The Muse (Beautiful Magic #1) by Lauren Blakely-Review tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 19, 2021

Midnight in Paris meets Night at the Museum! A gorgeous standalone forbidden romance with magical elements! Fall in love with The Muse, a sweeping romance set in a modern day Paris that’s full of magic, art, mysteries, and passion from #1 NYT Bestseller Lauren Blakely!

The first time a woman stepped out of a painting, I thought I was seeing things.
The second time, I thought I was going mad.
The night she emerged from a Renoir, I felt something else entirely — a deep stirring of desire, and the wish to get to know the brilliant beauty who’s been trapped inside a painted garden for years.
She can only come out at night in the Musée d’Orsay, where I work. There, after hours, we wander through galleries, with the Van Goghs, the Monets, and the Toulouse Lautrecs the only witnesses to our midnight kisses and, soon, our trysts.
She opens her heart to me, and I learn her story.
But she keeps secrets too, ones I hope to unravel. Why she was trapped. Why Renoir is hunting her. And why artwork in famous museums across the world is starting to disintegrate.
Why I, too, seem to be the only person who can repair the masterpieces.
As I fall deeper for the woman who’s trapped in a museum, I’m caught up in another side of Paris after dark, one inhabited by forgers, ghosts of famous artists and, impossibly, by Muses.
But someone is after the woman I’m falling in love with, and it’s up to me to save her…even if it means losing everything I’ve found with her.

••••••••

REVIEW:THE MUSE is the first instalment in Lauren Blakely’s contemporary, adult BEAUTIFUL MAGIC paranormal, romance series. This is Musee d’Orsay tour guide and art historian Julien Garnier, and lady in the painting Clio’s story line.

Told from first person perspective ( Julien) with a couple of final chapters by Clio, THE MUSE follows art historian student and museum guide Julien Garnier as he struggles to make sense of craziness that has become his life. Late night visits to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, France finds Julien Garnier ‘talking with’ and watching the paintings come to life but more specifically the ‘Woman Wandering in the Irises’, a canvas painted by Renoir featuring Monet’s garden. Enter Clio, the woman in question, and the woman with whom Julien will fall in love. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Julien and Clio, and the potential fall-out as Clio’s love for Julien begins to affect a number of famous paintings throughout the world.

Julien Garnier has no idea his life is about to change. With the ability to see what no one else has the ability to see, and repair the damaged masterpieces that are being destroyed at an alarming rate, Julien will have to confront the possibility of ghosts inhabiting the body of friends, the Muses, and art forgers desperate to take control of the world’s most expensive paintings. Clio is a woman with a secret, a secret that is about to affect the Classics, and Masterpieces, and in this, Clio struggles with what has to be done but our heroine has been targeted by someone from her past, someone who refuses to accept what happened years before.

The relationship between Julien and Clio is predicated upon Julien’s powers to see the paintings come to life, and talk with the characters featured in the museum’s Masterpieces. Magic plays a large role in the relationship between our leading couple as Clio and Julien embark on a journey into the some of the most famous paintings around the world. The $ex scenes are mostly implied.

There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including Julien’s sister and museum curator Adaline; art collectors Remy and Rafe; Julien’s friend Simon, and his new girlfriend Lucy; Clio’s sister Thalia; as well as several characters that come to life, or inhabit the bodies of people whom Julien knows. The requisite evil has many faces.

THE MUSE is an enchanting and magical story line with a little bit of real history and the art world woven together. The premise is detailed and charming; the romance is sweet and passionate; the characters are colorful and charismatic. THE MUSE and the Beautiful Magic series is a departure for author Lauren Blakely, a departure that is sure to resonate with fans of the paranormal genre.

Reviewed by Sandy

Copy supplied for review

A #1 New York Times Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that’s hot, sweet and sexy. She lives in California with her family and has plotted entire novels while walking her dogs. With fourteen New York Times bestsellers, her titles have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists more than eighty times, and she’s sold more than 2 million books. In October she’ll release HARD WOOD, a sexy, standalone romantic comedy. To receive an email when Lauren releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter! laurenblakely.com/newsletter

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