How far will an artist go for his muse?Frustrated artist Francis Dawson has come to the remote Scottish fishing village of Armadale to reconnect with his battered muse. But he gets more than he bargained for when he’s struck down by a condition fatal to art: love.Leith’s moods shift with the sea. Silent on his past, his present, in fact, on pretty much every subject, he nonetheless provides the … nonetheless provides the inspiration Francis has been lacking. But even as his art takes flight, Francis finds himself mired in doubt. Are his feelings returned, or do Leith’s actions conceal a deadly secret?
When a fisherman drowns in perfectly fine conditions, Francis is drawn into a conflict knottier than a fishing net. But will solving this tangle free Leith—or end Francis’s painting career?
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** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine
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The Art of Drowning (Read by Candlelight #6) by Gillian St. Kevern
156 Pages
POV: 3rd person, one character POV
O.M.G.
My first note in this book was a screaming emoji face. There is nothing more accurate to my reaction that someone running around the room, screaming. JULIAN. BABY JULIAN. Do I need to say more? Well, not a baby literally, but this tiny little human with a smart mouth and a big brain and a lot of attitude to boot. He was the Julian I loved and fell in love with in Well-Dressed Werewolf, but he was also so much more. It was an absolute delight to see him as a little boy.
Francis? Well, Francis was like every other main character in this series. Engaging, charming, utterly wonderful, a little broken and lost. His story took me by surprise. It looked like one thing, at first, but became something so different that I was surprised at first, then relieved. Because, the way it ended was so much better than I’d hoped. Yet, I’m still left hoping for more. As I always am.
There is SO MUCH I want to say, but the plot is all twisty and turny, without being overwhelming or unbelievable, and I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anyone.
I want a book for Leith, and I am super intrigued by Scott. I hope we get to see him become Julian’s teacher, which means a double-whammy of getting more of Scott and more of young-Julian. I also feel like this is only the beginning of Francis’ story. So, as we get updates about Pip and Cross’ life together throughout the series, and Wiremu and Patrick’s story is about to continue, I seriously hope that Francis will get another story in the future. Pretty please.
I also want to say a HUGE thank you to the author for not only providing this book for review (and I am SO sorry about how late it is!) because I feel like every Epilogue is just one chapter in a second book for Pip and Cross, and I love getting a little bit at a time. It’s at once infuriating and brilliant. I start off every book looking forward to their appearances, to their Epilogue, and find myself falling in love with totally new characters along the way.
I’m literally counting the days until The Weeping Statue releases. (That’s SIX DAYS people. Six Days!)
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The series has been written in an order that best fits the style of the series, and reveals the secrets of the characters as they’re best discovered. This often means that the books aren’t in chronological order.
I would recommend reading them in the order the author provides them in. This way, you don’t get spoilers before they’re due. Some of the books that go back to the past, or dart into the future, hold potential spoilers to the books that follow, which is likely the reason they’re told in the order they are.
To put it into chronological order, the series would go thus:
The Secretary and the Ghost
The Mystery of Brackenwell Hall
The Haunted Bedchamber
The Vampire’s Relic
The Art of Drowning
The Well-Dressed Werewolf
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Favourite Quotes
“Francis Dawson imagined love as a summer breeze, pleasant but able to do little more than ruffle one’s sketchbook. This was his first mistake.”
“Francis stared up at Leith. Rapunzel in her tower could not have been more hopelessly trapped than he.”
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Oh, and did I mention that little-Julian is just totes-adorb?
“Julian eyed him seriously. “Wild things aren’t meant to be kept.”
“Julian threw his arms around Cross. “Thank you, other father!”