The Blue Bath - by Mary Waters-Sayer (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Kat Lind, an American expatriate living in London with her entrepreneur husband and their young son, attends an opening at a prestigious Mayfair art gallery and is astonished to find her own face on the walls. The portraits are evidence of a long-ago love affair with the artist, Daniel Blake. Unbeknownst to her, he has continued to paint her ever since. Kat is seduced by her reflection on canvas and when Daniel appears in London, she finds herself drawn back into the sins and solace of a past that suddenly no longer seems so far away. When the portraits catch the attention of the public, threatening to reveal not only her identity, but all that lies beyond the edges of the canvases, Kat comes face to face with the true price of their beauty and with all that she now could lose. Moving between the glamour of the London art world and the sensuous days of a love affair in a dusty Paris studio, life and art bleed together as Daniel and Kat's lives spin out of control, leading to a conclusion that is anything but inevitable. "--

Book Synopsis

Kat Lind, an American expatriate living in London with her entrepreneur husband and their young son, attends an opening at a prestigious Mayfair art gallery and is astonished to find her own face on the walls. The portraits are evidence of a long-ago love affair with the artist, Daniel Blake. Unbeknownst to her, he has continued to paint her ever since. Kat is seduced by her reflection on canvas and when Daniel appears in London, she finds herself drawn back into the sins and solace of a past that suddenly no longer seems so far away.

When the portraits catch the attention of the public, threatening to reveal not only her identity, but all that lies beyond the edges of the canvases, Kat comes face to face with the true price of their beauty and with all that she now could lose.

Moving between the glamour of the London art world and the sensuous days of a love affair in a dusty Paris studio, life and art bleed together as Daniel and Kat's lives spin out of control, leading to a conclusion that is anything but inevitable, in Mary Waters-Sayer's The Blue Bath.

Review Quotes

"An elegant debut. With keen sensitivity and insight, Mary Waters-Sayer explores the shifting landscape between love and betrayal; nostalgia and regret; the desire to keep secrets, and the longing to be seen." --Jennifer duBois, Whiting award-winning author of Cartwheel and A Partial History of Lost Causes

"What sets this novel above is how well it's written, without pretense or bad psychology, and its realistic portrayal of how much damage an affair can wreak. Waters-Sayer is able to convey both the mad pleasure of such passion and the cruel wounds it inflicts upon the guilty and the innocent alike. Reading it makes for a fine guilty pleasure." - Minneapolis Star Tribune

"The descriptions of the artist at work are so intense that readers will almost smell the paint." - Booklist

"Beautifully written, bringing Paris and London both to life, this novel is a study of the nature of love and art, and what happens when the two collide." - Shelf Awareness

About the Author

Mary Waters-Sayer has a B.A. in English from Binghamton University and later studied writing at Stanford University's Continuing Education program. She worked in investor and public relations for ten years. A native of New York, she has also lived in California and spent twelve years as an expatriate in London. She lives outside of Boston with her family.

Marisa Calin is an actress, narrator, and novelist born in England and educated in New York at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts. An artist with a flair for everything literary, she has written a young adult novel, You & Me, which received a Kirkus Starred Review, and has narrated the audio books Ruby Red and Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier.