In one of the GRE questions, I encountered with the beneath inquiry:

Some authors-to-be and new authors have trouble figuring out precisely how to ___________ that book into speaking.
A. apply
B. leverage
C. utilize

I mused that the right answer is A or C, but I found that neither is correct. And B is the accurate item. It seems that the blank space should be filled with the synonyms of use, exercise, etc. and to me, "leverage" is out of the question.