty hands during the heat wave that hit the UK whilst I was reading.

The books are one of the most prettiest I have on my bookcase. All 3 are beautifully designed and in lovely colours. The inside of the books match the covers, as they have pretty chapter heads and butterflies to split the scene.

Leora as a character was a very relatable teenage girl and the book is in her perspective so we get all her thoughts. Leora would talk sometimes about how she looked and how she didn’t like how she looked. She would go on about how amazing Verity her best friend is whilst putting herself down. The low self-esteem she shows is just typical teenage thoughts, which helped build the character in my opinion.

Since the community in this book are all about reserving stories it was good having a few chapters of the historic stories. They were usually at the time that related to the main story too, a mirror image as time repeats itself. I appreciate history within a book, it just builds the world up.

There would also be very little snippets of what Leora is dreaming about. They weren’t big or really necessary to the plot but they were interesting and just added that little bit more. It was more about showing the emotion of Leora, by using metaphors for her distress and worries. 

Like Sammie, I would recommend reading this series. I reward this book 5 stars and below in the spoilers section I explain why.

*SPOILERS*

Now it’s time to get into the juicy bits of the book. In the early chapters, Leora witnissess a public marking of a man with a crow symbol. Mayor Longsight, says it is to mark the man as forgotten which means his book will be burned rather than given to his family when he dies. From seeing this, Leora has a flashback to when she saw that mark on her father's head. This makes her worried but it isn’t till near the end of the book till we find out why he was marked.

One thing I really liked about Leora’s character is that she would confront her mother about any new information she discovers. Normally characters in books will just go hunting for information themselves rather than going the faster route of asking someone. Sadly, to begin with her mother didn’t cooperate but I was just glad to see some child to parent confrontation. 

Something I disliked about the book would be how it could be a bit repetitive scenes wise. Leora would find something out, go confront her mother. Then she gets mad and goes to Verity’s house then in the end decides to not tell her and returns home. During these scenes, not much was achieved with the new information and it happened a few times.

I think what really took this book from a 4 star rating to a 5, was the ending. It was a really good ending and a great set up for the next. It had loads of drama and unexpected twists. A twist I really enjoyed was during the hearing to decide if Leora’s father’s book would be burned or not, she decided to burn it. Despite fighting so hard to keep it, as she felt betrayed by him. She found out during the hearing that she was half blank and she sees the blanks as these horrible people so she doesn’t understand his reasoning.

Rating: 5 runes out of 5 

 written by Lauren

Check out Lauren's review of  Book 2: Spark

Scar (Skin Books, book 3)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
NK taught Leora that all was not what it seems on the surface. 
SPARK taught her that there are two sides to every story. 
Now Leora has had enough of lessons - she wants to make her own story.
The explosive finale to the best-selling INK trilogy sees Leora struggling to reconcile her past and her future - and recognising that there may be no easy answers.

Review: 
This book was an amazing finish to the end of the trilogy, I really do wish there was more but it was quite a nice finish to the whole thing.

This book starts off with Leora back in Saintstone she has fetched Gull with her and that is all I'm going to say, because if you haven't read the first two books then there will be a hell of a lot of spoilers or confusing moments for you.

So this friendship between Gull and Leora has developed quite a lot and Leora is still trying to figure out who she is and is trying to fix this whole problem between the blanks and the marked. There is many problems to overcome and she is really worried about the position she is putting her friends and family in.

Leora tries to be a lot bigger and braver in this book than the other books as she has a lot more to deal with now knowing the truth. Leora is still unsure on who's stories are actually true, but she is starting to understand that they don't really matter that it is the whole issue of accepting each other as neither are different that is her main problem.

When Leora is back home she becomes trapped I won't say how or why, but this whole part of the book is actually quite interesting and we see that her character develops even more, she is also slowly learning who to trust with her secrets. She has also learnt the whole part of spying and keeping information to use it against other people to get her own way.

There are a few sad moments throughout this book where you will more than likely require some tissues or at least a hard heart. It's such a shame about this one character and it really is gob smacking but it really does tie the story together.

