New Book Alert: The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis; Predictable, But Sweet and Romantic Novel About The Desire To Give Happy Endings

 

New Book Alert: The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis; Predictable, But Sweet and Romantic Novel About  The Desire To Give Happy Endings

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis is one of those types of novels with twists that you can see a mile away. The surprise revelations can be spotted in the next country with how predictable they are, especially if you have read a lot of these types of books that tell two stories: one historical and one modern. It won't be a big surprise that the two characters from different eras have a lot in common, or that the modern character learns a valuable lesson from the older character, or even (shocker), that the two stories of two complete strangers are actually connected. Despite or even because of its predictability, The Keeper of Happy Endings makes the Reader love the characters and want to see them get their happy endings after experiencing such hardship as war, abandonment, loss, abuse, and death.

The plot focuses on two women. The first protagonist is Aurora "Rory" Grant, a

young woman from the 1980's who is anxious about her fiance, Hux, a doctor who had been reported missing in South Sudan. The worry is intensified by the verbal abuse that she experiences from her mother, Camilla, a wealthy snobbish woman with extremely high standards that Rory feels that she can never achieve. Feeling lost and disenchanted, Rory decides to open a gallery and maybe display her own textile art. She has even spotted a lovely old building that would be perfect.

The building is owned by the second protagonist, Soline Roussel. In the present, Soline is an elderly recluse. As we learn about Rory's present, we also learn about Soline's past. She was one of a family of dressmakers, whose specialty lay in wedding gowns. The Roussels acquired quite a reputation as being almost magical with their talent. It was said that a bride who wore a Roussel wedding gown was destined to have a happy ending. 

However, the happy endings did not cover the Roussels themselves. Soline's mother had a  mysterious lover who disappeared before she realized that she was pregnant. Her grandmother was deserted by her husband after the birth of her second daughter. That daughter, Soline's aunt, became widowed when her husband died in a car accident during their honeymoon. The Roussel women put their pain and grief into their beautiful intricate designs earning the nicknames of "The Dress Witches." 

Soline also succumbs to the Roussel Family Curse of being unlucky in love. In 1943, shattered by her mother's death, her discovery of Edher father's identity, and the French Occupation by the Nazis, Soline falls in love with Anson Purcell, an American Red Cross medic. The romance begins sweetly enough but let's just say that things don't end well between them. 

The Keeper of Happy Endings is a lovely story which intertwines past and present like the threads that make a Roussel wedding gown. LIke with many of these stories, Rory and Soline's stories are paralleled. Both are talented artists with textiles and fabric. Both have missing lovers due to war. Both have to live up to their family's immense expectations. The difference between the two women is how they handle those similarities. 

Rory is a lot more passive than Soline. Though highly talented, Rory lacks self esteem to display her art. Hux gives her the suggestion to open the gallery and her friendship with Soline gives her the confidence to display her art. Until these influences, Rory never believed in her talent. 

However with Rory's mother, it is easy to see where Rory gets her insecurities from. Camilla micromanages Rory's entire schedule and commands that they meet for regular luncheons. The lunches usually consist of Camilla telling Rory everything that she feels that she is doing wrong, which from what I can tell, is everything that Rory is doing. She is constantly picking at Rory finding different ways to undermine her daughter's self esteem and unfortunately because Rory is still in close proximity to her mother, she is forced to listen. 

Anyone who has lived with a narcissistic verbally abusive parent will understand exactly what Rory is going through. That pain lasts into adulthood and many, like Rory, often accept it. Sometimes it takes an outside agent to break that cycle of abuse and dependency and lucky for Rory, Soline is that outside agent.

In contrast to Rory's passivity, Soline is much more active. While her family already established their reputation as makers of dressing gowns, Soline's addition of bows to the gowns makes the company her own. She becomes just as well known in her own right in New England as her family is in France.

During the war, she volunteers at a hospital and becomes an ally to the French Resistance showing that she can be resourceful in times of great stress. She also has the strength to leave France when her business dries up and the Nazis are on the lookout for Resistors.

