Waffling between 2 and 3 stars

For the most part I thought A Storm of Infinite Beauty was underwhelming. A tragic prologue began the narrative, but before I could wrap my mind around what happened in Valdez, Alaska in 1963, the plot moved to Nova Scotia in 2017.

Two women, related by blood but separated by time, suffered from grief. When I read a story with dual timelines I think it’s important to have a smooth transition between the past and the present. Instead, I favored the people from long ago.

I felt a literary hiccup when Gwen, Peter and Eric were being discussed. I was uncomfortable with Gwen’s frankness discussing Eric with Peter. I thought the separated couple passed over the mark that a good marriage counselor wouldn’t have missed. That, and there was little chemistry whenever any on the 3 characters were on the pages.

The story read like women’s fiction except with two timelines. But I think it would have been better served if Ms. MacLean wrote a full-length novel with strong characters coping with the massive earthquake in Valdez, Alaska.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Julianne MacLean for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I could not put this book down! It first caught my eye because it takes place in Alaska and I’m preparing to spend the next five weeks there. My intention was to read this book while I was there. I decided to take a quick peek at the first couple of chapters…which quickly turned into reading the entire book because I didn’t want to wait to get back to this story! The book tells the beautiful story of a young woman facing challenges with little support from her father who, sadly, is actually only placing more obstacles in her way. At the same time, we are following the story of a museum director and a journalist who are trying to learn about and tell the story of this young woman. The characters are beautifully developed and the scenery is described so thoughtfully that it made me feel like I’ve seen Valdez and other parts of Alaska that I have not actually even visited. But because of this book, I will be going very soon! This book is a must read!

A Storm of Infinite Beauty reveals beauty on many levels: physically, emotionally, even spiritually as Julienne MacLean’s characters learn to rise above life’s clutter and come to see unvarnished truth. It’s a book to savor and reread. Gwen, the custodian of her relative’s public life as a famous movie star and song writer, gets involved in learning about her relative’s very private unknown life when photographer and contracted book author, Peter arrives with a surprising photo that might refute some of the public narrative. Gwen soon comes to realize she has more in common with her relative than she ever could have imagined. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Most highly recommend.

Thanks so much to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley.

Scarlett was a true Hollywood legend who died alone with no children.

Gwen is a curator of the museum dedicated to Scarlett's life. Peter, a biographer, shows up with an old newspaper article that could be proof of a life in exile and a secret baby that no one knew about. They set out for Alaska to investigate.

This was such a great novel, and Julianne MacLean crafts a story with secrets in the past as well as new hope for the present. I was so curious to find out about Scarlett as well as what was going to happen with Gwen as she dealt with her own losses to figure out how to move on in her life. I really enjoyed this one.