Painting The Moon Tour Stop!

 When Noelle Cooke inherits a quaint English cottage and an art gallery from her famous Aunt Joy, she welcomes a departure from her San Diego routine. But the lure of the Cotswolds, combined with a locked cottage room and a revealing journal, entice her to stay and discover more, including a way to save the gallery from financial ruin. And that means remaining in England.

When her childhood sweetheart, Adam Spencer, begins work on a restoration project in Noelle’s village, their friendship blossoms. But as her feelings for Adam deepen, she struggles with memories of what might have been and yearns for a future once thought lost. Faced with a life-altering revelation Aunt Joy took to her grave and a wrenching choice regarding the man she loves, Noelle could lose far more than her heart.

Every once in a while, in a blue moon actually (snarf!), I get reminded that I actually can enjoy a story with no sex in it.  Yup…not sex whatsoever.  No bumpin’ uglies.  No horizontal mambo.  I’m actually really happy about this, and I’m happy that this book was able to remind me of that.

This book is really like two stories in one.  You have Noelle, who has just inherited her great aunt’s cottage and art gallery in a small village in Great Britain.  She travels back to the village where her Aunt lived and where she spend many a summer with her great grandmother, and discovers more than she bargained for.  Not only is she re-discovering things about herself that she had long since forgotten, but she runs into her childhood friend Adam who is no longer a child, but a smokin’ hot man.  A smokin’ hot man that is engaged to be married.  As things between she and Adam grow and a friendship is formed, she also discovers letters and diaries left behind her great aunt’s house that reveal many secrets.

I was drawn pretty quickly into this book.  I found that the setting itself has a lot of romantic appeal and really just sets the stage for the powerful story that lies within the pages of this book.  I think this is a book where to be totally entranced by the romance you don’t need an ounce of smut.  You read that right.  The smut was unnecessary in this book.  It was such a deep and moving story for me, that I found I didn’t need anything else.  I liked delving deeply into the characters as people and learning their stories.  I think any quivering loins would have been a distraction.  And I can’t believe I just typed that.

I think what I found so completely captivating about this book is the way it is told.  Not only are the parallel storylines interesting, but also the language of the story is just beautiful.  It’s like a picture is painted for you with the author’s words.  I know that may sound hokey, but I totally saw the book in my head playing as a movie as I was reading it.  The language is so descriptive, I think it takes true talent to paint such a complete picture and I loved it.

Overall, I just really liked this book.  There’s not one bad thing I can say about it.  Even the lack of sex was not a detractor for me in this instance.  Color me shocked!  I loved the setting, the characters, the storyline(s)…just a fabulous book all around.  5 stars.

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Traci Borum is a writing teacher and native Texan. She’s also an avid reader of women’s fiction, most especially Elin Hilderbrand and Rosamunde Pilcher novels. Since the age of 12, she’s written poetry, short stories, magazine articles, and novels.
Traci also adores all things British. She even owns a British dog (Corgi) and is completely addicted to Masterpiece Theater–must be all those dreamy accents! Aside from having big dreams of getting a book published, it’s the little things that make her the happiest: deep talks with friends, a strong cup of hot chocolate, a hearty game of fetch with her Corgi, and puffy white Texas clouds always reminding her to “look up, slow down, enjoy your life.”

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