Some Starry Night by Irene Latham - #bookextract #excerpt

I am thrilled to be bringing you an extract from this gorgeous looking book today. Some Starry Night by Irene Latham looks like a great read and one that I am definitely adding to my wish list.

The Blurb

Under the pale glow of a Parisian spring in 1886, two restless souls move toward the same horizon-unaware that their meeting will ignite a love as luminous and fleeting as the stars themselves.

Vincent van Gogh arrives in Paris with little more than paint-stained hands and an aching determination to create something worthy of the world. Living in the cramped apartment of his brother Theo, he struggles against poverty, doubt, and the relentless pull of his own restless mind.

Across the ocean in Amherst, Emily Dickinson receives news that changes everything. Faced with the nearness of death, the reclusive poet does the unthinkable: she leaves the quiet safety of the Homestead and sails for Paris, determined to taste life before it slips beyond her reach.

When Emily agrees to sit for Vincent's portrait, their worlds collide in a blaze of color, poetry, and dangerous intimacy. Through letters, poems, and whispered confessions, the two artists discover in one another a fierce, unguarded understanding-one that will shape their art, their faith, and the fragile hours they have left.

But love between stars is never simple. As time grows short and darkness gathers, Vincent and Emily must decide whether beauty is meant to last...or simply to burn bright enough to change the night forever.

Some Starry Night is a sweeping, lyrical imagining of the hidden story behind Vincent van Gogh's most iconic painting-an unforgettable tale of love, creativity, and the courage to live fiercely, even in the shadow of the end.

The Excerpt

He threw up his hands. “I can’t believe it. I won’t believe it.” He swiped a fallen branch from the ground and flung it back toward the pond. “I only wanted to bring you out here to show you what it means to be an artist. I didn’t ask for this.”

“I didn’t ask for this, either.” She hadn’t come to Paris to see skeletons or climb a tree. Or to meet an artist. “I didn’t ask for you.”

The intensity of his gaze awakened the anaconda in her brain. It uncoiled, undulating in its nest. She hadn’t expected anger from him, nor regret. She opened her mouth to comfort, to explain. To beg him not to leave.

No. She set her jaw. She was done begging men, as she’d begged Thomas to please-please-please read her poems. She was done masterminding and manipulating. It never worked anyway.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1964700854

Publisher:  Historium Press

Formats:  e-book, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  314 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Irene Latham writes poems and stories from the Purple Horse Poetry Studio & Music Room in Blount County, Alabama. She is the author or co-author of many books for young people, including African Town, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Outstanding Historical Fiction. 

This is her first novel for adults.  

You can also find Irene at:

Author Website

Substack

Pinterest

You Tube

Other Posts About Art on the Blog

The London Forgery by Heidi Eljarbo

Painting Time by Maylis de Kerangal

The Dream Collector: Sabine and Sigmund Freud by R.W. Meek

The Silent Witness by K.J. McGillick

The Paris Portrait by Heidi Eljarbo

(media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

The Paris Chapter by Victoria Walters - #bookreview

 I weaved through the passengers, my suitcase squeaking as I walked towards the waiting Eurostar train, wondering why I had let my best friend Carly talk me into this...

***

The Blurb

Can the city of love mend a broken heart?

Romance author Tessa Elliot has writer's block, and worse - she isn’t sure she still believes in love. To heal her broken heart, she decides to go on the romantic break in Paris she’d booked before her world fell apart.

But when she arrives at the Airbnb, Tessa is stunned to find someone is already there. Her ex’s best friend Ethan has made himself at home, being told that the place would be empty.

As it’s Paris Fashion Week, and with no other options, they agree to share the apartment. Neither will be in the place much after all, with Ethan taking a cookery course and Tessa on a hard deadline to finish her novel.

But sharing close nights in a one bed apartment, there’s an undeniable pull towards one another.

Will Tessa be able open her heart, and her laptop, ever again?

My Review

Whilst this isn't my first review of the year it was my first completed read. This was a lovely book to kickstart my reading year. It was light-hearted but also had something important to say.

The main character, Tessa is a best-selling romance author. She loves writing but when she realises her boyfriend Joe has been cheating on her, she finds it hard to believe in love anymore. Quite the dilemma for a romance writer who consequently has writers block. She even considers returning the advance that she received from her publishers who are waiting for her next novel but she has had to spend it on a deposit on a flat now that she is no longer living with Joe. She hopes that a trip to Paris might inspire her but upon her arrival at the apartment that she rents she discovered Joe's best friend, Ethan, has already taken up residence.

