The Venice Sketchbook: A Novel

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The Venice Sketchbookis that rare book, both epic and personal, and utterly compelling. Two women, decades apart, escape to Venice, each forced to grapple with the influence of world events on her own life. This is a tale brimming with secrets, romance, and possibilities, cast against the colorful setting of irresistible Venice. I was utterly captured.” ―Barbara O’Neal, bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaidsand The Lost Girls of Devon I was born and raised in England but currently divide my time between California and Arizona where I go to escape from the harsh California winters That being said, I did enjoy this story. There are parts that are predictable and parts that are not. There are parts that are possibly unreal and others that are more likely to have occurred. There were times I felt it was going into too much detail and other times when I was nervous for the characters. The plot has Englishwoman Juliet Browning visiting Venice with her aunt in 1928 and then she visitsagain in 1938 and 1939. Each time, she meets and spends time with wealthy nobleman Leonardo Da Rossi. Leo is an Italian count with whom Juliet has an affair. Unfortunately, he is unhappily married to a wealthy Venetian girl. They cannot marry, even after Juliet becomes pregnant with Leo’s child. Plus, because of her father’s financial losses and untimely death, she cannot achieve her dreams of attending art college. Juliet Browning has been before in 1928 but left hurriedly with her great aunt. She travels there again in 1938 to attend La Accademia di Belle Arti, the Academy of Fine Arts, a life dream. She’s reacquainted with a young man, Leonardo Da Rossi who Juliet had met on her previous visit. When war breaks out Juliet remains in Venice—until she can’t!

The Venice Sketchbook: A Novel by Rhys Bowen, Paperback

A: I have often wondered how seemingly decent men could work in concentration camps and then go home to their families. I spent a lot of time in Germany as a young woman and realized that most Germans had no say over taking part. Any hint of opposition to the government and you were rounded up and taken away. Hitler’s spies were I am an avid fan of Rhys Bowen and have read tons of her books. The Venice Sketchbook seemed formulaic to me with a predictable plot and characters that we have run into time and time again. Lost loves and all that. World War II stories have almost taken over most readers' reading lists as of late. Don't get me wrong. The Venice Sketchbook is still a fine offering from the highly talented Rhys Bowen. Perhaps there is a certain weariness nowadays during these times that have suppressed our mobility and put a damper on our usual desire and zest for life. Perhaps we're searching for something more that catapults us into a different dimension.....far from the pain of the past and far from the shadows of today. Their stories are linked, not just by the city, and not just by these two women’s relationship to each other, but also to a family that influences both of their lives. Let’s just say it was a VERY good thing for Caroline that Lettie was her great-aunt and not her grandmother. Q: You've written over 40 books, many of them mysteries for which you've won multiple awards -- Congratulations on your success as an author! What made you switch over to stand-alone historical fiction?A: I’ve known Venice since my family used to spend time there when I was a child so it all feels familiar to me, but each time I go I discover something new. Obviously favorite parts of the city are some of the popular tourist spots. Standing on the Accademia Bridge and looking down toward Rialto is magical. Having coffee in St. Mark’s Square is perfect (but really expensive these days. My parents did it every morning!) I love attending high mass at St. Marks and listening to the sound of the choir soaring up to that dome. I love visiting La Fenice opera house and going to concerts in the churches. This was a very enjoyable tale. I do enjoy these dual timeline stories and this one was a bit different from some of the others that I have read. A woman named Juliet heads to Venice on a school class trip with her art students hoping to find some of the magic that she found when she had been there earlier in her life. But it’s not the best time to be traveling as Mussolini is consolidating his power and Hitler is well, doing what Hitler did. Juliet finds her love but she also finds more trouble than she could ever conceive of finding. Truly delightful both the story and the writing. Using a dual time line pre and post WW11 (Juliet Browning) and 2001 (Caroline Grant). Both periods mainly set in Venice. Both involving our heroines falling in love with Italian men from a prominent Venician family. 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. Escape Rating B-: World War II is a rich period for historical fiction of all types and stripes. To the point where I have three books in a row that are set during the same period, Friday’s The Consequences of Fear, this book today, and tomorrow’s The Last Bookshop in London. This is also not the only book this year to be set in World War II Italy, the other being Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson, which is somewhere in my virtually towering TBR pile.

Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen | Goodreads The Venetian Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen | Goodreads

What she discovers, or who she discovers, is the woman her staid, upright, prim, proper and utterly respectable great-aunt Lettie used to be. A young woman named Julietta, an art student trapped in Venice when Britain declared war on Italy. A woman determined, in her last moments, that it was time for someone she loved to uncover her truth. Leaving behind one final request, that Caroline go to Venice, a place that Lettie seems to have loved but that Caroline never knew was such a part of her great-aunt’s life, along with enough money for Caroline to make the trip, scatter Lettie’s ashes, and perhaps figure out what made the request so important to the dying woman that she hung on long enough to make that one last request. And as a result of that fatigue I enjoyed Caroline’s side of the story more than I did Julietta’s. I’d rather have seen Caroline actually researching Lettie’s history rather than just reading Lettie’s diary. 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.Time changes everything. We can never fully revisit those people and places we've kept frozen in still life hovering in chambers within our memories. Did you agree with Caroline's decision to allow her son to stay in the U.S. with his dad? Why or why not? 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. I'm like you, RJ. I've read so many WWII novels that -- as I started one a few weeks ago and it's not bad (The Baker's Secret -- have you read it?) I thought, "I wonder if I will finish it. It seems so much the same as so many of the others." This one sounds different and like you, I only the double narration. The setting and art intrigues me.