Book Tour Review: The Color of Light by Helen Maryles Shankman

Title: The Color of Light
Author: Helen Maryles Shankman
Genre: historical fiction, supernatural
Series: N/A
Pages: 580 (ARC edition)
Published: October 31 2013
Source: TLC Book Tours for review
Rating: 4.5/5

NEW YORK CITY, 1992. At the American Academy of Classical Art, popular opinion has it that the school’s handsome and mysterious founder, Raphael Sinclair, is a vampire. It is a rumor Rafe does nothing to dispel.

Scholarship student Tessa Moss has long dreamed of the chance to study at Rafe’s Academy. But she is floundering amidst the ups and downs of a relationship with egotistical art star Lucian Swain.

Then, one of Tessa’s sketches catches Rafe’s attention: a drawing of a young woman in 1930s clothing who is covering the eyes of a child. The suitcase at her feet says Wizotsky. Sofia Wizotsky, the love of Rafe’s life, was lost during the Holocaust.

Or was she? Rafe suspects Tessa may be the key to discovering what really happened.

As Rafe finds excuses to interact with Tessa, they cannot deny their growing attraction to one another. It is an attraction forbidden by the Academy Board and disapproved of by anyone familiar with Rafe’s playboy reputation and Tessa’s softhearted innocence.

But Tessa senses the truth: despite his wealth, his women, and his townhouse filled with rare and beautiful treasures, Rafe is a haunted man…for reasons that have nothing to do with the rumors they whisper about him at school.

Intensely romantic and deeply moving, The Color of Light blends fact and fantasy in an unforgettable tale of art and passion, love and war, guilt and forgiveness, spanning the New York art scene, high-fashion magazine publishing, the glittering café society of pre-World War II Paris, and the evil stalking the back roads of Nazi-occupied Europe.

This book was beautiful. It was a pleasure to read. Finely crafted, well-written, featuring an original and atmospheric plot, not to mention the cast full of realistic, engaging characters. With a deft hand and an eye for detail, Shankman ably creates a fascinating story that combines art, Nazis, and vampires with aplomb. Her story is a bit different from other historical fiction and it is all the better for the author's daring.

While reading The Color of Light, I was, in a way, reminded of Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel The Historian -- both feature strong female leads in a story concerned with history and introduced to the supernatural as a result. Tessa is fairly innocent and naive about life and love in 90's New York City, but she has life to her. Through her exploits at the Academy, through her growing involvement with the dangerous and mysterious Raphael Sinclair, she grows, learns, and changes immeasurably from the less assertive girl she started out as.

As great as Tessa was to read, she is far from the only well-developed character to be found in The Color of Light. The wide group of friends that surround her pop from the page - Graham, David, Portia, Graciela..... each one has life, a personality, and are identifiable. Raphael Sinclair is a bit of a problem since I find his and Tessa's complicated history to be a bit ick-inducing, but as a vampiric romantic interest, Shankman sells it.

There is a remarkably easy flow to the story, despite its density of pages and depth of detail. Despite her relative infancy as an author, Shankman is a talented writer. Her writing is atmospheric, lively, and engaging. Her descriptions about art, and an artist's passion for creation is incredible. This is a book that made me want to be a struggling artist in 1990's NYC. As someone with little to no artistic inclination, that is a hallmark of strong writing to my mind. 

The novel shifts between the modern storyline -- Raphael and Tessa at his art school -- and the one set during the 1930s/1940s. Both storylines hold up equally well, but shift from 3rd (present story) and 1sr (when Raphael tells his story in Part Two) perspective. Though POC switching is a pet peeve of mine, it's handled well here. The 3rd person allows for a wide view and detail, but the first person makes Raphael's story more intimate and emotional.

Nowadays, with the omniprenece of vampires, it's impressive to read a novel that still manages to use the bloodsuckers well. I would never have expected so much from a novel that is about Nazis and vampires, but Helen Maryles Shankman has created a must-read here with The Color of Light.

Bookish Arrivals

So, as I do periodically, I went a bit book crazy these last few weeks. Here are all the ones I bought (plus one ARC sent for a blog tour):

ROSE UNDER FIRE! by Elizabeth Wein. Out of everthing I got, and there are some highly-coveted books herein, none was more coveted than RUF. Even Bitterblue doesn't compare. I loved Code Name Verity from my head to my toes so I have been waiting for this book since FEBRUARY. As soon as I can, this book is going down.

