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Summary
Summary
"A lush, romantic historical mystery...a heroine to root for." --Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale
"Fascinating...an enchanting glimpse of Jazz Age New York." --Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train and A Piece of the World
The New York Times bestselling author of The Library of Light and Shadow crafts a dazzling Jazz Age jewel--a novel of ambition, betrayal, and passion about a young painter whose traumatic past threatens to derail her career at a prestigious summer artists' colony run by Louis Comfort Tiffany of Tiffany & Co. fame. "[M.J. Rose] transports the reader into the past better than a time machine could accomplish" ( The Associated Press ).
New York, 1924. Twenty‑four‑year‑old Jenny Bell is one of a dozen burgeoning artists invited to Louis Comfort Tiffany's prestigious artists' colony. Gifted and determined, Jenny vows to avoid distractions and romantic entanglements and take full advantage of the many wonders to be found at Laurelton Hall.
But Jenny's past has followed her to Long Island. Images of her beloved mother, her hard-hearted stepfather, waterfalls, and murder, and the dank hallways of Canada's notorious Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women overwhelm Jenny's thoughts, even as she is inextricably drawn to Oliver, Tiffany's charismatic grandson.
As the summer shimmers on, and the competition between the artists grows fierce as they vie for a spot at Tiffany's New York gallery, a series of suspicious and disturbing occurrences suggest someone knows enough about Jenny's childhood trauma to expose her.
Supported by her closest friend Minx Deering, a seemingly carefree socialite yet dedicated sculptor, and Oliver, Jenny pushes her demons aside. Between stolen kisses and stolen jewels, the champagne flows and the jazz plays on until one moonless night when Jenny's past and present are thrown together in a desperate moment, that will threaten her promising future, her love, her friendships, and her very life.
Author Notes
MJ Rose is a former advertising executive who used her expertise working on major accounts, such as Harlequin Books, to propel her self-published debut novel, Lip Service in to the public eye. She lives in Greenwich, CT.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
News of the real-life 1957 fire that destroyed Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany's mansion on Long Island, prompts Jenny Bell, the narrator of this intriguing, supernaturally tinged historical from bestseller Rose (The Library of Light and Shadow), to recall her time at Laurelton, where she "came of age as both a woman and a painter." Flash back to Manhattan in the spring of 1924. Minx Deering, the spoiled daughter of a shipping magnate father and a socialite mother, takes aspiring artist Jenny under her wing. That relationship leads to an opportunity for Jenny to spend two months at Laurelton, where she's obliged to be only engaged in her host's "quest for beauty." Jenny's complex backstory deepens the familiar contours of a young woman's finding love and professional purpose. Rose artfully reveals, in stages, how Jenny was shaped by the death of her stepfather, an abusive cleric, who was accidentally pushed to his death by her mother. The paranormal aspect-ominous messages from a Ouija board-is unobtrusive. The multifaceted Jenny will strike Rose fans as her best creation yet. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Laurelton Hall, the mansion owned by Louis Comfort Tiffany, burned down in 1957. Who was responsible? Why was the place torched? Rose offers a clever solution to the mystery with this story of Jenny Bell, a young woman who, in 1924, is invited to Tiffany's prestigious artists' colony. There she encounters jealousy, intrigue, and suspicious goings-on. Most alarmingly, she realizes someone may have learned about secrets from her past that she thought she'd managed to bury. It's a glitzy Jazz Age story but one with a noirish current of darkness running throughout that suggests things aren't going to end well not for Jenny, not for anybody around her. Written with a good eye for character and period detail.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
