Portrait of an Unknown Woman

A stunning fictionalized portrait--the story-behind-the-story--of an iconic painting crafted by famed Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt.

Parisian-born author Camille de Peretti takes readers on a labyrinthine fictional journey that explores the alluring, unnamed woman behind a mysterious portrait painted by Austrian visual artist Gustav Klimt.

 

Portrait of an Unknown Woman commences with actual facts about the painting and its origins. The author explains how it was always believed that Klimt painted two images of the same woman: “Damsel” (1910) and “Portrait of a Lady” (1917). In 1996, however, it was discovered by an art student that the two paintings were actually “one and the same.”  For some reason, Klimt altered (painted over) the original painting. Soon after this discovery, the two-in-one painting was stolen on February 22, 1997 and wasn’t found again until 2019, when a gardener at the famed Ricci Oddi Art Gallery in Piacenza, Italy found it perfectly preserved--wrapped in a garbage bag and stashed behind some overgrown ivy.

 

Who was the woman behind the mystery of this sought-after portrait? Why did Klimt paint her twice? And why might the painting have gone missing? These questions drive de Peretti’s passionate imagination as she unfurls a riveting novel about the mysterious woman, Klimt’s model and muse, whose turbulent life mirrors that of the iconic long-lost painting. Readers--those with a penchant for history and art dramas--will be beguiled by a truth-melded-with-fiction-epic that crosses continents from 1900s Vienna to New York City during the Great Depression, all the way to modern-day Italy. de Peretti’s well-conceived, beautifully rendered narrative is anchored in well-researched and documented facts as she creates a stunning, lyrical portrait about family loyalty, secrets and betrayals, and star-crossed love.

 

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Camille de Peretti (Translated from the French by Hildegarde Serle)

Europa Editions, paperback $19.00, 9798889661788, 256 pages

Publication Date: April 14, 2026

To order this novel on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about Camille de Peretti HERE

Earth's the Right Place for Love

An emotionally evocative romance set in 1947 that explores the bonds of family and how young love might ultimately take root and grow.

 

In Earth’s the Right Place for Love, Elizabeth Berg has written a poignant, emotionally powerful novel about the formative years in the life of 16-year-old Arthur Moses in the late 1940s.

 

Arthur--and those in his orbit--has been featured in three other Berg novels set in Mason, Missouri: The Story of Arthur Truluv, Night of Miracles and The Confession Club. In this novel, 85-year-old Arthur looks back on his life as a high school sophomore. Back then, in 1947, he was greatly influenced by--and looked up to--his dashing older brother, Frank, a charming heartthrob who often locked horns with their father, a brash man with a drinking problem. Young Arthur--kind, gentle and shy--had a crush on his cheerleader classmate, Nola McCollum, who actually had romantic designs on Frank. When Arthur learned of this, he secretly settled on building a friendship with Nola instead. However, when a sudden, devastating tragedy befalls the Moses family, Arthur and Nola become confidantes who help each other to grow through changes and challenges into young adulthood. Will Nola ever realize how much Arthur truly loves her? And will she ever love him back?

 

Love stories that probe the human condition are what Berg (I’ll Be Seeing You) does best, and this stand-alone story of Arthur’s early life shines with a refreshingly wholesome, 20th-century sensibility. Well-drawn characters and sensitively drawn scenes are what consistently endear readers to Berg’s exquisite storytelling. This novel adds to--and further deepens--the enriching appeal of that continuum.

 

Earth’s the Right Place for Love by Elizabeth Berg

Random House, $27.99 hardcover, 9780593446799, 288 pages

Publishing Date: March 21, 2023

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (March 24, 2023), link HERE

 

28 Summers

Star-crossed soulmates rekindle their romance, love and perpetual loyalty one weekend every year--for 28 years.

Elin Hilderbrand tugs on readers' heartstrings with great aplomb. In 28 Summers, she begins at the end of a long-term, unconventional romance and weaves the captivating story of star-crossed lovers through 28 years of history. 

The 1978 movie Same Time, Next Year--an American romantic-comedy-drama--serves as inspiration to the structure of the story and to main characters Mallory Blessing and Jake McCloud, who are fans of the film. Mallory and Jake developed an easy, flirtatious camaraderie over the phone while Jake and Cooper, Mallory's brother, roomed together at college. The two meet face-to-face only in 1993, while in their 20s--after Mallory inherits a Nantucket beach house from her aunt. Mallory plays host to soon-to-be-married Cooper and his friends, who gather on the island for his bachelor party on Labor Day weekend. The gathering goes bust on many levels, but Mallory and Jake forge an intimate bond--a soulmate connection--amid the mayhem and vow that every year, on Labor Day weekend, they should meet up again, just like in the iconic film.

For the next 28 years, the couple fulfills their pact, having contact with each other for only one weekend annually, where they secretly rekindle their romance and share the travails of their private lives--the challenges and sacrifices of dating and marriage to other people, parenthood and career pursuits. Careful plotting binds this deeply moving, powerful story. Hilderbrand (Summer of 69; The Perfect Couple) successfully entwines a host of surprising twists where multi-faceted characters become ensnared in thought-provoking romantic dilemmas.

