Book overview
A Renaissance historical novel about a servant girl painting in secret in 1473 Venice, and the master who risks his name to train her. Art-world intrigue, forbidden ambition and a clean slow-burn romance among the pigments and politics of the quattrocento.
"Fans of the Renaissance era will be carried away to a time of passion and art." -- InD'tale Magazine
Renaissance Italy loves genius -- just not when it belongs to a woman.
Venice, 1473. In a city of workshops and whispers, a servant girl dares to practice a craft reserved for men. When revered Florentine master Luciano Vicente discovers Celeste Gabriele's secret sketches, he offers illicit training -- and a perilous path to greatness.
Their solution is audacious: Celeste's paintings will be shown and sold under male apprentices' names, a deception that could ruin them both if exposed. In candlelit studios and crowded ateliers, amid pigments, frescoes, and patrons bound by oath, Celeste must outpace jealous rivals and patrician rules to claim the life she was never meant to have.
If the truth surfaces, she risks her freedom and the future of the man who believes in her. Yet art -- and a clean, hopeful love -- may be the one redemption this Renaissance world cannot silence.
Shades of Brilliance begins The Master's Prot