Blog Tour: The Art of Love Review

The Art of Love by Anne Whitney
★★★★★
Release Date: June 17, 2013
Age: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Drama, Abuse, Art
Format: ebook
Source: Book Brats
Buy it: Amazon | Smashwords | Kobo

Marina Phillips has spent her entire life as her father’s victim. But enough is enough. All it took was one moment of realization to send her fleeing across the country into the unknown of New York City with no plans and no money. A new life without the constant torture is all she wants, but what she finds waiting is something she never expected.

Fitz is New York’s premiere playboy artist. Sexy, tattooed, and coveted by women and men alike, his performances are heralded as the coming of a new god of modern art. But when Marina wanders into his show, she becomes the inadvertent piece he’s always waited for – a girl to sculpt, to change, and to craft in his own image.

She never expects to fall head over heels into the world of parties, drag queens, agents, and artists craving for her and her benefactor. She didn’t even expect to begin falling in love with someone like Fitz, the sexy, pretentious man of her nightmares.

Above all, Marina never expects her father to stage a cross-country mission to paint her as a kidnapped girl taken by a psychopath.

With her life on the line, Marina has no choice but to accept Fitz’s proposal – change everything she is, inside and out, for the chance to start anew. But Marina has plans of her own. Plans that will rock her world forever.

This book.. Oh man, this book! It turned my world upside down for the 2 days I spent trapped in its pages and then it took another 2 days to recover from it! The Art of Love is raw and real, it's brutally honest and a thousand times broken. I am a fan, a huge fan!

Marina has had an upbringing that is unimaginably horrifying, and it affects her everyday. She picks up and leaves after an especially awful night and puts her old life behind her as she enters New York City without so much as a second thought or money. Once there she becomes a fixture in the lives of 3 artists who take her in and transform her into something new, something she doesn't recognize and hopefully neither will her past.

The first and most important of these artists is Fitz. He is eccentric and endearing, he's this crazy naked beautiful tattooed man with a history of secrets all his own, and he may know a thing or two about transformations. As a nude performance artist his work thrives when he gains a muse of his own, only Marina won't let herself open up completely and feels unworthy of love. Their relationship is tested throughout the book and I found myself screaming and yelling at these characters, who I wanted desperately to be together, to work it out. Fitz is a character that you can't help wishing he was real.

Derek is another performance artist, only not the nude kind. He wears clothes to his performances. Virdian is a painter, a Cuban painter! I never read about Cubans, which is crazy because we're AWESOME! As a Cuban myself I couldn't help but appreciate her goals of leading her own life and not succumbing to the future her family has laid out for her. She's kind of badass and protective of Marina, she rounds out the 4-some perfectly. The best part about this book is the family that these 4 characters make together. When Marina gets thrown into the mix it's like she's been living in NY all along. When her confidence builds it's like watching a baby bird learn to fly.

This book is just a phenomenal read, filled with cheeky moments and quite a bit of male nudity (who doesn't love that). We see everything in Marina's eye, as she is the narrator, but it would've been fun to have a looksie into Fitz's mind! It's a sweet and emotional story that is deep at times but quite funny at others. I'm head over heels for these characters and their daily lives and it makes me want to up and move and follow my dreams. Holding nothing back Anne Whitney delivers an exciting New Adult romance and coming of age that is leagues ahead of others in the category and features a dynamic set of characters in a new favorite story. If you're looking for a sweet and sexy romance, built around a deep and inviting plot this book is definitely for you!!