The Very Picture of You

Just because you know where you're going, doesn't mean you can't enjoy the ride along the way. The Very Picture of You is a predictable love story, enlivened by a most interesting look at the art of portrait painting. The author shines when discussing the difference between a likeness and a picture with a soul, and how an artist gets there. Set in contemporary London, location and characters are nicely done and believable. Bottom line: This is a sweet story about secrets and forgiveness, sisterly love, romance and art.

Ella is a painter of portraits and is not happy when she is commissioned by her sister Chloe to paint Chloe's fiance, Nate, whom Ella loathes. Nate is aware of Ella's feelings and so confronts her during the first sitting. It turns out to have been a misunderstanding on Ella's part and now she finds herself very much enjoying Nate's company during there sittings. Need I say more? Do you see where this is going? Everything about this book was so predictable. Her long-lost father contacts her and Ella does not want to see him based on what she has heard from her mother. Yet it takes the whole book for Ella to discover her mother's lies even though they are so obvious. A person who sees her mom's portrait at the beginning of the book show more states that she looks like she is hiding something. Her mother was a caricature of a character and it made it very annoying.
The worst for me was the annoying habit of one or two words being italicized in every sentence of dialogue. The over EMPHASIS on EVERYTHING made me want to THROW this book across the ROOM. Annoying isn't it. The editor should be fired.

I think this book bothers me so much because it could have been decent. It is interesting that Ella learns so much from her subjects as they sit together for hours at a time. And many of them have interesting stories to tell but it gets lost in the unnecessary family drama and predictable plot. show less

This book was well written for what it is. I suppose it's simply not my type of book. I would prefer more humor, I suppose, with such light subject matter. The author does provide good insight into modern portraiture, which I found very interesting. But generally, I found the main character to be interesting only when she was talking about her art. Otherwise, she was annoyingly dim and judgmental at times, and often seemed much older (in a bad way) than her 35 years. She seemed a bit dowdy and prematurely middle aged.

This story of a portrait painter working on three portraits that ultimately change her life had all the ingredients of a great read but unfortunately never really came together. Though Ella was a sympathetic character, she was also woefully incapable of seeing things that were right before her eyes. As a reader, I was frustrated that the twists that so shocked Ella were things I had figured out ages before. I also thought that the plot devices of visits and stories from clients were too similar to that of Wolff's enjoyable A Vintage Affair.

Given how much I loved A Vintage Affair, I really wanted to like this book but my overall impression after finishing was "meh". Because there were no real surprises, it was hard to share Ella's sense show more of surprise at every turn. It was also hard to believe Ella was able to see deeply into her clients in order to paint their portraits given her general inability to see the truth about those close to her. 3.5 stars. show less

In many ways the perfect book at the perfect time. Before reading it I had a stream of very mediocre reads and some were just so plodding I was really craving a book I could just tear through.

This book is engaging. I read it really fast. I felt myself reaching for it over and over in the spare minutes I had between this and that.

The characters were interesting though not particularly original. The story took a few surprising turns that were welcome to me. I actually spent quite a bit of time in the first half of the book mentally complaining about the predictability of the characters and the plot only to have the author sort of pull the rug out from under me a bit. They weren't the best or most well incorporated twists I have ever read. show more I will admit that I did feel deliberately mislead to a degree. That aside, on balance - I think I preferred the slight offense at being mislead over what could have been an incredibly predictable plot.

I would definitely recommend this book for a plane ride or a vacation or for any time that you want something that is just easy to read. A nice quick engaging read. show less

Contrary to the previous reviews, I loved this book. I loved the fact that Ella is an engaging character and I could not put this book down. I read it in one day I loved it that much. I loved the little twists and the main storyline and how there were some surprises thrown in the mix as well. I really enjoyed learning about portraiture and painting. I found the relationships in this novel to be very convincing and it painted a portrayal of real life situations (no pun intended). Over all a light, quick and engaging masterpiece by Isabel Wolff.

This is the second book by Isabel Wolff I’ve read. The first was A Vintage Affair which I absolutely loved. I was so happy to find I loved this one just as much.

I’ve never really thought about having my portrait painted but after having read this it sounds like something I’d like to do. I always thought it must be a dull, tedious, drawn out affair. Now, I see it can be an enlightening experience and very interesting. Well, that it if every painter is like Ella. She is such a lovely character. The way in which she gets to know her “sitters” is on par to a psychiatrist. I never thought before of there being a difference about whether a portrait was from life or a photo but now it makes perfect sense. Ella won’t paint a show more portrait from a picture (though she does break her rule for a very good reason). Now, I want to pay attention and see if I can tell the difference.

I wasn’t sure what I felt about the love story until the very end and then a was very happy with the way everything turned out. Even if it was a little “easy” I was still very satisfied. I have to say was surprised by Ella’s mother’s back story. I can see now that it was all there in front of me and I just didn’t notice it. I was probably blinded by my soap opera idea of what the story was and therefore missed a lot of the clues.

All the characters were nicely fleshed out and the author has a such a wonderful ability to tell a deep and interesting life story of her older characters. When I heard Iris, one of Ella’s sitters, history I couldn’t help but think of the story of the little blue coat in A Vintage Affair. It was that story that really made me love that book.

I’m happy to say Isabel Wolff has seven other novels still left for me to read and I can’t wait to get to them. I have nothing but high hopes.

Thank you to Random House for my copy of The Very Picture of You. show less