December
1923. Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr
is near death in her London home. Doctors have told her parents to start
planning for the worse. I believe that her illness was scarlet fever, but that
didn’t come out until about halfway through the story. Robson would have
readers believe that her broken engagement has caused her illness.
She
feels the shame and shun or her relatives, friends, and strangers. Her
five-year engagement to Edward is over. The Great War changed him, but it
wasn’t her who broke off the relationship; it was Edward. Now Helena is 28, and
her prospects are few.
A
letter arrives from her bohemian, free-spirited Aunt Agnes in Paris. She
invites Helena to come and visit her. Helena quickly agrees, despite her
parents’ concerns.
Helena
has always been drawn to art and enrolls in an art school under the tutelage of
Maitre Czerny. She drops her title and simply becomes Helena Parr.
Although
Robson is an excellent writer and researcher, the story becomes predictable.
She does her best at art but is never noticed by Czerny. She becomes fast friends
with three of her classmates and, together, they rent a studio. She meets a
handsome American, Sam Howard, to whom she is attracted. They hit it off and
are smitten with each other, yet…
There
are a lot of wonderful details in the work. I enjoyed watching Helena become an
artist and gain self-confidence that he broken engagement destroyed.
Although
it’s predictable, Moonlight Over Paris has
strong characters and character development. Since I didn’t expect anything
different, I really enjoyed this read.
I
give Moonlight Over Paris 4 out of 5 stars.
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