ARC received from Harper Collins Australia for an honest review

I am on a bit of a run of Australian historical fiction stories at the moment, and the chance to read a copy of new-to-me author Tea Cooper's The Girl In The Painting was too good to refuse.

Ms Cooper has given us a story with intriguingly woven storylines, told over a 50 year period that I was impatient to turn the next page.

Michael, Elizabeth and Jane's gives us a snippet of the life of our Australian ancestors. Sometimes I think that the slower paced life, sans technology would be so much nicer, so much simpler.

However lies, betrayals and intrigues surround this trio. I was messaging a friend who had already read this book as I was reading, with so many questions, so many guesses at who was who and what was what. I was surprised at the twists and turns that this story took along the way.

Wonderful characters pushed this story forward at a wonderful pace. There were also some deplorable characters that I couldn't wait to see the end of haha.

I was reading this book in my work lunch breaks, and I found myself wanting to stretch my break just a couple of minutes more, needing to know what was happening, I ended up taking it home and devouring the second half in one evening.

This was my first Tea Cooper read, and I will be searching out more in the future.