Acquired Book By: I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours whereupon I am thankful to have been able to host such a diverse breadth of stories, authors and wonderful guest features since I became a hostess! HFVBTs is one of the very first touring companies I started working with as a 1st Year Book Blogger – uniting my love and passion with Historical Fiction and the lovely sub-genres inside which I love devouring. Whether I am reading selections from Indie Authors & publishers to Major Trade and either from mainstream or INSPY markets – I am finding myself happily residing in the Historical past each year I am a blogger.
What I have been thankful for all these years since 2013 is the beautiful blessing of discovering new areas of Historical History to explore through realistically compelling Historical narratives which put me on the front-lines of where History and human interest stories interconnect. It has also allowed me to dive deeper into the historic past and root out new decades, centuries and millenniums to explore. For this and the stories themselves which are part of the memories I cherish most as a book blogger I am grateful to be a part of the #HFVBTBlogTours blogger team.
I received a complimentary copy of “The Girl in the Painting” direct from the publisher Thomas Nelson (an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
On why I elected to write a smaller review for this novel:
As my regular readers and visitors alike realise, my life shifted in February and March to where I am now working full-time rather than being my Dad’s full-time carer as I have for the past five years. I still care for my Dad but on an adjusted schedule as both Mum and I are working full-time as opposed to having only one of us working full-time. Combined with the fact the pollen season this year has come into our lives with a thunderous presence of chaos – I’ve been finding my hours to read and absorb stories has been on the more limited end of my days. I’ve struggled to connect to stories these past few months as I’ve shifted into a new routine whilst my Spring allergies have rendered me exhausted as much as the fatigue I’ve had from the new workload.
Sadly, I experienced my first migraine of the season as well this past weekend – whilst I am still finding my balance with work and blogging and reading – I’ve decided to cut back my reviews those weeks where I physically feel past what I can give a proper review as expected on Jorie Loves A Story. I am hoping by the middle of April I’ll have more stamina and energy as I’ll be in my third month of working whilst finding more joy in a better work schedule in both hours and days off. I am sure others can relate to these circumstances and I appreciate everyone’s patience as I work through all of this myself.
Wherever you are I hope the pollen isn’t as extremely high as it is here and that your Spring can be a delight of joy seeing the flowers and birds return to your environment. I ache after Autumn and Winter as those are the only seasons I find joyful during the year given how much Spring and Summer become an angst of allergies and migraines.
The Girl in the Painting
by Tea Cooper
Source: Publisher via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
A young prodigy in need of family.
A painting that shatters a woman’s peace.
And a decades-old mystery demanding to be solved.Australia, 1906
Orphan Jane Piper is nine years old when philanthropist siblings Michael and Elizabeth Quinn take her into their home to further her schooling. The Quinns are no strangers to hardship— having arrived in Australia as penniless immigrants, they now care for others as lost as they once were.
Despite Jane’s mysterious past, her remarkable aptitude for mathematics takes her far over the next seven years, and her relationship with Elizabeth and Michael flourishes as she plays an increasingly prominent part in their business.
But when Elizabeth reacts in terror to an exhibition at the local gallery, Jane realizes no one knows Elizabeth after all—not even Elizabeth herself. As the past and the present converge and Elizabeth’s grasp on reality loosens, Jane sets out to unravel Elizabeth’s story before it is too late.
From the gritty reality of the Australian goldfields to the grand institutions of Sydney, this compelling novel takes us on a mystery across continents and decades as both women finally discover a place to call home.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-0785240334
Published by Thomas Nelson
on 9th March, 2021
Format: Paperback ARC
Pages: 384
Published by: Thomas Nelson (@ThomasNelson)
an imprint of HarperCollins Christian Publishing (@HCChristianPub)
Converse via: #HistFic or #HistNov as well as #INSPY #HistoricalFiction
+ #TheGirlInThePainting as well as #TNZFiction and #HFVBTBlogTours
Available Formats: Trade paperback and Ebook
About Tea Cooper
Téa Cooper is an award-winning, bestselling author of Australian historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling.
| The Girl in the Painting | by Tea Cooper
As the story begins, we are entreated to a delightfully precocious child named Jane whose not one to mince words about her station at the orphanage as she’s a foundling. A child who was turnt over to the orphanage at such a young age that she cannot remember her parents nor any other life than the one she was given now. She has a mind for figures and mathematics but she is also a visual learner where she can deduce things out of her observations – yet, her mind has the tendency to wander between the current conversation and the curiosities which keep her mind tinkering out answers to those curiosities.
