#BookReview — Mira's Way (The Miramonde Series, #2) by Amy Maroney #HistoricalFiction @wilaroney

Mira's Way

 (The Miramonde Series, #2)

By Amy Maroney

History brims with silenced stories—will Mira's be one of them?

Mira’s Way, Book 2 of The Miramonde Series, continues the mesmerizing tale of a Renaissance-era female artist and the modern-day art scholar who risks everything to learn her secret.

1504: Young artist Mira wants nothing more than a peaceful life by the sea, painting portraits of wealthy merchants. But when she and her new husband try to help a friend, they are catapulted into a series of dangerous adventures that leave them scrambling to survive.

2015: Art scholar Zari races through France, working feverishly to connect Mira with a series of masterful unsigned portraits. Meanwhile, an academic rival peddles his theory that the works were made by a famous male artist. Will Mira be lost to history forever?

“Only I know that my mark and my image is there. But there is always the chance that one day, someone else will find them…”

Sister Beátrice, the late Abbess of Belarac Abbey, had sworn to protect the daughter of Marguerite de Oto, Baroness of Oto, from her own father. For it was known that the House of Oto bears only sons. But, Mira was not destined to spend her life closeted behind walls. She is an artist — an incredibly talented one — and besides, she has fallen in love. Mira and her husband, Arnaud de Luz, plan to make a new life for themselves in Bayonne. When they reach Bayonne, life will begin. Arnauld would join a guild and produce the finest of furniture and Mira would paint the portraits of the wealthy merchants. However, fate has other plans for the newlyweds, and with a stroke of a brush, their lives take a decidedly different path to the one they had dreamed so often about.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and if you look close enough, you might just discover the truth. However, sometimes, the harder you look, the less you see.

Lines, shape, colour, texture, symbolism — each painting tells a story, not only of the noblemen who are immortalised for all eternity due to the careful caress of a brush but also of the artist who painted it. There were only a few recognised female Renaissance artists. Art historian, Zari Durrell, knows that she is a but a breath away from discovering the truth about Miramonde de Oto and her paintings. However, like those brave women who dared to create even though they were widely overlooked and ridiculed, Zari must not be thwarted in her attempts by her fellow scholars who are determined to disprove and scorn her findings. Zari is unwavering in her determination to give Mira the recognition that she deserves.

Mira's Way (The Miramonde Series, #2) by Amy Maroney is the absorbing, wonderous, at times utterly heartbreaking, story of Miramonde de Oto and the woman who is determined to discover the truth.

Maroney has presented her readers with a book that is not only meticulously researched and exquisitely hewn, but also one that is compulsively readable and next to impossible to put down. I fell in love with the world and the characters which Maroney penned in The Girl from Oto (The Miramonde Series Book 1) and I was, with much anticipation, looking forward to reading book 2 in the series. Maroney’s breath-taking narrative effortlessly swept me back into the story, and I have to admit I hopelessly lost myself within the pages of this wondrous and emotionally charged story.

Like with the first book, Maroney has managed to evoke every human emotion between the two storylines that run throughout the course of this book. Sometimes with books that are set in two different periods, I find I become invested in only one of the periods and read the other with a lacklustre indifference. That was not the case with this book. I was just as committed to Zari’s story as I was to Mira’s. There is a beautiful balance in this book. Maroney has an intuitive understanding about when to switch timeframes, and the fact that Zari’s discoveries mirror Mira’s life makes this book really rather wonderful. A true gem.

It would be remiss of me not to commend Maroney for her attention to historical detailing and her knowledge of Renaissance art. The writing is seemingly effortless, I can only imagine that the research that went into this novel was not. Kudos, Ms Maroney.

I must mention Maroney’s portrayal of the Cagots. Their depiction was profoundly moving, and the fact that no one seemed to know why they were hated so much demonstrates how irrationally and how senseless prejudice is. Mira’s compassion for the Cagots made her a very compelling protagonists and one that was very easy to become emotionally invested in.

I don’t think words can adequately profess how marvellous this book was. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, and I certainly did not want it to end. I look forward to reading Book 3 in this not-to-be-missed series.

I Highly Recommend.

Review by Mary Anne Yarde.

The Coffee Pot Book Club.

Pick up your copy of

Mira's Way

(The Miramonde Series, #2)

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Amy Maroney

Amy Maroney lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. She studied English literature at Boston University and public policy at Portland State University, and spent many years as a writer and editor of nonfiction before turning her hand to historical fiction. She’s currently obsessed with pursuing forgotten women artists through the shadows of history. When she’s not diving down research rabbit holes, she enjoys hiking, drawing, dancing, traveling, and reading. She’s the author of The Girl from Oto and Mira’s Way, the first two books in the Miramonde Series. The third book in the series will be published later in 2019. To receive a free prequel novella to the series, join Amy’s readers’ group at www.amymaroney.com. You can find her on Twitter @wilaroney, on Instagram @amymaroneywrites, and on Facebook.