Book Sp(l)ot Reviews: Search results for m.j. rose

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Monday, March 16, 2015

The Witch of Painted Sorrows ~ M.J. Rose (earc) review [@mjrose @AtriaBooks]

The Witch of Painted Sorrows (The Daughters of La Lune)
Atria
March 17, 2015
384 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from TBD/Amazon

Possession. Power. Passion. New York Times bestselling novelist M. J. Rose creates her most provocative and magical spellbinder yet in this gothic novel set against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris.

Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires.

Among the bohemians and the demi-monde, Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten—her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.

This is Sandrine’s “wild night of the soul,” her odyssey in the magnificent city of Paris, of art, love, and witchery.

M.J. Rose's The Witch of Painted Sorrows paints a beautiful, seductive portrait of Paris in the 1890s. Our character Sandrine is different, from the start, from most women of the time period. Growing up in New York she had a father who embraced her learning and her love of art.

When Sandrine's beloved father dies and she lays fault at her (much less than beloved) husband's feet, she escapes to Paris. Her plans to stay at the mansion of her grandmother, a famous courtesan, fall apart when she finds the house closed up, her grandmother not in residence.

It's why her grandmother has left h home, why sh thinks it dangerous for Sandrine to be in Paris that bring about the first questions.

The Witch of Painted Sorrows is far from the first book to have a character change and have the other characters worry for them, to see those changes as for the worse. Yet, it is the first, insofar as I can remember, where I can understand that character when they wonder, "Why is this not for the better? Why am I not better like this?" So many books I have wanted to knock some sense into characters when they couldn't see the wrongness of who they were becoming. With Sandrine, you can understand.

Belle Époque Paris is a great time period and the author really enhancing the story - and your love of the setting - by adding real characters and places from the time.

Sandrine's relationship with Julien develops very nicely. Readers can easily see why Sandrine is embracing the changes in herself and the parts of Paris he introduces her to are essential to the story and her character's development. The way we learn more of the why behind her grandmother's fears after seeing changes in Sandrine is perfect. Even as readers begin to understand there may be some basis for the worry others have for Sandrine, they also see how that change is benefiting her.

The setting of 1890s Paris, the history (and mystery) of the past, how it all affects Sandrine, the romance and Sandrine's character all combine for an unforgettable tale. This may be a series and I hope so. I would love to learn more about Sandrine or the time period or even any of the Daughters of La Lune.

digital copy received for review from publisher, via NetGalley

Monday, July 18, 2016

The Secret Language of Stones ~ M.J. Rose (earc) review [@mjrose @AtriaBooks]

The Secret Language of Stones: A Novel (Daughters of La Lune #2)
Atria Books
July 19, 2016
320 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

As World War I rages and the Romanov dynasty reaches its sudden, brutal end, a young jewelry maker discovers love, passion, and her own healing powers in this rich and romantic ghost story, the perfect follow-up to M.J. Rose’s “brilliantly crafted” (Providence Journal) novel The Witch of Painted Sorrows.

Nestled within Paris’s historic Palais Royal is a jewelry store unlike any other. La Fantasie Russie is owned by Pavel Orloff, protégé to the famous Faberge, and is known by the city’s fashion elite as the place to find the rarest of gemstones and the most unique designs. But war has transformed Paris from a city of style and romance to a place of fear and mourning. In the summer of 1918, places where lovers used to walk, widows now wander alone.

So it is from La Fantasie Russie’s workshop that young, ambitious Opaline Duplessi now spends her time making trench watches for soldiers at the front, as well as mourning jewelry for the mothers, wives, and lovers of those who have fallen. People say that Opaline’s creations are magical. But magic is a word Opaline would rather not use. The concept is too closely associated with her mother Sandrine, who practices the dark arts passed down from their ancestor La Lune, one of sixteenth century Paris’s most famous courtesans.

But Opaline does have a rare gift even she can’t deny, a form of lithomancy that allows her to translate the energy emanating from stones. Certain gemstones, combined with a personal item, such as a lock of hair, enable her to receive messages from beyond the grave. In her mind, she is no mystic, but merely a messenger, giving voice to soldiers who died before they were able to properly express themselves to loved ones. Until one day, one of these fallen soldiers communicates a message—directly to her.

So begins a dangerous journey that will take Opaline into the darkest corners of wartime Paris and across the English Channel, where the exiled Romanov dowager empress is waiting to discover the fate of her family. Full of romance, seduction, and a love so powerful it reaches beyond the grave, The Secret Language of Stones is yet another “spellbindingly haunting” (Suspense magazine), “entrancing read that will long be savored” (Library Journal, starred review).

The Secret Language of Stones follows the first Daughters of La Lune novel, last year's The Witch of Painted Sorrows. This novel centers around Opaline, the daughter of The Witch's main character, Sandrine. As a young woman, it's now time for Opaline to confront the legacy or curse of being a descendant of La Lune. Whether she wants to or not.

I liked that in a lot of ways, The Secret Language of Stones was a completely separate story from The Witch of Painted Sorrows. Opaline is different from Sandrine, her mother. She knows about La Lune, knows what her mother and great-grandmother have told her. Yet, while she knows about the magic, knows the story and the lore, she's much more reticent to embrace being a daughter of La Lune.

There was not the tension and the really compelling need to find out the truth and what it all meant that there was, for me, in The Witch. Both because of Opaline's personality and that La Lune, who and what she was had already gone from unknown to known with Sandrine.