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfeld. This is for a readalong with Lyn of Great Imaginations and Pixie from the Bookaholic. I've heard the prose is lovely so I am pretty excited to start this soon.

BITTERBLUE by Kristin Cashore. I am also ridiculously excited for this. I love love love Graceling and, to a slightly lesser degree, Fire, so a return to this world (and PO) is more than welcome.

Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr. Over the last year, I've become quite the fan of Zarr's. While neither Sweethearts nor Story of a Girl has matched my love for How to Save a Life, I am still eager to see what this one has in store.

Relic by Renee Collins. Like I've said before, if you mention dragons, I'm pretty much dead set on reading your book.

The Shattering by Karen Healey.A book I found discounted on Amazon, I don't know much besides I liked the cover and synopsis enough to buy it purely on a whim.

The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman. My extreme love for the author's The Book of Blood and Shadow made this a must buy for me, even if I am not a fan of horror books without zombies in them. Reviews have been good, and I've been sneaking chapters when I can and I do think I will enjoy this.

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas. I've already read this and holy moley this is a readable, compelling, utterly infuriating book. 

Five Flavors of Dumb by  Antony John. All I know about this is that a few friends have really liked it and the hardcover was on sale for less than $4.

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill. When I ordered this, it was a standalone. It's since morphed into a series and I am really not sure how I like that. 

Kinslayer (The Lotus War #2) by Jay Kristoff. I was lucky enough to get a print ARC of this earlier this summer so it's another I've already read (and reviewed.) And it is AWESOME.

 The Dream Thieves (Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater. I utterly loved the first Raven Boys novel (it was my first Stiefvater, too!) so this is another highly anticipated read.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab. The hype around this is incredible. But hopefully, truthful. Another I wish I had two pairs of eyes for so I could read it while going about my daily life.

Steelheart (The Reckoners #1) by Brandon Sanderson. I loooooove Brandon Sanderson. He writes some of the best fantasies around (Mistborn, Stormlight Archive, etc.) and I am very interested to see what he does with this more modern novel.

Lastly, the ARC I was sent - The Color of Light by Helen Maryles Shankman. Thank you to TLC Tours for this one. And it is a hefty brick. Seriously, this book is big and weighty. But I am very much looking forward to reading it.


I also bought ebooks this morning. But first there was this:

 
Nook is having quite the sale. If you move quick enough, you can get all of these books at half off the regular ebook price. And those four books are:

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

 On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.

For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.

Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.

The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.

Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Franny Banks is a struggling actress in New York City, with just six months left of the three year deadline she gave herself to succeed. But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates-Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material-and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair-product cocktail that actually works.

Meanwhile, she dreams of doing "important" work, but only ever seems to get auditions for dishwashing liquid and peanut butter commercials. It's hard to tell if she'll run out of time or money first, but either way, failure would mean facing the fact that she has absolutely no skills to make it in the real world. Her father wants her to come home and teach, her agent won't call her back, and her classmate Penelope, who seems supportive, might just turn out to be her toughest competition yet.

Someday, Someday, Maybe is a funny and charming debut about finding yourself, finding love, and, most difficult of all, finding an acting job.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and innocent love - that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

Margot by Jillian Cantor

 Anne Frank has long been a symbol of bravery and hope, but there were two sisters hidden in the annex, two young Jewish girls, one a cultural icon made famous by her published diary and the other, nearly forgotten.

In the spring of 1959, The Diary of Anne Frank has just come to the silver screen to great acclaim, and a young woman named Margie Franklin is working in Philadelphia as a secretary at a Jewish law firm. On the surface she lives a quiet life, but Margie has a secret: a life she once lived, a past and a religion she has denied, and a family and a country she left behind.

Margie Franklin is really Margot Frank, older sister of Anne, who did not die in Bergen-Belsen as reported, but who instead escaped the Nazis for America. But now, as her sister becomes a global icon, Margie’s carefully constructed American life begins to fall apart. A new relationship threatens to overtake the young love that sustained her during the war, and her past and present begin to collide. Margie is forced to come to terms with Margot, with the people she loved, and with a life swept up into the course of history.

So many books, so little time!