A talented artist with a complicated past is accepted into the prestigious fellowship program at Louis Comfort Tiffany's Laurelton Hall, where she spends a summer exploring light and shadows in art and life.Twenty-four-year-old Jenny Bell has had a difficult life. Her mother, Faith, an artist, was widowed before Jenny was born. When Faith was offered a job in Canada, they moved from Ithaca to Hamilton, Ontario, where Faith eventually married the Reverend, an abusive man who hid his darker tendencies from his adoring congregation. After a series of tragedies, Jenny made her way to Manhattan and befriended Minx, a fellow art student who comes from a wealthy family but has her own troubled past. Unbeknownst to Jenny, Minx submits work from both of them and they are accepted as fellows through the Tiffany Foundation and invited to spend eight weeks at Laurelton Hall on Long Island, "known as a paradise of light and color, art, and nature." Jenny is not happy that Minx applied behind her back but decides it's an opportunity she can't refuse. Jenny settles in, honored to explore her talent and meet the great Mr. Tiffany and his (fictional) grandson, who may be her soul mate. Opening up about her past frees some deep fears, but then unnerving events make her wonder if someone is targeting her. Author Rose steps away from the magical elements that defined her recent titles and instead brings to life the enchanted setting of Laurelton Hall, its artists' colony, and the vibrant backdrop of New York's Roaring '20s, applying her typical intricate plotting, sensuous descriptions, and abundant skill in blending fact, fiction, and a broad cast of distinctive characters to captivating effect.A lush, mesmerizing story. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
In 1924, 24-year-old Jenny Bell, hiding a ruinous secret, arrives in New York City. Thanks to her incredible talent, she's following her dream of studying painting at the famous Art Students League of New York. Then she's accepted for a summer internship at the Louis Comfort Tiffany foundation on his Laurelton estate on Long Island where she meets her generous benefactor and hopelessly falls for his grandson Oliver, who brings color back into her monochromatic life. But then her checkered past returns to haunt her, unraveling her carefully built life of lies and threatening all she holds dear. Rose (The Library of Light and Shadow) keeps readers spellbound with her skillful first-person narration, a tightly paced plot, and authentic details that vividly capture the Roaring Twenties, with a touch of Gatsby-esque flavor and opulence and a research-rich mix of facts and fiction. VERDICT This fast-paced mystery, star-crossed romance, and love letter to Louis -Comfort Tiffany will captivate Rose's many fans and readers of 20th-century historical fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 2/19/18.]-Debbie Haupt, St. Charles City-Cty. Lib. Dist., St. Peters, MO © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Tiffany Blues 1 March 20, 1924 New York, New York I hadn't expected to find a waterfall in the middle of Central Park. Even there, so far away from home and the scene of the tragedy, the rushing water that pounded on the rocks made me shudder. The waterfalls in Ithaca and in Hamilton had been powerful, beautiful forces of nature, but I'd grown to hate them. "Jenny, certainly this early-spring scenery is going to inspire you to use some color," Minx said, as we set up our easels. A dozen of us from Professor Robert Pannell's class at the Art Students League of New York had scattered around the pond, preparing to spend the afternoon painting en plein air in the tradition of the impressionists. We'd walked from the school on West Fifty-seventh Street north into the park and then continued along manicured pathways into this untamed, romantic area. "Your assignment is not to paint what you see but what you feel. Paint the atmosphere," Professor Pannell instructed. He always pushed us to go beyond convention. After a half hour, I was still struggling to get something worthwhile down on my canvas. The ceaseless noise of the water falling distracted me and made me anxious. "So you're not going to use even a little bit of color?" Minx coaxed me. Christened "Millicent," she'd come by her nickname honestly. She had been a hellion growing up--bold, flirtatious, and cunning, much to her parents' chagrin--but she was just beguiling enough to get away with it. I forced a small smile but didn't proffer an actual answer. I didn't need to. She hadn't really been asking for one but was rather expressing her never-ending surprise at how uninspired I was by the things that moved her so much. "I know you are fascinated by the shapes of the trees and the negative spaces and patterns they create, but there are colors out there, Jenny. Look at the colors. Winter evergreens and spring's very first buds." Minx had been questioning my reluctance to use color for months and knew that nothing--not spring or fall or flowers or fabrics--would inspire me. Despite my unchanging black, white, and gray palette, she believed she could help and refused to give up trying. I loved her for that and for her generosity. She was the daughter of the Deerings, a wealthy shipping scion and a socialite whose fabled family had helped found the Bank of New York. Her parents, Eli and Emily, had spoiled her, and in return, Minx spoiled her friends. All her life, she'd witnessed her father showing