2007: #2 – True Colors (Doris Mortman)

I’ve finally finished another book! This has been a slow month for me.

Book #2 is True Colors by Doris Mortman. The back of the book reads:

Isabelle de Luna is only seven when she witnesses the violent murder of her mother, Spanish artist Althea de Luna, in their Barcelona hotel room. Althea’s marriage to wealthy textile entrepreneur Martin de Luna has been troubled in its final days, and he is arrested as a suspect in his wife’s killing. With her mother dead and her father imprisoned, Isabelle is sent to live with family friends Miranda and Luis Duran in New Mexico. When Martin dies in prison from heart failure, the Durans decide to raise Isabelle, with their adopted daughter Nina, as their own. As the girls mature, each discovers her own unique talent: Isabelle has inherited Althea’s gift for painting, and Nina is a promising storyteller. But when Nina discovers the horrible circumstances of her adoption – a secret the Durans hoped she would never learn – she breaks all ties with her family and moves to New York City to seek her fame as a journalist and revenge against the family she believes has betrayed her. The two young women, raised as the closest of sisters, become enemies. Isabelle, victimized by Nina’s vendetta against her and emboldened by a search for love and the need to discover the truth about her mother’s murder, must dig deeply into her past, confront her personal demons, and face a frightening truth.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book. Romance? Suspense? Really, it contained all of that. The story of the two sisters and their contrasting lives was well-woven. I don’t care a lick about the business of art, but the book didn’t lose me with its talk of gallery owners and art classes. The climax was fitting and satisfying, even with the final twist foreshadowed with a bright neon sign.

Page count: 601 | Approximate word count: 175,561 | Filed in: