About the Book:
Title: BLINDING NIGHT
Author: Chantal Gadoury
Pub. Date: October 2, 2018
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 289
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Kobo
What if you were the missing piece in one of the world’s most epic legends?
Despite being an art history student, Summer isn’t thrilled to be stuck with her archeologist family all summer in Greece. While the rest of her college friends are posting a million selfies by the pool together, Summer is stuck alone, trying to entertain herself alone in a place where she doesn’t even speak the language.
Upon her arrival to Greece, strange dreams and even stranger shadows seem to haunt Summer, leaving her to ponder the meaning of pomegranate seeds and twisted, darkened faces.
Suddenly, her stay abroad leads to tragic twists, leaving Summer in the arms of a dark stranger, who claims to be the god, Hades, whom she feels like she knows from another life. In a whirlwind through the busy streets of Athens, Summer is seduced to the lowest point of Greece where Hades’ lair awaits…the Underworld. Determined to find out who she is and where she belongs in an age-old myth, Summer joins Hades to discover that the secrets about her past life are beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
My Review
Summer already knew that her summer was going to be unique. She just thought that it would be uniquely boring as she spent the summer with her archaeologist family in Greece. Not the ideal way to spend the last summer with her high school friends before heading off to college. Then, an accident occurs and she ends up being under the care of a man who claims to be Hades. Summer always had strange dreams, but now they start piecing themselves together as she learns about her past lives. She is the key to Hades’ mystery, but she doesn’t even know how she fits into the equation. Luckily, the dreams are there to teach her.
The book did start off slowly, but it picked up pace rather quickly. Once you get past the 50% mark, you will be thrown right into the Hades storyline. At first, I thought Summer was being a little ungrateful by not appreciating her trip to Greece, but she isn’t a typical ungrateful YA character. Her family was a little overbearing, so I could definitely understand her wanting her space.
In this story, Hades is portrayed as something other than evil and hateful. I won’t spoil anything, but his actions were more out of love than anything. I definitely liked to see him interacting with Summer in the Underworld.
The only reason why this book was a 4 star instead of 5 stars read for me was that it had such a slow start. By taking so long to “get to the point,” I ended up losing focus and dragging through the read at the start, Again, once I reached the 30% point when Hades first came into the picture and the 50% point where the storyline really picked up the pace. It was definitely unique to see the mostly-forgotten souls of the Underworld actually interacting with Summer. And the ending, wow. This was definitely a worthwhile read.
The plot of this book moves smoothly, and there was a lot of character development on both Summer and Hades’ parts. I did not notice any editing errors even though I was reading an advanced copy/unfinished copy of this book. No little things got in the way of my excellent reading experience.
I would recommend this book to lovers of YA/NA fantasy romance novels.
I received an advance copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
About Chantal:
Amazon Best Selling Author, Chantal Gadoury, is a 2011 graduate from Susquehanna University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing.
Since graduation, she has published “The Songs in Our Hearts” with 48Fourteen Publishing, and “Allerleirauh” with Parliament House Press, with future titles to follow. Chantal first started writing stories at the age of seven and continues with that love of writing today.
Writing novels for Chantal has become a life-long dream come true! When she’s not writing, she enjoys painting, drinking lots of DD Iced Coffee, and watching Disney classics. Chantal lives in Muncy, Pennsylvania with her Mom, Sister and furry-‘brother’ (aka, puppy) Taran.
Subscribe to Chantal’s Newsletter! https://www.chantalgadoury.com/newsletter
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Giveaway!
1 winner will win a signed finished copy of BLINDING NIGHT, US Only.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2809/?
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
10/1/2018- PopTheButterfly Reads– Review
10/2/2018- BookHounds YA– Excerpt
10/3/2018- YA/NA Book Divas– Review
10/4/2018- Bri’s Book Nook– Review
10/5/2018- Vesper Dreams– Review
Week Two:
10/8/2018- Such A Novel Idea– Review
10/9/2018- A Bookish Dream– Review
10/10/2018- Book Briefs– Review
10/11/2018- Random Bookish Banter– Review
10/12/2018- Adventures Thru Wonderland– Review