Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for NOBODY'S LADY! I have a fantastic guest post by the author to share with you - and don't forget to enter the giveaway! To follow the rest of the tour, click on the banner above.
Nobody's Lady (Never Veil #2)
Release Date: April 12, 2016
Publisher: Month9Books
Description:
For the first time in a thousand years, the men in Noll’s village possess the freedom to love whom they will. In order to give each man the chance to fully explore his feelings, the lord of the village decrees all marriages null and void until both spouses declare their love for one another and their desire to wed again. What many women think will be a simple matter becomes a source of village-wide tension as most men decide to leave their families and responsibilities behind.
Rejected by the lord and ashamed of her part in the village’s history, Noll withdraws from her family and lives life as an independent woodcarver. This changes when her sister accuses her of hiding her former husband Jurij from her—and when Jurij eventually does ask to move in. Determined not to make the same mistakes, Noll decides to support her male friends through their new emotional experiences, but she’s soon caught up in a darker plot than she ever dared imagine possible from the men she thought she knew so well. And the lord for whom she still has feelings may be hiding the most frightening truth of them all.
Top 10 Favorite Books
10. Vicious by V.E. Schwab
I’m a huge fan of superpowers and foes who were once friends (which is why I’m obsessed with the Xavier and Magneto dynamic), and Vicious delivers both in spades. The way the characters get their powers is amazing, and those moments drip with tension. I also love how instead of making Eli the hero, the story seems to favor Victor, who initially appears to be the more evil of the two.
9. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
I was slow to warm up to The Lunar Chronicles (and I still haven’t actually finished them!), but by the third book, my favorite, Cress, I was hooked. I love how fairy tales meet sci-fi and how Meyer reinterprets the classic tales to suit the altered environments. I also can’t help but see (and love) how it’s subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) an homage to Sailor Moon, which was also one of my favorite anime growing up.
8. Nancy Werlin’s Books
I got a free copy of Nancy Werlin’s Unthinkable at a convention and I’d never read any of her books before. Even though it was the second (sort of third) book in a series, I gave it a shot and was fascinated by the complicated situation in which the heroine found herself and the evil, mysterious man who’d put her in that position. I went on to read most of Werlin’s other books and I enjoyed them all, but Impossible, the first book in that series, is probably my favorite.
7. A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan
I love fairy tale retellings, and this sci-fi, futuristic Sleeping Beauty takes place after the “sleeping beauty” wakes up. It details Rose’s slow acclimation to the changed world around her and subtly drops hints about the horrific details of her past. I especially loved the relationship she develops with Otto, a telepathic boy who was part of a genetic experiment.
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights is about some very overly dramatic people and a romance that destroys lives. I never actually loved Catherine and Heathcliff; I found them too self-centered to root for. But I was fascinated by the way their relationship took over the lives of their spouses and even their children, as their courtship is echoed in a second generation. It always bothered me that so many film and TV adaptations throw out the entire second part of the book, about Catherine’s daughter and Heathcliff’s son, because Cathy’s lesson to not follow in her mother’s footsteps is what I found most riveting.
5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
A brooding hero and a shy but headstrong young woman. An enigmatic mansion and devastating secrets. Jane Eyre had me hooked from the start, which details Jane’s early life as she grows to become the woman to win temperamental Edward Rochester’s heart. The moody atmosphere of the Brontë sisters’ work really connected with me, as did the often-torrid romances. (Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall didn’t make my top ten, but it’s also good and portrays a more realistic—and negative—relationship with a brooding, sullen admirer.)
4. Diana Wynne Jones’ Books
I first picked up Howl’s Moving Castle because I knew Studio Ghibli was making an anime movie of it, and even though I actually liked the film a lot less than the book, I’m so glad they led me to Jones’ work! Jones’ fantastical worlds and plots are imaginative and draw you in. Her characters pop off the page and she often deploys twists you never see coming. I’ve read every one of her books, and there isn’t a bad one in the bunch. My favorites are probably Howl’s, The Chronicles of Chrestomanci books, and Fire and Hemlock.
3. Jane Austen’s Books
Jane Austen is funny. I don’t think people new to her work know how amusing and compelling her prose can be. Her plots will have you riveted, if you enjoy slow-building romances—which I do. Her heroines and their love interests are as different as can be from one book to the next, showing Austen’s remarkable capabilities to create characters. I love them all, but I’m especially fond of Mansfield Park because I saw a lot of myself in the reticent heroine.
2. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games was probably my first introduction to dystopian, and I was several years late to the party. They sounded intriguing, but I never imagined they would be so unputdownable for me. It took about a week for me to read the first one because I was busy, but I read the second and third in two or three days total. (I was trapped home because of snow anyway!) The prose really puts you there in the story with Katniss, and I loved how Katniss was so cold and almost emotionless but still had a heart of gold beneath it all. I initially thought I’d like Gale, but I was won over by Peeta’s sweet nature and his devotion to Katniss in the arena. My favorite of the trilogy was Catching Fire.
1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Although I’ve always loved fantastical stories, I actually actively avoided Harry Potter for the first few years of its popularity, as I was burned out on stories about young boys when I was growing up and didn’t think I’d connect with it. Of course, I never expected the series to be as amazing as it was, and while I did connect with Harry, the world is full of such rich characters, he’s far from my favorite. I love the mysteries that comprise the plots of each book, and Hogwarts makes me feel so cozy, even though it’s such a dangerous and dank place. I really loved Prisoner of Azkaban and Half-Blood Prince, but in retrospect, I think Deathly Hallows is my favorite because it brings everything together and my favorite character, Snape, treads the line of good and evil so adeptly.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your favorite books with us today Amy!
OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:
In a village of masked men, magic compels each man to love only one woman and to follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. And a man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.
Seventeen-year-old Noll isn't in the mood to celebrate. Her childhood friends have paired off and her closest companion, Jurij, found his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever chosen her.
Thus begins a dangerous game between the choice of woman versus the magic of man. And the stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither is willing to lose.
Amy
McNulty is a freelance writer and editor from Wisconsin with an honors
degree in English. She was first published in a national scholarly
journal (The Concord Review) while in high school and currently writes
professionally about everything from business marketing to anime. In her
down time, you can find her crafting stories with dastardly villains
and antiheroes set in fantastical medieval settings.
Thanks so much for having me on the blog!
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