The chemistry between Tessa and Ethan was extremely well executed. I could feel their attraction, as well as their doubts and fears, oozing from the pages. Both of them are scared of getting into another relationship, particularly with each other after the mess that has been left behind by Joe.

It was impossible to read this and not hope for them to overcome their doubts and get together somehow. There is a real 'will they/won't they' vibe running throughout the whole book, and I found myself reading faster as I really wanted to know the outcome.

However, the message running throughout this book is one of self-acceptance. We need to love ourselves regardless of other people before we can move forward in life. I thought the author conveyed this message very well in this novel.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a contemporary romance novel based in a beautiful setting. Paris is an important element of this story and is almost a character in itself. 

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1835189702

Publisher:  Boldwood Books

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages:  296 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Waterstones

Blackwell's

About the Author

Victoria Walters is a full-time author living in Surrey. Victoria writes sweet and spicy rom coms including the BookTok viral hits THE LOVE INTEREST and THE PLOT TWIST. She used to work in publishing and a bookshop, and has been a bookworm since childhood.

Victoria is also the author of the bestselling uplifting and romantic series GLENDALE HALL and the cosy crime series THE DEDLEY END MYSTERIES.

You can also find Victoria at:

Website

Blog

Instagram

Twitter / X

Face Book

Tik Tok

(ARC courtesy of Boldwood Books and Net Galley)

(media courtesy of the author's website)

(all opinions are my own)

The Paris Portrait by Heidi Eljarbo #bookspotlight #booktour

 

I am delighted to be shining the spotlight on this book today. The Paris Portrait by Heidi Eljarbo is a dual-timeline historical art mystery and is book three in the Fabiola Bennett Mystery series.

In fact, Heidi is not a newcomer to the blog. She has previously written a guest post on her book The London Forgery, which you can read by clicking here.

The Blurb

Fabiola stumbles upon a clue that indicates a royal portrait went missing almost two hundred years ago. Is this true, or is there substance to the rumor?

Paris, France, 1973.

After an enjoyable but dusty road trip, Fabiola and her friends, Pippa and Cary, arrive in a small village on the outskirts of Paris to spend a few days with Fabiola’s brother Eivind and his family.

On their first evening there, Eivind shows Fabiola an ancient recipe book he bought at an auction. The book is filled with old writing, and he asks Fabiola to decipher the pages. After the others have gone to bed, she spends hours reading and is gripped by the last pages that have nothing to do with recipes for baked goods and stews. Certain the author was a famous portrait artist at the time of the French Revolution, Fabiola and her friends set out on a treacherous investigation, dodging murderers and thieves to learn the truth.

Versailles, France, 1789.

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun— portraitist and close friend of the extravagant queen of France, Marie Antoinette—has already painted thirty portraits of the queen. Her contemporaries compare her to the old Dutch masters, calling her one of the greatest portrait painters of her time.

But outside on the streets, Paris is becoming more perilous with every day that passes. Madame Le Brun would be a fool to think the rumors of a revolution will pass, and aristocratic life will continue as before.

Amid the turmoil, she paints one final portrait of Marie Antoinette, knowing well her association with the queen could cause her to be arrested or executed. As chaos and riots in Paris turn to violence, Madame Le Brun flees with her young daughter, hoping her royal friend and the portrait will be safe.

This is Heidi Eljarbo’s third dual timeline novel about Norwegian art historian Fabiola Bennett—a captivating spin-off from her much-loved Soli Hansen Mysteries.

Book Details

ISBN:  979 8345494677

Publisher:  Independently Published

Formats:  e-book and paperback  (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  248 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

HEIDI ELJARBO grew up in a home full of books, artwork, and happy creativity. She is the author of historical novels filled with courage, hope, mystery, adventure, and sweet romance during challenging times. She’s been named a master of dual timelines and often writes about strong-willed women of past centuries.

After living in Canada, six US states, Japan, Switzerland, and Austria, Heidi now calls Norway home. She lives with her husband on a charming island and enjoys walking their Wheaten Terrier in any kind of weather, hugging her grandchildren, and has a passion for art and history.

