Flesh Tones

Rating:
Summary: "Flesh Tones" sizzles
Review: "Flesh Tones" is a fast-paced sizzler, a page-turning courtroom drama that unfolds to expose the underbelly of the New York art world. Obsession drives the protagonist, Genny Haviland, to help her terminally ill lover--legenday painter, lovable and despicable Slade Gabriel--end his life. Or did she murder him? Author M.J. Rose weaves a tight and compelling story of love and lust and the length to which individuals go to perpetuate both. Steamier than Louisiana in August, "Flesh Tones" reaches triple-digit heat indices. The story kept this reader hooked until the final denouement. Going on vacation? Don't leave home without "Flesh Tones."

Rating:
Summary: FLESH TONES has everything
Review: A death, a murder trial and a love so strong the reader wonders if it's love or obsession. MJ Rose takes us from the present to the past with a smooth touch, never leaving the reader confused.

As the trial progresses the reasons for Genny Haviland to kill Slade Gabriel mounts. I wanted to believe in a love so strong that Genny helped her lover die a death with dignity, not a revenge so evil that murder was not only possible, but probable. Even as the jury reaches their own verdict, the reader doesn't.

Plot, characters and twists all written in layers. FLESH TONES is very much like a great painting, in passing it appears to be one thing, but upon closer inspection there's much more than what's on the surface. Rose uses a pen as Picasso used his palatte. The result is just as satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: A flawlessly-crafted mystery, beautifully written: spare yet full. In Flesh Tones, M.J. Rose has created a dramatic, and all-too-real world. Emotionally gripping. Wonderful characters: memorable. A literary page-turner.

Rating:
Summary: A POWERFUL, PICTURESQUE STORY!
Review: A real page-turner! I stayed up most of the night to finish it. Ms. Rose "paints" a superb, riveting story, with strong, complex, and fascinating characters. She is a great storyteller and the first-person narrative works very well with the detailed descriptions of scenery and feelings alike. Courtroom settings and dialogue are first-rate, with very thorough research, as is all the minute details about art and the art world. FLESH TONES is also a great love story, with a once-in-a-lifetime love, devotion, passion and desire. It is high drama, love, suspense and intrigue, with intricate characters and relationships.

Ms. Rose is a real winner with FLESH TONES. It is a sophisticated, intelligent, highly entertaining and very well written novel.

Rating:
Summary: A POWERFUL, PICTURESQUE STORY!
Review: A real page-turner! I stayed up most of the night to finish it. Ms. Rose "paints" a superb, riveting story, with strong, complex, and fascinating characters. She is a great storyteller and the first-person narrative works very well with the detailed descriptions of scenery and feelings alike. Courtroom settings and dialogue are first-rate, with very thorough research, as is all the minute details about art and the art world. FLESH TONES is also a great love story, with a once-in-a-lifetime love, devotion, passion and desire. It is high drama, love, suspense and intrigue, with intricate characters and relationships.

Ms. Rose is a real winner with FLESH TONES. It is a sophisticated, intelligent, highly entertaining and very well written novel.

Rating:
Summary: perfect book for the beach this summer!
Review: A thrilling mix of sexy love story, insider art world details and courtroom procedural make this a true page-turner. High class commercial fiction in the best sense!

Rating:
Summary: erotic and haunting love story
Review: Although Genny knew at seventeen that her thirty-seven year old lover was married and had a child, it didn't matter. His intense need for her fed her love for him until it threatened to consume her. When artist Slade Gabriel learns her true age and that she is the daughter of the gallery owner where he exhibits his paintings, his discovery makes the decision to return to his wife and child that much easier.

Genny's love turned to hate and then to indifference. She got married and divorced, made a successful career as a producer, winning two Emmys in her career. During that time Gabriel becomes a legend in his own time, his paintings selling for $200,000 and more.

Twenty years later Genny is reunited with Gabriel when a freak accident puts him and her father in a hospital. Their passion reignites and they have one grand and glorious year together before Genny goes on trial for his murder. Numb from the pain, she is almost unable to defend herself on the assisted suicide story her lawyer is trying to convince the jury is true.

FLESH TONES is an erotic and haunting love story about a man and a woman who have a connection that transcends age, society and morality. Told in the first person narrative within the framework of a murder trial, author M.J. Rose uses the flashback technique smoothly so there is no disruption of the prime plot line. Once started, this novel will prove impossible to put down until the reader reaches the end.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: M.J. Rose's best novel to date!
Review: During the past two or so years, author M.J. Rose has released three novels in quick succession -- Lip Service, In Fidelity and her new one, Flesh Tones -- and she hasn't disappointed me with her sensuous and clever thriller/romance novels. In my opinion, Flesh Tones is her best novel.

Genny Haviland is being trialed for the murder of her lover, Slade Gabriel -- a mysterious painter and client of Genny's father's gallery. Genny and Slade Gabriel reunite after twenty years apart -- Genny had had a spellbinding affair with much-older Slade Gabriel when she was seventeen. During the trial, the jury must answer the following questions: Did Genny murder the man she has loved for decades? Or are there more sinister reasons looming in the background? This novel will keep you turning the pages.

Dark, sexy, romantic and thrilling, Flesh Tones should be devoured by every romance/mystery enthusiast. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A Most Enjoyable Read
Review: FLESH TONES has characters I really cared about. Characters caught in the circumstances of a well known artists death. M.J.Rose's transitions from the present to the past in a seamless manner had me wishing for more of the past to fill in the present quicker. The portrayal of life as an artist, the life of the art dealer and the lives of people associated with that world is spellbinding. Add to this blend of interesting characters and interesting circumstances, discussions of some of societies ethical questions and you have a most enjoyable, thought provoking and literary read. I was satisfied with the whole story and sorry that it ended. I wanted more of this great book.

Rating:
Summary: A thrilling blend of passion and suspense.
Review: Flesh Tones is a fast paced novel that weaves great romance and passion together with the intensity of a murder trial. Readers learn that Genny, daughter of a gallery owner, is on trial for the murder of her lover Gabriel an artist whose paintings have become well known in the art community. While the trial is taking place there are scenes that take us back in time to give readers a better understanding of the events that led up to Genny having to defend herself in court for the murder of Gabriel.

Genny, who is now thirty-seven, first met Gabriel when she was only seventeen. Immediately they both felt a special kind of connection to one another even though nearly twenty years separated the two. In some ways they came from the same world in that they were both a part of the art community but in other ways their worlds were very different. Gabriel was a burgeoning painter whose intense work was just beginning to gain popularity while Genny's father and mother owned and ran an art gallery. The two quickly find themselves in a tumultuous affair full of passion and ardor which ends as suddenly as it started when Gabriel finally discovers that Genny is only seventeen. The two are later drawn back together after an accident that lands both Genny's dad and Gabriel in the hospital. Would murder be the result of their reunion or is there another explanation for the death of Gabriel?

The flashbacks are done very well and the flow of the story is never disrupted. M. J. Rose brings the characters in her novel to life and the backdrop of the art world creates an interesting backdrop for this novel full of passion and suspense. This is the first book by M. J. Rose that I've read although now I'll be looking for her others in hopes that they are just as tastefully written and gripping as Flesh Tones.