After you fall in love with this book, do yourself a huge favor and read her other books.

Marta Molnar is a new pen name for author Dana Marton. The history, the romance and the pure fun too. the challenges we still face today and so much more. The strong women, the challenges for women in the past vs. It’s so relevant for today and after I finished this book I just wanted to talk about it with everyone around me. Brava Marta Molnar and congratulations to all who decide to pick up this book and give it a read – you will be so happy you did! I strongly recommend this book for book clubs. Being a different genre then I usually read, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was emotionally invested in both of their lives practically from page one and I couldn’t stop turning the pages until these compelling stories eventually were woven together perfectly toward the end. The book shifts between the stories of two very different women, Johanna who lived in the late 1800’s in Holland and Emsley trying to get her new business off the ground in L.A. What a fascinating story meshing the lives of two women who lived a century apart. I read this book in one sitting and actually said OUT LOUD “THAT WAS FANTASTIC” when I got to the end. Softcover text – Free from the Baldwin Public LibraryĪudiobook – 1 Audible Credit (Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 Credits Membership Plan $229.50 or roughly $9.56 per credit) The Secret Life of Sunflowers has some strong female characters and features an artist who I love, but it wasn’t enough to redeem the storytelling. For example, in the very first chapter, we are told that Trey cheated on Emsley….but why should the reader care? We don’t see the relationship develop, and we don’t have any flashbacks to their glory days.ĭid this story move my soul and is written on the very fiber of my heart? No. Where were their glorious backstories? They didn’t feel like real, complex human beings, just weak caricatures of tired, banal cliches. In a similar vein, the foreshadowing was extremely heavy handed to the point that the reader knows exactly how the book will unfold.įurthermore, these characters were underdeveloped and flat. If your rent is overdue, just walk around with your brother who will happen to be carrying around enough cash to instantly pay all arrears in full. For example, a decades-long mystery was laughably resolved after a few minutes on Google. My goodness gracious! The problems were far too easy. Sadly, this method of writing wasn’t effective. Starting with the prose-it is overly simplistic and underwhelming, reading mostly in the style of the mystery/thriller genre than historical fiction. Will she be able to accomplish what her husband could not?Īlthough I am an enormous fan of Vincent van Gogh and utterly adore Starry Night, this book is mediocre at best and could have used a bit of stardust. In the nineteenth century timeline, Johanna van Gogh- Bonger is a widow attempting to honor her late husband while trying to eek out a living in a cruel world. Will Emsley find answers while sifting through her beloved grandmother’s possessions? At the same time, Emsley is at a watershed moment in her personal life. Written in a dual timeline, The Secret Life of Sunflowers follows Emsley Wilson in current day and Johanna van Gogh-Bonger in the late nineteenth century.Įmsley Wilson is mourning the loss of her famous painter grandmother Violet Velar.

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