The Blue Bath, by Mary Waters-Sayer, is a story of unexpected passion and forbidden love. Reminiscent of The Thorn Birds and The Bridges of Madison County, but set in Paris and London, The Blue Bath forces readers to consider what we’d do for the love of our lives, and how far we’d go to keep it.
At nineteen, Kat Lind travels to Paris to study French literature, and to soak up as much of the French culture as she can in her brief time there. But soon after her arrival, she unexpectedly meets Daniel Blake, a struggling British artist whose brooding intensity is an attraction she can’t resist. Their year together living in his small French studio insulates her from everything outside of their apartment. Kat doesn’t know his past, or anything about his present, other than what they share together in a bubble of rapturous captivation. And she doesn’t care. He is her enigmatic soul mate.
Then Kat discovers something that will change their lives forever, and she runs back to New York, terrified that staying with him will ruin both their lives. And even though she no longer has any contact with him, Daniel seems to be a part of her, never very far from her heart or thoughts.
Years pass. Kat marries Jonathan, a budding tech entrepreneur, and they have a son, Will. Jonathan’s business skyrockets him into a global tech magnate, but steals his time and attention away from his family in the process. Kat feels her loneliness. Then seemingly from nowhere, Kat sees Daniel’s image on the television, in advance of his show that will take the London art world by storm. Kat can’t help herself – she is drawn to the show – and is stunned to discover her own image on every canvas. Or at least, the girl she used to be, painted from the memory of the man she left behind.
Will Kat let her love for Daniel lead her into another whirlwind romance? What secret caused Kat to run from him so many years ago, and what of the new secrets they now hide from each other?
Reading The Blue Bath, I was thrown into the middle of a passionate love affair, and felt the hollowness of loss when their romance ended. When they reconnected twenty years later, I acutely felt Kat’s struggle to choose between the man who loved her more than he loved himself, and the man who gave her a child to cherish forever.
I was also shocked to learn how far she’d go in the name of love. But whose love?
If you’re like me, you’ll be thinking about this passionate story long after the last page.
(I’d like to thank the author, and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an advance copy for reading and review.)
