Da Vinci’s Tiger tells the story of the girl in the painting. Ginevra Da’ Benci, was one of Leonardo da Vinci’s muses. This book takes place in renaissance Florence, a city filled with the arts thanks to the Medici family. We really venture into what inspired this painting by one of the most intriguing men throughout history. LW: It is really good, so she’s brilliant. I love Eva Ibbotson’s romances. Generally things that have got a bit of romance in like they can have lots of other stuff going on but I like things that have got a bit of romance in. As Freya, with all her energy and confidence, stepped onto the stage, my heart was in my mouth. As a reader, I felt as if I knew her, and I understood how important this moment was. I won't spoil the story, but I will say that the outcome is not straightforward, and not what I was expecting. Alongside her experiences in the theatre, we follow Freya's attempts to build relationships and fall in love. Between the possible romance and the dreamed-of stardom, Freya's journey is full of emotional highs and disappointments (although she never lets the disappointments crush her enthusiasm). j’ai eu plus de mal avec Viola et Russ, que j’ai souvent eu envie de secouer comme des cocotiers. même si certains comportants de Viola peuvent être expliqués, ce n’est pas une raison pour être aussi nombriliste et blessante 😒

A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood - Publishers Weekly A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood - Publishers Weekly

Seventeen-year-old Louise Trevelyan’s sleepy Cornish village witnesses the arrival of the wealthy, glamorous Cardews. Also, with the tour going up to Yorkshire, I was thrilled by it. I'm proudly from East Yorkshire and we have great scenery and the best coastal locations. Hearing Runleigh was based on Whitby was really nice- last summer, the fam went out for a day trip there- my first time in years- and it's well worth a visit. While it's famous for Dracula, the abbey and its 199 steps are worth seeing, but there's so much more to it than that! Este es uno de esos libros que empiezas y terminas con una pequeña sonrisa en los labios. Porque lo que lees es tierno, divertido, romántico y está envuelto en una atmósfera que lo hace mágico. A Sky Painted Gold was a joy from start to finish and exactly what I needed after seven agonising weeks in the worst reading slump I’ve ever been in.

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LW: Ah that’s a great question, no one’s asked me about Agatha Christie. Yeah I do love Agatha Christie but it was also partly thinking about who would have been writing like at that time and who would be the right of vibe for the sort of writing that she was doing and thinking about wanting to choose someone who was quite like a strong female writer, who was writing something quite pulpy and really popular and that not being like a dirty word like this idea of popular fiction being something that’s got loads of value and that’s worth celebrating and I think Agatha Christie’s such a good example of that. This was pitched to me as The Great Gatsby meets I Capture the Castle and I can see that... but this book is a mere shadow of both of those books. It takes, in my opinion, only half of what makes these classics good and adds a romance and very typical coming-of-age plot. Specifically what I mean is this: ASPG takes the glitz and glam of Gatsby, but doesn’t recreate the dirty, lonely, messy parts of Gatsby. It tries to emphasize that the glitz is all just a mask (very heavy-handedly so might I add) for very sad people, but it misses the emptiness of Gatsby. The pointlessness of Gatsby. The aimlessness of Gatsby. The darkness. Same with I Capture the Castle; the best parts of this book is the uniquely unhealthy yet loving family (the family of ASPG is very loving and healthy and whole) and the mistakes and messiness of Cassandra (Lou has none of that, which makes her a whole lot less interesting to read about). I guess what I’m getting at is I love classics because of the grit, the bite, they have. This book took the image of classics and tried to recreate the feel of them, but failed for me, in part because it did not have this realistic bite to it. And the problem is that ~bite~ is what makes classics Also - I was already really loving the book, but THEN it got even better when I realized it would have variations on not one, but TWO of my absolute favorite romance tropes: fake relationship, and character A sets up character B with someone else but catches feelings (please tell me if there's a catchier name for it, lol.) So just on a personal trope level, this was also a huge hit.

A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood - LoveReading4Kids

As far as my parents are concerned, daughters aren't terribly useful asset. I’m not supposed to go out into the world and actually do things.They’d like me to be more… ornamental. I’m just too much for them. Too big, too loud, too clever.' My other thing: I think Nicholas should have given some reason for why he didn't tell Iris something sooner. I get that he was already working to fix the situation, but in the meantime it was something that could have put Iris or other people in danger if they had no idea. Set in Italy, during Mussolini’s rise, Bea is sent to her uncle’s house to spend the summer with her cousin Hero. There she meets Ben, the devilishly handsome artist. Her dialogue is contrived and her frequent outrageous sex references as a means to differentiate her from her peers are quite frankly wince-inducing. Adicional a sus personajes, otro punto a favor, son las ambientaciones y las descripciones, muy bien adaptadas a la época y es tan sencillo imaginar las fiestas, decorados y vestidos.This was pitched to me as The Great Gatsby meets I Capture the Castle and I can see that... but this book is a mere shadow of both of those books. It takes, in my opinion, only half of what makes these classics good and adds a romance and very typical coming-of-age plot. Specifically what I mean is this: ASPG takes the glitz and glam of Gatsby, but doesn’t recreate the dirty, lonely, messy parts of Gatsby. It tries to emphasize that the glitz is all just a mask (very heavy-handedly so might I add) for very sad people, but it misses the emptiness of Gatsby. The pointlessness of Gatsby. The aimlessness of Gatsby. The darkness. Same with I Capture the Castle; the best parts of this book is the uniquely unhealthy yet loving family (the family of ASPG is very loving and healthy and whole) and the mistakes and messiness of Cassandra (Lou has none of that, which makes her a whole lot less interesting to read about). I guess what I’m getting at is I love classics because of the grit, the bite, they have. This book took the image of classics and tried to recreate the feel of them, but failed for me, in part because it did not have this realistic bite to it. And the problem is that ~bite~ is what makes classics memorable. And so this, while not a poorly written book, was just boring and forgettable to me. En definitiva, es una novela sencilla y ligera; que te muestra lo que existe más allá de nuestro horizontes. Es una novela sobre aprender, crecer y evolucionar. The book follows Lou, a Cornish girl who has never known anything other than the small community she’s grown up in. When the summer of 1929 rolls in, Lou gets caught up in the lives of the Cardew siblings, who aren’t strangers to the glitz and glamour of parties not unlike those seen in The Great Gatsby. It’s about coming of age, discovering who you are, and finding out exactly what it is you want in life.