Beautiful Lies Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway

Beautiful Lies
Author: Clare Clark
Genre: Literary/Historical Fiction
Release Date: September 18, 2012 


Description:

London in 1887. 

For Maribel Campbell Lowe, the beautiful, bohemian wife of a maverick politician, it is the year to make something of herself. A self-proclaimed Chilean heiress educated in Paris, she is torn between poetry and the new art of photography. But it is soon plain that Maribel's choices are not so simple. As her husband's career hangs by a thread, her real past, and the family she abandoned, come back to haunt them both. When the notorious newspaper editor Alfred Webster begins to take an uncommon interest in Maribel, she fears he will destroy not only Edward's career but both of their reputations. 

Inspired by the true story of a Liberal MP's wife who lived a double life for decades, "Beautiful Lies" is set in a time that, fraught with economic uncertainty and tabloid scandal-mongering, uncannily presages our own. 

Praised by Hilary Mantel as "one of those writers who can see into the past and help us feel its texture," Clark has created a brilliant, riveting novel of late Victorian England.


Review:

Beautiful Lies is a work of literary/historical fiction that chronicles the private life of Maribel Campbell Lowe, her family's hidden past, and a scandalous newspaper editor that threatens to destroy Maribel and her husband.

Clark did an impeccable job with this novel. Her writing style flowed effortlessly and I was transported back in time alongside Maribel from the very first page. The descriptions of the time and the various settings of the novel were done in such a way that I could simply close my eyes and I could vividly imagine the scene unfolding around me.

The characters in the book were very realistic and believable. They all had unique personalities and flaws that made them easy to identify with - I felt as if I knew them all personally, like I was taking part in the narrative myself. The author wrote the character of Maribel with such earnestness that even her mistakes and character flaws make the reader love her and sympathize with her. We feel her every emotion with intensity and vigor. All the characters are written with this amount of depth, so the heroine doesn't feel over-developed and the other characters are just as rounded, which I feel make the story all the more enchanting. 

The novel swept me away from the first page and didn't release it's thrall until the last word. There aren't many times when a piece of literature makes a lasting impression on a reader, but this is one that I will be thinking and speaking about for a long time to come. Clark did a wonderful job bringing not only the past to life, but making a historical woman and her secrets come alive before our very eyes. It is an enthralling look into history and a beautifully written piece of literary fiction. I highly recommend this novel to lovers of literary and historical fiction.

 

 

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