Happy Tuesday! We're so, so excited to be a part of the blog tour for Amy McNulty's newest book, Nobody's Lady! This is the second book in The Never Veil series, and we've been waiting for this one for what seems like forever! As a part of the tour, Ashley has her review for you today, and we've also got an incredible giveaway. So be sure to enter via the Rafflecopter form at the end of this post!
Also, don't forget to stop by all of the other fantastic blogs to check out more reviews, guest posts, and interviews. You can find the official tour schedule by clicking on the banner above!
Before we get to Ashley's review and the giveaway though, how about some more information about the book and Amy?
About the Book
Title: Nobody’s Lady (Never Veil #2)
Author: Amy McNulty
Publication Date: April 12, 2016
Publisher: Month9Books
Synopsis: 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.
Author: Amy McNulty
Publication Date: April 12, 2016
Publisher: Month9Books
Synopsis: 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.
Other Books in the Series
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.
About the Author
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.
Ashley's Review
You guys. If you haven't read Nobody's Goddess yet, you need to do that ASAP. Nobody's Lady was such a great sequel, and it was pretty much everything I was hoping for! There are still lots of twists and turns, and I still have so many questions about this world, but in a good way! Nobody's Lady picks up pretty much where Nobody's Goddess leaves off, with everyone still dealing with the aftermath of the curse being lifted.
I liked Noll much better in this book - she still kind of whines a lot, and she's still not satisfied with how things are, but I can kind of sympathize more with her now. She can finally be with the man she loves, Jurij, but she's not sure that she even wants to be with him. Because having the Lord break the curse has changed everything for her. I felt like she really matured over the course of the first book, and now her decisions and actions are much less impulsive.
I also felt like the world was better defined. But just when I was starting to get used to the rules, there's a whole new element that's introduced and now I have so many more questions! Will Noll ever be able to use the pool in the cavern to travel to the past again? Who is pulling the strings? What does Ailill know that he won't tell her? What happens now that the men are free to live their lives and love whomever they want? And then after that ending - I need to know more!!!
The one thing that I didn't really like, and it's not even much of a complaint, is that this book felt a little bit slower than the first one. I mean, I understand that there's a lot of setup and redefining everything that needs to happen now that the curse is broken, but I felt like there were several sections where I was just waiting for something big to happen. The whole first half of the book really felt that way, but then things do pick up and we're right back in the middle of all the action. Amy's writing is still fantastic and still had me frantically flipping pages trying to find out what was going to happen next though! It just felt to me like there was more exposition than there was actual things happening and I could definitely see where that could be a turn-off for some readers.
I would still 100% recommend this book to anyone who has read Nobody's Goddess and needs more Noll, Ailill, Jurij, and the rest of this incredible cast of characters and their world! This series would be great for anyone who enjoys YA fantasy novels, especially ones with strong, but flawed, heroines at the center of it. Noll is just trying to do what's best for herself and her village and learning as she goes. I cannot wait for the final book in this series, and would give this one a 4/5!
The Giveaway!
Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Nobody’s Lady by Amy McNulty (INT)
Thanks so much for taking the time to review and for your enthusiasm! :D
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