The Venice Sketchbook: A Novel

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I think that the issues I had with Lettie/Julietta’s part of the story was that so much of what she did has been written before, and the parts of the story that were unique to her were a bit too predictable, especially her doomed romance and its results. was in North Africa and didn’t see me until I was three, and growing up in Britain the remains of the war were everywhere—bomb sites, damaged churches and rationing until 1953. So I found this take on that historic conflict to be a bit too much like too many things I’ve read before, in spite of the change in setting.

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen Book Review: The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen

You’ll have to pick up this fabulous historical fiction on April 13, 2021, to find out what choices Caroline and Juliet make and how it affects those they love. You just never know what experiences might have been had by anyone in your life so never suppose that a life has not been well lived. What gave me the idea for a WWII story was when I was attending the Biennale-the big international art festival that happens every two years and I saw that there was a festival in 1940 and 1942. The 21st-century MC was pretty much Juliet Mark II, and the love interests were your standard Italian hunk x 2, all testosterone and la famiglia.She travels there again in 1938 to attend La Accademia di Belle Arti, the Academy of Fine Arts, a life dream. Bowen’s vivid storytelling style holds readers enrapt…Bowen has written a tender, poignant story balancing dark and light. Love and secrets collide in Venice during WWII in an enthralling novel of brief encounters and lasting romance by the New York Times bestselling author of The Tuscan Child and Above the Bay of Angels.

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen - Blog Tour and Review The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen - Blog Tour and Review

We are just doing spring clean-up and replacing a lot of lost plants and shrubs from the extremely cold winter we had. The author only needed to read one memoir by an Italian Jew to know Italian Jews were never made to wear the yellow star. For Caroline her time in Venice is valuable in so many ways, she comes to terms with the end of her marriage, she can see things from a different perspective, she has great admiration for her great-aunt Juliet and the lasting legacy she left behind. For my birthday last month, my husband bought me these super cute, Agatha Christie, illustrated playing cards -- and I'm a bit obsessed!Her storyline unravels gently like a gondola on a leisurely ride down the Grand Canal…until a speedboat zooms past and you are hit with the wake of twists and turns! As luck would have it, the star-crossed lovers find each other, but fate has dealt a cruel hand; he’s unavailable. Bowen has extensive personal experience with the city, as she knows the ins and outs as only someone who has lived there could. In 1938, Juliet Browning is an art teacher, she arrives in Venice with twelve students, for them to experience the cities, art, history, culture and food. Rhys Bowen crafts a propulsive, unexpected plot with characters who come vibrantly alive on the page.

Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen | Goodreads The Venetian Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen | Goodreads

Let’s just say it was a VERY good thing for Caroline that Lettie was her great-aunt and not her grandmother.

She travels with her Aunt Hortensia to Italy, the best place for a budding young artist to be inspired. Caroline Grant’s married to Josh, they have a little boy Teddy and she works as an editorial assistant at a women’s magazine.

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen | Goodreads The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen | Goodreads

Neither has the author bothered to learn anything about the act of painting despite her character supposedly being a talented artist. First of all the setting principally in Venice is very good though I do feel like I’m reading from my trusty DK guide as we take many a stroll or ride in a vaporetto. A beautiful city built on water, getting around Venice is a challenge, lots of bridges, canals and boats are needed.This is also not the only book this year to be set in World War II Italy, the other being Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson, which is somewhere in my virtually towering TBR pile. Caroline loves both women, but Lettie has been both her inspiration and her rock for all of her life, and now that support is gone. Venice, a dying bequest by Caroline Grant’s beloved great-aunt Lettie, a wish that will bring Caroline to scatter Lettie’s ashes in the city she loved.