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popthebutterfly 's review for:

What I Want You to See by Catherine Linka
5.0

Disclaimer: I received an arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: What I Want You to See

Author: Catherine Linka

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: February 4, 2020

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Pages: 384

Recommended Age: 16+ (some sexual content, art stealing, some language)

Synopsis: Winning a scholarship to California’s most prestigious art school seems like a fairy tale ending to Sabine Reye’s awful senior year. After losing both her mother and her home, Sabine longs for a place where she belongs.

But the cutthroat world of visual arts is nothing like what Sabine had imagined. Colin Krell, the renowned faculty member whom she had hoped would mentor her, seems to take merciless delight in tearing down her best work—and warns her that she’ll lose the merit-based award if she doesn’t improve.

Desperate and humiliated, Sabine doesn’t know where to turn. Then she meets Adam, a grad student who understands better than anyone the pressures of art school. He even helps Sabine get insight on Krell by showing her the modern master’s work in progress, a portrait that’s sold for a million dollars sight unseen.

Sabine is enthralled by the portrait; within those swirling, colorful layers of paint is the key to winning her inscrutable teacher’s approval. Krell did advise her to improve her craft by copying a painting she connects with . . . but what would he think of Sabine secretly painting her own version of his masterpiece? And what should she do when she accidentally becomes party to a crime so well -plotted that no one knows about it but her?

Complex and utterly original, What I Want You to See is a gripping tale of deception, attraction, and moral ambiguity.

Review: I absolutely loved this book so much! The characters were well developed, the plot was intriguing from start to finish, and the story was equal parts sad as it was uplifting. It was also a very fast paced read! It was a great read!

My only issues are that the book jumped around a lot, it was a bit hard to follow in spots, and the book did not give you a truly happy ending, which I desperately wanted. Like it ended great, but it still had loose ends.

Verdict: Prepare your tissue box!