his love and his remorse with gifts; for her, then, expressing love meant showering people with her largesse. And as her best friend and flatmate, I was often on the receiving end of her generosity. Minx's family was wealthy and worldly. She'd grown up in a mansion on Sixty-second Street and Madison Avenue in New York City. The first time she took me home with her for dinner, I'd been awed. Yes, I'd seen opulence in museums, theaters, and government buildings but never in a home where people lived. The Deerings were also serious art collectors with eclectic tastes. The walls of their mansion were crowded with Renoirs, Manets, Monets, Rem brandts, Titians, and Renaissance drawings. There was even a Leonardo da Vinci sketch done in sepia chalk. Marble stands showcased seventeenth- and eighteenth-century bronzes. Mantels were crowded with bejeweled bibelots from Fabergé, Cartier, and Tiffany. Plants were potted only in majolica. Sofas and chairs upholstered only in silk and damask. There was not a corner that didn't hold a treasure, not a wall that didn't showcase a masterpiece. "Miss Deering, are you painting your canvas or Miss Bell's?" Professor Pannell called out. Minx rolled her eyes at me, and as she returned to her own canvas, she picked a sprig of holly and tucked it behind her ear. In the sun, the leaves gleamed like jade. Even there in the park in painting clothes, Minx was distracting. She never walked into a room without eyes turning. Everything about her gleamed, from her bobbed helmet of blond hair to her couture clothes in the palest shades of beige, pink, champagne, topaz, and citrine. Like Minx, my hair was bobbed. But unlike hers, mine never agreed to lie flat and exploded in a profusion of curls that fell over my forehead. It made me look bohemian and mussed, whereas her smooth helmet of gold made her look chic and coiffed. When Minx moved, the silks and satins glowed like liquid candlelight. Her deep brown-red lipstick blazed. Even her perfume shimmered: Ombré Rose from the House of L'Etoile in France. It contained minuscule flecks of gold, and sometimes you'd catch a glimmer where she'd applied the spicy, rich scent. Despite all her dressing up and embellishments, I always saw the frantic light behind Minx's electric green eyes, her longing for something she couldn't name and didn't know how to satisfy. Gifted as both painter and sculptor, she was trying to find that something in art. And when she wasn't in the studio, she was trying to find it in too many glasses of champagne or in bed with men she never knew well enough. Like so many of our generation, even if we hadn't been at the front, we were shell-shocked in the aftermath of the war, and someone like Minx tried to chase away the sadness and loss with whatever it took--drink, drugs, frivolous theater, literature, music, forced gaiety, or a lot of sex. After another half hour, I glanced over at Minx's canvas. She'd captured the charm and romance of the glen perfectly. We were in a section of the park called the Rambles, a particularly lush area that Frederick Law Olmsted had created to resemble natural woods. After the waterfall rushed over the rocks, it spilled into a pond surrounded by bushes and trees in configurations that didn't look man-made but indeed were. During the three-hour period we were in the park, Professor Pannell strolled among us, examining our work, critiquing in his notoriously staccato sentences, and gesturing ferociously with his arms. He always carried his own paintbrush, which he often dipped into our palettes--without apology--to correct mistakes on our canvases. He approached Minx and studied her work in progress. "Lazy, lazy. You can do better. You are better. But this--" He broke off and threw up his arms. He was tougher on her than the rest of us because--as he often repeated--she had more promise than most. And he made sure he said it loudly so we could all hear him. He believed in playing us against one another, a habit that didn't endear him to many students. Yet he was one of the most popular teachers at the League, because once you got over the shock of his methods, you could learn so much from the brushstrokes he applied to your canvas. "More depth, Miss Deering," he said, as he dabbed his brush into the white oil paint and, with just two or three strokes, created the illusion of deeper space on the two-dimensional surface of her painting. Leaving Minx, he stopped beside Edward Wren. Though not tall, Edward vibrated with energy. He had chestnut hair, a high forehead, and hooded hazel eyes. He had been at the League longer than Minx or I had. And while he'd taken several classes with Minx before, this was the first time the three of us were in a class together. As of late, I'd noticed Edward and Minx exchanging glances, and at home she mentioned him often. This surprised me. With his working-class aspect, Edward had