How do you heal your heart after tragedy leaves you broken? When the person you loved didn't deserve it and they can’t earn your forgiveness because they’re already dead? How do you move on, and heal, and love? If you’re Princess Lorraina, you paint. A year ago Lorraina watched Tobias die, and she still doesn't know how she's supposed to heal—or forgive. How can she when she’s still running away? In an attempt to reinvent herself, she steps outside her comfortable life as princess and seeks the tutelage of a master painter—a man who is not at all impressed by her pedigree, and demands not just talent, but emotional honesty. Struggling to learn what’s being taught, she finds herself drawn to someone who not only knows her secrets, but who she once considered far below her notice. Now she is compelled to seek him out despite knowing their relationship would be forbidden if discovered. Staying away from him doesn't seem possible when discovering him may be the key to healing her heart and rediscovering herself.

My Review:

Reviewed by Laura Fabiani

This is the third book I read by Annette K. Larsen after being instantly charmed by her fist novel Just Ella. Painting Rain is the fourth book in the Book of Dalthia series. Each book is a stand-alone and tells the story of each of the Princesses of Dalthia.

Painting Rain tells the story of Lorraina, the fourth sister. She is not yet married and I remembered her as being portrayed as aloof and unfeeling in the previous novels. A year ago, she watched Tobias, the young man she loved, die and she has mourned his death. That event has made her question who she really is and how she could change to be the person she now wants to be.

Once again, I was captivated by Larsen's writing. She knows how to create believable characters that are strong, yet vulnerable. This story is very character-driven and sticks mainly to how Lorraina becomes her own person. Lorraina does this by indulging in her love of painting. She begins to study under the tutelage of a master artist and through this experience learns about herself and what she wants in life. I loved learning about the artistry of painting, such as how they created their own paints, prepared the canvas, and the different techniques used.

There is romance in this story, but at its heart, this is a coming-of-age story. I thoroughly enjoyed Lorraina's personal journey and I particularly liked how Larsen showed that happiness does not only come from discovery of loving another person. It comes from being fulfilled through one's own means of dealing with life. The love between the two characters reflected this. This wasn't some flighty love based on purely physical attraction, although the young man was swoon-worthy for sure. It was solidly based on true friendship.

I love YA historical fiction with such great messages for our teen girls. And I admire authors who write clean romance with substance. Having read this novel, I now want to read the third book I missed in this series titled Saving Marilee. And I hope to read many more from talented Annette K. Larsen.

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About the Author:

Author Annette K. Larsen I was born in Utah, but grew up in Flagstaff, Arizona and St. Louis, Missouri, the fifth of seven children. I attended Southern Virginia University and Brigham Young University, where I studied English and Theater. I now live in Idaho with my husband and four children. I have Charlotte Brontë to thank for the courage to write novels. 

After being bombarded with assigned reading about women who justified abandoning either their families or their principles in the name of love, I had the great fortune of reading Jane Eyre. And that was it: finally, a heroine who understood that being moral and making the right choice was hard, and sometimes it hurt, but it was still worth it. After rereading it several years later, I realized that if I wanted more books to exist with the kinds of heroines I admired, then I might as well write a few myself. 

My books are about women who face hard choices, who face pain and rejection and often have to face the reality of sacrificing what they want for what is right. The consequences are often difficult or unpleasant, but in the end, doing what’s right will always be worth it. I believe there is no substitute for good writing or good chocolate. Fortunately, one often leads to the other.

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