Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 1st November 2011
Pages: 336
Main Characters: Natalie, Jonathon, Mrs Northe
Date Started: 1st December 2011
Date Finished: 7th December 2011
Rating Given: ***
NetGalley:
"I was obsessed. It was as if he called to me, demanding I reach out and touch the brushstrokes of color swirled onto the canvas. It was the most exquisite portrait I'd ever seen. Everything about Lord Denbury was unbelievable-- utterly breathtaking and eerily lifelike.
There was a reason for that. Because despite what everyone said, Denbury never had committed suicide. He was alive. Trapped within his golden frame.
I've crossed over into his world within the painting and I've seen what dreams haunt him. They haunt me too. He and I are inextricably linked- bound together to watch the darkness seeping through the gas-lit cobblestone streets of Manhattan. And unless I can free him soon, things will only get darker still..."
When looking through netgalley for another book to request and spotted this book excerpt really intrigued me and I loved the front cover too so I just had to read it.
I was disappointed nearly all the way through this book but there was chapters that I loved and once it was getting closer and closer to the end I was really into the whole story.
The main reasons for the disappointment was that it dragged in places and I found myself wishing I was able to not finish it as I can't do that but in this case I was glad that I couldn't not finish it as I would have missed all the action.
The other reason was I didn't feel connected to the characters so I didn't really care what happened to them. However by about halfway through I found that I loved the relationship between Jonathon and Natalie and because of this I found myself connecting to them and wanting to find out what would happen to them by the end of the book.
This is another book that is quite a bit different to the normal paranormal stories that I read and it was very interesting. The whole storyline was one of the reason's why I could even continue as I loved the aspect of a guy trapped in the painting and waiting for the female character to rescue them as it's usually the guy coming to the rescue.
I found that this novel was inspired by the story of The Picture of Dorian Gray which all the way through I was thinking this was similar to this story as I have seen the film but never actually knew that it was based on a book (I know, I know shame on me!).
Overall I found there was a lot of set-up to the story which made it a little too narrative but all in all a good book that I would even want to continue with the series.