Some of the best passages that show Soline's more active character is when she arrives in the United States and like Rory finds herself in a potentially abusive situation. She stands her ground against her abuser and befriends a family member, even making some lovely designs to get back into the business. When Soline finds herself in a troubling situation, rather than accept it like Rory, Soline stands up for herself and leaves. Slowly, she retains her reputation in the states as a prominent designer. Hearing this story gives Rory the confidence to act upon her own life and take charge of it. Like the gowns that her family designs in the hopes that the bride will have a happy ending, Soline almost acts like a fairy godmother by becoming the catalyst for Rory to get hers.

As I said, the plot twists and revelations are somewhat predictable but their placement in the book is well executed. Usually, the revelations are at the end where the characters are gob smacked and strengthened by this deeper bond. Sometimes there is an epilogue that serves as a "Where Are They Now?" Moment to show how the characters reflected and evolved because of the deeper connections.

In Keeper of Happy Endings, the revelations occur towards the middle so there is more to be done. There are still hurt feelings. Characters say that they aren't ready for such a confrontation and still spend several chapters estranged. These characters' worlds are rocked by such news and Davis realizes that one chapter is not going to change that.

What actually stands out is how this news affects Rory. Far from the passive wallflower that she was before, she is compelled to act and fix what went wrong in the past. This news, along with Soline's friendship, propel Rory to bring about not only her happy ending but everyone else's as well.

Yes  The Keeper of Happy Endings is predictable. But it is also sweet, romantic, and filled with lovable characters that you root for. Yes you do want to see, and are glad when they finally get, their happy ending.

Weekly Reader: Gilded Summers (Newport's Gilded Age Book 1) by Donna Russo Morin; Moving Novel About Friendship Reveals Gilded Age Gender, Immigration, and Economic Conflicts

 

Weekly Reader: Gilded Summers (Newport's Gilded Age Book 1) by Donna Russo Morin; Moving Novel About Friendship Reveals Gilded Age Gender, Immigration, and Economic Conflicts

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: There are many comparisons between now and The Gilded Age. Among them are the strong economic divides between rich and poor, the prejudice between Americans and immigrants, and the questions towards gender roles and how much progress women have actually made over the years.

Those struggles are remembered and paralleled into real modern life within the novel, Gilded Summers by Donna Russo Morinn, the first book in Morin's Newport's Gilded Age series. The series involves two women from different backgrounds who become best friends and have to deal with many of the issues of the day such as the division between the haves and have nots, the struggles that immigrants face when settling in the United States, and the fight for women's rights.

In 1895, 15 year old Pearl Worthington lives an upper class privileged life in Newport, Rhode Island. (Fun fact: Gilded Age Newport is also an important setting in the book Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes.). Pearl seems to have a life that most would envy: a large mansion, summers spent in the country, the current fashions. and her family's friends have famous last names like Astor, Oelrichs  Fish, and Vanderbilt. She appears to have an enviable life but nothing can be further from the truth.

Pearl has a talent for drawing and illustration but cannot pursue it in any meaningful way except as an ornament for a potential marriage. She would love to study at the Rhode Island School of Design. Maybe pursue her art to a professional career like acquaintances from similar wealthy homes, Mary Cassatt and Edith Jones (later Wharton).

Pearl is weary of the small mindedness, malicious gossip, and verbal cruelty of the social set. She longs for the freedom granted to men like her brother, Clarence, in which they can step out of line and misbehave and no one would think anything of it (in fact many encourage that behavior in men) but a woman is marked for life.

Pearl is supported by her father, Orin, who is very busy but encouraging to her pursuits. However, Orin is dominated by his wife, Milicent. Milicent is emotionally abusive towards Pearl and expects her to fulfill her expected role to marry wealth, have rich children, and live the life of a society matron no questions asked and no arguments made.

Meanwhile, the Worthingtons take on new servants, widower Felice Costa, and his daughter, 15 year old Ginevra both who recently emigrated from Italy. Felice is hired to teach a very reluctant Clarence to play the violin. (Felice is a gifted violinist and luthier.) Ginevra is hired as a house maid to mostly sew clothes. Eventually, Ginevra moves up to becoming Pearl's lady's maid. 

