The Venice Sketchbook: A Novel (edició 2021)

I had just given up reading a book in which multiple characters were all written in the 1st person. Just impossible for the reader. But Rhys Bowen restored my confidence. Two main characters, decades apart. One voiced in the the 1st person, the other in the 3rd.

Quite a straightforward story with enough plot twists as the plot evolves—plus the occasional convenient coincidence. Venice in the decade from 1935 offers plenty of intrigue, danger and romance. ( )

A multi-generational romance told partly from the point of view of the older woman and partly from the point of view of her great-niece.

Caroline Grant's marriage has fallen apart and she is struggling to move forward when her Great Aunt Lettie dies and leaves her all of her possessions: a cardboard box containing two leather-bound books and a jewelry case with three keys, an old-fashioned ring with a row of small diamonds, and a string of glass beads, along with a whisper ...Venice. Caroline's son, Teddy, has gone to visit his father in NYC. Caroline decides to go to Venice to scatter Great Aunt Lettie's ashes and see if she can find out what the keys open. There begins Caroline's journey to discover Juliet Browning's time in Venice where she began her first sketchbook in May 1928 when her aunt took her to a Italy for a visit before she began her art studies in London. While out on her own, she rescues a box of kittens floating in a canal and almost drowns before being rescued by Leonardo Da Rossi, the son of a wealthy and noble family in Venice. Juliette goes out with Leo one night, but is seen and is summarily taken away from Venice by her aunt. Unfortunately 1929 happened and the family lost most of their money forcing Letty to take a job teaching in a girl's school to support her mother and herself. Fast forward to 1938 when Juliette co-leads an excursion of students to Venice to sketch and take in the attractions of Venice. While there she sees Leo again. In 1939, a 1-year sabbatical with stipend becomes available to Juliette to study in Venice. She jumps at this chance and enrolls in art school in Venice as a foreign student along with several others from around Europe. World War II is gearing up, but Venetians expect things to continue as they always have. The story follows Juliette's experiences in Venice just before and during WWII and Caroline's quest for information about Juliette's time there. Caroline finds some surprising answers and meets Luca Da Rossi, the current son and heir to the Da Rossi name and fortune. ( )

Thank you to #BookTrib and Loves To Read.

It took me 2 starts and stops nd decided not to finish. I didn't even get to my usual 100 pages.

I've read so many books like this before and I think I get bored with the predictable, same format book about a woman who's left with a secret diary/box/etc. after a relative dies and has been left some treasure or other and has to go back to a foreign country/city that was significant to that relative. The dual timelines were usual too. ( )

Lovely stories, though tragic in some ways. Wonderful full characters, great sense of time and place. A very enjoyable read, quite the page turner. Good narrator. I had a hard time putting it down. Where can I go from here? ( )