You can also find Heidi at

https://www.heidieljarbo.com/

Facebook

Twitter / X

Instagram

Pinterest

(all media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)

(all opinions are my own)

My Top Ten New Book Releases in January 2022

 

January is a time for looking forward and not back. A time to put aside the seasonal books we have all been reading and focus on a time of new beginnings.

There are some exciting new books being released in January and here are a few which have caught my eye.

The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

THE STUNNING, UNFORGETTABLE CONCLUSION TO THE BELOVED PRACTICAL MAGIC SERIES

For centuries, the Owens family has been cursed in matters of love. When beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the sound of the deathwatch beetle, she knows that it is a signal. She has finally discovered the secret to breaking the curse, but time is running out. She has only seven days to live.

Unaware of the family’s witchcraft lineage and all it entails, one of the young sisters of the new Owens generation has fallen in love. As the curse strikes once again, her love’s fate hangs in the balance, spurring three generations of Owens to venture back to where it all began and use their gifts to break the spell that has marked all their lives.

But doing so threatens to destroy everything the family has fought so hard to protect. How much will they give up for the greatest gift of all?

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser

Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool: through the stories of these five fabrics, Sofi Thanhauser illuminates the world we inhabit in a startling new way, travelling from China to Cumbria to reveal the craft, labour and industry that create the clothes we wear.

From the women who transformed stalks of flax into linen to clothe their families in nineteenth century New England to those who earn their dowries in the cotton-spinning factories of South India today, this book traces the origins of garment-making through time and around the world. Exploring the social, economic and environmental impact of our most personal possessions, Worn looks beyond care labels to show how clothes reveal the truth about what we really care about

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

PARIS, 1919.

Young, bookish Sylvia Beach knows there is no greater city in the world than Paris. But when she opens an English-language bookshop on the bohemian Left Bank, Sylvia can't yet know she is making history.

Many leading writers of the day, from Ernest Hemingway to Gertrude Stein, consider Shakespeare and Company a second home. Here some of the most profound literary friendships blossom - and none more so than between James Joyce and Sylvia herself.

When Joyce's controversial novel Ulysses is banned, Sylvia determines to publish it through Shakespeare and Company. But the success and notoriety of publishing the most infamous book of the century comes at deep personal cost as Sylvia risks ruin, reputation and her heart in the name of the life-changing power of books...

That Jewish Thing by Amber Crewe

Tamsyn Rutman is at yet another wedding, for yet another cousin. She wouldn't mind - the food's pretty good, the location is fabulous and there's a moderately famous singer crooning away - but what is a Jewish wedding if not the perfect opportunity for the bride to do a bit of matchmaking on behalf of her single, workaholic cousin? Tamsyn's not at the table with her parents and her family, she's sitting next to Ari Marshall.

Ari is everything Tamsyn doesn't want for herself, and everything her family want for her. Stubbornly determined not to fall into the trap of someone else's happily ever after, Tamsyn decides to focus on work, and while interviewing London's hottest new chef, finds herself being swept off her feet . . . by someone her family definitely wouldn't approve of.

But somehow, Ari and Tamsyn keep crossing paths, and she's about to find out that in love, and in life, it's not always easy to run away from who you really are...

A Killing in November by Simon Mason

The first book in an Oxford-set crime series of surprising twists, troubled pasts and a dynamic duo who are brought together by a mysterious murder investigation.

Ryan Wilkins grew up on a trailer park, a member of what many people would call the criminal classes. As a young Detective Inspector, he's lost none of his disgust with privileged elites - or his objectionable manners. But he notices things; they stick to his eyes. His professional partner, DI Ray Wilkins, of affluent Nigerian-London heritage, is an impeccably groomed, smooth-talking graduate of Balliol College, Oxford. You wouldn't think they would get on. They don't.

But when a young woman is found strangled at Barnabas Hall, they're forced to.

Rich Oxford is not Ryan's natural habitat. St Barnabas's irascible Provost does not appreciate his forceful line of questioning. But what was the dead woman doing in the Provost's study? Is it just a coincidence that on the night of her murder the college was entertaining Sheik al-Medina, a Gulf state ruler linked to human-rights abuses in his own country and acts of atrocity in others?

As tensions rise, things aren't going well. Ray is in despair. Ryan is in disciplinary measures. But their investigation gradually disentangles the links between a Syrian refugee lawyer now working in the college kitchens, a priceless copy of the Koran in the college collection and the identity of the dead woman.

