Tiffany Blues by M.J. Rose Review and GIVEAWAY (TLC Book Tour)

Tiffany Blues is a wonderful new historical fiction novel that is full of drama, mystery, suspense, and art.  I was quickly swept into this novel and it held me in its grips until the epic conclusion.

Jenny Bell is an artist living in New York City in 1924.  She is determined to learn what she can and to make it as an artist.  Her closest friend, Minx Deering, is a wealthy socialite who is also an artist.  Jenny keeps in her world of black, white, and greys, but she remembers the colors of a beautiful Tiffany stained glass window that played a significant role in her troubled teenage years.  For you see, Jenny Bell, was not always Jenny Bell.  She had another name and had a wonderful artist mother who painted Ouija boards.  Jenny’s idyllic childhood ends when her mother marries the wrong man. What happened to Jenny and her family?  Why does Jenny have a new identity?

Minx believes in Jenny and is able to secure her a coveted summer position at Louis Comfort Tiffany’s artist retreat at his estate, Laurelton Hall on Long Island.  Jenny finds inspiration at Laurelton Hall and also finds herself drawn to Tiffany’s grandson Oliver.  The past has a way of rearing its head and Jenny finds herself in the center of a burgeoning scandal that also seems to involve her past.  What is the truth of Jenny’s history and why is it coming to fruition now?  Will she be able to put her past behind her and embrace her art?  Will she find true love?

I really enjoyed Tiffany Blues.  It was a unique historical setting that involved a lot of interesting elements.  I love the 1920s setting itself and involving not only the art world, but the spiritualism of the day.  I also knew nothing about Louis Comfort Tiffany of Tiffany fame, his artist colony, or his grand estate.  I found it all fascinating.  The story itself was riveting and I read the book relatively quickly as I really wanted to see how the story pulled together.  The characters and the vivid descriptions were wonderful.

I loved the author’s note at the beginning of the novel explaining the history of Laurelton Hall.  It was fascinating.  I would have loved to have seen it in its prime before it burned down.

Favorite Quotes:

“Once the present turns to past, all we have left are memories.”

“The press exploits our lives to sell more papers.  It ignores our humanity.”

“I’ve always wanted to believe in life after death.  In the idea that we’re presented with multiple opportunities to do the right thing from life to life.”

 

Overall, Tiffany Blues is a gripping and unique historical fiction novel with a wonderful and interesting story that kept me enthralled until the end.  I highly recommend it.

Book Source:  Review Copy as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you!  For more stops on this tour, check out this link.

GIVEAWAY

One lucky winner will receive a copy of Tiffany Blues by M.J Rose. If you would like to win this book, please leave a comment on what interests you about this book. Have you ever read any novels set in the 1920's jazz era?  If so, which ones did you enjoy or not enjoy?

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to addresses in the United States.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday September 7th!

Please make sure to check the week of September 10th to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!

The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper

I have been a Louisa May Alcott fan since I was a girl.  I loved reading Little Women and most of Alcott’s other novels.  I also loved all of the different movie versions of Little Women.  I wanted to be part of the Alcott family believing they were the March family . . . until I started reading biographies of Alcott and discovered that while there were similarities, there were also many differences in which the Alcott family struggled through very difficult circumstances.  I was very intrigued by this new novel about the youngest Alcott sister, May, the basis for Amy in Little Women.

Being the basis of Amy for Little Women effects May in many ways.  Her sister Louisa and she have a difficult relationship, especially as Louisa’s writting pays for the family to live while May’s artistic renderings in Little Women receive scathing reviews.  May wants to leave the shadow of being Amy behind and find out who she is as an artist.  First traveling to Europe with Louisa and then by herself, May pushes herself to accomplish her goals and to find out what makes her happy personally.

I loved May’s travels and learning about the process of becoming an artist.  I thought it was very interesting when she met fellow women artists who were trying to make it in a male dominated field such as Mary Cassatt and the work they did to create their art and move forward. 

I enjoyed the pictures at the end of the book that showed the illustrations that May had created for Little Women.  I liked them and am unsure why they were panned.  I looked up her paintings online after I finished the book and they are quite beautiful.  There is definite growth between her early illustrations and her later paintings after she received further European instruction and traveled the world.

Most of all I loved May’s growth as a woman. Although she was an adult all through this novel, I thought it was a wonderful coming of age novel as May works to be independent, to be a true artist, and to find her happiness.  It was very interesting for her to do this during the Victorian times, which frowned upon independent women.

I’ll admit I was a bit sad by Louisa’s talk in the novel of not being happy about her success being from Little Women and her children’s novels.  I know they weren’t her first choice of material, but they are so much better than her other fiction such as “The Inheritance.”  I have always loved Little Women and An Old Fashioned Girl.  She comes off as a bit cranky in this novel.

Favorite Quotes:

“I’ve seen you digging back into your dog-eared diaries and rewriting old accounts of our lives into rosier, more harmonious versions of the truth.” – May writing about Louisa

“You two are so similar, both so hungry for something more, but at the same time, you couldn’t be more different.” Oldest sister Anna on Louisa and May

“And the sooner you abandon the idea that life is fair, you will be more productive.  This world doesn’t owe us a thing.” – Louisa to May

I enjoyed the extras in the back of this book, especially “A Conversation with Elise Hooper” on the research and background she used to create this novel.  It was very interesting.  I love that she grew up not far from Orchard House.  It’s one of my life goals to visit there one day.

Overall, The Other Alcott is a wonderful tale of an important woman in her own right, artist May Alcott and her struggle for independence and an identity separate from Amy March. 

Book Source:  Review Copy from William Morrow.  Thank-you!

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (audio)

An Object of Beauty is the first novel I’ve read by Steve Martin. I’ve enjoyed Martin’s comedy and movies for years, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him as an author. What I discovered was a very well written, intriguing novel about the art world in New York City in the 1990’s and 2000’s. My husband loves to talk about how Steve Martin in one of the premier banjo players in the country. With his music, comedy, acting, and writing, I think it is safe to say that Steve Martin is a true renaissance man.

An Object of Beauty has one of the most unique heroines that I’ve had the pleasure to read about. In the vein of Scarlett O’Hara or Catherine Earnshaw, Lacey Yeager is a strong-willed woman who cares mostly about herself and getting ahead at the cost of those who get in her way. Yet, she is fascinating to read about. I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t stop listening to Lacey’s story.

An Object of Beauty is narrated by Lacey’s friend Daniel. Daniel once had a casual college fling with Lacey, but now meets her occasionally as a friend and as a fellow art lover. While Daniel writes for an art magazine, Lacey works her way up the chain of the art world to own her own gallery. Lacey’s rise to the top is filled with scheming and intrigue, and involves at least one mystery that is finally answered at the end of the story. Lacey has learned to find art an “object of money” rather than an “object of beauty” and she lets this passion control all even if it costs her the love of her life.

Lacey’s journey was fascinating and I especially loved how the art world and Lacey’s place in it paralleled the major events of our times. This included the rise of the markets in the 90’s and early 00’s and the crash at the end. Lacey’s experience on 9/11 was very intriguing and I couldn’t turn the CD off at that point! I also didn’t know how this affected the art world. Most of all, I loved the detail that Martin wrote about the art world. I know next to nothing about art and I loved his detailed explanations of how it all works. It was very interesting and never boring.

I listened to the audiobook as read by Campbell Scott. He did a fair job as a narrator and stood in for me as Steve Martin narrating the novel.

An Object of Beauty is my third item in the Audiobook Challenge 2011.

Audiobook Source: Review Copy from Hachette Audio. Thank-you!