The Venice Sketchbook: A Novel

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It’s 1938 when art teacher Juliet Browning arrives in romantic Venice. For her students, it’s a wealth of history, art, and beauty. For Juliet, it’s poignant memories and a chance to reconnect with Leonardo Da Rossi, the man she loves whose future is already determined by his noble family. However star-crossed, nothing can come between them. Until the threat of war closes in on Venice and they’re forced to fight, survive, and protect a secret that will bind them forever. Rhys Bowen is the New York Timesbestselling author of more than forty novels, including Above the Bay of Angels, The Victory Garden, The Tuscan Child, and the World War II–based In Farleigh Field, the winner of the Macavity and Left Coast Crime Awards for Best Historical Mystery Novel and the Agatha Award for Best Historical Mystery. Bowen’s work has won twenty honors to date, including multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards. Her books have been translated into many languages, and she has fans around the world. A transplanted Brit, Bowen divides her time between California and Arizona. A: All of the festivals that take place are real. The Venetian tolerance for the Jews and then the brutal rounding up by the Germans are all real. The Contessa is typical of a patron of the arts at that time. The book description is sufficient so I don’t have to repeat the entire story line here. What I will say is: Caroline ist frisch getrennt, als ihre geliebte Großtante Lettie ihr ein ungewöhnliches Erbe hinterlässt: ein Skizzenbuch, drei Schlüssel und einen letzten Wunsch. Sie fliegt nach Italien, um ihr Versprechen zu erfüllen. Die Reise führt sie tief in eine Vergangenheit, die mehr mit ihrer Zukunft zu tun hat, als sie ahnt …

BOOK REVIEW: THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK | Military Press BOOK REVIEW: THE VENICE SKETCHBOOK | Military Press

i didnt care about caroline at all and im sorry girl idc if youre second or third cousins....maybe itd be one thing if something had already happened between them before she knew but EVERYTHING HAPPENED AFTER SHE KNEW THEY WERE RELATED. Another dual time line story. This one is easy to follow as each chapter is headed up with the person, date and place. In Like Flynn is another captivating installment in a series which has garnered an impressive array of awards and nominationsCaroline will travel to Venice on behalf of her great aunt Lettie who has passed away. Caroline wishes to honor her with dispersing her ashes in the lovely city. It's here that we will come upon secrets in the lives of these women. 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. Key by key, Lettie’s life of impossible love, loss, and courage unfolds. It’s one that Caroline can now make right again as her own journey of self-discovery begins.

The Venice Sketchbook: A Novel by Rhys Bowen, Paperback

Caroline’s story is not especially interesting and I find it detracts from Juliet’s which has much more meat on the bones. However, the pace of the book is that of a snail as we take a sllloooowww plod around Venice rather than whisking along at a brisk pace and there’s little excitement. There’s too much Venice, too much sustenance (is the author obsessed with food? On a diet and torturing herself? 😁) and not enough substance. We get a whiff of war, a scent of a love story but there’s not much depth to either. There’s little sense of danger during the German occupation of Italy and the ending should have been dynamite and instead is a briefly ignited Roman Candle. There’s a lot of coincidence, contrivance and plot convenience especially at the end. Talking of which, what an abrupt end - what are we meant to make of it? It’s like the storytelling ran out of steam. Ich habe das Buch in einem Rutsch gelesen so gefangen war ich von der Geschichte. Tiefgründig, spannend und hoch emotional. There's also a big problem for me with the main 20th-century character, Juliet. She just doesn't seem to care, so I didn't care about her even though she really went through a lot. 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. Leo, frankly, is a bit of a shit in my opinion. Caroline’s story felt shorter but was no less intriguing. What I didn’t like, however, was that it seemed to end quite abruptly. I was hooked by the characters and wanted to read more! What happened next? I felt this timeline needed another chapter (if not two) to properly wrap things up.So Caroline goes to Venice to learn what she can, in hopes of figuring out what compelled Lettie, and to take the opportunity to figure out where her own road will lead her next. All that’s to say that it feels like parts of this story have been done before, and recently, and perhaps for this reader a bit of World War II historical fiction fatigue has set in. 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. I am also known for my Constable Evans books, set in North Wales, and for my award-winning short stories. In 2001 Caroline’s husband has taken their 6 year old son to New York to spend the summer with him and his new girlfriend. Then the twin towers terrorist hit happened and suddenly the boy is traumatised and cannot travel. Meanwhile Great Aunt Lettie is ailing and calls for Caroline who takes leave from her job and races to her aunt’s side. Aunt Lettie is on her deathbed but manages to give Caroline a garbled message and three odd keys and tells her to go to Venice.