A fun sort of retelling of a few different fairytales set during the great depression. If you are a fan of historical fiction, you will enjoy!

I knew going into this one that it would be a dreamlike book with horror elements and a lot of ballet. And I actually did enjoy the very beginning which was focused on the main character and her life as a ballerina. The writing is very wordy and uses a lot of space to say a little, but it is pretty.
Once the book got to the end of part 1, and even more so in part 2 and the ending, I did not like this one bit. The plot escalated so quickly that it as hard to believe in it or wrap my head around the stakes. The vibe was weird (definitely had a gothic horror feel!) but not in a fun way. It was supposed to be intense and serious but I just felt like it was ridiculous, over the top, and creepy.
As a side note, this isn’t a romance book at all. Just heads up because the synopsis is a little vague!
I really don’t recommend this one, sadly.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Nocturne is the tale of Grace Dragotta, a ballerina who grew up owing everything to the strict Mistress of the ballet. When a mysterious patron, Master La Rosa, selects Grace as his chosen one her entire life changes overnight. She is given a highly coveted position in the ballet and forced to move into the patron’s home. Grace is offered a dance with the master at midnight and she starts to question her grip on reality. When dangerous secrets are revealed, Grace must decide if she trusts Master La Rosa.

Nocturne is a lyrical and chilling story. It's a love letter to Phantom of the Opera, with elements from Hades & Persephone, and themes from Orpheus & Eurydice. The writing is very descriptive, sometimes to a fault. I think if readers do not enjoy overly intricate details, then they will likely struggle with this aspect. Overall, I enjoyed myself and was swept away to a glittering and ominous version of Chicago. Nocturne is a beautiful and tangled tale; the twist took me by surprise! I loved the friendship between Grace and Emilia, they were always there for each other no matter what. I would recommend Nocturne for readers who enjoy lyrical prose, vivid descriptions, and stories that stay in your mind long after the final page.

Nocturne releases February 21, 2023. Thank you to Alyssa Wees, Del Rey, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF after 7 chapters

While the storyline and premise for Nocturne are definitely interesting and 100% up my alley, this book is incredibly slow. I like detailed writing, I really do, but many times it felt like the author was adding so much detail about mundane things, or dragging certain parts on for far too long. Some sentences/sections went on for so long that I forgot what lead us there and how it was relevant to the plot. I do think that I would probably check this out again once it's been recorded as an audiobook.

Wow, I thought this was such a beautifully written gothic fantasy.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Grace is an organ who has been promoted to prima ballerina of the Near North Ballet. Her performance was sponsored by a mysterious patron, Master La Rosa, who, come to find out, also orchestrated her ascent to prima. But it comes with a price.. she much come to live with him, and dance with him at midnight every Sunday. When she does, she finds the mansion cloaked in mystery and full of otherworldly secrets, and is caught between illusion and reality.

This was a lovely dark fantasy seemingly inspired by Hades and Persephone, Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera. The prose was beautiful and lyrical and the writing has a dark, dreamlike quality that I loved. I was enchanted by the story and characters. I liked Grace’s development, and loved her relationship with her dear friend Emilia. I haven’t read Alyssa Wees before, but I will be picking up her other books.

First I want to be thank NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC copy in return of an honest review.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book. However, this is nothing against the author. Many will enjoy this book; I just found it wasn’t my cup of tea.

I wanted to enjoy this book, but as I continued to read, I just couldn’t get past the style of writing.
This book was beautifully written and immensely descriptive. However, it tended to be so overly descriptive that the plot and build-up of characters seemed to be almost neglected. Nothing and nobody can be talked about in this story without an onslaught of analogies and metaphors added in.

Now I know some might say, “but you said the book was beautifully written, so how can you dislike it?” You’re right! I did say it was beautifully written, and I stand by that. Wees’s writing can bring forth a sense of magic with her words that allow the reader to picture what she is describing with ease.
I know that there will be many readers who love the way that this story is written.

Unfortunately, for me, it is too overly ornate that it disrupts the flow of her story, and I found that to be too distracting.
I found it almost exhausting to get through the story and trying to understand the FMC as well as understanding what was happening as the plot TRIED to take form.

What I mean by that is that I could never grasp who the FMC truly was. Her character was only driven forward by the overly descriptive narratives and thoughts inside her head, nothing more.
And as for the plot, it almost seemed as if the author didn’t fully know which direction to take it in, as it never seemed to move forward in one definitive way or the other.

This book was described as a fantasy with hints of hades & Persephone, as well as beauty & the beast. But, I think Wees got too lost in her excessive descriptions and words that the retellings got mixed into a plot that lost its sense of direction and is confusing to understand.

If you want a story mainly of beautifully woven words with no character build-up and a confusing plot, then this story is for you.

I received an ecopy from NetGalley and the Publisher.

To start off I loved this book! It wasn't perfect but I don't judge books by technical standards...mostly. I judge by entertainment and this book had my attention the entire time. I want to say that this book is chief's kiss but really I don't like that cliche. So, how about...NOCTURNE DESERVES A SPECIAL EDITION!

I love the emotion, the lyricism, the attention to detail, and even the ending has grown on me. Despite having me in tears. If you like the dark elements of Phantom of the Opera, the fairytale of Beauty and the Beast, and the ballet the Firebird I really recommend reading Nocturne.

There were very few things I didn't like and those were mostly overused words such as ice, dusk, and bird. That last one is because I don't really care for birds. But it's not really a flaw. I will put a more thorough review of the book on my blog which I'll link later.
Here is the full review: https://bugschaoticstacks.blogspot.com/2023/01/nocturne-by-alyssa-wees.html

I received a copy from Netgalley and the publisher.

So Nocturne is a flowery story of Death, Sleep and Eternal Life. It follows Grace as she performs for the first time as a prima ballerina, after her best friend Emilia decides to retire from dance. As the prima, she does well enough to receive a patron that keeps the entire corp from going broke, but little does Grace know the mysterious patron as more nefarious intentions.

Overall, I think the prose is really well done, but the plot could have had a little more action into it. The beginning 40% is very ballet heavy and we lose it a lot in the middle part and I think it stall the story a bit. While I really enjoyed this story (especially the end because who doesn't love when the person who was the victim is the only winner in the end), but the story itself (this will be kind of niche) is so similar to Black Swan, The Star-Touched Queen, and Addie LaRue. Not in a plagiarism kind of way, but definitely in a "I read/watched all of these things and am pulling inspiration from them." If you liked any and all of those stories then this is definitely the book for you.

First, I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity of reading an advanced copy of this book. Overall, this was a good book. The weaving of the themes of dancing with Death and Sleep, was well done and quite magical. At first, I thought this would be just another retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but the twist, totally turned it around and I have mad respect for the author as it was a twist that I didn't expect. Brava and grazie for a wonderful surprise and a well written book.

DNF. Posting to Goodreads. 1/14/23
Thank you NetGalley for this book in exchange for my honest review.
This is the first ARC I’ve ever gotten. And I was super excited to read it! But unfortunately, I was bored. There was way too much detail. It’s definitely slow paced, but it feels slower than a typical slow paced book. Nothing happens in the first 60 pages except she gets made prima ballerina. There was nothing that made me want to keep reading. And I’m not the type to push through a book I’m not enjoying, so I decided to DNF this one.

Moving me to tears is a difficult feat. This book did just that. It is beautiful and masterfully crafted; I would recommend it to my friends in a heartbeat. The writing captivated me from the start, and though the plot and romance were slow to develop, Grace was a compelling enough character to carry me through the first part of the book. As a former figure skater (and attempted ballerina), I empathized with her feelings about ballet, her devotion to her art, her longing for transcendence. The slow pace of the plot made ample room for Grace’s thoughts and feelings, and I feel like the ending would have lacked its emotional punch without them.
The romance was a believable slow burn, allowing Grace to take center stage as she navigated her fantastic new surroundings. For a minute, I was worried I was going to get another Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I was pleasantly surprised by the originality of the magic. I was able to guess the twist at the end, but that’s okay. For me, this book wasn’t about big reveals and dramatic twists, but about Grace’s emotional arc. Readers craving fast paced action might want to skip this book, but if you’re looking for a beautiful, atmospheric fantasy to curl up with on a rainy evening, this is your book.

The overall concept for this story seemed like it would be right up my alley. A little phantom, a little beauty and the beast. But the book itself just never came together the way it could have. I’m not sure if I’m just not a fan of this particular author’s writing style, or if the book just wasn’t for me, but I could not seem to get into it. It felt like it was too slow at times but then hinted at buildup for what ended up being a rather anticlimactic ending. The characters were not as relatable as I would hope. I actually really disliked Grace and could not find anything really interesting about her. I was really hopeful, but in the end this book just fell flat.

"In this haunting, evocative fantasy set in 1930s Chicago, a talented ballerina finds herself torn between her dreams and her desires when she's pursued by a secretive patron who may be more than he seems.

Growing up in Chicago's Little Sicily in the years following the Great War, Grace Dragotta has always wanted to be a ballerina, ever since she first peered through the windows of the Near North Ballet company. So when Grace is orphaned, she chooses the ballet as her home, imagining herself forever ensconced in a transcendent world of light and beauty so different from her poor, immigrant upbringing.

Years later, with the Great Depression in full swing, Grace has become the company's new prima ballerina - though achieving her long-held dream is not the triumph she once envisioned. Time and familiarity have tarnished that shining vision, and her new position means the loss of her best friend in the world. Then she attracts the attention of the enigmatic Master La Rosa as her personal patron and realizes the world is not as small or constricted as she had come to fear.