Like Pearl, Ginevra also feels limited by her role in society. Most of the Newport elite treat their servants like robots. They don't talk to them. They just expect them to serve their food, clean their houses, take care of their children, and so on in their own world only to come out of it to collect their payment. To the wealthy, people like Felice and Ginevra are nobodies and treated like nobodies. Ginevra watches Pearl and her friends and family, as well as the handsome men paraded in front of Pearl and feels like she lives in a separate existence from others. They are depersonalized and made to feel less than human.

That depersonalization exists among the servants as well. Many like Mrs. Briggs, the housekeeper, look down on the Costas for being new arrivals and on the lower levels of the service pecking order. Even kitchen maid, Greta, who is among the lowest in the servants' hierarchy, mocks Ginevra's accent and thinks of her as stupid. 

The Costas are also judged as immigrants. Many German and Irish immigrants, especially ones who arrived years ago look down on the new Italian arrivals. People mock their accents and some want them to return to their own country. 

Like Pearl, Ginevra dreams of a different life. Her talent for sewing leads to an interest in fashion. She begins to make Pearl's clothes creating embellishments and adding a personal style. She has dreams of being a fashion designer or opening a clothing boutique but like Pearl feels limited by her gender, economic status, and ethnicity.

Despite their differences, Pearl and Ginevra develop a genuine friendship that looks past their statuses and sees the real women inside. The friendship between Pearl and Ginevra is beautiful because it helps them get past their previous limitations. Together, they share their talents as Ginevra observes Pearl's sketchbook with awe and Pearl admires the beautiful gowns that Ginevra makes. They also talk about deeper issues like how they feel stifled by the people around them. Their friendship allows them to open up and see the world through different eyes.

Pearl and Ginevra are not only able to see their limited roles but those of the people around them. Pearl sees the "Swell Set" for what it really is and finds out what goes on inside the palatial Newport homes. She sees dissension and infidelity in marriages that are happy only in appearance. She and Ginevra see cheating spouses and the other half of the marriage that would rather look the other way than lose everything. They also see these same people look down and judge anyone else by the standards that even they can't live up to, such as when three society women including "The" Mrs. Astor, critique Milicent (the same set that she aspires to join). This is a few years before these women are also revealed to fall short of their own expectations and one files for divorce.

The two friends, particularly Ginevra, also experience first hand the sexism of the day when men feel like women are their property to do as they wish. This comes to a head when an intended fiance of Pearl's also wants Ginevra. He wouldn't mind marrying one and having the other as a mistress. His intentions eventually become violent but Pearl and Ginevra are there for each other in every way possible. Their friendship is strengthened by this incident and finally propel themselves to go after the freedom that they longed for.

Gilded Summers is a beautiful novel about how friendship can help see people beyond their race, ethnicity, sex, and income. Far from gilded, this book is pure gold.

 

Weekly Reader: Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes; Fascinating Character Study of A Gilded Age Woman Turned Suffragist

 Weekly Reader: Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes; Fascinating Character Study of A Gilded Age Woman Turned Suffragist

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Mistress Suffragette by Diana Forbes is a historical fiction and brilliant character study about a young woman from a traditional Gilded Age family turned into a suffragist. Forbes explains exactly why many women turned to the suffrage movement because of societal pressures and unjust laws that treated them as second class citizens who lived without freedom of choice.

In 1893, Penelope Stanton is facing an arranged marriage forced by her parents. Her family was fabulously wealthy now they are facing potential genteel poverty because of the Financial Panic. Since they have two daughters, Penelope and her narcissistic sister, Lydia, Mr. and Mrs. Stanton force marriageable aged Penelope to search for eligible bachelors, so she can marry wealth and the family can move back up in status. 

Lydia looks forward to all of the handsome male attention but Penelope is not nearly as thrilled. As Penelope points out, she attends balls with all the excitement of someone with a gun pointed to their head. She feels less like a person to her parents and more like a piece of valuable jewelry that they want to pawn off to someone else. Her parents are practically pimping their daughters out in front of Newport, Rhode Island's most eligible bachelors.

 While Lydia is content to be married to a much older man, Penelope is raped by the already married businessman, Edgar Daggers. If she can't get married, her parents want to send her to work so they can help themselves to her earnings.

