M.J. Rose (The Secret Language of Stones) once again shows off her flair for a genre-defying blend of historical fiction, fantasy and romance in her third novel about the descendants of La Lune, a 16th-century French courtesan and witch.
At the height of the Jazz Age, Delphine Duplessi moves in Manhattan's most elite circles, sought after for her gift of painting shadow portraits, in which her magick lets her see and paint her sitter's darkest secrets. Yet she hides her own: that she left her native France five years ago to protect her lover from the events of a terrible vision, and that her family's curse to love only once means she will pine for him always. When a shadow painting triggers a bloody tragedy, Delphine returns to southern France, vowing not to practice her magick again. Her twin brother and manager, Sebastian, has other plans, drawing Delphine into searching a medieval-era chateau for its owner's obsession, the lost writings of alchemist Nicolas Flamel. There, Delphine comes face-to-face with danger--and with Mathieu, her lost love who wants her back in his arms no matter the risk to himself.
Rose's romantic depiction of the 1920s is a sumptuous feast of glamorous parties, cameos by Matisse and Picasso, and snippets of Delphine and Mathieu's affair in Paris. While The Library of Light and Shadow is escapism at its best, Rose also shows Delphine's growth from fearing life and legacy to embracing it. Pure enchantment. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads