When the Rain Ends

 This is the first I have read of this author and wondered why I'd selected it.  Paperback, published in 2023 it is  326 pages.  Took until about page 120 to get my interest.  Surprised me that I kept on reading but it is light and easy reading.  It turned out to be nicely written, a decent story about grief, trials, trying to start over and romance.  It is how one woman divorced with a teen daughter is slowly going to lose her vision.  But Dani, the mother, has backbone and is one who will not wallow but gird herself and go forward..  Dani is very accustomed to cloaking her feelings and giving  the impression that everything is fine.  She dresses up, and goes forth. Pg. 194, "Even alone, she kept her shoulders back.  Posture affects attitude and as an added bonus made the clothes hang better."  That technique is so like me.  

But when her ex husband and father of  daughter, Bella, dies suddenly in an accident life has turmoil.  Bella t internalizes her grief and  mimics  her mothers way of not showing feelings.  Like mother like daughter.  Dani keeps her vision loss secret from all but her father and brother.  She runs a successful art gallery off the outer banks but decides to move inland and away,  She bought an old farm with silos and has hired a contractor known to the realtor to renovate it.  She plans to renovate the silos into a different art gallery where tourists will stop on their way to and from. . This uproots Bella from her friends and routine. 

Dani has become involved with her contractor, Jackson, but has kept the relationship a secret.  She herself is unsure.  Jackson has his own load of grief.  

Page 52, "Her mind lingered in the odd space between awake and asleep where  dreams and worries flourished."  

Pg 181, "She had  few memories but the precious few were crisp and sharp honed to a fine tip.  But memory was a tricky thing.  It changed with time, emotions and experience like the beach did with the tides."

Pg. 187, " Time.  For a long time, he'd resented the long lonely years stretching out in front of him.  Then he'd  stopped resenting the future and started searching for moments in the present.  Do not squander time, It is the stuff life is made of.,"

Pages 200-201 "..grief bubbled under the surface.  But that's what grief did.  It was patient, always lurking in the shadows, ready  to spoil a happy moment , sour a day or prompt unexpected tears." 

Pg 305, "Does it ever get better?     It never goes away.  Most days it does lose its edge.  But every so often when you least expect it grief cuts.  And maybe that's not so terrible.  The jab is a reminder that you loved her very much."

Pg 307, "Her life wasn't perfect.  Certainly not the one she'd envisioned as a kit.  But it was the one she had.,  And she would make the best of it.  Somehow., "     Another  quote that is so me.  

Pg 320. " Grief has a way of feeding off of other emotions so it's easier not to feel anything."  

Back cover

Over all I give this novel almost 4 ****.  It  did finally catch my interest and  yet it is not the kind of book I'd normally read. 

The Last Mona Lisa by Laura Morelli

 

First completed read of 2024 but one that I've had to be read for awhile.  Published in 2021, this paperback novel spans 461 pages and has interesting acknowledgements and  an explanation of her research, etc. by the author.  I have read others by Laura Morelli but this one was not my favorite, still it was a decent read., It switches among three main characters set in two time periods.  It opens with Leonardo Da Vinci and follows him through Italy in the 1470's and expands to the second character, Bellina a servant in the 1490's in Florence.  Bellina will interact with da ?Vinci who is commissioned to paint the portrait of her mistress, Lisa Ghiardini.  The rule  of the Medici and their  rise, fail and restoration affect much of these two characters.  The third character in a more modern era is Anne, a typist employee of the Louvre in Paris and her adventure with the rest of the staff s preserving the many artworks including the Mona Lisa from the invasion of the Nazis in World War II. 

Page 5-6 Leonardo is working for and finishing a painting for his master but wants to o more.  He is deciding to leave, and thinks" in the end we are all hiding something."

Pg 169,Leonardo again, " As much as I hate to admit it there is something comforting about returning to these old familiar places.  After months away from Florence it fels like home.  Perhaps it is when we might lose it all that we finally gain an appreciation for things we once took for granted."   

Laura Morelli does intense thoughtful research to produce her historical novels.  Her Ph.D in art history from Yale gives her a depth that would be missing if she were just a writer of fiction.   There is some very good descriptive writing on pages 265-266  1942 as the Germans approached Paris and France.  "The news had come to them the way it always did: Pierre sharing information from the wireless.  This time he was pale with shock, his usual smile beneath a scowl now wiped away.  The Germans had invaded the Free Zone at last.  After the Allies landed in North Africa and started pushing back Italian forces, the Free French--courageous citizens who refused to bow either to Nazi Germany or Viiichy, France."  The resistance will ultimately become a part of Anne's adventure, changing her life forever.  

I found this reference to books by the author in  her acknowledgements interesting.  She had written this novel during the pandemic and  could not travel to Paris or Italy instead writing at home.  So she acknowledges  the importance of books to transport us on journeys that we might otherwise not know. 
 

Back Cover

I found her pages of reflections About The Stolen Lady interesting. And she included an excerpt from  the memoir  of Lucie Mauzaric who was an archivist with the Louvre who is reference in the novel.   This is one example of how well she expands to create fiction from real events.  

  The back cover summarizes the novel.  I give this one only  between 4 and 5 stars,  Maybe I was just not into the right mood to switch amongst the characters back and forth over centuries.

  The writing is good but the book didn't resonate with me.  The research is fascinating and the inclusion of the information in the back is also interesting./