The Daggers want to hire Penelope as a secretary or governess for their future child which ensures that Penelope will never be safe from Edgar's leering eyes and wandering hands. However, her mother still encourages her union with Edgar reminding Penelope that "marriages don't last as long as they used to," even implying that she would still get a decent sum as an undeclared mistress.

It's a world of artifice, superficiality, and greed that Penelope's parents and Edgar are a part of and in which they want to sell their daughters. Penelope is screaming to get out and feels that no one is listening. It's no wonder that instead of accompanying The Daggers to New York, Penelope decides instead to move to Boston with her friend Lucinda to join the Suffrage Movement. Well Lucinda wants to join. Penelope is not quite sure yet.

When Penelope first arrives in Boston, she is confused by many of the suffragist's arguments, particularly about dress. She never thought about wearing a corset and assumed all women wore them. However, she sees Verdana Jones, a speaker and leader for the Movement, with her hair cut short and wearing bloomers and for the first time questions women's dress. Even though Penelope continues to wear a corset and traditional women's clothing through most of the book, the fact that she considers this question at all reveals her as someone who is beginning to look at women's roles more critically and objectively. She is even invited to speak at her first meeting in defense of corsets providing "structure and stability in a world about to unravel."

Penelope is hired by Verdana to recruit members and speak at conventions. Once she gains her voice, she becomes a vocal advocate for the suffrage movement.  

While navigating her way through the Suffrage Movement, Penelope meets a bevy of characters many of which are passionate about their causes: Her friend Lucinda becomes a card carrying feminist from the time they move in; Verdana provokes and amuses Penelope with her bisexuality, openly flirtatious manner, and militant outspokenness, Sam, Penelope's fifth cousin and ex fiance, is open enough to women's rights to become engaged to the very pushy Verdana; Stone Aldrich is an artist and illustrator whose realistic art depicts the reality of poverty in the cities like prostitutes, street kids, and trash cans; Amy Adams Van Buren Buchanan is a wealthy heiress who puts her money to good use by speaking out about important causes. These characters allow Penelope to view the world differently as she grows to admire their independent spirits.

Penelope's personal involvement increases when she experiences for herself the hold that society allows men to have over women. She and her colleagues are threatened by a neighbor and when the police won't do anything about it, she has to order him to leave them alone herself. Edgar continues to pester her and while he feigns support for the suffragists and gives Penelope a useful tip about Stone, who almost becomes Penelope's lover, , it is still clear that Edgar lusts after her and wants to keep her as his mistress. Later when Penelope returns to her family home in Newport, she realizes that her future brother in law uses duplicitous means to claim ownership over the family home. 

When the actions of men affect Penelope personally, she understands, truly understands, what the other suffragists were fighting for. Not just to wear comfortable dress without getting harassed. Not only for the vote. Not solely for legal rights to divorce, own property, or to have financial freedom. They are fighting for complete independence, the ability to choose their lives without conforming to some standard set by men. This realization turns Penelope into a dedicated member of the movement and allows her to change her own life.

Mistress Suffragette is a wonderful book about a woman who finally finds her own voice by speaking out for other women.

New Book Alert: Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale by Pamela Hamilton; A Fascinating and Brilliant True Story About The Life and Mysterious Death of A Talented But Now Forgotten Entertainer

 New Book Alert: Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale by Pamela Hamilton; A Fascinating and Brilliant True Story About The Life and Mysterious Death of A Talented But Now Forgotten Entertainer

SoBy Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: There are probably not many people today who are familiar with the name of Dorothy Hale (1905-1938). If they are admirers of the artwork of Frida Kahlo, they may recognize her as the subject of Kahlo's painting of The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, which depicts Hale as a beautiful woman falling from a building to her death. So in other words she is similar to Peg Entwhistle, the stage actress who tried to find success in Hollywood only to jump off the 13th letter of the Hollywood sign to her death. Like Entwhistle, if Hale is known at all, it is by the way that she left this world rather than her contribution within it. However, former NBC News Producer, Pamela Hamilton aims to change all of that with her fascinating and brilliant fictional biography Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale.