I found her quite delightful as a young lead character and was rather bemused by Mr Quinn who was trying to see if he could intervene on her behalf and change her station by giving her a chance to switch schools. The whole affair was quite innocent enough – although Jane was used to hard work and without a prospects for her future so when he was proposing the changes in her life, I had the feeling Jane wasn’t fully grasping the gravity of what he was suggesting. He was a kind-hearted man and in Jane he saw his own sister. There was a compassionate kindness in his voice and character and it was wonderful to see how someone might want to affect change in a young person’s life rather than just overlook the fact they had a gift like Jane had for mathematics.
After settling into this opening scene with Jane and Mr Quinn, the story shifts backwards by several years into the past – moving us from Australia to England. In England we find a younger Michael (of whom I presumed was the elder Mr Quinn speaking with Jane) and his sister Elizabeth – bound for Australia by themselves. It must have been such an arduous challenge for his younger self – not yet sixteen and already responsible for his kid sister and the crossing of the oceans between England and Australia! I couldn’t imagine what he was feeling in that moment – of churning grief for what he’d lost as he embarked on that journey whilst bolstered by the hope of what his life might become in Australia. The courage it took for all immigrants during those days to leave their country and to seek out for a new country emboldened by the hope of what tomorrow would yield. It makes me consider the sacrifices and hardships my own ancestors had themselves as they made their way to America. How many of us can relate to that sentiment and the unanswered questions we all have about how they endured?
The siblings (Michael and Elizabeth) are such a lovely compliment to each other! They each have a soft heart for those children who haven’t a way to make a life in the world and have found a way to give them a helping hand. Either through furthering their education as they are hoping to do with Jane or through employing them in their businesses. I felt it was such a kind gesture on their behalf – to understand the needs of the orphans themselves but also respect that not all of them desire to be adopted as most would rather work and be out in the world.
Cooper did a wonderful job of giving you such a strong emotional footing into this story within the opening chapters – you feel dearly connected to her characters! Almost as if they were already a part of your life and you wanted to see them become well situated in whichever pursuit they wanted to undertake! The worst bit of course is the news Michael received when he first landed in Australia and I imagine the course of his life between his teenaged self on arrival and the man Jane was introduced to lateron in her own life is quite the incredible story of both survival and the courage to change one’s own stars into a destiny one can be proud to claim as their own.
On the INSPY Historical styling of Tea Cooper:
Cooper gives her readers subtle clues about the era in which she is writing by how people are attired and how they speak to each other. You can tell you’ve left the contemporary modern world behind as you enter into a world of firm protocols and etiquette of this world Cooper has developed for us to explore. It is here where you can tell women had a designated place in society and a certain expectation about what they could accomplish or achieve in their lives. This is where the character of Jane is such an interesting spin on that world – she stands out and has a bit of an independent core to her personality. I love finding characters like her because it showcases how throughout History women and young girls have been striving to have their voices heard and known; where they break through barriers and prove that sometimes society short-changes a woman’s worth without any second thoughts. It is lovely find stories which prove that the fight for Equality and the right to live independent of society’s rules and expectations has been hard-won for generations.
The drama naturally comes easily to Cooper who has painted such a strong portrait of benefactors who want to help the less fortunate whilst showing their own lives were built from a humbled beginning themselves. I loved how Cooper shifted the story between Michael and Elizabeth’s plight to reach Australia and carve out their new lives against the tides of young Jane’s life and the obstacles she had to overcome herself in order to have a better future, too. It was a critical piece of the story I felt to better understand the siblings and their own origins to better see why they were doing as much as they could in the present to help those who did not have parents or others to look after them. They already had invested interest in children without guardians to protect them and it was this carry-over theme in the narrative which I felt Cooper displayed quite well.
This blog tour is courtesy of:
Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours!
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Reading this story contributed to my 2021 reading challenges:
{SOURCES: Book cover for “The Girl in the Painting”, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of Tea Cooper the tour host badge and HFVBTs badge were all provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and used with permission. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: 2021 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge banner, #HistoricalMondays banner, #25PagePreview banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2021.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2021 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Thank you for being on the tour and featuring The Girl in the Painting!
Amy
HF Virtual Book Tours