A review by ibebrie
The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

3.0

I wouldn't quite put this novel in the "sad housewife novel" category, but there is something that seems so overdone. This novel, based on the life and times if the Von Gerter girls in the Paris opera is compelling in the same way Cinderella is compelling, you are happy for the happy ending, but part of you enjoys reading the suffering of the story to get to that point. The writing was good enough (although it really irritated me that to demonstrate that one of the sisters had no education she replaced doesn't with don't while keeping a whole manner of fancy words...it felt super forced). The author definitely had an ability to create intense imagery of 19th century impoverished Paris. Overall this book was good, but there wasn't really anything exceptional about it.