Hale, nee Dorothy Donovan, was from an affluent Catholic family with Victorian values. Hale rebelled against her upbringing by pursuing a career. She eventually became a dancer and Ziegfeld Follies girl and was part of the chorus of the Broadway production of Lady Be Good. Hale also starred with her friend, Rosamond Pinchot in Abide With Me, a play written by another friend, Clare Boothe Luce. She also had small roles in the movies, Cynara and Catherine the Great.

Hale was married twice. Her first marriage to millionaire stockbroker, Gaillard Thomas ended in divorce. Her second to muralist, fresco artist, and portrait painter, Garland Hale ended with his death in 1931. She had many love affairs including with Constantin Alajalov, a cover artist, Russell Davenport, a writer for Time Magazine, Isamu Noguchi, a sculptor, artist, and designer, and Harry Hopkins, a WPA administrator and Roosevelt's top advisor. She was also a regular member of New York's Cafe Society having friends such as Kahlo, Luce, Cole Porter, Frank Crowninshield, Buckminster Fuller,and many of the best and brightest of New York society in the 1920's and '30's.

Her death was the subject of much speculation at the time which Kahlo's painting was a part of it. What is known is that the day before her death, she hosted a party inviting many of her close friends as a farewell party explaining that she was soon going on a long trip. The next day she fell sixteen floors to her death from her Central Park South apartment.

 It was unknown whether she fell, jumped, or was pushed. However, second hand accounts at the time reported of "financial troubles" and "disappointments about her age and unhappy love affairs." The press portrayed Hale as a fragile vulnerable woman who took her own life. Despite Kahlo's genuine grief over the death of her friend, her painting did much to add to that unverified assumption that Hale committed suicide.

Hamilton's book does a lot to discredit the speculation of Hale's death and instead focuses on her life. Far from the fragile depressed lonely woman that the press portrayed her after death, Hale is written by Hamilton as a vibrant and bright woman full of life and excited to be surrounded by a talented and eccentric group of friends and lovers.

Lady Be Good is practically a whirlwind of color, art, entertainment, glamor, and excitement. One that Hale is glad to be a part of even though she does not achieve as much personal success as she would like. She is surrounded by bright and talented people and for the most part, she is happy to be with them. The famous names that come in and out of the book and appear throughout Hale's life include Clare Boothe Luce, Frida Kahlo, Fred Astaire, Frank Crowninshield, Dorothy Parker, Rosamond Pinchot, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, Eugene O'Neill, Isamu Noguchi, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Gertrude Stein, Samuel Goldwyn, King Vidor, John Barrymore, Buckminster Fuller, and many many others. It is a brilliant cast of the intelligentsia and literati of New York's Cafe Society and The Golden Age of Hollywood. 

Dorothy enjoys the life that she is in and the freedom that being a part of that group implies.This is the main reason why her first marriage doesn't work out.

 Hale is an exciteable and enthusiastic woman who enjoys going to clubs, theater performances, salons, and art shows. Gaillard is stiff and dull and is only interested in making money. Hale marred him mostly out of fear when a serious injury ended her dancing days. After the fear subsides, their differences becomes insurmountable and Hale heads for Reno to file for divorce.

Hale finds a happier life with Gardner Hale who because of his artistic talent and connections is also a welcome member of Hale's wide social circle. His death causes Hale to fall into a deep depression which takes her a long time to get through. Hamilton's writing suggests that her romances with Isamu Noguchi and Harry Hopkins were because of loneliness and to fill an empty void in her life.

After Gardner's death, Hale attempts a Hollywood career. She films a screen test that is widely received and she is even described as a "beautiful up and coming star." Unfortunately, she is unable to receive success with so many other stars in Hollywood's galaxy. 

She also stars in Abide With Me which even though critics brutally panned it, she had a good time performing in because of her friendship with Luce and Pinchot.

The point that Hamilton is trying to make with this fictional biography is to celebrate Hale's life rather than focus on her death. In fact when it does happen, the circumstances are rather aribtrary and are given short shrift. To Hamilton, Hale's life was more important and she was a woman who lived it to the fullest.

New Book Alert: The Secret Life of Sofonisba Anguissola by Melissa Muldoon; Wonderful Romantic Historical Fiction About A Brilliant Artist and Woman

 

New Book Alert: The Secret Life of Sofonisba Anguissola by Melissa Muldoon; Wonderful Romantic Historical Fiction About A Brilliant Artist and Woman

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The more I work on this blog, the more I begin to agree with Virginia Woolf "I would venture to guess that Anon...was often a woman" not to mention Laurel Thatcher Ulrich that "well-behaved women seldom make history." 

