Review #577: The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

----Pablo Picasso

Sarah Dunant, the British bestselling novelist, has penned a delectable and extremely tempting historical fiction, The Birth of Venus that is set against the backdrop of the Renaissance Florence and that which revolves around a young 14 year old girl who is not beautiful or skilled like her elder sister, yet her talent and eye for art and mind for translating languages is extraordinary but with the changing times, she is forced into matrimony at a tender age, and little did she knew what fight she is put up for, in the name of honor, respect and womanhood during the Dominican rule in the 15th century Florence.

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Review #522: The Muse by Jessie Burton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”

----Pablo Picasso

Jessie Burton, an English author, has penned a deeply moving and intoxicating historical fiction novel, The Muse that narrates the story of two women separated by a timeline of almost thirty years, where the one is an aspiring Trinidadian woman who finds work as a typist in art gallery of London whose odd boss encourages and explores her talent in writing stories and one day, a mysterious painting lands up in that gallery with a deeply buried secret, that will take the readers back in time when the other woman who is a young teenage girl, is trying to keep her artistic talents hidden from her dominating art dealer father's eyes and when she meets a young housemaid and her half brother, her life forever changes with life shattering actions.

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Review #506: The Paris Secret by Karen Swan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”

----Pablo Picasso

Karen Swan, an English author, pens a heart-touching and intense contemporary romance novel, The Paris Secret which unfolds the story of a family as well as a powerful female art dealer who gets muddled into the family drama as well as the family secrets of a reputed and affluent French family suddenly discovered artworks are needed to be studied by the art dealer to find its origin as well as the reason behind its concealment, but there's more to art drama than this art dealer can ever guess.

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Review #489: Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.”

----Claude Monet

Michel Bussi, a French award-winning author, has penned a gut-wrenching and extremely intriguing crime thriller, Nympheas Noirs that has been translated into English by Shaun Whiteside and the English title is called, Black Water Lilies. The mystery revolves around a rich doctor's murder that occurred near Monet's famous garden in Giverny, that leads the detective to stumble upon the most beautiful woman of the village, while in the background, a little girl is trying to follow on the footsteps on Claude Monet to recreate his famous water lilies painting, and also an old female widow is managing pretty well to unfold the puzzling mystery with the help of her dog.

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Review #275: The Painter of Souls by Philip Kazan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

----Pablo Picasso

Pip Vaughan-Hughes, an English writer, writing under the name of Philip Kazan, pens a mystifying historical fiction, The Painter of Souls that is based on the life and times of the famous painter, Fra Filippo Lippi, during the 15th century Renaissance Florence. Although there is not much known to this great historic painter's life, so the author immerses into Filippo's paintings to give a fictional sketch of his early as well as later life in Florence.

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Blog Tour with Giveaway: Drawn by Chris Ledbetter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” 

----Oscar Wilde

Chris Ledbetter, an American YA author, pens an intriguing contemporary YA story, Drawn, that centers around a young artist and his magical sketchbook which finally pulls him into a thrilling adventure to find the girl of his dreams.

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