My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
This book has such an interesting premise. We follow the most interesting set of characters who are all caught up and involved in a mission to hunt down a painting stolen by the Nazi’s.
The two main characters we follow are Jules and Margaux. Jules is a new journalist who’s hired by the famed Dan Mansfield. Dan Mansfield is a famous reporter and journalist who’s known for investigating dangerous yet important stories that involve a ton of undercover work. Margaux, our second main character, is the granddaughter of a famous art collector. Her family is known for their art collections and their influence in the art world.
We also get to read about and from Ellis Baum, a famous shoe designer who is somehow connected to the stolen painting, and his grandson Adam Chase, a recovering addict and reclusive artist.
The best way to summarize this book is that of a historical action movie. The book opens up with a bang and sucks you in right away with murder, gunshots, and theft. While the premise and plot is reminiscent of an action movie, this book fell a bit short from achieving .
This book had a lot of potential for going deep into the and having the wonderfully, agonizing tension that’s signature to action movies but I feel like the book just brushed it’s potential
Action movies are known for having great tension and a push and pull kind of plot that hooks watchers but this book just managed to brush that kind of intensity. A lot happened plot wise so it was a fast moving book but I wish that this book had a bit more filler or depth to it make it more intense. I wish we got to read more about and from certain characters than the ones we followed for the most part.
I think I was a bit disappointed by this book because it had such potential for being a gripping book. The opening pages of this book started off so strong, with thievery, gunshots, and murder, all the signature elements of a great action movie like book. With a beginning like that, I was expecting to read a book with strong characters that are highly amoral and with great, unforgettable personalities. I expected that especially with the character we met in the opening pages of the book.
Unfortunately, I felt like as the book progressed, that authenticity and tension that was in the first few pages of the book decreased. That thrill I had in the opening chapters didn’t follow through.
Jules was hard to read from because she continually made mistakes and her character growth wasn’t really significant. I think towards the end, she did grow as a character but for most of the book, other characters carried her through the plot and other characters paid consequences for her mistakes.
Margaux gave off such bad ass vibes but as the book went on, her character came off a bit cringe for me and the cold, bad ass vibes she had in the first few chapters became less authentic and more forced.
This book also had an insta love or insta lust kind of situation and I wasn’t a fan of it. There was literally only one scene with the two characters in the relationship and the next chapter, there was a relationship. It just felt so fast.
I did really like the whole concept behind the book. I loved how this book centered around a portrait, particularly a portrait of a woman on fire. I loved reading about the meaning behind the portrait and the history that led up to it’s creation and the history following its abduction. It really got me into wanting to do more research on art and art history. Especially the significance of art and the Holocaust. I know about the significance or art during the Holocaust and I’ve watched a movie or two centered around it but I realized that there’s a lot of knowledge and history that I have yet to uncover.
I thought the strongest parts of the book were centered around the painting itself, whether its creation or how it got passed from family to family, generation to generation, and along with it’s physical transference, the changing of it’s meaning and purpose.
I heard that this book is going to be a movie and I think that it’s a book meant to be a movie. There’s a lot that a screenwriter can work with and on top of the general plot line. I think it’ll make a great movie.
In conclusion, this was a quick, fast read. It was entertaining and had nice, discussions on the meaning behind art and how important of a role it played in history. I just felt like there was a lot of stuff going on but at the same time not enough. There were a lot of plot points but I wish we gut into all these points more than just barely brushing them.
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