Both of these legendary quotes about the absence of women in conventional historical, literary, and artistic accounts reveal why it was so difficult for women to be spoken of in the same breath as their male peers. Even now it is a wonderful experience to learn about and meet many of these women for the first time like the Yekineyen Parastina Jin, Elizabeth Craven, Sophie de Tott, Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, Caroline Ferriday and the Ravensbruck Rabbits, Alouette Richard and Marthe Cnockeart, Elsa Schiaparelli , Danielle Casanova, Mai Politzer, and the other women of the French Resistance, Harriet Jacobs, Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin, Dorothy Vaughn. Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson, Ruth Handler, and Henry VIII's so-called lesser known wives, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Kateryn Parr

 That's one of the things that I love about this job: reading historical fiction and nonfiction and discovering a new and zoutstanding name to be added to others. But sometimes, it's sad that many of these names are being read for the first time. I sometimes wonder how it is that many people don't already know of these courageous talented women? Why are they not automatically mentioned in the same breath as their male counterparts? Why did it take me 40+ years to learn Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson's name when I already knew Paul Revere's since I was 7?  In the decades since gender studies have been brought to light in academia, are women still lagging behind or are we finally catching up? Or to rephrase a meme, why is traditional white men's history and literature still a requirement and women's (and for that matter Black and Indigenous and Asian etc.) history and literature still an elective?

Modern publishing is taking great strides to correct that. Best Seller lists, libraries, and bookstores are flooded with titles of both fiction and nonfiction books about real life women from different time periods that are finally getting their stories told. We can't change that we haven't heard about them before, but we can change hearing about them from now on. Authors and historians will do their best to tell their story, while reviewers like me will do our best to share those stories even further.

Melissa Muldoon is one of those authors who is doing her bit to promote historic women in the arts. She has written a four part series about Italian Renaissance artists, patrons, and promoters, all of them female. These books are a memorable legacy about how art is seen and shared. Also that sometimes the female artist's soul can be revealed more in her work than in her personal life, when societal constraints sometimes forbade her from being open about her private life.

One of Muldoon's books is The Secret Life of Sofonisba Anguissola, a conventional historical fiction novel which tells about portrait painter Sofonisba Anguissola. In this brilliant detailed novel, an elderly Anguissola tells fellow artist, Anthony Van Dyck, the story of her life with one challenge: one of the details in her story is a lie. She dares Van Dyck (and the Reader) to guess which one. With this introduction, Muldoon weaves fact and fiction to tell a wonderful story about a spirited independent woman who embraced her talent before love and ended up getting both.

Anguissola begins by telling the origin of her name and proud family history. Her surname Anguissola came from an ancestor who was a soldier and warrior nicknamed Anguissola (the serpent) for his cunning nature. Her first name, Sofonisba came from a Carthaginian princess who was caught in a deadly love triangle. She also reveals her nickname, Sorella Leone (Sister Lion) as the oldest and most fiery of her and her four siblings. The name origins foreshadow Anguissola's future as an intelligent spirited woman caught up in the passions and combats of the day.

We also see how Anguissola's family influenced her path. Her parents were unconventional, believing that their daughters should be educated along with their son.

Not only does Sofonisba show a talent in art but her other sisters are adept in other fields: Minerva is a talented poet and writer, Elena is a gifted musician and composer, and Europa has a more mathematical mind. The passages where the sisters play act stories from history and mythology as well as their diverse skills are similar to the March Sisters in Little Women who use their talents for entertainment and future prospects (and coming from a similarly talented family who show our diverse skills in music, art, computer science, writing, veterinary medicine, drama, education, and finance, I find these chapters completely relatable).

Because of this upbringing, the Anguissola Sisters are more real and more defined than their younger brother, Asdrubale. He grows  into a spoiled brat who contributes nothing, except withholding funds and permission to wed, all with the lame declaration that he is the head of the family, though does nothing to earn that title.

