Sunday, November 23, 2014

The Objects of Her Affection


An ordinary woman becomes a thief of Renaissance art in order to pay the bills in The Objects of Her Affection, an engrossing novel by Sonya Cobb that focuses on themes of want and need.

The Porters are a young, seemingly idyllic Philadelphia family. Beneath the surface, however, Sophie Porter and her husband Brian want different things. Brian, a workaholic curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is focused mainly on his career, constantly traveling. Sophie, feeling neglected and at a professional standstill as a web developer, thinks being approved for a hefty mortgage on a 150-year-old fixer-upper house will empower her life and give the couple's two children the childhood she herself never had.

Brian sees all the problems with the house, while Sophie sees a perfect future. When their approved adjustable-rate mortgage suddenly skyrockets and the Porters can't pay the bills, Sophie panics, yet she keeps the financial anxieties a secret. While visiting Brian at the museum one day, she discovers a trove of small, poorly stored, valuable works of art. Sophie 'accidentally' makes off with a Renaissance decorative mirror. Fearful of having to return it and thinking it might pay off some debt, she sells it to an art dealer who befriends Sophie while pulling her into a life of crime.

"She only wanted what was best for her family," Cobb writes about her deeply flawed, risk-taking protagonist with whom some readers will empathize. The thought-provoking, suspenseful plot will also hold crossover appeal for fans of thrillers as well as those intrigued by the lives of ordinary people misguided by their decisions and desires.


Sourcebooks Landmark, $14.99 Trade Paper, 9781402294242, 337 pp
Publication Date: August 1, 2014
To order via INDIEBOUND link HERE


Note: This review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (8/1/14), click HERE