"The Vespertine" by Saundra Mitchell

"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."-goodreads

I've read lot's of Paranormal books, and many Historical books. Those are basically my two favorite sub-genres of YA, so you can probably imagine that when I found out about a beautifully written, pretty covered book by the name of The Vespertine, I was very excited by the prospect.

I was NOT disappointed at all. It was amazing, just like everyone kept telling me it would be. It was soooo beautifully written, I felt like I was in the 1800s with Amelia and really involved in the story, and the writing just flowed nice and painted a brilliant picture of what was going on at all times. I really didn't think that Paranormal could flow very well for me in the 1800s, because I'd just never read anything like that, but I was proved wrong.


Amelia's unpreventable glimpses into the future and their unpredictable, usually messy consequences were filled with lots of different emotions. Just the way she and Zora handled her ability and going around to people and using it with no worries at first... it was very interesting. Amelia and Zora's relationship was particularly interesting because their friendship was boring at first but then they came to be kind of rebels together. Well, as close to rebelling for a young lady as you could be in that period, I suppose. It was funny.


Zora and Amelia's friendship leads me to their dances and their gentlemen. Zora and Thomas were cute. And of course then there's Amelia's love, Nathaniel. It was interesting, him being a fourteenth and socially unacceptable because he's an ARTIST. A deep starving artist, right? Yeah. The twist about what he actually was, wasn't something that I expected and that was really good.


Overall, The Vespertine was an amazing story and I can't wait for the sequel! I can't wait to read more of Saundra Mitchel's writing and I'm eager to pick up Shadowed Summer, a horror novel that she released before The Vespertine. If you like historical stuff from the 1800s, paranormal elements, and a 'forbidden' romance because the guy is an artist, you'll love the Vespertine; because it was amazing.