By
M J Rose
M J Rose is known for her haunting stories. Witch of Painted Sorrows lived up to all I had read about the novel before I picked it up and opened to the first page. With the first words, I found myself compelled by the story of the young woman who the novel revolved around. Betrayed by her husband, abandoned in death by her beloved father, and finally desperate to understand and unravel who she truly was, the story moved from New York to Paris of the mid-1890s. Pure genius of story and plot took the reader to the Ecole des Beaux Arts, the great Parisian arts academy, as Sandrine applied to study there under the guise as a male, to the oddities of living under the shadow of one of Paris’ greatest horizontals.
Woven through the pages of a poignant love
story between a young Parisian Architect and this American heiress, both lives
seemed to slowly spin out of control in front of them. Their worlds seemed to melt into the very oil
pots of color described in the scenes of the Le Lune’s fables and mysticism.
But not all was fables, and family myths were more than stories.
This reader felt the tugs of insanity pulling from the pages and the wet stickiness of the paint dripping from the words, as Sandrine’s world continued to turn on end. I could not get to the end fast enough, for I had to find the answer that would save the family, and Sandrine’s sanity. The attention to detail that M J paid to the era’s worship of the occult, the details of some of the art work in the books, and to the art itself was magnificent.
This reader felt the tugs of insanity pulling from the pages and the wet stickiness of the paint dripping from the words, as Sandrine’s world continued to turn on end. I could not get to the end fast enough, for I had to find the answer that would save the family, and Sandrine’s sanity. The attention to detail that M J paid to the era’s worship of the occult, the details of some of the art work in the books, and to the art itself was magnificent.
As to the story and the character development,
M J did a masterful job. Each of the
characters breathed. L’Incendie, the
Grandmere, was magnificent. I could
almost see a very regal Kathrine Hepburn, and could on occasion see and hear
her breath fire. To be able to have such
strength and still be able to entice and entrance men, for so many years, was
believable from this great lady.
A Five
Star rating across the board. I continue to look forward to
the future offerings of M J Rose. Publication date is set for March 2015.
About MJ Rose
M.J. Rose grew up in New York City mostly in the labyrinthine
galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, the dark tunnels and lush gardens of
Central Park and reading her mother's favorite books before she was allowed.
She believes mystery and magic are all around us but we are too often too busy
to notice... Books that exaggerate mystery and magic draw attention to it
and remind us to look for it and revel in it.
Rose is a the Co-President and founding member ofInternational
Thriller Writers and
the founder of the first marketing company for authors: AuthorBuzz. She runs the
blog, Museum
of Mysteries.
In 1998, her first novel Lip
Service was the first e-book
and the first self-published novel chosen by the LiteraryGuild/Doubleday Book
Club as well as the first e-book to go on to be published by a mainstream New
York publishing house.
Rose has been profiled in Time magazine, Forbes, The New York Times, Business 2.0, Working Woman, Newsweek, andNew York
Magazine.
For more information and a complete list of her novels go to www.MJRose.com
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