Caroline Grant is struggling to accept the end of her marriage when she receives an unexpected bequest. Her beloved great-aunt Lettie leaves her a sketchbook, three keys, and a final whisper…Venice. Caroline’s quest: to scatter Juliet “Lettie” Browning’s ashes in the city she loved and to unlock the mysteries stored away for more than sixty years.

It’s 1938 when art teacher Juliet Browning arrives in romantic Venice. For her students, it’s a wealth of history, art, and beauty. For Juliet, it’s poignant memories and a chance to reconnect with Leonardo Da Rossi, the man she loves whose future is already determined by his noble family. However star-crossed, nothing can come between them. Until the threat of war closes in on Venice and they’re forced to fight, survive, and protect a secret that will bind them forever.

Key by key, Lettie’s life of impossible love, loss, and courage unfolds. It’s one that Caroline can now make right again as her own journey of self-discovery begins.

Australia, 1906

Orphan Jane Piper is nine years old when philanthropist siblings Michael and Elizabeth Quinn take her into their home to further her schooling. The Quinns are no strangers to hardship. Having arrived in Australia as penniless immigrants, they now care for others as lost as they once were.

Despite Jane’s mysterious past, her remarkable aptitude for mathematics takes her far over the next seven years, and her relationship with Elizabeth and Michael flourishes as she plays an increasingly prominent part in their business.

But when Elizabeth reacts in terror to an exhibition at the local gallery, Jane realizes no one knows Elizabeth after all—not even Elizabeth herself. As the past and present converge and Elizabeth’s grasp on reality loosens, Jane sets out to unravel her story before it’s too late.

From the gritty reality of the Australian goldfields to the grand institutions of Sydney, this compelling novel presents a mystery that spans continents and decades as both women finally discover a place to call home.

I love novels about smart, dynamic women, and Elizabeth Quinn and her ward Jane Piper are both, plus they excel at mathematics and science.  Siblings Michael and Elizabeth want to pay it forward by giving bright orphan Jane a better life through education and opportunity.  Jane moves in with them when she's around ten, and they educate her and hire her to work in the family firm.  Elizabeth is a role model for Jane, and she admires Jane's intellect and strength: She is always poised and put together.  Elizabeth quickly falls apart after visiting an exhibition of Victorian curiosities and art.  She starts shaking in the gallery, and is hysterical: Jane is shaken and doesn't know how to console Elizabeth.  Once calm, Jane quickly gets Elizabeth home.  Eventually a doctor is consulted, and as was common during this era, Elizabeth was diagnosed with mid-life hysteria.  But Jane thinks it's nonsense because she believes that Elizabeth was traumatized by either the bird exhibits (because she has ornithophobia, or a fear of birds) or something else she saw at the gallery.  Elizabeth is also remembering frightening memories from her early childhood, memories she had repressed.  Eventually Jane realizes that a painting at the gallery is what caused Elizabeth's trauma, and she is determined to solve the mystery about the significance of the painting to help Jane.

This is the first time I've ever read a historical novel set in Australia during the Victorian era, and I loved it.  Tea Cooper did a super job researching several historical truths shared in the book, and one I find disturbing is child migration.  The English sent these "vagrant" children all over the world, starting as early as 1618 when children were sent to the Americas, and as late as 1967 when children were flown to Australia. If a child was over fourteen, he or she was considered an adult.  Another interesting plot point is the attempted assassination of Queen Victoria's son, Prince Alfred.  On March 12, 1868, an Irishman, Henry James O'Farrell, attempted the assassination by firing his pistol at close range.  The bullet only caused a superficial wound thanks to the prince's braces.  There are other real historical events and places in the book, and Maitland, Australia is full of history along with the Ugg Boot Factory.  I think it would be a lovely place to visit!

This book has a little bit of everything: Victorian Australian history, romance, family drama, mystery, art, suspense, and a surprisingly sweet ending.  The plot is fast-paced enough that I had a difficult time finding a stopping point to do important things, like cooking dinner.  I love discovering new writers I enjoy: Australian historical fiction is a new genre to me, and I hope to read more of Tea Cooper's books soon, probably beginning with The Cartographer's Secret.  