neither the grace of the high-society gentlemen Minx had grown up with nor the aesthetic of the bohemian artists we spent time with. Yes, many were rebels devoted to their art, but few had scars on their cheeks or knuckles. Yet Edward did. At thirty-one, he was older and gruffer and not as polite as the other men in our set. At times, he could seem aloof or distant, as if something were preying on his mind. I knew virtually nothing about him except what I saw in his paintings--a powerful and raw talent often ruined by his impatience to invest the necessary time in finishing them. Even so, his canvases always exuded an exciting crudeness that made everyone take notice. Perhaps that rawness was why he reminded me of boys I had grown up with in Hamilton, Ontario. The sons of steel-factory workers and railroad men. The boys my mother had taught, hoping she might discover a budding artist in their midst. Having finished critiquing Edward, Professor Pannell came to stand behind me. He hadn't yet been satisfied with anything I'd done in his class, and judging from his groan as he examined my interpretation of the pond, nothing had changed. "Miss Bell, is that how you feel looking at the scenery?" "It is." "Then, Miss Bell, look harder. Examine Miss Deering's work. Note the colors she's used. Even with the lack of dimension in her rocks, pay attention to the feelings she's expressed. Don't you realize that your determination to stick to your colorless palette restricts you? Why are you handicapping your efforts?" I looked from my best friend's canvas back to my own. We'd both painted the same scene, but where she saw spring greening the copse to life, I saw a forest out of a Grimms' fairy tale. Woods no little girl would want to enter willingly, a foreboding waterfall from which to flee. "Miss Bell," Professor Pannell instructed, "look at this scene, this day, this sunshine and spring. Paint how this makes you feel." He then proceeded to inspect the next student's work. I glanced from my painting to the waterfall, pond, trees, and grass. Back to the painting. Back to the rushing water. Back to the painting. Back to the rushing water. Of course, I could see the colors, but they weren't my focus. They were a distraction from my subject. I used a monochromatic palette because I wanted to capture light, to show how it illuminated the water and shadowed the trees. I wanted to master chiaroscuro. DaVinci, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio all knew that what we see is a result of light falling against it. It's the light that matters. Without it, there would be no subject. But light was so elusive. If I could just capture that simple bit of-- Suddenly, I saw a flash of blue tumbling over the edge of the waterfall. It was clothing. Child-size. Then a woman's high-pitched voice called out: "Jeffrey!" "It's a child in the falls!" I cried, as I dropped my brush and my palette and ran. The water was so powerful. A child who fell in would be caught in the current of the rushing cascade. His little body would be thrown against the rocks. Unless someone reached him quickly, he might drown. I reached the edge of the pond. I didn't know how deep the water was, but that didn't matter. If a child was in danger, if there was a life to save, I had to attempt it. "Jeffrey, you bad boy. Look at that, your jacket is all wet!" The voice expressed exasperation, but no panic. A jacket? I circled around to see a woman tugging a well-groomed Maltese on a light green leather leash. She approached the edge of the pond and looked down at the errant piece of clothing. "Jeffrey!" she called. "Come out here and see what you did!" With that, a little boy, about seven or eight, emerged from the woods. He stood beside her, scuffing his shoe in the dirt and looking sheepishly from the floating jacket to his mother. And then he leaned over and started to reach toward the jacket. "No, Jeffrey! Don't. You could fall, and then you'd be all wet, too. Let's find a stick and drag it in." Before she moved away, she looked at me. "Thank you," she said. I nodded at her and took a deep breath. Although the boy was clearly fine, my heart continued racing as I returned to my easel. I'd seen the jacket and jumped to the conclusion that a child was drowning. My vision was warped, you see. Damaged by what I had endured as a girl. By now, at age twenty-four, I had long viewed the world through one particular lens, taking in what was there and pulling out the color so I could focus on the light and how it fell and created highlights. How shadows created depth. And in the process, I never failed to notice the potential for catastrophe and heartache. I couldn't help it any more than Minx, who looked at the world through her own starry eyes--and saw only beauty. Excerpted from Tiffany Blues: A Novel by M. J. Rose All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.