Nocturnal Book Reviews: Review: The Genius and The Muse by Elizabeth Hunter

Review: The Genius and The Muse by Elizabeth Hunter

Thursday, May 24, 2012 | Posted by kara-karina@Nocturnal Book Reviews

The Genius and The Muse by Elizabeth Hunter

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Synopsis from Goodreads
When Kate Mitchell decided to research the mysterious portrait in the student gallery, she had no idea how her life would change. She thought she knew what she wanted. She had a great boyfriend, a promising career, and a clear path.
How could one simple portrait change all that?

A photograph. A sculpture. A painting. One clue leads to another, and Kate learns that pieces of the past might leave unexpected marks on her own future, too.

And how, exactly, did she end up in an irritable sculptor’s studio?

One portrait may hold the answers, but learning its secrets will challenge everything Kate thought she knew about love, art, and life. A single picture can tell more than one story, and in the end, a young artist will discover that every real love story is a unique work of art.

The Genius and the Muse is a contemporary romance novel for adult readers.

Amazon US/UK | Amazon kindle US/UK | The Book Depository US/UK

9/10

* * *

Truly gorgeous. I'm reassured again and again that everything Elizabeth writes I love.

This is a contemporary romance which is not my usual genre, and if Elizabeth hasn't enquired about my interest in her short novel, I would never have read this book otherwise.

Seriously. The way she brings her characters to life makes you really root for them, all of them. I had my heart in my throat through most of the book and nearly in tears at some points.

The Genius and The Muse has two major plot lines.

Kate Mitchell is a photographer who is graduating from an art school and writing her dissertation based on a legendary photographer Reed O'Connor. Trying to understand his talent and mindset, she stumbles on to an old picture where her own professor and bunch of others stand together with Reed and a famous painter Samantha Rhodes. Both Reed and Sam seem deeply in love, and Kate's mentor makes a small remark that to understand Reed, Kate needs to understand his relationship with Sam.

Intrigued by this mysterious phrase, Kate starts digging and interviewing all the people on that picture...

The second plot line is the story of a great love between Reed and Sam and what happened to isolate them from each other, change both of them so much. Parallel to Kate's interviews and glimpses of magnetic chemistry that the couple used to have, we see how they met, fell in love and moved together to New York.

By not letting the sleeping dogs lie, Kate manages to transform her own life by meeting Javi, an antisocial sculptor friend of Reed and reunite Sam and Reed again.

Javi and Kate! *sigh* What a couple, so so right together... I love how all the love stories in Elizabeth's books are slow burn. They arise from series of circumstances, there is a spark, but then life gets in the way, and it takes time for that interest and magnetic pull to get strong enough to bring two people together. I love that! I love how real it all seems.

There is a little bit of Sidney Sheldon epicness in Miss Hunter's style, and I find it extremely appealing. Highly recommended, totally loved it!

* * *

Вот очень душевные персонажи у Элизабет выходят, как не крути.

Хоть современный роман не моя стезя, когда мисс Хантер поинтересовалась не хочу ли я прорецензировать её новую книгу, учитывая, что я обожаю её паранормальную серию, я сразу же согласилась... и не пожалела.

Книга была прочитана на одном дыхании и своей жизненной драматичностью напомнила мне то время, когда я зачитывалась Сидни Шелдон.

Кэйт Митчелл - студент-фотограф, основываюшая свою диссертацию на гениальном артисте-фотографе Риде О'Конноре. Пытаясь набрать всё больше и больше материала по теме она натыкается на старую фотографию выпускников школы где её профессор, его жена и куча друзей стоят вместе с Ридом и знаменитой художницей Самантой Родэс. Ментор Кейт комментирует, что чтобы понять Рида, она должна понять его отношения и трагическую историю любви к Саманте.

С этого момента сюжет разделён на две главные линии - Кейт, интервьирующую каждого, кто присутствовал на той фотографии и узнающую всё больше и больше о загадочной паре; и историю самого Рида и Сэм.

Шикарнейшие персонажи, прекрасные любовные истории, что самой студентки, что Рида и Сэм. Книгу просто проглотила, временами щемило сердце и стоял в комок в горле... Всё безумно жизненно и реалистично, и вот за это я люблю стильЭлизабет!

Очень рекомендую.