A Sky Painted Gold - a gloriously sun-drenched coming-of-age story for fans of THE GREAT GATSBY

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The romance? Gosh. As I mentioned, this is certainly marketed as guilty pleasure summer reading, but I found the romance far too saccahrine, straying into unnecessary cliche. Bonding experiences include (but are not restricted to) multiple incidents of spilling paint over one another/ falling on top of one another in paint etc. What a hoot! It made my toes curl. What a stunning surprise. This novel feels like dancing with your friends at midnight, stolen glances across a crowded room, and the warmth of a sunset pouring in through gauzy curtains. LH: Obviously you’ve mentioned in the panel that you can relate more to Lou that anyone, but who was your favourite character to actually create and write? Somehow, it took me so long to get into this book, scared that it wouldn’t do justice to one of my favourite plays of all time. Boy was I wrong : I devoured this book like no book before.

Under a Dancing Star by Laura Wood | Goodreads Under a Dancing Star by Laura Wood | Goodreads

Adicional a sus personajes, otro punto a favor, son las ambientaciones y las descripciones, muy bien adaptadas a la época y es tan sencillo imaginar las fiestas, decorados y vestidos. LW: I like all sorts of things, I like it when there’s like a really sparky relationship like I really like it when it’s like enemies to friends to lovers, that’s one of my favourite things I would say. I like lots of different ways I really love Georgette Heyer romance novels like I’ve loved them for a long time and they’re my ultimate comfort read and I’d read hundreds of them and read them over and over again. And what I really like about those is those tropes but all the different romantic tropes are in her books and they’re familiar and they’re comforting but its also what you do within that that makes them interesting. The Golden Age time period of A Sky Painted Gold was just one of many things that I really enjoyed about this book. Wood nails the excitement and wistfulness that I tend to associate with F. Scott Fitzgerald. The writing in this book was beautifully effortless. I could easily read huge chunks in one sitting without feeling like any time had passed at all. I love how the heroine has truly grown in the story. A book I highly recommend to a teen who is feeling a little lost. I also appreciate that there is no female cattiness. The ladies in this book are all supportive of each other. The romance didn’t take over the story and there is no insta-love. The only thing I didn’t like is that the main conflict can be easily resolved if they just talk about it, but I guess there is no story without the misunderstanding.Laura Wood: A Sky Painted Gold is a coming of age story set in the Summer of 1929. It’s quite dreamy and romantic and well I guess we’ve been pitching it as I Capture the Castle meets The Great Gatsby which I think is quite… I mean that’s a high bar but I think that’s quite accurate with the kind of intention behind it. With this one, I don’t think I need to do a lot of explaining. This is the graphic novel for episodes I-III of the Star Wars Saga. Unpopular opinion but I love the prequels, they are my favorite movies in the whole series. Wood captures the wonder of the world seen through eighteen-year-old eyes, and in so doing, re-opens my own to the beauty of the world around me. Things like her description of the excitement and majesty of London, make me realise I’ve lost touch with that total awe I felt when I first saw the city… Familiarity breeds contempt, but it doesn’t have to, and books like this are the perfect antidote for a diminishing sense of wonder.

A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood | Goodreads

La edición, además, no me puede parecer más bonito y creo que hace que desde el primer momento te metas de lleno en la época, como digo, su mayor punto fuerte. LW: Well I am obsessed with Cornwall it’s a problem… My mum’s side of the family are from Cornwall and my grandparents lived in Cornwall as I was growing up so we used to go there all the time. It’s a really special place for me like I have a real affection for it. But also specifically in Cornwall there are places that the book is about and the main place is St. Michael’s Mount which is in Marazion in Cornwall and that’s what the Cardew island is based on so it’s like the island that’s joined to the mainland by the causeway and when the tide comes in like it’s cut off and when the tide goes out then you can walk across to it and when I saw that I just knew that I had to write something about it because it feels really magical it has that kind of magical quality that I wanted the book to have.

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Iris desde siempre sospechó que lo del accidente de su padre olía muy raro, pero ¿quién va a escuchar a una niña de apenas 11 años? Además su madrastra la maltrata y planea sacarla de la casa pero, antes de que eso suceda, Iris se escapa a Londres donde se cambia de nombre y encuentra trabajo como costurera para una modista. Durante siete años la joven vive de forma anónima mientras intenta averiguar qué sucedió en la casona de su padre mientras planea su venganza. Un buen día se le presenta la ocasión cuando el joven conde Nicholas de Wynter entra en el establecimiento de la modista acompañando a su prima. Allí conoce a Iris y la contrata para que le ayude a arruinar a un príncipe que anda de buscando esposa en Inglaterra: casualmente la candidata de este príncipe para este papel es la mayor de las hermanastras de Iris. Así pues, la joven y su hado padrino aúnan fuerzas para vengarse, sin saber las razones del otro, de la malvada madrastra y del apuesto príncipe. I loved Iris, I loved Nicholas, I loved where the story went and how we gradually learn along with Iris that sometimes things and people are messier than we think. I also really loved the dress details here! and the Cinderella tie-ins were super fun and clever. And of course, I loved the romance. This is the second Laura Wood leading man who I've disliked on first meeting and then loved by the end of the book! Very impressive. Also, BLESS Laura Wood for not having a dramatic break-up because of revealed secrets thing! Both characters are understandably frustrated at not getting the whole story, but THEY COMMUNICATE ABOUT IT, and recognize why the other person had reservations. LH: Obviously Lou’s got a huge love for Agatha Christie novels, is that down to your own love for them or?

A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood - LoveReading4Kids

Everyone believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andrea Bell, five years ago—except Pippa Fitz-Amobi. LW: I think Lou was my favourite character because I knew her the best but I loved writing Robert and I really loved… every scene that they were in together was the best scene to write. It was so much fun and their, the kind of tension between them, and their growing friendship and the way they kind of understood each other and they both so obviously loved each other and couldn’t admit it to themselves! Oh my god it was so much fun I really loved it. I am in head-over-heels in love with Laura Wood’s YA historical fiction. Last year I fell in love with 1920s Cornwall in A SKY PAINTED GOLD, and this year I was whisked away to sun-swept Tuscany in the 1930s. Overall I definitely enjoyed my dip-of-the-toes into historical fiction! I loved the descriptive writing, the slow-burn romance, the intrigue. Everything! Well, except for that one thing.

LoveReading4Kids Says

It’s early evening and it’s starting to get dark now. The lights strung above us in a looping zigzag shine white against a royal blue sky. We’re walking further into a residential bit of the city, and the windows in the tall houses glow, warm and welcoming. Some contain glimpses of decorated trees, of brightly coloured paper chains, and jewel-like glass ornaments. [...] It's also more of a spin-off than a sequel, so dont worry about not having read A Sky Painted Gold first! Me gustó mucho, es una historia divertida y ligera con toda esa ambientación de los años 20 y lleno de fiestas y glamour que lo vuelve muy disfrutable. The Cardew siblings, Robert and Caitlin, are often talked about in the London press, and plastered in the magazines. The magazines, that Lou and her sister, Alice, enjoy reading. The Cardews want to get out of the limelight and the stressful city life for the summer. This takes the two siblings and their whole array of friends to the old Cardew estate in Cornwall. Lou comes across one of their parties one night when she is sneaking around the house. She becomes swept away in all the glitz and glam of their party lifestyle in the roaring summer of 1929.