A pedestrian romance. If someone is going to center her story around an art school, she needs to be able to bring that off in an intelligent and detailed manner. Instead, in The Color of Light, we are given a set of cliches that are meant to bring about an impression of toiling art school students. In fact, there is very little intelligence relating to any aspect of this story. Additionally, I have a dislike of stories that dare venture into the Holocaust without really good writing accompanying the passage. This is not really good writing. There's some beautiful writing in this book. The descriptions are wonderfully lush. However, there so many distractions going on, that the beauty is lost. Overall, the author tries to weave too many themes together in the same story. Art, The Holocaust, and...vampires. One or two of these themes would have made a great story, but all three together is a hot mess. I can easily reimagine this story where Rafe is NOT a vampire. The focus could have been on the art and Holocaust/Jewish culture. And the vampire portions of the story are definitely the weakest. I'm a fan of the undead, but there were so many inconsistencies surrounding the vampires in the book. I felt the author should have picked a set if vampire "rules" and stuck with them. For example, sunlight is supposed to instantly kill the vampires, yet they all wander around during the day with no problems at all. One one page, it even says that a ray of sunlight falls across Rafe's face. But nada. And as another reviewer noted, the fact that they have no reflection is never noticed by anyone (except Tessa, once) even though some of them are into fashion (and you know there are mirrors everywhere). And at one point, Rafe has grown some facial scruff. I'm pretty sure the undead can't grow hair. Anyway, the whole vampire thing was just a big distraction from what could have been a good story. Another distraction is the poor editing. There were shifts in time and scene without clear transitions, causing me to have to reread parts repeatedly to figure out what was going on. On one page, a minor character's hair is chestnut and on the next page, it's ebony. There's a description on Rafe in a sweater and slacks and the book says that "Tessa had never seen him so casual"; however, she'd seen him in a rock t-shirt and jeans when her friends dressed him up. These observations may seem nit-picky, but they distract from the story. If I keep being pulled out of the story because of these issues, I can't enjoy it. Bottom line, I think the author has potential if she ditches the vampire and gets a really good, brutal editor.
What do You think about The Color Of Light (2013)?
Really really good. I loved nearly every moment. Recommended.
—marielalovesbooks