A Killing in November introduces an unlikely duo from different sides of the tracks in Oxford in a deftly plotted murder story full of dangerous turns, troubled pasts and unconventional detective work.

Violeta by Isabel Allende

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first daughter in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life is marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father's prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling.

In a letter to someone she loves above all others, Violeta recounts devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy, and a life shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics. Through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humour will carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.

Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart

It's March 2020 and a calamity is unfolding. A group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. 

The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family. Both elegiac and very, very funny, Our Country Friends is the most ambitious book yet by the author of the beloved bestseller Super Sad True Love Story.

After Agatha by Sally Cline

From Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith to Val McDermid and JK Rowling, After Agatha is an indispensable guide to women's crime writing over the last century and an exploration of why women read crime

Spanning the 1930s to present day, After Agatha charts the explosion in women's crime writing and examines key developments on both sides of the Atlantic: from the women writers at the helm of the UK Golden Age and their American and Canadian counterparts fighting to be heard, to the 1980s experimental trio, Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton, who created the first female PIs, and the more recent emergence of forensic crime writing and domestic noir thrillers such as Gone Girl and Apple Tree Yard.

After Agatha examines the diversification of crime writing and highlights landmark women's novels which featured the marginalised in society as centralised characters.

Cline also explores why women readers are drawn to the genre and seek out justice in crime fiction, in a world where violent crimes against women rarely have such resolution.

The book includes interviews with dozens of contemporary authors such as Ann Cleeves, Sophie Hannah, Tess Gerritsen and Kathy Reichs and features the work of hundreds of women crime and mystery writers.

It is an essential read for crime fiction lovers.

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins

A darkly funny, soul-rending novel of love in an epoch of collapse-one woman's furious revisiting of family, marriage, work, sex, and motherhood.

Since my baby was born, I have been able to laugh and see the funny side of things. a) As much as I ever did. b) Not quite as much now. c) Not so much now. d) Not at all. Leaving behind her husband and their baby daughter, a writer gets on a flight for a speaking engagement in Reno, not carrying much besides a breast pump and a spiraling case of postpartum depression. Her temporary escape from domestic duties and an opportunity to reconnect with old friends mutates into an extended romp away from the confines of marriage and motherhood, and a seemingly bottomless descent into the past. Deep in the Mojave Desert where she grew up, she meets her ghosts at every turn: the first love whose self-destruction still haunts her; her father, a member of the most famous cult in American history; her mother, whose native spark gutters with every passing year. She can't go back in time to make any of it right, but what exactly is her way forward? Alone in the wilderness, at last she begins to make herself at home in the world.

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

From the author of the modern classic A Little Life, a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia.

In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him – and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances.

These three sections are joined in an enthralling and ingenious symphony, as recurring notes and themes deepen and enrich one another: A townhouse in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village; illness, and treatments that come at a terrible cost; wealth and squalor; the weak and the strong; race; the definition of family, and of nationhood; the dangerous righteousness of the powerful, and of revolutionaries; the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise, and the gradual realization that it can’t exist. What unites not just the characters, but these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human: Fear. Love. Shame. Need. Loneliness.

To Paradise is a fin-de-siecle novel of marvellous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love – partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens – and the pain that ensues when we cannot.

If you would like to read my review of A Little Life, please click here.

(Header photo courtesy of Unsplash)

The Sleeping Car Murders by Sebastien Japrisot - Translated by Francis Price - #BookReview

"This is the Way it Began .......... The train was coming in from Marseille. To the man whose job it was to go through the corridors and check the empty compartments, it was 'the Phonceen - ten minutes to eight; after that, breakfast'. Before that, there had been 'the Annecy - twenty-five minutes to' on which he had found two raincoats, an umbrella, and a leak in the heating system. When he saw the Phoceen pull in on the other sice of the same platform, he was standing by a window, looking at the broken nut on one of the valves."

A beautiful young woman lies sprawled on her berth in the sleeping car of the night train from Marseille to Paris. She is not in the embrace of sleep, or even in the arms of one of her many lovers. She is dead.

The unpleasant task of finding her killer is handed to overworked, crime-weary police detective Pierre 'Grazzi' Grazziano, who would rather play hide-and-seek with his little son than cat and mouse with a diabolically cunning, savage murderer.