28 Summers: A Novel by Elin Hilderbrand
Little, Brown and Company, $28.00 Hardcover, 9780316420044, 432 pages
Publication Date: June 16, 2020
To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 19, 2020), link HERE

Steal Away Home

A revelatory, spiritual novel about a young man whose big-league baseball dreams upend his life in extraordinary ways.

Owen Cross, from a small town in Shenandoah, Va., thought playing baseball was all he ever wanted. His passion was instilled by his father, Paul, whose big league aspirations were cut short by an injury. Paul--a high school janitor--encouraged Owen to master all aspects of the game. But when Owen crossed paths and fell in love with Michaela "Micky" Dullahan, a rebellious local girl "considered plain white trash," his life was upended. Micky's family was poor and struggling, her father a notorious alcoholic. Owen and Micky forged a bond they kept secret, lest they face familial and public disapproval. And the limits of their relationship became even more dramatically tested as Owen readied to leave for college on a baseball scholarship.

At the age of 29--in the 1990s, the heyday of Cal Ripkin and Derek Jeter--Owen is finally called up from the minor leagues to serve as a fill-in catcher for the Baltimore Orioles, playing against the New York Yankees in the Bronx. Over the course of that one special Major League baseball game, star-struck Owen closely re-examines his life and the emotionally charged circumstances that led to the pinnacle of his long-held dream.

Coffey (Some Small Magic) beautifully renders a thought-provoking story about the stony path toward spiritual enlightenment. As Owen experiences all nine innings of the big game, the idea of time and how it can lend perspective rises to the fore of this powerful, inspirational story centered on the bittersweet nature of grace and redemption.

Steal Away Home by Billy Coffey

Thomas Nelson, $15.99 Paperback,  9780718084448, 400  pages

Publication Date: January 2, 2018

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (January 19, 2018), link HERE

Miss You

Two Brits keep missing each other--and their chance for true and lasting love--over the course of 16 years.

Two young Brits repeatedly meet by chance but chronically fail to connect in Kate Eberlen's captivating first novel, Miss You. Their circuitous journey starts in summer 1997, when Tess and her best friend are traveling after high school graduation. In Florence, they cross paths with Gus, also a recent high school grad, who is traveling with his parents after the tragic death of his brother, the favorite son. A simple search for gelato first brings Tess and Gus together, but their encounter is fleeting because he feels inhibited in the presence of his parents. They return separately to London, and Gus heads to university to study medicine. Meanwhile, Tess defers academia because her mother dies after a battle with cancer; Tess must assume the care of her five-year-old sister, Hope, who has Asperger syndrome. 

What ensues is a compelling story--told in alternating points-of-view--about the sense of responsibility and guilt inflicted upon both. Miss You maps Gus and Tess's crisscrossing journeys over 16 years. They briefly meet again at London coffee shops, a Rolling Stones concert in Glastonbury and when Gus's children get temporary tattoos at the salon Tess manages. Detours, distractions, sacrifices and bad choices lead to life-changing betrayals by friends and lovers. This episodic, detail-rich narrative breeds suspense as readers grow eager to learn if fate will ever allow these two lost souls--who often feel trapped by the elusive nature of love and happiness--finally to find each other.  

Miss You: A Novel by Kate Eberlen

Harper, $25.99 Hardcover, 9780062460226, 448 pages

Publication Date: April 4, 2017

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (April 28, 2017), link HERE. 

Amherst

Love and romance reside at the heart of British author William Nicholson's work, be it in his screenplays (Shadowlands) or in his prose fiction (Motherland). In his historical novel, Amherst, two secret love affairs--past and present--come together under the influence of poet, Emily Dickinson, who has a vivid impact on all their lives.

Nicholson threads the needle of his intriguing, well-plotted narrative with Alice Dickinson, a contemporary, 20-something, London copywriter whose shared last name with the poet draws her to Emily's work. Alice travels to Amherst, Ma., to research a screenplay she's writing about the real-life, 1880s love affair between Austin Dickinson, Emily's 50 year-old, unhappily married brother, and Mabel Loomis Todd, the 24 year-old wife of an Amherst College professor.

Once Alice arrives in the States, she boards in the home of Nick Crocker, a handsome, married, charismatic English Literature academic in his fifties. Alice's research into the mysteries of love, fidelity and passion is soon complicated when she and Nick begin an affair that ultimately parallels the intense complexity found in Austin and Mabel's relationship that was secretly consummated in the home that Emily Dickinson shared with her sister, Vinny. 

The plotlines of these tender, revealing love stories are told via alternating chapters. Nicholson draws from historical texts and includes letters along with Dickinson's poems in order to fictionally recreate the long-standing affair between Austin and Mabel—and the significant role that Emily, an enigmatic spinster-recluse, played in their romance, as well as how Emily's ghost permeates the relationship between Alice and Nick.

Amherst by William Nicholson

Simon & Schuster, $26 Hardcover, 9781476740409, 304 pp   

Publication Date: February 10, 2015

To order this book 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 (2/17/15), click HERE