Review by Booklist Review
Nearing the tenth anniversary of her father's death on 9/11, Joan Blakely gets a nasty surprise: her husband has been living a double life, and he has five-year-old twins who were born halfway through their marriage. Joan immediately cuts ties and contemplates next steps. As an art courier--and the child of two famous artists--she has strong ties to France and the glitzy life her parents led there. She takes on a job delivering a valuable set of sketches depicting her namesake, Joan of Arc, to Paris. But when the sketches are stolen from Joan's hotel room, and Joan learns that her father's precious art notebooks may be somewhere in the city, she must go on an unlikely journey to excavate her past and create her own future. Dolan (The Sweeney Sisters, 2020) spins a story that is both heavy and light, spanning continents and exploring relationships. With a hint of Dan Brown and a splash of Jamie Brenner, this book will appeal to a variety of readers, especially those who enjoy character-driven fiction.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Dolan's clever latest (after The Sweeney Sisters) follows a newly single art courier as she ends up on a scavenger hunt after losing the work in her care. After Joan Blakely's social-climbing husband, Casey, reveals he's fathered twins with his former assistant, Joan accepts an assignment to deliver a series of sketches by a 19th-century French painter depicting Joan of Arc from a Pasadena, Calif., museum to a collector in Paris. The obscure works are meaningful to Joan, whose namesake was revered and often referenced by her late father, Henry, a famous artist who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Joan meets smart, thoughtful Nate on the flight to Paris, and later, in an attempt to forget about Casey, she hooks up with him. The morning after, she discovers the sketches are missing from her hotel room safe. Joan grills Nate about the theft and determines he wasn't the culprit. Then, envelopes appear that contain elaborate clues along with a page from Henry's priceless notebooks, long thought to be lost in the plane that crashed into the North Tower. Dolan successfully sells most, but not all, of the far-fetched reasons for the mystery of the envelopes, and does a fantastic job depicting Joan's love for her father and heartache over his death. This has a bit more substance than the standard Parisian romp. (Apr.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Daughter of a prominent artist whose legacy she has tended since his death on 9/11, art historian Joan Blakely is so enraged when she learns of her husband's infidelity that she decides to get out of town, accepting a job as art courier and carrying valuable drawings to Paris in her overnight bag. After hooking up with handsome techie Nate, whom she met in business class, she awakens to find the drawings gone and a long-lost work by her father in their place. Now she's got mysteries to solve, with Nate's help. Billed as a "thinking woman's ultimate escapist adventure in Paris"; with a 50,000-copy first printing.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A 31-year-old Los Angeles--area woman finds herself caught up in intrigue when the artworks she's delivering to Paris are stolen. Joan Blakely might be the daughter of an internationally famous artist tragically killed on 9/11 and a supermodel, but she's nothing like either of her parents, while being exactly like both. Hardworking, focused, beautiful, working at an art museum, and almost 10 years into what she thought was a happy marriage to a photographer, Joan is pretty OK with how her life has turned out. But then her husband drops a bombshell as he's heading out of town: Not only did he have an affair, he has 5-year-old twin sons who are starting kindergarten and live not five miles away. Joan can either join the big blended family he envisions with his former assistant--cum--baby mama, children, and her, or the marriage is over. Joan doesn't have to think twice, and the locks to their--really her and her mother's--house are changed and divorce proceedings started while he's out of town. The story follows Joan's efforts to reclaim her life, trying to rediscover the self she lost 10 years previously when her father was killed aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. She agrees to personally courier a set of Joan of Arc--related sketches from the museum where she works to Paris so that an interested buyer can take a look at them. One thing leads to another, and the sketches are stolen. An inexplicably lighthearted lark of a treasure hunt develops as Joan follows clues that lead her to various locations of personal importance to her, her father, and her mother as she tries to find the sketches. A quirky novel that deals with weighty topics and emotions without taking itself too seriously. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
