Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Chapter by Chapter Presents: Nobody's Lady by @McNultyAmy Double Review feature @chapterxchapter #book #giveaway

See! I knew I'd have a review! 

But it just so happens we're a tour stop today on our book homie Amy McNulty's blog tour for Nobody's Lady. 
We've hosted the first book in queue "Nobody's Goddess" for a cover reveal a loooong time ago, because c'mon, look at that cover. I even remember requesting to read it, but since I never did, I bought it hoping that'd make up for it ^_^

Since the cover to the second book was equally amazeballs, I decided to hunker down and read the damn books back to back so I wouldn't miss anything.

I've been on that audiobook life, so words on paper are like, "huh?" to me now. These books would make cool audiobooks btw publishers ;p

Anyway, back to the reviews.
Nobody's Goddess/Nobody's Lady
April 20th, 2016
My Double Review:

 Nobody's Lady has an interesting premise.  It's a matriarchal society that the main character Noll(who's of color btw) has to navigate through.

It was a little confusing at first, because I didn't understand the first, like, 25 pages. But maybe it's because I tend to naturally bypass prologue, so I had to read it over to understand it.

But anyway, in Noll's world, men wear veils until they choose a mate, which they refer to as their goddess. They can't take off said mask until their mates return such love, or they risk death if anyone else sees their face.

Since there's often only one man for one woman, Noll watches as her friend pool slims to next to no one, as they find their goddesses. Noll is a tomboy by the way. I should've mentioned that most her friends seemed to be cisgender boys.

I'm not sure if I read whether there are trans boys, or more than just gender conforming characters. But it appears to mainly fit a hetero-normative view, which isn't evil or anything, but as someone who's done this, I wished I'd been aware before I did so.

Anyway, shit hits the fan when her boy finds a goddess in her sister. That's when it really got interesting 0_o because naturally I'm attracted to the drama of it all.

 The book turns part time travel, when Noll decides to go into the past to figure out if it's possible to change their society the way it was from it's source, before the curse was put on men in the first place.

It's a bit of a 4-4.5 for me, because it had a lot of stuff I like, but the stuff that confused me made me take it down. 

If people are truly looking for something different with matriarchal societies, female main characters in fantasy/science fiction, with a teeny bit of feminism, they'd love this book! 
Nobody's Lady was the stand out book to me so far, but I think I preferred the drama XD

This book focuses more on the aftermath of men longer being subject to the curse of the goddess.

Can you say Divorce Court?

All marriages have been voided, and men are allowed to use their own free will to choose lovers. Past unions are allowed to remarry if they choose, but you know that pesky little detail in book one where Noll's bestie/lover/homie/friend married her sister? XD

It was interesting that men didn't know what to do with this newfound freedom. It reminded me of the angels in Supernatural, when they didn't have a leader, because they were mainly followers.

I think what's the best thing about these books is that they're first person. I can read third person and enjoy them, but Noll's voice, even when she's not the most relatable heroine, is better suited for 1st person.

And when I say relatable, I mean relatable to me, not in a general sense. 

But back to the review. There were great consequences for all the actions of Noll's time traveling. When I picked up these books, I had no idea that was an aspect of the book, but I'll be sure to add it to my diverse time travel books list when I actually make one =)

Overall, because of the drama, I thought it kept my attention more than the first. 

I really look forward to book 3!

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.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway! You could win a copy for yourself!
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2 comments:

  1. Thank you for taking the time to read (and re-read!) and review! :D You rock! I love the little ninja rating system, by the way!

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  2. @amymculty.com

    Thanks for stopping by! The little ninjas get everybody ;p

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