20 September 2014

That summer

That SummerThat Summer by Lauren Willig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's rare when a novelist can present two timelines that are both fully-realized. Lauren Willig accomplishes this - and more - in her stories about a Pre-Raphaelite painter and his love, and an antiques dealer and his love. I was so enthralled by the Pre-Raphaelite painter's story that I wished Gavin were as real as Rosetti.

Gavin's Imogen, an unhappily-married woman, was in a situation much like that of Dorothea in Middlemarch: married to an intellectual whose work she had longed to share. In the present, both Julia and Nicholas have issues to work through while investigating obscure Pre-Raphaelite paintings found in the house she has inherited.

The stories mesh and veer, as stories do, in a novel that is totally satisfying and engrossing, despite the centuries or geography that divide the reader from them.  Highly, highly recommended!



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1 comment:

kathy b said...

Oh Melanie, I love a great review. I'm adding it to my book list and passing it on to my daughter and a friend LINDA who loves to read.

I wrote a thank you to you on ravelry> I LOVE my swap envelope contents. The yarn is over the top! I love love love the colors. Fox gifts too cute. Magnets new to me and perfect .many thanks! Kathy b
irisheyesknitters.blogspot.com