A lovely beach read at the end of WW2 with some sprinklings of our MC working at a plane factory while men went to fight in the war.

Most of the book shows us Hazel after her work in the factories and making her way to Laguna Beach, a city full of artists. While there she finds her own dream thanks to her own tenacity and spirit. While not resorting to marriage and family immediately because "that's what is expected", she helps a famous and scandalized painter (Hanson Radcliff) and works to solve the mystery of why he's surrounded by scandal.

I love how she grew to care for Hanson even though he was mostly cantankerous. It felt to me to be a true, albeit interesting, friendship.

One of my favorite parts is the "living art" , The Festival of Arts Pageant of the Masters, is a real thing you can see every year. It reminded me of when they did it in Gilmore Girls 😃