Monday, November 22, 2010

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell

From Goodreads: The summer of 1889 is the one between childhood and womanhood for Amelia van den Broek—and thankfully, she’s not spending it at home in rural Maine. She’s been sent to Baltimore to stay with her stylish cousin, Zora, who will show her all the pleasures of city life and help her find a suitable man to marry. 


With diversions ranging from archery in the park to dazzling balls and hints of forbidden romance, Victorian Baltimore is more exciting than Amelia imagined. But her gaiety is interrupted by disturbing, dreamlike visions she has only at sunset—visions that offer glimpses of the future. Soon, friends and strangers alike call on Amelia to hear her prophecies. Newly dubbed "Maine’s Own Mystic", Amelia is suddenly quite in demand. 

However, her attraction to Nathaniel, an artist who is decidedly outside of Zora's circle, threatens the new life Amelia is building in Baltimore. This enigmatic young man is keeping secrets of his own—still, Amelia finds herself irrepressibly drawn to him. And while she has no trouble seeing the futures of others, she cannot predict whether Nathaniel will remain in hers. 

When one of her darkest visions comes to pass, Amelia's world is thrown into chaos. And those around her begin to wonder if she’s not the seer of dark portents, but the cause.

This book won't be out for a while, but I read it a while ago and I didn't want to wait anymore. This book was a bit dark at times, but I really liked it. I just didn't see a happy ending coming (which made the book all the more interesting) and "when one of her darkest visions comes to pass" I couldn't help but feel sorry for the Amelia and Nathaniel. I started seeing her "visions" as a curse. 
The story went back and forth between her summer in Baltimore and the Fall afterwards when she is back in Maine, but the large majority of the story is in Baltimore. This book was dark and romantic, a great combination in my opinion, Nathaniel is a "starving artist" but there is more than meets the eye with him...
 The ending was my favorite part :)  This is a great late night read, it won't be out until March so pre order.

I give this book 4 owls!


2 comments:

  1. I really like it when a book takes a dark turn before the happy ending. Makes me feel like the characters have faced a life changing adventure.

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  2. I'll added this book to my wishlist.

    Thanks for your review ^^

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