A VEIL OF VINES by TILLIE COLE

‘My papa always said that how a man was with his family said a lot about what made up their soul. And if they were good with animals, it proved patience and gentleness, and an understanding of what it was to be pure and kind. It was funny really. My father had always wanted me with someone who bore those traits.’

This story was beautifully written and so rich in flavour and scenery, we felt as if we were there, in the rolling hills of Italy, home to everything sumptuous and decadent. We’ve said this many times before, but it’s truly the sign of a great artist when they can write anything and everything and do it naturally and so well, like Tillie Cole can. She makes us laugh, swoon and cry- happy or sad tears. She makes us feel. Whilst we very much loved aspects of A Veil of Vines, especially the latter part, it wasn’t one of our favourites. That however is not necessarily the story’s fault. For us, what we were expecting from book teasers we’d seen, the synopsis added to the pacing and a bit of a struggle with character connection; all sadly impacted our full reading enjoyment. Despite that, there is no question that the writing was once again stunning and the attention to detail, perfection.  In some ways this story was a perfect, easy and romantic Sunday read that just makes you feel all warm inside.

‘We were tangled, chaotic perfection, a frantic, flawless mess.’

Slow and sweet does it when you’re dealing with two beautiful hearts that are two halves of one whole. Soulmates. Meant to be. Pure love. It was oh so romantic and we relished that, the heart wants what it wants no matter the obstacles thrown in its way. Who’s to say what’s written in the stars where emotions, passion, understanding and friendship is concerned. It’s the ties that bind us that prevents us from always seeing the beautiful light.

‘….for a brief moment in time, we had been two halves of one whole.’

Caresa, Zeno and Achille; their story was a twist on an old yet modernised fairy tale where really, there was no evil for us to despair at or rebel against. Rather, we felt for them all and we rejoiced and basked in any moment of happiness or hopelessness with compassion and love. Whilst we thought this book would heavily feature Zeno as the Royal Prince, in many respects it didn’t, so we would LOVE to hear his story and see him settled and happy. We did guess the plot early on for various reasons yet our hearts still melt into a puddle towards the end, it was sheer romantic beauty! This is definitely one for the hopeless romantics like us.

“…as Plato said…’and they don’t want to be separated from one another, not even for a moment.”