Review: Beautiful, expressive writing on the Manhattan art scene
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2014
What a refreshing book. The first thing I noticed is the beautiful, expressive writing detailing the Manhattan art scene and the dreams of young artists. Kitsy Clare uses all five senses, a combination of dialogue, setting, and description to bring her characters to life.Sienna is a computer graphic artists. She loves order and craves balance. Her artwork is neat and pinned together with symmetry, making her feel like everything is verified and provable, and all is shiny and happy in her world. Intense, expressive work sets her nerves on edge and are too messy for her OCD personality.Sienna falls into immediate attraction with an artists' model, Erik, who is quirky, fun, and drop-dead gorgeous. He has the entire female half of the art class panting wet and the male half tense and looking for his faults. Erik is also an artist, but lack of credentials and his expressive work of swooping lines and free-spirited shapes fill Sienna with anxiety and uncertainty.Sienna is torn between dating Dave Hightower, a wealthy classmate whose aunt owns a high-class gallery and lusting over Erik, who she is sure has many women at his beck and call. Although Erik gives off no player vibes, Sienna is hesitant to let her heart go out of control.The story is set up well, with high stakes tension, adorable side characters, a lusciously paintable hero, and a heroine teetering between logic and emotional. Add to that, the beautiful descriptive writing is a joy to read. It captures details, nuances and sensuality with subtlely, without being long-winded or banging in your face graphic.However, the book is too short! It had so much potential to play out the drama between Dave and Sienna, Sienna and her friend who likes Dave, Erik and Dave, and of course the other women vying to model for Erik. I felt like it ended just when I thought I could settle in for a really good story.Also, Erik came off too perfect. There really wasn't any hidden dark secret hinted at by the description. The ending came too quickly and everything wrapped up too neatly. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't "buy" the love between the two. They haven't been tested enough and they don't know each other that well. Of course, the story is sold as a novella, and for the length, it does give us enough characterization to get to know the characters. It just doesn't have much of a try-fail cycle for the relationship that makes for a stronger happily ever after.For what it is, it was a delightful quick read with wonderfully skilled writing behind it.