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A review by atperez
Starry Nights by Daisy Whitney
1.0
The premise of this story was adorable; Night at the Museum meets YA meets romance. The execution, on the other hand, left much to be desired.
Starry Nights just jumps in to paintings coming to life and reveals the "why"s as it goes along. Unfortunately, it is inconsistent in its own world-building, having the female lead both artistically historic (130 years old or so) and at times confused by modern day lingo and at other times, unrealistically knowledgeable about what something means or what the proper, modern term to use would be.
The romance is hokey, rushed and unbelievable, the friendships based on shallow and short interactions (but possibly at least partially explained by the gimmick if you're willing to allow it), and the characters are largely two dimensional. The biggest disappointment was the waste of potential in creating some magic from the paintings brought to life. They make their appearances but only to support the main character as he first mopes over his love life, then builds another.
This might be right up the alley of art lovers but for anyone with only a passing or non-existent knowledge base in art history, a lot of this is going to go over your head. In other books, I'd consider this an opportunity to pull up Google and learn some fascinating new things but in this case, when I was already frustrated at the quality of the story, it just made things more frustrating. It went beyond references and straight into non-accessibility at a few points where it was not ideal to further pull myself out of the story.
Starry Nights just jumps in to paintings coming to life and reveals the "why"s as it goes along. Unfortunately, it is inconsistent in its own world-building, having the female lead both artistically historic (130 years old or so) and at times confused by modern day lingo and at other times, unrealistically knowledgeable about what something means or what the proper, modern term to use would be.
The romance is hokey, rushed and unbelievable, the friendships based on shallow and short interactions (but possibly at least partially explained by the gimmick if you're willing to allow it), and the characters are largely two dimensional. The biggest disappointment was the waste of potential in creating some magic from the paintings brought to life. They make their appearances but only to support the main character as he first mopes over his love life, then builds another.
This might be right up the alley of art lovers but for anyone with only a passing or non-existent knowledge base in art history, a lot of this is going to go over your head. In other books, I'd consider this an opportunity to pull up Google and learn some fascinating new things but in this case, when I was already frustrated at the quality of the story, it just made things more frustrating. It went beyond references and straight into non-accessibility at a few points where it was not ideal to further pull myself out of the story.