I also love how Verity is still having a part in Leora's life even though she went to live with the Blanks for a while and I really love how Oscar is still mentioned though out this book.

Leora is such a strong character and always tries to do the best for people which such a sweet thing even though her world is falling apart, she cares so much about her actions effecting her family and friends, which most young people don't actually do.

The way this final book was wrote was excellent, the amount of plot twists and further friendship development was amazing. I couldn't fault it. The only thing was which is the same as the rest of the trilogy, there is a few bits repeated but I think I've finally got use to those things now as it seems to be way of writing the books. Which I guess means that if you've had to wait a year between books like me then you may not have had to reread each individual book each time a book got released.

I'd definitely recommend this trilogy to everyone that likes real world problems, strong female characters, strong friendships, a hint of love, and huge plot twists that keep you on your toes. It is a highly anticipated book and is so fast paced I swear you could have the whole trilogy read in a week no matter the speed or time it takes you to read. So add it to your to be read list and make sure you read it soon especially if you are in a reading slump. God I'm going to miss this trilogy so much, going to make sure to read it at least every other year if not every year. I loved it so much.

Favourite Character: Leora

Read: 28/03/19 - 29/03/19

5 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie

Scar (Skin Books, book 3)

By Alice Broadway

Blurb: 
NK taught Leora that all was not what it seems on the surface. 
SPARK taught her that there are two sides to every story. 
Now Leora has had enough of lessons - she wants to make her own story.
The explosive finale to the best-selling INK trilogy sees Leora struggling to reconcile her past and her future - and recognising that there may be no easy answers.

Review: 
This book was an amazing finish to the end of the trilogy, I really do wish there was more but it was quite a nice finish to the whole thing.

This book starts off with Leora back in Saintstone she has fetched Gull with her and that is all I'm going to say, because if you haven't read the first two books then there will be a hell of a lot of spoilers or confusing moments for you.

So this friendship between Gull and Leora has developed quite a lot and Leora is still trying to figure out who she is and is trying to fix this whole problem between the blanks and the marked. There is many problems to overcome and she is really worried about the position she is putting her friends and family in.

Leora tries to be a lot bigger and braver in this book than the other books as she has a lot more to deal with now knowing the truth. Leora is still unsure on who's stories are actually true, but she is starting to understand that they don't really matter that it is the whole issue of accepting each other as neither are different that is her main problem.

When Leora is back home she becomes trapped I won't say how or why, but this whole part of the book is actually quite interesting and we see that her character develops even more, she is also slowly learning who to trust with her secrets. She has also learnt the whole part of spying and keeping information to use it against other people to get her own way.

There are a few sad moments throughout this book where you will more than likely require some tissues or at least a hard heart. It's such a shame about this one character and it really is gob smacking but it really does tie the story together.

I also love how Verity is still having a part in Leora's life even though she went to live with the Blanks for a while and I really love how Oscar is still mentioned though out this book.

Leora is such a strong character and always tries to do the best for people which such a sweet thing even though her world is falling apart, she cares so much about her actions effecting her family and friends, which most young people don't actually do.

The way this final book was wrote was excellent, the amount of plot twists and further friendship development was amazing. I couldn't fault it. The only thing was which is the same as the rest of the trilogy, there is a few bits repeated but I think I've finally got use to those things now as it seems to be way of writing the books. Which I guess means that if you've had to wait a year between books like me then you may not have had to reread each individual book each time a book got released.

I'd definitely recommend this trilogy to everyone that likes real world problems, strong female characters, strong friendships, a hint of love, and huge plot twists that keep you on your toes. It is a highly anticipated book and is so fast paced I swear you could have the whole trilogy read in a week no matter the speed or time it takes you to read. So add it to your to be read list and make sure you read it soon especially if you are in a reading slump. God I'm going to miss this trilogy so much, going to make sure to read it at least every other year if not every year. I loved it so much.

Favourite Character: Leora

Read: 28/03/19 - 29/03/19

5 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie