NATGG Button Neci has always had a mind of her own. She’s willful and determined, unwilling to allow anyone to tell her what to do. When a young composer named Ezra catches her eye, she fancies herself in love with him. In her mind, she’s destined be with him and no one else will do. Ezra is oblivious to this fact, yet he showers her with attention whenever she’s near.

Unbeknownst to her, he doesn’t really share the same feelings as she does for him. When Ezra decides that it’s time for him to make his own fortune, Neci knows she needs to make him see that she’s the one for him. But how can she do that if he refuses to see just how perfect they are?

Leaving the gypsy camp behind, Ezra immerses himself in his new world. Determined to make the most of things, he decides to open up a studio, never once imagining the good that would come of it. The beautiful and talented Marlene enters his life. Erasing the young gypsy’s memories and replacing them with new ones of the woman who’s now captured his heart, Ezra feels his life is going just the way he wants it to. In his heart, he intends to make Marlene his for the rest of his life.

NATGG BCAs word of Ezra’s engagement reaches Neci’s ears, she refuses to believe that he and the mystery woman are made for each other. Her heart clamors for his love just as her mind screams that they were meant to be together. Try as she might, she cannot let that fact go. Ezra was, and always will be, her first love and nothing anyone can say will change that fact.

This was quite a unique and intriguing read, very different from anything I’ve ever read before. The comic book aspect of the story was nice and I think the artist did a good job with the depictions for each panel.

Although the story is supposedly told via the eye of a parrot named Nuncio, it was actually a little difficult to decipher that fact in the beginning. Reason being is that the parrot doesn’t make an appearance until the halfway mark of the story. In true retrospect, it doesn’t really feel as if the parrot is the narrator since the characters are at the forefront of the story, in my honest opinion.

All in all, the premise of the story does capture the reader’s attention and it’s pace throughout is consistent. The book is a good read and the illustrators do depict what happens along the way more so than the dialogue itself does, keeping the reader focused on the story itself.

 

 

Available for purchase via the following retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble.

 

 

Synopsis:

Neci, the young and willful gypsy, is willing to risk everything to fulfill her need to be with Ezra, the object of her affection. She feels a calling to protect Ezra from his love, Marlene, a beautiful pianist.

We hear her mental wanderings and feel her pain as she struggles to make a place for herself in Ezra’s world. She feels no connection to girls her own age and Ezra struggles to resist her allure.

This drama and romantic thriller is based on real people and real events that take place between 1912-1960. Ezra interacts with Orville Wright, Charles Kettering and Elbert Hubbard, celebrities from the day

 

 

KA PictureAbout The Author:

Author Kristin Kuhns Alexandre is a fifth generation Daytonian whose father, grandfather and uncle all worked for the family pipe fitting company. Like many young people in the Midwest, Kristin yearned to abandon her roots and move east.

Nuncio and the Gypsy Girl in the Gilded Age is the first in a series of three graphic novels. “Neci Stans is an upwardly mobile gypsy but her story is really my story as well,” the author explains. “My friends and I all yearned to move away to a more glamorous life. And many of us did that and discovered that Dayton is not so bad after all.”

Kristin worked as a publicist, news reporter and talk show host in New York City and is the author of two relationship books: “Find a Great Guy: Now and Forever” and “The Perfect Gentleman: the Secrets Rich Girls Use to Choose the Classiest Guys”. Kirkus Reviews gave this book a glowing review.

Neci and her story are being developed into a television pilot and you may also follow Kristin’s Twitter, and her website.

Kristin resides in Delray Beach, Fla. with her husband, two children, two dogs and two cats.

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