Title: The Muse
Author: Kenya Wright
Genre: Multicultural Mystery Romance
Age Group: Adult (18+)
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
“What happens when Death is the Muse?”
On the first day of her nude modeling job, Elle deals with a corpse, an eccentric dark artist, his sexy brother, and a grandmother that can see someone’s future by just touching their hands. Although these crazy distractions shove her on edge, it’s just what she needs to mend her battered heart and forget about her ex-boyfriend. Besides, she does get to live in their castle for the whole three months.
Everything seems magical and perfect. Until more dead bodies are discovered.
There’s something going on at night, right in the artist’s garden. Under the moonlight, young women are being cut and sliced, and no one has a clue to who’s doing it. And the more Elle is around the weird family in the castle, the more she realizes that they all are hiding secrets.
The Muse is a Sexy Multicultural Romance involving Love, Art & a Deadly Mystery.
The Muse was an interesting story, at times shocking and a little disturbing, at times romantic and sweet. Our main character, Elle, has just gotten out of an emotional abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Michael. He got famous painting her, and her nickname as a model is the “Archangel”, based on a series of portraits he did featuring her. However, she’s now gotten a job offering from Hex, an artist of the macabre, whose work is a stark contrast to work she usually posed for. Hex is Michael’s arch nemesis and greatest rival, and if he found out she was working for Hex, he’d be more annoyed than ever.
Meanwhile Elle arrives at Hex’s castle, which is occupied by other models and artists Hex likes to invite. She meets his brother, Alvarez, who is the rational mind to Hex’s near-hysteria. He takes care of the business side of things, makes arrangments, and in general does what’s best f or his family – Hex and his grandmother, who dabbels in an ancient religion involving spells, herbs and sometimes even blood rituals.
When people start showing up dead in and around the castle, Alvarez wants to find out what’s going on. He is afraid that Elle, who he’s had a crush on since the moment he met her, might be in danger as well. What starts is a race against time as the bodies begin piling up.
I liked Elle. She’d stepped out of an abusive relationship, and was now truly finding herself. She became stronger and more independent with every passing page. That’s why I wasn’t so fond of her relationship with Alvarez, and their growing attraction. He was another pillar for her to support upon, someone who’d have her back, while it seemed to me the most important thing for her was to learn to have her own back. Either way, she lacked personality, especially at the start, but it wasn’t a bad thing here. It genuinely seemed like she’d based most of her personality on who she was when she was with Michael, as if she could only have a personality reflected in his personality. At the start of the novel, she was lost, trying to find herself, and the only personality trait she had was being a movie buff. But as the story progressed, she gradually found herself, and discovered her own personality.
Hex was actually my favorite character. I’m a fan of the tormented artist as a protagonist, and he played the role well. Plus, the name. How can you be called Hex and not be amazingly awesome? Impossible, right?
The writing was decent, and the story flowed well. Like I mentioned, I wasn’t too pleased with the relationship between Elle and Alvarez. Not only did I feel like she should get to know herself first before jumping into another relationship, I also felt like their relationship progressed way too quickly. I’m not a fan of insta-love, or even anything close to that, so maybe that’s why. A few kisses I wouldn’t have minded, but the way Elle depended on Alvarez completely, and almost right away, that bothered me a little.
The mystery was great – I only figured it out toward the end, only a few pages before it’s revealed. The characters were great, the story was strong, and in general, I’d recommend this book to all fans of mystery romance novels.
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