Sebastien Japrisot takes the reader on an express ride of riveting suspense that races through a Parisian landscape of lust, deception and death. With corpses turning up everywhere, the question becomes not only who is the killer, but who will be the next victim.

***

This book was first published in France in 1962 and in the UK two years following. This re-publication will delight readers who enjoy classic crime fiction as the characteristic format of the story will be recognised as familiar. It reminded me of novels by Simenon, Christie and their ilk.

It was adapted for film in France in 1965. I have not seen the film but I would imagine that it would lend itself to a cinematic adaptation extremely well.

I really enjoyed the atmospheric quality of this book and the author did a really good job of describing both place and character. 

As well as the two detectives investigating this case, we learn much about the several victims and travellers in the titular railway sleeping car and the author has made even these more minor characters relatable.  However, it is the detective, Grazziano, and his quirky assistant, Jean-Loup, who have been so expertly drawn.

I would read other books by  the late Sebastien Japrisot as he was a good storyteller, and whats more, I did not figure out who had committed the murders, so the reveal was exciting for me. It's narrative twists and turns and each time I thought I had worked out who the murderer was there was another spin of the narration and I had to rethink. I so very much enjoy a book that can do that.

It is a short book with a big story within it's pages and I think anyone who enjoys a murder mystery will really enjoy reading this book.

ISBN: 978 1910477939

Publisher: Gallic Books

About the Author:

Sébastien Japrisot, an anagram of his real name, Jean-Baptiste Rossi, was born in Marseilles, France in 1931 and died in Vichy, France in 2003. 

He was a French author, screenwriter and film director, and has been nicknamed "the Graham Greene of France".

Famous in the Francophony, he was little known in the English-speaking world, though a number of his novels have been translated into English and have been made into films.

His first novel, Les mal partis was written at the age of 16 and published under his real name, Jean-Baptiste Rossi.  

 

Love is Blind (The Rapture of Brodie Moncur) by William Boyd #BookReview

Brodie Moncur stood in the main window of Channon & Co. and looked out at the hurrying pedestrians, the cabs, carriages and labouring drays of George Street. It was raining ......

So begins the story of Brodie Moncur. Set at the end of the nineteenth century, William Boyd's heart stopping new novel follows the fortunes of Brodie, a young Scottish musician about to embark on the story of his life.

When Brodie is offered a job in Paris, he seizes the chance to flee Edinburgh and his tyrannical clergyman father, and begin a wildly different new chapter in his life. In Paris, a fateful encounter with a famous pianist irrevocably changes his future - and sparks an obsessive love affair with a beautiful Russian soprano, Lika Blum. As Brodie moves from Paris to St Petersburg to Edinburgh and back again, his love for Lika and its dangerous consequences pursue him around Europe and beyond, during an era of overwhelming change as the nineteenth century becomes the twentieth.

Love is Blind is a tale of dizzying passion and brutal revenge; of artistic endeavour and the illusions it creates; of all the possibilities that life can offer, and how cruelly they can be snatched away. At once an intimate portrait of one man'e life and an expansive exploration of the beginning of the twentieth century, Love is Blind is a masterly new novel from one of Britain's best loved storytellers.

I always feel incredibly optimistic when the first book that I read in any given year is a good one. It always suggests to me that I have a worthwhile reading year ahead and having just read this book I am anticipating an excellent year.

Mr Boyd has written a well structured and character driven novel. His sense of time and place is excellently portrayed through sound research and a wonderful writing style. He not only depicts the period of the setting through the minutiae of Brodie's life but also through the wider issues prevalent at the time.

Geographically, the book is wide ranging and the reader is able to accompany Brodie on his travels. Along the way, we are introduced to a plethora of characters but this never felt confusing.  I have read books in the past, written by lesser authors and have found this same scenario difficult to follow. However, with this book I always felt firm in the knowledge of where we were and who we were meeting and the author handles this with skill.

I felt completely immersed in Brodie's world and could not wait to get back to reading it each day. It is a story of music, love, obsession and the chaos which these can create. This is a memorable book which I would encourage you to read for yourself.

Have you already read this book? Have you read anything else by William Boyd? I would love to hear your thoughts on his writing.

ISBN: 978 0241295939

Publisher: Viking

About the Author:

William Boyd was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana, and grew up there and in Nigeria. He is the author of fifteen highly acclaimed, bestselling novels and five collections of stories. He is married and divides his time between London and south west France.