Moonvine by Lucy Hoden (The Nightgarden Saga #2)

Title: Moonvine

Author:  Lucy Holden

Series: The Nightgarden Saga (#2)

Publisher: Fehu Press

Publication date: October 16th, 2021

Young Adult

Goodreads Synopsis

Secrets. Lies. Danger.

Harper Ellory has a secret: nobody knows what the emerald on her left hand really means. Sometimes she wonders if she imagined Antoine Marigny.

Harper knows holding a party is a bad idea. There are deadly creatures sleeping in the cellar, a mysterious stranger asking suspicious questions, and rough boys from the bayou who know more about the mansion than they should.

Harper doesn't want Antoine running to her rescue. She's made her choices, and he his. The mansion, and the dark secret beneath it, are her responsibility.

But now the secret is out, and Harper's friends are in the kind of trouble that only Antoine's brand of dangerous is equipped to handle.

Now Harper isn't the only one facing choices. Choices that will have dangerous consequences - forever.

Moon Vine is the second gripping installment in the Nightgarden Saga. A YA paranormal romance full of southern gothic atmosphere, dark twists with high stakes, and heart wrenching romance that will tear your heart up, Moon Vine will keep you up late into the night.

If you're a fan of The Vampire Diaries, Twilight, and romance that rips your heart out, you'll love the Nightgarden Saga.

Quick Thoughts

In the second installment of the Nightgarden saga, we see the return of all the characters we loved from the first novel, with a little bit of a shift of focus. This book focused a lot more on Connor and Cass' relationship than on Antoine and Harper's, which wasn't quite what I was hoping for but definitely necessary for plot and character development.  

Speaking of characters and well, their development, a new supernatural element was added and I'm so excited to see where that could take us in the future books.

I also loved that this saga is still giving very much The Vampire Diaries vibes, with the romance and the atmosphere.

Overall I enjoyed the book and seeing the characters and plotline develop further in this book and can't wait to see where the third installment takes all the supernatural and romantic elements that were introduced here.

Red Magnolia by Lucy Holden

Title: Red Magnolia

Author: Lucy Holden

Series: The Nightgarden Saga (#1)

Publisher: Fehu Press

Expected Publication Date: September 15, 2021

Introduction

Looking for a fresh start, Harper and her brother Connor move into an old, run down mansion that seems to harbor history of curses, not to mention that something weird seems to be going on in the old cemented-up cellar. Nobody seems willing to let this history go, especially not Antoine, a mysterious man who seems hellbent on getting Harper and her brother out of that mansion, no matter what the cost.

Pace

This book, in epub. format, at least, is less than 200 pages, making this a very quick and fast-paced story.

Characters & Relationships

Generally, I liked all of the characters, but I have a few small gripes about Harper's friend, Avery, her interest in Harper's brother, Connor, and Harper's, in my opinion, weird acceptance of it. It seemed like the only reason Avery ever came around was to ogle at Connor, and she hardly actually seemed interested in being Harper's friend just for friendship's sake. Given that Harper just moved to town, it's fair to assume that she would take friendship with anybody, but it's hard to believe that she would just let Avery come around so often when she's obviously just interested in Connor, and I can see that becoming a conflict in later books (which I'm excited to see play out, if that happens.)

Vampire Element

The vampire history and origin story of the vampires in this book is pretty on par with other YA vampire books that I've read. I like that the vampires here have to drink human blood as opposed to going the "vegetarian" route with animal blood or other substitutes. I've grown used to reading about vampires that don't drink human blood because They're Good Vampires and Hate The Curse and Would Never Harm Anybody because that's Not Who They Are so I liked this more classic route.

Twilight Vibes (Slight Spoilers)

There are STRONG Twilight vibes in this novel. The party scene where Antione swoops in to save Harper from a bunch of scary men is stunningly similar to the the scene in Twilight where Edward does the same for Bella.

Even more similar was the way that Antoine made Harper say that he was a vampire instead of saying the words himself, just like Edward.

I'm definitely not saying that these similarities are a bad thing, I just think it's worth mentioning that they are there, so if you love Twilight, this book might be for you.

Conclusion

I liked this book. It was a very quick read and good for scratching a vampire story itch. I think depending on if you enjoyed Twilight might gauge how you feel about this book because as I mentioned, there are a lot of similarities. I shamelessly enjoyed Twilight, so this was a good book for me, and the similarities were welcome. I would like to continue with this saga and will be looking out for more from this author.