Art and Soul by Claire Huston

Synopsis
There’s no problem Becky Watson can’t fix. Except her own love life…

Struggling single mother Becky Watson longs to revive her career as a life-fixer, working miracles to solve her clients’ problems, no matter how big or small. Since the birth of her two-year-old son she has been stuck preventing wedding fiascos for the richest and rudest residents of the Comptons, a charming, leafy area of southern England known for its artistic heritage.

So when semi-reclusive local artist Charlie Handren reluctantly hires Becky to fix his six-year creative slump, she’s delighted to set him up with a come-back exhibition and Rachel Stone, the woman of his dreams.

Though they get off to a rocky start, Becky and Charlie soon become close. But as the beautiful Rachel becomes Charlie’s muse, Becky is forced to wonder: will giving Charlie everything he wants mean giving up her own happily ever after?

Review

Art and Soul is an uplifting, warm and witty romantic read. Becky is a single mother who needs to get back to work fixing other people’s lives. Charlie is an artist and single father who has artists block. His sister Lauren, and seventeen year old daughter Phoebe convince him to hire Becky to sort his life out, including to help him to get the woman of his dreams, Rachel Stone. After a frosty start Becky and Charlie become friends, but once her job is done she will fade into the background, and miss out on her happily ever after.

Art and Soul was a joy to read and left me with a warm fuzzy feeling after I finished it. I loved the variety of characters in the book and their quirks that made them such individual, although I would have liked to slap Rachel Stone who had such a high and mighty attitude. Becky is the complete opposite to Rachel, she is down to earth, amiable and fun. She has a kind of intuition for trouble that makes her so good at her job. She has been organising weddings for some extra money and has managed to intervene and stop any event that may ruin the day. She has the same intuition when it comes to people, can sort the wheat from the chaff and is able to read people and offer what they want in return for them helping her. Becky is a character many will identify with, struggling as a single mother, suffering mum guilt leaving her two year old son, not having time to spend on make up and hair and feeling intimidated by people like Rachel Stone who are polished and flawless. One thing I picked up was how Becky referred to her hair as mousey but Charlie described it as dark blonde.

Charlie is stuck in a rut, he has artists block, and is depressed after an article referred to him as a has been. He maybe sceptical about Becky’s services but between Becky, his daughter Phoebe and sister Lauren he finds his life changing for the better, working on new art work and an exhibition at a local gallery. Charlie may express himself through art but verbally he is useless leading to many frustrated and awkward moments leaving me wanting to shout at him.

Claire Huston writes with great understanding of her characters and their lives, many which resonated with me. She cleverly mixes drama, romance, irony and wit in the plot making this such a pleasure to read. Yes, reading romance novels mean you probably know the ending but it’s the process and chemistry of how we get there that I find compelling. My favourite part of the book had to be what I call the Cinderella moment for Becky at the ball, as a reader I felt really proud of her.

Art and Soul is a joy to read and left me feeling all warm and fuzzy. Memorable and realistic characters, some nice, some not so, draw you into their lives so you become invested in the outcome of the book. This is the perfect uplifting romantic novel to escape into.