Anguissola's education is dwelt upon as she studies under great artists like Bernardino Campi and Michelangelo Buonarroti learning how to perfect her portraits of the human body and add form, shadow, and texture to her work. One of the key moments that foreshadows Anguissola's genius is a painting that she makes as a gift for Campi. It is a pentimento, in which an artist's original underdrawing bleeds into the finished project in essence, a hidden message or detail within the original painting.  The portrait is a self portrait with an image of Campi painting her. Even more impressive is the detail in which Anguissola's hand is on top of Campi's so it is uncertain who is painting whom.

Anguissola also reveals a strong independent character when she resolves that she will devote herself to her art. Many women chose to marry, but her first love is her art and she has no intention of marrying until she is good and ready. In fact true to her resolve, she doesn't marry for the first time until she is in her mid-30's and in a situation where marriage is her only option.

By far the most intriguing chapters are the ones set in Spain where Anguissola is hired as a portrait painter/art teacher/spy for Elizabeth of Valois, wife of King Phillip of Spain and the eldest daughter of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. As I mentioned before, I love how historical fiction (and nonfiction for that matter) authors will take a historic character and give them a different outlook, so you are experiencing different aspects of the same figure. 

I recently was acquainted with King Phillip through Philippa Gregory's The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover, both of which focus on Phillip's unhappy marriage to Queen Mary Tudor and failed courtship and rivalry with Queen Elizabeth. In both books, he is seen as a feckless callous self-centered oaf who openly flirts with pretty younger women while married to Mary and verbally abuses her when she is unable to bear children. He proves to be no match for Elizabeth's cunning and sly nature. 

However, Muldoon's version of Phillip is an older and wiser man, happily married to Elizabeth and in mourning for his former wife, the Infanta Maria Manuela who died giving birth to his son, Don Carlos. He is older and sees the ramifications of his past, becoming a more mature thoughtful man. He is also constantly exasperated and frustrated by the behaviors of his son, Don Carlos, relying more on his associate Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the Duke of Alba. Phillip considers Alba a better person to become his heir rather than the ruthless sadistic Don Carlos.

Elizabeth of Valois is seen as a sweet loving person who is so concerned for Anguissola's welfare when she recruits her as a spy that she tells her that all she has to do is listen as she paints and reports gossip. She is not to concern herself with notes, codes, or anything dangerous. Anguissola is just supposed to share any gossip or rumors that she hears. 

Also, as a Medici descendant, Elizabeth has a keen eye and appreciation for the arts which she reveals in her sisterly bond with the portrait painter. She is the type of sweet fragile good character that, even without the benefit of studying history, you just know something bad will happen to them even when you hope it doesn't.

While Phillip and Elizabeth and her family are diverse in their frequent portrayals in various media, I have yet to hear of an account of Don Carlos in which he is not written as a complete psychopath. While he may garner some sympathies because of his physical abnormalities such as scoliosis, it is his cruel and despotic nature that is often at play. In this Novel, he tortures young women whom he takes to bed for fun, openly lusts after his young stepmother, and violently attacks anyone who dares to disagree with him. Don Carlos is so sadistic and deplorable that many hope for his comeuppance before he finally receives it.

This is a tempestuous household that Anguissola finds herself in and finds protection not only from Elizabeth but from Alba. Unfortunately, Alba has a less altruistic side. He lusts after Anguissola and doesn't buy her devotion to art. His behavior becomes unstable and even borderline stalkerish when she becomes romantically involved with sea captain, Orazio Lemollino arranging his dismissal and fumes with obsessive jealousy when she finds herself pregnant and is forced to marry Fabrizio Pignatelli to save face.

Far from being a dry account of chronological events of Anguissola's life, Anguissola (and Muldoon of course) sprinkle the narrative with literary touches that make one doubt the veracity of her tale but enjoy it all the same. Remember the whole theme is finding the lie in Anguissola's story so of course she is going to embellish, fabricate, and play with her narrative. Of course with Anguissola as a narrator, she is going to give Muldoon permission to take liberties with her history.

