Monday, April 16, 2012

Blog Tour - Night Sky - Review


The Night Sky
By Jolene B. Perry
Release Date: March 1, 2012

Description:
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.

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Review:
I think Jolene B. Perry is one of my new favorite authors.  The fluidity of her words on paper, the reality of it I completely connected with the characters and most importantly loved the fact that this was done through the male point of view.  As most books are done through the female point of view, it's nice to see every now and then that men too have feelings.  I was addicted to the book the second I picked it up.  I didn't want to put it down even when it was three in the morning and I had to go to work the next day.  I thought the characters were just great and all the mention of swimming made me want to jump in the pool, but it's still not warm enough here to do something that crazy.  Let's get on to the amazing book.

First off we meet Jameson the main character, who is a great swimmer and lives in Vegas with his mom an dad who both work at the Paris casino/hotel.  First let me say that I've been to this location and it is amazing, Vegas itself is a beautiful place where magical things happen.  So Jameson is in love with his best friend Sarah but she's into another guy and Jameson actually helps them get together at the school dance.  Jameson is on his way home from that dance, too crushed to stay and deal with it.  This is when he runs into a beautiful girl named Sky who seems very lost, he pulls over and asks her if she needs a ride.  Turns out they literally live a couple houses away.  This was their epic meeting and it was great, I won't go into detail cause really you need to check it out. 

More days pass by and they grow closer but there is so much going on in Jameson's life that he is just trying to cope and all the while falling in love with Sky.  He's trying to deal with the entire situation with Sarah and how exactly he feels about her and her new relationship.  His parents are on the verge of a divorce, or at least it seems that way when his dad moves out.  And through all this he's dealing with his feelings for Sky, the intensity of them and how he wants things to move forward but slowly he realizes that he doesn't know much about her at all. 

Sky's big thing is being honest with each other.  If you have something to say you should say it and even if the other doesn't want to hear it, you feel it you say it.  That's how her and Jameson's relationship started and it teaches him how different that is with the relationship between him and Sarah how they never really told each other anything honest.  It's how he now wants to be in life, honest about everything.  His life is changing, and by the end of the book he's matured so much.  This is a complete coming of age contemporary with real life situations thrown in and subjects that many people can relate too.

There are some intense moments when his anger comes out, and there are some revelations that are made by Sky towards the end that totally flips him in the opposite direction which makes him even angrier.  But if he thought he was having problems and a complicated life then hers was much worse, he just didn't know or really thought to ask about them.  Then again she didn't volunteer the situation to him earlier, therefore making her dishonest, the complete opposite of what he thought she stood for.  It shows you that you really need to get to know the other person, and without complete honestly you can't move on because it will only hurt the other person. 

This book had fluidity in it, just like Sky.  It makes me want to read anything that Jolene writes, it was really interesting and a great story.  There's just so many things people go through in life that change them dramatically and it's always a beautiful thing to see it unfold in front of your eyes and that's how I felt about this book.

Quotes from the book:

“Now that they’re both in view, the problem is clear.
Girl I’ve loved, girl I’m falling for. Let’s meet in my driveway and see if we can give Jameson his first heart attack.”


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I glance at Sarah, realizing that I’ve been checking Sky out right in front of her.

“Gonna introduce me?” Sarah asks with a hard stare.

“Oh, sorry.” I wave for Sky to come over. Now that they’re both in view, the problem is clear. Girl I’ve loved, girl I’m falling for. Let’s meet in my driveway and see if we can give Jameson his first heart attack. 


I clear my throat twice before I find my voice. “Sarah, this is Sky. Sky, this is Sarah.”

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About the Author:
Jolene grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in political science and French, which she used to teach math to middle schoolers.

After living in Washington, Utah and Las Vegas, she now resides in Alaska with her husband, and two children. Aside from writing, Jolene sews, plays the guitar, sings when forced, and spends as much time outside as possible.

You can find her at www.jolenesbeenwriting.blogspot.com
Or on her author site at
http://www.jolenebperry.com/
Or her group blog -
http://www.fortheloveofcontemporary.blogspot.com/

1 comment:

Tribute Books said...

Cathy, I'm so glad that you enjoyed Jolene's book. Thanks for the fantastic review.