The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell.

The Vespertine

Author:  Saundra Mitchell

Genre:  YA

Publisher:  Harcourt's Children's Books

Date Published:  March 7th 2011

From Goodreads:  

It’s the summer of 1889, and Amelia van den Broek is new to Baltimore and eager to take in all the pleasures the city has to offer. 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. However, a forbidden romance with Nathaniel, an artist, 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.

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.

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The first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful cover of The Verspertine.  It really is gorgeous.  The book description then grabbed me, especially it being a historical YA. 

There were some solid good things about The Vespertine, but also some things that weren’t great.  Let me start with what I liked about The Vespertine.

1.    .   The time period was a huge plus.  A little different now and then goes a long way.  Saundra Mitchill did a great job with sticking with the time period, and making readers feel like you were there.  Basically the language, and mannerisms were accurate to the time period.

2.       Nathaniel, the protagonist’s leading man was freaking awesome.  He was a satisfying crush worthy character.  I understood Amelia’s draw to him. Sometimes I don’t understand the romances in YA, some guys just aren’t worth anyone’s time.

3.       Saundra Mitchell’s writing is so clean.  Does that make sense?  Her words flow and create this place I want to be. 

4.       The mystery, and the Amelia’s visions are very interesting and make for a good read. 

That being said I had problems with The Vespertine, as well.  I did not like Lizzy.  I don’t even have a good reason why I just don’t.   Also, though the beginning of the book is entertaining because Nathaniel is in the picture pretty quickly, the mystery part of the book seemed to come in too late for me.  Plot movement wasn’t quick enough for me in the beginning.

Overall, not a smashing hit in my eyes, it fell somewhere in the middle for me.  If you like time period reads I think you will enjoy it.