The Blue Bath by Mary Waters-Sayer Published by St. Martin's Press on May 3rd 2016
Genres: General Fiction
Pages: 320
Format: eBook, Kindle Book
Source: NetGalley & St. Martin's Press
Kat Lind, an American expatriate living in London with her entrepreneur husband and their young son, attends an opening at a prestigious Mayfair art gallery and is astonished to find her own face on the walls. The portraits are evidence of a long-ago love affair with the artist, Daniel Blake. Unbeknownst to her, he has continued to paint her ever since. Kat is seduced by her reflection on canvas and when Daniel appears in London, she finds herself drawn back into the sins and solace of a past that suddenly no longer seems so far away.
When the portraits catch the attention of the public, threatening to reveal not only her identity, but all that lies beyond the edges of the canvases, Kat comes face to face with the true price of their beauty and with all that she now could lose.
Moving between the glamour of the London art world and the sensuous days of a love affair in a dusty Paris studio, life and art bleed together as Daniel and Kat's lives spin out of control, leading to a conclusion that is anything but inevitable.
**Special thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for supplying my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**
Can you pick a book for its cover? Well, it seems I can. That cover was more than enough for me to request the book. And what a read?
The Blue Bath is one of my favorite reads this year. Kat is an American expatriate living in London with her husband and her only son. What seems like a stable happy life is only the calm surface of a turbulent sea of boredom. Kat attends an opening of an art gallery only to be astonished to find her face on all the walls of the gallery. Those portraits are the evidence of an old affair. Kat, now the wife of a well-known figure in society, is torn between the anxiety that someone might have recognized her face and the turbulence of an old affair coming back to life. Watching the old beautiful Kat coming back to life in those portraits, and feeling the agony of her fading beauty over years, Kat is thrown into this dangerous affair.
Now, things get more complicated and the consequences are worse than imagined.
So, what did I love most about this book? Actually a lot. I loved the delicate story line. I felt immersed in the beautiful writing style. They way Mary described Paris, and the way she described every thought and feeling of Kat was so captivating. Also I loved the way she went through the story line giving something from the past and something from the present. It all made sense to me. It’s always makes me think how people can sometimes take the wrong decisions though they are quite aware it is the wrong decision.
Well, this is a book I highly recommend. It is a very engaging and interesting read. There’s always something romantic about Paris. The book has bits of every genre. It’s romantic, suspenseful and also literary.
About Mary Waters-Sayer
Mary Waters-Sayer, author of The Blue Bath (May 2016, St. Martin’s Press), is originally from New York. She has a B.A. in Literature and Rhetoric from Binghamton University and later studied writing at Stanford University’s Continuing Education program.
As expected of all good English majors, she began her career in publishing before moving to San Francisco where she worked in investor and public relations. She spent twelve years as an expatriate in London, working in investor and corporate communications and traveling extensively.
She currently lives outside of Boston with her family. The Blue Bath is her first novel.