Some of the events play into various genres. Anguissola's first meeting with Orazio is pure romance as they meet for the first time when they are young. They have a splendid time for one night walking the streets of Etruria and encouraging one another in their pursuits of art and seamanship. They don't get each other's names at first but Sofonisba can't get him out of her mind. Lo and behold, they reunite years later in Spain and begin a very passionate affair as two people that are similar in intelligence, drive, and passion. (Because of course, people always reunite in one country after encountering each other for one night, years ago in a completely different country.)

There is a whiff of murder mystery as a few months after Anguissola's marriage to the much older Pignatelli, he dies under mysterious circumstances. Pignatelli's spoiled temperamental daughter, Cinzia, suspects Anguissola while Anguissola herself is surrounded by sinister characters including Cinzia and both of her former paramours, Alba and Orazio, who arrive just in time for Pignatelli to conveniently be murdered.

Anguissola knows how to play her audience. She tells her story so well that Van Dyck (and the Reader) don't care about finding the lie. We just enjoy the fascinating time spent with this brilliant, vibrant, and talented woman that Muldoon captured through her excellent writing.

New Book Alert: The Artist and His Billionaire by CJ Turner; Sweet and Sexy M/M Romance

 

New Book Alert: The Artist and His Billionaire by CJ Turner; Sweet and Sexy M/M Romance

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The covers of many Romance novels often promise us a sexy time. They feature shirtless men with muscles and great pecs and beautiful women with long gowns that barely cover their breasts. Sometimes, the couple are in modem clothes but their smoldering exprssions reveal that they would rather have them off. Whether the models are alone or draped in each other's arms, the images practically steam with lust and passion. 

Male-Male romances are no different only instead of a man and a woman, the covers feature one or two hunky shirtless muscular men, often from the neck down. That's the way they are, sex sells and all that. The sexy covers are part of the window dressing and wish fulfilment that Romances provide. However, they often conceal that the cover is only part of the story. If done right, a Romance novel can transcend the sexy promise of wish fulfilment and give us an engaging character driven story of a couple who are perfect for each other, but have obstacles that prevent them from seeing that. 

CJ Turner's book, The Artist and His Billionaire, is the right kind of romance between two completely different men. It is both sweet and sexy featuring these two characters who are a perfect match.

Lennox Sewell is an artist working for Ms. Pearson, a florist, to pay the bills. One day, a handsome man in a clearly fancy business suit walks into the shop with a beautiful woman wearing a big shiny diamond engagement ring. The man, Theo Collins, plunks down a huge sum for a large bouquet for an upcoming wedding. Despite Lennox's initial assumptions, Theo is not the groom. He is the best friend of the bride to be, Livvy (the woman with the ring). Instead Theo is gay and very available, as is Lennox.

Theo and Lennox have the usual class differences that define these type of romances: Theo is from an uppeclass family. Lennox from a working class one. Theo is a businessman while Lennox longs to leave the flower shop to become a recognized artist. However, their similarities emerge when they recognize an altruistic need to help others. Theo wants to use recycled plastic to create cost alternatives for building materials. Lennox not only draws suggestions for potential kitchen cabinets, but he also suggests that cargo containers can be used to create recycled external outer shells for affordable housing. The two recognize the interests of providing affordable housing and the need they fill for each other: Theo with the money and big ideas, Lennox with the experience of living paycheck to paycheck and the artistic eye. They are drawn to each other because of their attraction, but also by their intelligence and commitment to higher purposes. 

Moments like these are what makes them a good couple.

There are many stumbling blocks that get in the way of them being together like a clingy ex of Theo's, Theo's snobbish friends and colleagues, and Lennox's pride and suspicions that Theo is only "slumming" when he goes out with a lower class man like him. Of course they get in the way of their union and of course each one is challenged. There are some moments of fringy dialogue ("I'm an artist." "No, you're a magician because you cast a spell over me.") But these are minor flaws in this charming book.

When Lennox and Theo have sex, and they do, it is a winning chapter. This is because they have certainly earned the right to be together. We have seen them together and separate. They had angst and worried whether their love is the real thing or a one night stand. They have been hurt by previous lovers and are concerned whether their differences are too much. (Lennox is particularly concerned about this.) Their union becomes an inevitable but welcome release.

The Artist and His Billionaire is an effective romance. When it is sweet, it is very sweet. When it is sexy, well, it is very sexy indeed.