Night Sky by Jolene Perry (Book Review)

Title: Night Sky
Author: Jolene Perry
Publisher: Tribute Books


About the book: Girl I’ve loved, girl I’m falling for. Now that they’re both in view, the problem is clear.

After losing Sarah, the friend he’s loved, to some other guy, Jameson meets Sky. Her Native American roots, fluid movements, and need for brutal honesty become addictive fast. This is good. Jameson needs distraction – his dad leaves for another woman, his mom’s walking around like a zombie, and Sarah’s new boyfriend can’t keep his hands off of her.

As he spends time with Sky and learns about her village, her totems, and her friends with drums - she's way more than distraction. Jameson's falling for her fast.

But Sky’s need for honesty somehow doesn’t extend to her life story – and Jameson just may need more than his new girl to keep him distracted from the disaster of his senior year.

About the author: Jolene grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a degree in political science and French, which she used to teach math to middle schoolers.

After living in Washington, Utah and Las Vegas, she now resides in Alaska with her husband, and two children. Aside from writing, Jolene sews, plays the guitar, sings when forced, and spends as much time outside as possible.

She is also the author of The Next Door Boys and the upcoming Knee Deep.

You can connect with Jolene on Facebook, Twitter, her website, her blog, and on Goodreads.

My thoughts:  This was a very gentle coming-of-age story for Jameson, or Jay, as most of his friends called him.  Now I don't mean gentle in the way that means there was no conflict.  I don't think you can really have a  coming-of-age story without conflict, and some of the things that Jay deals with are some pretty weighty issues.  I mean gentle in that it flowed smoothly from the beginning of the story.  I became invested in the characters pretty quickly, and liked the interaction between Jay and Sky.

What really made Night Sky interesting for me though, was that it was a romance, from a guy's perspective. Jameson was actually able to be sensitive and have real feelings without being too sappy. I liked the way that he stepped up for his mom when she was hurting, and recognized that she might need some extra help with his dad gone. He also tried to be loyal to his friend Sarah, even when she and her new boyfriend Eric were practically in his face a lot. 

And then there was Sky.  She is a neighbor's granddaughter from Alaska, whom Jay meets quite by chance.  She is a freshman at the local college, but hits it off almost immediately with Jameson.  The only things she asks of him is for complete honesty.  The problem with complete honesty is that it means you have to be completely honest with yourself as well.  

I enjoyed this book.  It wasn't a heavy read even though it dealt with some heavy subjects. I think the focus though was on how we get through the bad stuff and come out on the other end, which gave it a very positive spin. 

~I received a complimentary ecopy of this book from Tribute Books in exchange for my unbiased review.~

Night Sky

Publisher/Publication Date: Tribute Books, March 2012

ISBN: 9780983741862
ISBN: 9781466052338

247 pages

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