Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: The Artist
AUTHOR: Bonnie Dee
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 153 Pages
RELEASE DATE: August 28, 2018
BLURB:
Creating love from darkness is the greatest art…
Living a bohemian lifestyle in Paris is wonderful for Teddy Dandridge, but disastrous for his finances. His unconventional artistic creations find few buyers. After a year of failure, he returns to England to fulfill a portrait commission for a wealthy family, but he finds a different, source of inspiration secreted away in their sprawling house.
Isolated and rejected by his family, Phineas Abernathy haunts the west wing like a ghost. A physical deformity has locked him away from society for all his life. Filling his days with reading and drawing, he dreams of a life that seems unachievable…until irreverent, opinionated Teddy explodes into his quiet world.
Intrigued by the kind and creative man beneath the ungainly exterior, Teddy gives Phin nightly drawing lessons. A private friendship is born as the men share life stories, future hopes and a growing attraction. Phin agrees to pose for a portrait in which Teddy tries to illustrate the depth and beauty he sees in him. He also guides the eager virgin in the ways of love between men.
When persecutors from Phin’s past arrive at the house, the slights and hurts he has suffered his entire life boil over. He must at last be brave enough to emerge from his cocoon and venture into an often cruel and judgmental world. And Teddy must risk Society’s censure to embrace his protégé’s love.
REVIEW:
I’ve read and reviewed several books by this author, and really enjoy her writing style. This newest story left me with mixed feelings though, and I’ll explain why below.
We meet Teddy Dandridge after he has already gotten back to England, so all the Paris mentions are in the past. I thought the story would start in Paris and move on from there based on the blurb. Regardless, we pick up his life when he is already at the Abernathy estate and painting the portrait of a rather spoiled fifteen-year-old girl. One day while painting he happens to glimpse a man peeking in the doorway, and he is intrigued. Who is the mystery man and why is he in hiding?
It turns out that the young man is none other than a mysterious second son named Phineas, or Phin as he comes to be called as the story progresses, who is hidden away in the west wing of the manor and never seen or mentioned. He was born with a birth defect, which his family has hidden his entire life. Rumors in polite society and the local village are that he is mentally deficient… which is a total fabrication it seems by his family to hide the physical deformity that is the real truth. Madness it appears was much better for the family’s social standing than to admit a deforming birth defect.
Teddy is off on the hunt for the truth, and soon finds a very withdrawn and awkward young man who has been sheltered his entire life. He only has one person who ever sees him, a servant who has been with him his entire life. He isn’t allowed in the rest of the manor and takes all his meals in his rooms. His entire life he has been told he is hideous and an embarrassment to the family. I pictured him feeling like Quasimodo locked away in his tower. The only escape he has is an overgrown garden which his mother is currently destroying to build a formal English garden in its place.
Speaking of the mother… lying shrew. I didn’t like her at all, nor her overbearing husband who slips off to London unexpectedly mid story. I thought there was more to that backstory… perhaps an illicit affair, but it was never expanded. While I’m off subject, there were other background characters, like the younger sister who was quite vapid at the beginning but matured by story’s end. There were also the drunken younger brother and cousin, both of whom were painted as being total bullies, although the cousin was worse. A cast that I didn’t like much overall. There was also the shadowy Uncle Peter, who we never got much time with. A brief line late in the book hinted he might know more about Teddy and Phin, but it was never mentioned again.
Back to the main characters. I really liked Teddy and Phin. Both characters were detailed enough that you got to ‘know’ them and I particularly liked the shy, withdrawn, and awkward Phin. I also kind of liked/disliked the mysterious servant, Ledbetter, who was spying on the two men. He was one of those characters you dislike but wonder if there is more to them… in this case maybe some over-protectiveness based on an almost father/son relationship that has developed over the years. I was disappointed that the story of that servant wasn’t further expanded, especially when Teddy leaves and all communication is cut off between he and Phin.
Now comes my biggest disappointment. After Teddy is gone, Phin runs off to London. But he doesn’t search out Teddy, instead he learns to stand on his own to feet. NONE of which is in the book. It is summarized after a break of months in the story, and then quickly wrapped up into a tidy little HFN ending. I was disappointed. It felt like the story was flowing nicely and then all of sudden wham bam thank you sir, HFN.
I’ll end by saying that I really liked the story. I just wish it had more.
RATING: 
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