Who is her mysterious patron, and what does he want from her? As Grace begins to unlock the Master's secrets, she discovers that there is beauty in darkness as well as light, finds that true friendship cannot be broken by time or distance, and realizes there may be another way entirely to achieve the transcendence she has always sought."

I always love the dark side of ballet!

Thank you to Del Rey Books for an e-arc of Nocturne, by Alyssa Wees. I devoured this. I knew to expect dark fantasy with strong thematic elements drawn from fairy tale (Beauty and the Beast) and mythology (Hades and Persephone). I had not expected suspense, mystery and poetic horror. Reading this felt like always being in that liminal space between wakefulness and sleep, never quite sure what's real and what's a dream, prodding yourself to move or speak while always feeling pulled back into your own subconscious. Wees's writing is atmospheric, reflecting the 1930s Chicago winter on every page, and shifts fluidly between the macabre and the transcendent. The turn of phrase that still feels most representative of her prose is her description of Grace's approach to the ballroom to see The Master - she describes the light shining beneath the door as a "slit throat" merely two lines before she describes Grace's heart as "clear water, like an ocean at rest."

This is a book for lovers of classic fairy tales, for those who enjoy the enchantment and the constant feeling of not-quite-right, who enjoy a cast of imperfect characters and anti-heroes, who know that true fairy tales are less a battle between good and evil and more a battle between being remembered or being forgotten, who know the ending is rarely happily ever after.

And the ENDING of this book. It is perfect and wholly unexpected and so thrilling. I could see it as though I were watching it on the stage, and the moment everything turns, I wanted to scream with fear and delight.

Know that this is not a romance, though there is romance. This is dark fantasy with touches of horror. If the very first puppet bow was your favorite moment in Thistlefoot, if you longed for more Luc in Addie LaRue, if you have ever felt, like Grace, the pull of music into another world, then I highly recommend Nocturne.

This was my first eARC from NetGalley and it has set the bar so high. Wees is a wonderful writer and her prose drew me into Grace's world. This type of story—a dark, female-lead fairytale—is my favorite, but I tend to have very high standards for them. Nocturne is the rare gem of a book that is willing to tell a story exactly as it needs to be told and it is a better novel for it. The way that both dance and death are interwoven into Grace's life is done so beautifully. I would high recommend this book to fans of Adalyn Grace's Belladonna or Erin A. Craig's House of Salt and Sorrows. I will be thinking about Nocturne for days to come and can't wait to see what Wees does next.

This book was beautifully written! I loved how magical this story felt. I felt like I was able to step directly into the story. Us readers will follow along with Grace and her journey to become prima ballerina

What I did enjoy:
- the writing! Seriously its beautifully written and magical prose. I admired the writing style and how well done it was
- The characters are interesting and fleshed out
- The dancing elements! I felt like a kid again in my ballet obsession. I really liked that element
- The romance was a nice surprise

I really enjoyed this story! 4 stars out of 5. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel.

2.5/5 stars.

Things I liked about Nocturne:
1. The writing style. It was magical and really brought me into the world. Very descriptive.
2. The dance references. The author either did research very well or knew this from her own experiences. I loved the use of proper terminology and helped me imagine the scenes. However, if I didn’t already know what the steps looked like, I would be confused. They were just name dropped for effect and never really explained. I mainly wanted to read this book because of the dance aspect, as I am a dancer.
3. The ending. I liked how all the characters and little things we had learned throughout the book connected at the end.

Things I didn’t like as much:
1. The plot. The main storyline started around page 80, which in a 227 paged book is a little later than I expected. I was also confused a lot during the later chapters, and it felt rushed at the end.
2. The romance. I thought that Grace disliked the Master, but they acted in love very soon after.
3. The setting. Early 1900s Chicago, but it could have been anywhere in the world after the beginning of the book. There was nothing that distinctly felt like Chicago to me. Noctem was interesting though, and I think that a book told entirely in Noctem would be cool.

Overall, there were just more cons than pros in this book. I did really enjoy the beginning where it was focused on Grace becoming prima ballerina, but once the fantasy elements came in, everything got confusing.

This dark Gothic romance is so enchanting. I could not put it down. So entertaining that you get lost in the story.
I just reviewed Nocturne by Alyssa Wees. #Nocturne #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

This book is beautiful, poetic, and a bit surreal. There were parts of it that I really enjoyed. It reads like a lyrical fever dream. It is well written with intriguing characters.

We follow Grace Dragotta as she makes difficult choices while following her dream of prima ballerina. We learn the cost that comes with it and what she must do to find who she really is.

Thank you NetGalley and Del Rey for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Nocturne by Alyssa Wees in exchange for an honest review. This book definitely started out with a Phantom of the Opera vibe, which I totally loved. It had a great gothic vibe and was definitely worth reading.