A review by missprint_
Starry Nights by Daisy Whitney
3.0
Julien Garnier is a skilled draftsman even if his own works always lack that creative spark found in great art. But that's usually okay. Working as a tour guide in the museum his mother runs means that Julien is never far away from the inspiration and beauty found in the works of Van Gogh, Monet and other old talents--especially other Impressionists.
When a peach falls out of a painting and Olympia's cat wanders the museum, Julien thinks he must be dreaming. Then Degas' dancers jete across the museum floor and Julien realizes that, impossible as it seems, what he is seeing is very, very real.
When a lost Renoir arrives at the museum, Julien can't help but fall in love with the girl it depicts. He falls even harder when she walks out of the painting and introduces herself.
But Clio isn't like the other art. Instead of a mere depiction, Clio is a real girl trapped inside the painting by a strange and powerful curse.
As Julien learns more about Clio and how he might be able to free her, other strange things begin affecting are throughout the museum. As the paintings twist and change, Julien and Clio must race to find a way to break the curse--even if it might tear them apart in Starry Nights (2013) by Daisy Whitney.
With its beautiful cover and intriguing premise, who wouldn't be excited about Starry Nights? The book itself is physically beautiful with full color endpapers featuring some of the paintings mentioned in the story. The initial summary is also extremely appealing to any art enthusiast.
Although this book is adorably romantic with a decidedly French feeling conveyed in the setting, it never quite realizes its potential. Instead of becoming a resonant or memorable story, Starry Nights falls short in key moments where the characters and the events themselves could have gone further. Part of the problem here is definitely too much happening in too short a book.
Starry Nights is only 288 pages (hardcover) and Whitney packs a lot into those pages. The realms of believability (even in a story where art comes to life) are tested and stretched repeatedly as new dimensions are added to the story and the premise reshapes itself around this new information.
While the settings and the initial premise were delightful the story became mired in less enjoyable details including, sadly, a romantic pairing that was never quite as convincing as it needed to be for such a patently romantic book. Starry Nights will be a joy for art fans and readers looking for a superficially satisfying romance with some offbeat twists. Readers looking for a richer story or characters with more depth may have to look elsewhere.
Possible Pairings: Heist Society by Ally Carter, Graffitti Moon by Cath Crowley, The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece by Edward Dolnick, Bunheads by Sophie Flack, Temping Fate by Esther Friesner, Darker Still by Leanna Renne Hieber, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Confessions of a Not It Girl by Melissa Kantor, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld
*This book was acquired for review from the publisher at BEA 2013*
When a peach falls out of a painting and Olympia's cat wanders the museum, Julien thinks he must be dreaming. Then Degas' dancers jete across the museum floor and Julien realizes that, impossible as it seems, what he is seeing is very, very real.
When a lost Renoir arrives at the museum, Julien can't help but fall in love with the girl it depicts. He falls even harder when she walks out of the painting and introduces herself.
But Clio isn't like the other art. Instead of a mere depiction, Clio is a real girl trapped inside the painting by a strange and powerful curse.
As Julien learns more about Clio and how he might be able to free her, other strange things begin affecting are throughout the museum. As the paintings twist and change, Julien and Clio must race to find a way to break the curse--even if it might tear them apart in Starry Nights (2013) by Daisy Whitney.
With its beautiful cover and intriguing premise, who wouldn't be excited about Starry Nights? The book itself is physically beautiful with full color endpapers featuring some of the paintings mentioned in the story. The initial summary is also extremely appealing to any art enthusiast.
Although this book is adorably romantic with a decidedly French feeling conveyed in the setting, it never quite realizes its potential. Instead of becoming a resonant or memorable story, Starry Nights falls short in key moments where the characters and the events themselves could have gone further. Part of the problem here is definitely too much happening in too short a book.
Starry Nights is only 288 pages (hardcover) and Whitney packs a lot into those pages. The realms of believability (even in a story where art comes to life) are tested and stretched repeatedly as new dimensions are added to the story and the premise reshapes itself around this new information.
While the settings and the initial premise were delightful the story became mired in less enjoyable details including, sadly, a romantic pairing that was never quite as convincing as it needed to be for such a patently romantic book. Starry Nights will be a joy for art fans and readers looking for a superficially satisfying romance with some offbeat twists. Readers looking for a richer story or characters with more depth may have to look elsewhere.
Possible Pairings: Heist Society by Ally Carter, Graffitti Moon by Cath Crowley, The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing Masterpiece by Edward Dolnick, Bunheads by Sophie Flack, Temping Fate by Esther Friesner, Darker Still by Leanna Renne Hieber, Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Confessions of a Not It Girl by Melissa Kantor, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld
*This book was acquired for review from the publisher at BEA 2013*