Review: The Genius and the Muse, by Elizabeth Hunter

Author: Elizabeth Hunter

Title: The Genius and the Muse

ISBN: (not available yet)

Publisher: E. Hunter (2nd May 2012)

Disclaimer: Copy received for review purposes.

Buy your copy: (Links not yet available)

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Kate Mitchell knew what she wanted: to finish her degree from Foothill Art Institute and break into the art world on her own terms. Just when she thinks she has it all figured out, new insight into a mysterious photograph by her artistic idol will lead her on a journey through the past.

A photograph. A painting. Lost dreams and secret pain. One clue leads to another, and Kate learns that pieces of the past might leave marks on her own future, leading to a love she never could have predicted. 

One portrait may hold the answers, but learning its secrets will challenge everything Kate thought she knew about love, art, and life. A single picture can tell more than one story. In the end, a young artist will discover that every real love story is a unique work of art." GoodReads’ blurb

So! You know I don’t usually read much contemporary. This is an adult contemporary, and I’m writing the review even though it didn’t come through my usual “for-review” channels (which means, it’s not an obligation but a choice). Knowing that, can you even begin to understand how much I love this book?

This is a story about people and about love, interwoven with an artistic background. It’s a perfect fit. People are complex; they have this very, very complex reactions and this deep, unexplainable feeling that is love. It’s something so far from our rational understanding that it becomes magic. And art is the perfect way to describe that: a collage of shapes and light and shadows, evoking and inspiring and changing us even when we’re not realizing it. And because this powerful feeling, this relationship, is perfectly captured in the Genius and the Muse, the novel itself becomes moving and touching and powerful.

For me, achieving such a thing through a novel is nothing short of magic.

And there’s something else: we won’t just read about yet another picture perfect romance. Through the different characters (there are two main couples, really) and the plot progression, we’ll see perfection, and broken despair, and blooming tenderness... and that the end doesn’t have to be the end, not when it was bound to be so much more.

Frankly? If you enjoy contemporary at all, you must read this. Even if you don’t, as long as you enjoy romance and solid, fascinating characters doing one of the best jobs ever at portraying deep emotions, you should read this.