Night Sky Blog Tour: Review

I have the pleasure of hosting another tour stop for Tribute Books. Below is my review of Night Sky by Jolene Perry, plus information on the book. Hopefully you will like the sound of this!

Title: Night Sky
Author: Jolene Perry
Publisher: Tribute Books
Released: March 01, 2012
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Girl I’ve loved, girl I’m falling for. Now that they’re both in view, the problem is clear. 

After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her. 

As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast. 

But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.

Kindle | Nook | Smashwords | PDF

Review:

Contemporary fiction and I don’t always get along, unfortunately. If you hand me a pile of Contemporary books and pile of Science-Fiction & Fantasy books, I would almost certainly plunge straight into the latter. There are several reasons for this - but to put it simply, I can’t get the same ‘escape’ with realistic stories as I do with others. So why on earth did I even want to read Night Sky? I honestly don’t know. What I am certain of, however, is how glad I am that I DID read this book. 

Night Sky, a YA tale of the trials and tribulations of first love (or even second love), is my first book by Jolene Perry and it certainly won’t be the last. There is only so much content I can predict to be in a book about a boy and two girls, a past love and a new love, (and this is why I am not a writer) but I was thrilled to discover that this story was so much more than I could have imagined. Jolene Perry is an expert writer who manages to flawlessly craft a beautiful and modern love story. There is romance, emotions, ups and downs, and I found myself easily scrolling through the book, eager for more. 

Not only did the author manage to make me (of all people) fall in love with her contemporary story; she also does a truly brilliant job handling the male point of view. Night Sky is told through Jameson, the boy torn after two girls, and it couldn’t have been better told any other way. I can’t say I’m much of an expert when it comes to a realistic male point of view, but this one felt incredibly believable. I prefer female points of view (though it is funny saying that when my all-time favourite series is from the male perspective) but the author made me forget all about that. In fact, Jameson’s perspective felt so natural that I almost believed I had been reading from the male perspective my whole life. I have no idea how she pulled it off so well, but she definitely gets a metaphorical pat on the back from me. And what it is about the male perspective that makes a sort-of love triangle acceptable? It didn’t bother me in the slightest. 

It’s safe to say that I liked Jameson. He was a refreshing change and I supported him the whole way through the book. The girls, on the other hand, are not so easy for me to decide on. At first, I preferred Sarah, the girl Jameson had been in love with for the past three years. She isn’t a particularly remarkable character, but she is quite likeable, even if a little distant from the actual plot. Sky, the girl Jameson ends up falling for, didn’t create the right first impression on me. If I had been reading from her point of view and watched as she agreed to get into the car of a stranger and then go swimming in his pool half naked, I’m certain I wouldn’t have liked her at all. Luckily for Sky, Jameson takes the lead in this book and in Jameson’s eyes, Sky is a wonderful girl – a complex, honest character who can finally release him from the pain he feels with Sarah. It took me a while to agree with this, but when I did, Sky ended up being my favourite of the two girls and I found myself just as fascinated by the mystery that surrounds her as Jameson was. 

There is a twist with Sky’s character towards the end of the book and a pretty dramatic one at that. I do love it when a plot twist is exactly what it should be – a complete and utter surprise and not something that the reader can spot a mile away. It tied everything together and added nicely to the structure of the storyline. You know what my favourite thing about the twist was? Jameson’s reaction. Seriously, the author does it perfectly. We get both sides of Jameson here and it worked so well. He is as real as can be whilst also managing to be an impossibly loveable character. I adored him, basically. 

Night Sky proved to be a very different read to what I am used to but an enjoyable one nonetheless. This is definitely a book for the romance addicts. It’s something new and fresh, with the same sweet elements that a lot of romantics love. And hey, it’s the first contemporary book of the year that I thoroughly enjoyed, so you are probably safe to add this to your TBR lists! 

Rating: 4 stars