Light & Life Books

"This book draws all the emotions out of you. I went from tears to snorting with laughter. It was both lighthearted and heart breaking, yet it inspires me to live my best life! " Michelle Cox When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law. Johanna inherited Vincent van Gogh's paintings. They were all she had, and they weren't worth anything. She was a 28 year old widow with a baby in the 1800s, without any means of supporting herself, living in Paris where she barely spoke the language. Yet she managed to introduce Vincent's legacy to the world. The inspiration couldn't come at a better time for Emsley. With her business failing, an unexpected love turning up in her life, and family secrets unraveling, can she find answers in the past? "This book was so much more than I had expected, and I had high expectations... one of the most beautiful stories I've read in years." Kaela Stokes "It touched something in my soul." Audrey McDonald

She was an innocent..until she met Renoir. The greatest artists in Paris never suspected that their favorite model was learning their techniques while she was posing for them. Art schools didn't accept female students, but Suzanne Valadon knew how to fight for what she wanted. By the time she was 15, she’d been a horse walker, a funeral wreath maker, and a circus acrobat. This is the story of a survivor. Emotionally gripping and poignant, a book to make you cry one minute and laugh out loud the next. EDITOR'S CHOICE, BookLife Review "A rousing novel of visionary women a century apart, entwined by the love of art." "...filled with drive and emotion...Marta writes so vividly that I felt like I was participating in the adventure." Lin Swens "I loved the characters, wanted to be neighbors of theirs...wanted to applaud their talents..." C. Cain Recommended Book Club read! "This insightful, rich-in-detail novel pays welcome homage to women artists of all eras and the time-crossing power of art as Suzanne, in one urgent, illuminating moment, declares, "I want people to hear a whisper when they look at my art. We were here "." BookLife Review