I did love the time the book was set in. Logically, I know that the World War I and the Russian Revolution shared some time; I don't think I've truly connected it before, though. I really liked how Opaline's age, her relationships (past and present) and the jewellery she makes give readers that more personal understanding of the war and its impact

As a romance, The Secret Language of Stones was not quite all that I hoped for. Any time something is called, 'a romantic ghost story,' I do have very high hopes, admittedly. My problem here was that the other character, Opaline's romantic interest never really felt real to me. He didn't feel, for lack of better phrasing, three dimensional or like a character fully separate from Opaline and her interactions with him.

Still, I very much enjoyed the rest of the story, the combination of the Paris in 1918 setting, the devastation, danger and loss from World War I, the Orloff's and their concerns over the Romanovs and Russia, and Opaline's abilities, along with what they meant was all fantastic. Plus, that ending!

(This book can be read without first reading The Witch of Painted Sorrows but I do think you will miss out on a lot of who and what La Lune is/was and what being a 'daughter' of hers could mean. )

received for review, from publisher, via NetGalley

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

The Library of Light & Shadow ~ M.J. Rose (earc) review [@mjrose @AtriaBooks]

The Library of Light and Shadow (Daughters of La Lune #3)
Atria Books
July 18, 2017
384 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

In this riveting and richly drawn novel from “one of the master storytellers of historical fiction” (New York Times bestseller Beatriz Williams), a talented young artist flees New York for Paris after one of her scandalous drawings reveals a dark secret—and triggers a terrible tragedy.

In the wake of a dark and brutal World War, the glitz and glamour of 1925 Manhattan shine like a beacon for the high society set, which is desperate to keep their gaze firmly fixed to the future. But Delphine Duplessi sees more than most. At a time in her career when she could easily be unknown and penniless, like so many of her classmates from L’École de Beaux Arts, in America she has gained notoriety for her stunning “shadow portraits” that frequently expose her subjects’ most scandalous secrets—for better or for worse. Most nights Delphine doesn’t mind that her gift has become mere entertainment—a party trick—for the fashionable crowd. Though her ancestor La Lune, the legendary sixteenth-century courtesan and—like Delphine—a witch, might have thought differently.

Then, on a snowy night in February, in a penthouse high above Fifth Avenue, Delphine’s mystical talent leads to a tragedy between two brothers. Horrified, she renounces her gift.

Devastated and disconsolate, Delphine returns to her old life in the south of France where Picasso, Matisse, and the Fitzgeralds are summering. There, Delphine is thrust into recapturing the past. First by her charismatic twin brother and business manager Sebastian in his attempts to cajole her back to work and into co-dependence, then by the world famous opera singer Emma Calvé, who is obsessed with the centuries-old Book of Abraham, written by the fourteenth-century alchemist Nicolas Flamel. And finally by her ex-lover Mathieu, who is determined to lure her back into his arms, unaware of the danger that had led Delphine to flee Paris for New York five years before.

Trapped in an ancient chateau where hidden knowledge lurks in the shadows, Delphine questions and in many ways rejects what and who she loves the most—her art, her magick, her family, her brother, and Mathieu—as she tries to finally accept them as the gifts they are and to shed her fear of loving and living with her eyes wide open.

The Library of Light and Shadow is the third Daughters of La Lune novel, following The Witch of Painted Sorrows and The Secret Language of Stones. The books do not need to be read in order, but I definitely recommend reading, at least, the first book, The Witch of Painted Sorrows first; it is where everything started and introduces readers - and the characters - to La Lune and what being one of her descendants means. I did notice that, beyond that, M.J. Rose seemed careful not to include things in The Library of Light and Shadow that was spoilery for The Secret Language of Stones.

As much as I wanted to know more about those characters, now that several years have passed, I also liked that you could read that second book after reading this one, the third. (Opaline's story was fantastic and should be read, before or after Delphine's.)

I loved that this story took place both in France and in New York. It was a nice echo of that first book, with Sandrine. With the story taking place in 1925, but Delphine's sort-of diary giving us a window into five years earlier, we start with the after effect of something and get to see ohw deeply it's impacted her life, before really seeing what happened. Or what came before and thus why it affected her so.

I loved that this book does show us more of Delphine's family's life - both pieces of their childhood and now, in the present, than either of the first two books did. It not only felt like a nice epilogue of sorts to Sandrine's story but really connected teh characters form all three books that much more.

There was one element, in regards to a character and what they were really about, that was hinted at in quite a heavy handed way. It didn't 'ruin' anything so much as it left me qondering why other characters weren't catching on, as well.

I really loved how some characters we might have met, albeit (usually) briefly, in the first two Daughters of La Lune novels played more of role here and how their past and/or relationships were also a part of the story or how Delphine interacted with them.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Library of Light and Shadow and seeing even more of what being a Daughter of La Lune means and getting to know more of the women (and to better know the men, too) in this family. It is a wonderful mystery, a great romance and a wonderful piece of historical fiction.

Now there has to be a fourth book about the youngest Duplessi sister, Jadine - there has to be. (And those mentions of Victor Hugo have me really wanting to read the author's Seduction.)

digital review copy received from publisher, via NetGalley

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday: Top New-to-Me Authors of 2015

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's Ten:

Top Ten New-To-Me Favorite Authors I Read For The First Time In 2015

These authors may not quite be my favorites but they are definitely on their way. I am really looking forward to what they have next - and what they've already published but I have yet to read! (I chose not to include any debut authors on the list unless they had previously published something - that I had not read - in another genre.)

Kate Morton: The Lake House
Goodreads // review

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)
Goodreads // review

*No, this is not cheating even though I have already read other books by Amie Kaufman because 1) I have not, previously, read anything by Jay Kristoff and 2) I have not read anything they've written together before