Veridian Sterling Fakes It by Jennifer Gooch Hummer Published by Lake Union Publishing on July 2, 2024
Genres: Women's Fiction
Pages: 252
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
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Freshly graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, Veridian Sterling is ready to hang her work in any of the countless New York galleries that are sure to give her a show. The problem is only one will, and they’re not interested in her art so much as her personal assistant skills.
No glitz, no glam, and definitely none of the money she needs to help her struggling mother finally realize her dream of starting her own business after having sacrificed everything for Veri to go to art school. So when she overhears her new boss discussing the impressive finder’s fee for a lost Van Gogh, Veri takes matters into her own hands. Maybe her own artwork isn’t celebrated, but she knows how to copy what is, and maybe those skills can help lead to a discovery.
But when a famous art dealer takes her under his wing (and his charming driver takes her interest), Veri realizes she’s in deeper than she expected, and quite possibly with the wrong people. With her mother’s dreams and her own future at stake, Veri will have to pull out every trick she can think of to wipe her canvas clean and erase the mess she’s created before she goes down for someone else’s crimes.
I just finished binging the complete TV series of White Collar before accepting this book for review, and I was still on my art heist kick. I love art so much. I was an art history minor in undergrad, and I love books dealing with art and artists and art lovers. Veridian Sterling Fakes It sounded like THE perfect book for me and I thought for sure I was going to love it! Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for me the way I had hoped. As always, my main points are bolded.
1. First of all, I don’t think book knows what genre it’s supposed to be. It’s not a mystery. The part that I’m assuming is the mystery part was a secondary plot line for about half the book, and it wasn’t very interesting. There’s no case that needs solving, and whatever information that is revealed is not because someone discovers it. It’s because someone is told something. But most of those somethings don’t really matter or do anything for the plot, so I didn’t see the point. It’s not a thriller or suspense novel because the book doesn’t have any suspenseful moments or an exciting climax. Most of the story is very slice of life, with not a lot happening. It’s a relatively short book, but it still took me a long time to read it because it never grabbed me. It’s not a romance, but there is some flirting (nothing comes of said flirting). Veridian acts like a teenager, so it doesn’t feel like women’s fiction. It’s not crime fiction because there’s not really a crime here. Veridian keeps freaking out about being a criminal, but she’s not. I can tell I was supposed to be worried about Veridian, but nothing was written in a way that made me think Veridian even cared what happened to her.
2. The events in this book are a series of convenient coincidences that had nothing to do with the characters written. Nobody really did anything, including Veridian. She walked around with a pipe in her mouth (that she didn’t smoke, just had fun holding it there like a snowman), went to work, talked to people, and painted sometimes. Veridian’s life unfolds as though there was a checklist that needed to be completed, without any character development or story building put forth to make anyone understand why Veridian’s life is on the path that it is.
3. These characters are all extremely unlikable. Veridian’s (nicknamed Veri, which bugged me for some reason) character lacks any real substance. She’s quirky and different, but it doesn’t feel natural. It felt like she was trying unreasonably hard to be unique. Her reactions to the book’s issues were identical no matter the severity of the issue, which made me feel like she either had no clue what was going on or she didn’t care. There’s no critical thinking going on in that brain of hers. Then you’ve got her best friend, who was so overly unrealistic that she seemed like a cartoon character. Veridian’s boss was a bad Miranda Priestly knock-off. Then there’s the British driver and the rich, “scary” art forgeries dude and both of them were caricatures. Veridian’s mom had the most personality of anyone here, and that’s not saying much. Everyone is either over the top or background noise.
4. Are the stakes in the room with us? What are we concerned about? Is Veridian being dramatic, or did she actually do something wrong? Nothing about the ramifications of Veridian’s actions was ever clear, so I just didn’t care. She reads something on her boss’s computer screen and sells that information. Said information does not require any kind of security clearance to view or share with others. So she’s a nosey opportunist. She pays a ton of money for a man to get her a passport ASAP and the reader is led to believe that this is dangerous and illegal when, in reality, the passport is real and she just paid some guy who knows some guy at the passport office who can process things much faster when financially motivated. All the stakes that are supposed to be high end up never being high. I quit caring because I knew the next “issue” would turn out to be another non-issue.
5. The ending was incredibly frustrating. I slogged through this book because I was curious how things would end up for Veridian. And… it all fell so flat. The mystery, if you can call it that, didn’t matter one bit. Again, Veridian had nothing to do with the book’s resolution. Everything tied itself up in a loose, sloppy bow on its own. Just like all the issues she encountered fell into her lap, so did the resolutions. She literally just sat there and watched the entire book happen to her.
6. I did love the glimpses of life in New York City and I wanted to go back the whole time I was reading. I also enjoyed all the art talk and the passion for beautiful paintings. The art forgery world was quite interesting.
All in all, this was a disappointment. Veridian is no Neal Caffrey. She’s incredibly forgettable. The idea for the story was there, but the execution was lacking. I wish more time had been spent making this the exciting, thrilling story the book pitches itself it be. As it stands, the back cover synopsis is the most interesting part of the book for me.
The Roommate Pact by 
The Christmas Book Flood by 
The book begins in Autumn, and the illustrations are sprinkled with fall leaves and pumpkins. I could feel the crisp, fall air. The anticipation of the Christmas Book Flood is palpable and the people walk along the dirt streets in their sweaters by the light of the Norther Light dancing overhead. Then the tradition is explained. The book says that “reading is magic–when you have the right book.” I couldn’t agree more! The books explains how much thought people put into selecting books for their loved ones, which I thought was so sweet. I turned the page to a cozy little village street speckled with bookshops and snowflakes, and my smile grew even larger than it was before. I could hear the crunch of the snow as the people on the pages walk past twinkling lights with their packages in tow after a long day of shopping.
How beautiful is this illustration? I’d love to visit this magical bookshop. The illustrations show a cute little girl searching for the right book, when she finally finds one just in time! Her joy is exquisite, and the page turns to reveal a magical scene from inside her imagination. Hot air balloons, a castle, and a sea monster fill the page. Then we turn the page again to reveal a family opening their gifts together and eating festive baked goods. “They pore over treasures and marvel together: new worlds and adventures, etched across pages bound between covers.” What a pretty line. I was delighted to see how this family celebrates together. They pile the floor by the Christmas tree with pillows and blankets and read together. Even their pets have books! Those who can’t read are perched on the laps of those who read to them instead.
In a New York Minute by