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: Flesh Tones
Review: FLESH TONES is an emotional blockbuster beginning with the New York trial room where Genny Haviland is accused of murdering her lover, painter Slade Gabriel. Was it a mercy killing or second degree murder? You are hooked at once when you are lead into the lust crazed obsessive love affair that spans over two decades between Genny and Gabriel when they first met when she was 17 and he 37 in her father's gallery. The action switches back and forth between the trial and the memories in Genny's mind of what really happened with Slade Gabriel, her parents, her friends, and herself as she leads you into the painting of her own life with this dynamic man who had captured her love, her lust, her being as Ms. Rose delves into the human psyche and peels back the layers of what makes Genny and Gabriel tick. The characters are very complex with a mixture of dark and light. I was so emotionally tied up that when I finished Flesh Tones I had one doggoned big cry, especially when I discovered the gift that Gabriel left Genny. M.J. Rose also gives you a virtual tour of the art world and artists. I've always loved New York and the museums, but I now have a much better opinion of what art is all about after reading this compelling book. This summer I know everyone is going to be talking about M.J. Rose's FLESH TONES, a book that appeals to your intellect, and your emotions. Sensational!
There is a lot of thought provoking issues that certainly will jolt you. "FLESH TONES is one hell of a compelling read with its eye opening view into the art world as M.J. Rose mesmerizes you with a tale of lust, greed, passion and obsession that is staggering to your emotions as a kaleidoscope of visions flash by in glorious colors. Believe me, you won't be unaffected by this book. I'm still reeling. Simply stunning! Ms. Rose gets better with every book. Put her on your A list now." Suzanne Coleburn, Reader To Reader Reviews
Rating:
Summary: A sexy and suspenseful novel
Review: I have learned that if a book doesn't grab you within the first 50 pages or so to foget about it and move onto something else. This book had me hooked within the first 20 pages. This book does a wonderful job at exploring that very fine line between love and obsession at times I felt like I was reading Genny's personal diary, but this book is much more than a smutty beach read. Did Genny Haviland kill her lover or did she save him from a terrible disease that would rob him of everything he knows and holds dear? M.J. Rose's writing style is efortless and smooth. Half the story is told in the present tense during the murder trial and half the story is told through the use of flashbacks, which normally can be hard for the reader to follow, but in this instance they are used to define very important elements in the story. Ms. Rose's writing style is masterful, the reader becomes totally absorbed in the tapestry of the story, there are passages that read like poetry that force the reader to go back and read them again. It was impossible for me not to turn the pages, I was transfixed and I will definetly be on the lookout for more by M.J. Rose!!
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: I love how MJ Rose makes her words flow, how she takes the time to describe the little things that another writer might overlook, and how completely natural her dialogue is. Flesh Tones bounces back and forth in time, from the art world to the courtroom and back again, as it unravels the mystery of a young woman accused of murdering her lover. This is a sexy thriller that makes for a fast and spirited read, and I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: the power of obsession
Review: In Flesh Tones, M.J. Rose addresses important issues like loyalty, greed, and obsessive love, all through the eyes of a woman who has helped her lover commit suicide. The writing is clean and crisp, with a fine eye for detail, and an underlying tension about what is right and wrong that pulls you through this story.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting story that is perhaps the author's best to date
Review: Is it exciting to watch the progress of an author . . . M. J.
Rose's first novel, LIP SERVICE, was a terrific erotic
thriller . . . her second effort, IN FIDELITY, was good too . . . but I must admit that I liked her latest book, FLESH TONES, perhaps the most. This is the riveting story of a woman who is accused of
murdering her lover, a famous painter . . . or was it that she
helped him escape from a certain death that was slowly
eroding his sanity? Sometimes, flashbacks can be disconcerting in a novel . . . not
here . . . Rose uses them to effectively fill-in the gaps of
the story that also features a suspenseful trial . . . and
there are some hot sex scenes, though not nearly as
many as were in her earlier works. I also liked the fact that I got a behind-the-scenes look
at the art world, something that I knew very little about. In addition, there were several beautifully written passages;
among them:
We had eaten, slept, now we ate again. Time was passing and
each moment was taking me further away from what had
happened toward what would happen. I thought the abortion would quench some of my ardor for Gabriel, but it didn't happen. My body refused to obey my intellect. Around him, I was always ripe, ready. As time passed, I'm almost convinced myself a baby would have been an unwelcome disruption in our lives. "And then one day he met this willowy, brown-haired hippie
girl who gave herself to him. No demands. No expectations.
And he fell for her. For the first time in his life. Christ. It was like feeling rain on your face for the first time, or discovering a new color."
Rating:
Summary: Way more than a beach read!
Review: M.J. Rose knows writing! I finished Flesh Tones last night and have to say how much I admire her work. Her characters and the situation are finestkind, but I am most impressed with the way she tells the tale. What superb timing, and how nicely she spins a chapter strand into transition. With a tease here and a glimpse there, M.J. Rose gives us just enough to move the story along, like oars move a shell over the water: allowing us to glide between strokes, never losing momentum, accelerating smoothly to a stunning finish.
Rating:
Summary: Murder or Mercy Killing?
Review: MJ Rose has once again given her readers characters to remember, characters embroiled in a mystery torn from today's headlines. When 17-year-old Genny Haviland met and fell in love with much older artist Slade Gabriel, she entered into an affair that appeared to answer all the questions she'd ever had. Gabriel loved Genny as obsessively as she loved him, but ended their relationship when he learned her father was Jonathon Haviland, owner of a Madison Avenue art gallery, a man who possessed the power to make or break him. The affair left Genny emotionally enslaved to Gabriel, but Flesh Tones is more than a story about an obsession based in love. Two decades later, fate throws Genny and Slade together again. Gabriel is facing Alzheimer's disease and begs Genny to help him die-or does he? Although Genny killed him, did he really ask for her help, or did she end his life to protect her father's reputation from scandals of price-fixing and career tampering in the art world, scandals that could destroy her father completely? Did she kill Gabriel only to end his suffering, or did her bizarre upbringing as the only child of a larger-than-life father and distant, almost disconnected mother drive her to act?
The story flows seemlessly between the courtroom where Genny is being tried for murder, her times with Gabriel right before his death, and twenty years into their past. Although the jury reaches the verdict I suspected they'd reach, the journey this multi-layered story took before the trial's end pulled me into Genny's and Slade's world so completely I was sad to reach the last page of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Searing, and semi-erotic...
Review: MJ Rose paints a portrait of an amazing bond between a man and woman. Genny and Slade, both products of the art world, meet when she is far too young to fall in love with him, or to share his passion. She misrepresents her age and background to be with him, and Rose skips forward, after laying the foundation, to Genny's immeasureable sacrifice for the man she loves. Rose is equally at home writing about art, death, the courtroom and the bedroom. She's one author I'll not soon forget! Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: An insider's look at the art world
Review: One of the most engaging aspects of M.J. Rose's writing is that she gives the reader an "insider's look" into a possibly unfamiliar venue. "Flesh tones" is set in the art world, and both the process of painting and the business end were depicted in an interesting and convincing way. The characters were attractive and made you care about them.
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