Disclosure:  I received an ARC of The Girl in the Painting from the publisher Thomas Nelson via TILC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.

 

This definitive guide is the most thorough how-to available on every major technique of botanical artistry. The experts at the American Society of Botanical Artists offer step-by-step projects that move from introductory to advanced—so any level of artist can build on acquired skills. Helpful tutorials cover watercolor, graphite, colored pencil, vellum, egg tempera, oils, pen and ink, and printmaking. Filled with more than 900 photographs and stunning examples of finished art by the best contemporary botanical artists, Botanical Art Techniques is the authoritative manual on this exquisite art form.

Below are a couple of orchids:

I also decided to try a few of the drawing lessons for branches.  Here are my results, also drawn in my journal:

I would love to have the patience to draw this:

I have a few projects from the book I want to try soon.  Once I practice in my art journal, I will draw a couple of subjects on board treated with silverpoint ground.  I'll share once I finish them!

If you are a watercolor artist and want to learn new skills, you must invest in this book.  Most of the instruction in the book covers watercolor (alas, the one medium I do not use), and I wish there were more oil painting instruction.  But each lesson is instructive, and I'm learning about composition throughout. The drawing areas, whether with graphite or colored pencils, is very comprehensive, too.  Each lesson has a complete list of all materials used, instructions, and the amount of hours it took the artist to finish.  

Then a local boy appeals to him for help. His brother is missing, and no one in the village, least of all the police, seems to care. And once again, Cal feels that restless itch.

Something is wrong in this community, and he must find out what, even if it brings trouble to his door.

When I read a book with a unique setting, it's important to me that the author successfully creates a sense of place.  It irritates me when a book's unique setting doesn't matter, that it could be set anywhere.  Tana French does an excellent job painting the scenery of Ardnakelty, Ireland, the tiny, remote Irish village that retired detective Cal Hooper moves to from Chicago.  Cal is in the middle of renovating a cottage a little ways from the village, and he thinks the smallness and remoteness of Ardnakelty is what he needs to start anew after retirement and his recent divorce.  From the local pub, the mountains and peat bogs, and patchwork land of fields and stone walls, there is no doubt about the setting of this book.

If the quote above isn't descriptive enough, there is also a little bit of perceived danger as the book opens with a clamor of rooks living in Cal's garden.  Rooks are predators, yet they have been known to befriend humans and even bring them gifts.  The sinister elements of the atmosphere are nuanced, but they are definitely there.  

The characters are so well-drawn and complicated.  Ardnakelty has its share of unique characters with agendas: some are overt, like the shopkeeper's attempt at setting-up her sister with Cal.  But most of the villagers in general seem to be a part of a sinister conspiracy because they refuse to discuss a missing teen.  There is one exception: the missing teen's brother, 13-year-old Trey, stalks Cal and harasses him until he agrees to help Trey find his brother.  

Cal is a recalcitrant detective for Trey's cause at first, but the more he investigates, the more "that feeling at the back of his neck" is telling him that foul play is a possibility.  As the season turns from summer to autumn, the chilly weather reflects Cal's reception from the villagers as his investigation is noticed.  There are several plot points I did not anticipate, and one in particular that is a complete shock: This is not a predictable mystery.  In the beginning, Cal is working on his cottage's renovation, and his days are very simple and peaceful with hard work and very rustic living conditions.  The plot reflects the slowness of his progress on his home until be stops construction and starts investigating.  Then his bucolic idyll is shattered by violence, intimidation, suspicion, and foreboding, and the plot thickens as it accelerates.  Some of the characters, innocuous and friendly at the beginning of the story, scared me to death toward the end: I was very fearful for Cal.  The mystery's conclusion and the book's ending is highly satisfying which is always a plus.

If you enjoy thrillers and/or mysteries, I highly recommend The Searcher.