Blog Tour: Canvas Bound by Laura M. Kolar (review, excerpt, giveaway)

Canvas Bound (Captive Art #1)
written by Laura M. Kolar
published by Red Adept Publishing

find it here: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Why did I pick this book: I participated in the blog tour hosted by Red Adept Publishing. (I received a copy of this book for review purposes.)

Did I enjoy this book: I did enjoy Canvas Bound. I read it every free chance I had. 

I was interested in Canvas Bound from the get-go because it was something different for me. I haven’t read anything quite like this. The whole concept was unique and kept me reading. I liked the idea of paintings coming to life. I like reading about artists. This book just caught my attention and I wanted to see what it was about. Canvas Bound did not disappoint.

Libby is a sweet girl. She is kind of a recluse who only wants to paint and find her mystery boy again. What she learns while at art school is astounding. Her story caught me off guard quite a few times as well. Did I guess a major plot point? Yes, but there were so many twists and turns that I wasn’t sure if I was right or not. I kept reading to find out more. I kept reading to see what would happen. I couldn’t stop reading until I reached the end.

Libby didn’t have many friends. Her only true friend, Travis, was a great guy. I liked him from the beginning. He had a wonderful personalty and he seemed to genuinely care about Libby. Dean and Brent were great characters. I didn’t expect what either of them ended up as. They both surprised me.

I know I’m a bit vague in this review, but I don’t want to spoil anything. And any little details regarding parts I really enjoyed will spoil the book, in my opinion. So, let’s leave it at this: I enjoyed this book. I want to know what happens next. It was a good read.

Would I recommend it: I would recommend this book to any YA fan, especially one who is looking for a new concept.

Will I read it again: I will not but I will read the next book in the Captive Art series. I want—no, I need—to know what happens next.

About the book: Sixteen-year-old Libby Tanner’s art comes to life. Her painted skies turn from day to night, leaves rustle on trees, and sometimes, a mystery boy appears.

While attending England’s Aldridge Art Academy, Libby meets charming Brent Henderson, a performing arts student who showers her with attention. But his rival, gorgeous Dean James, is the one who occupies her mind, even though he’s very much attached to his current girlfriend.

Libby soon learns there’s more to both Brent and Dean than she ever imagined. In order to save her future and the boy who’s captured her heart, she must unlock the secrets behind her art by entering the most dangerous place of all… the world within her paintings.

But once she steps into the canvas, she risks being trapped forever.

CHAPTER ONE

I paced my studio floor as evening descended on the field in my painting. The sparse oak trees cast lengthening shadows on the acorn-littered ground, where the grass was more golden brown than green. The sunny sky became a star-filled night, and the field turned murky as the shadows faded into the black oblivion… just like my mystery boy.

He’d vanished.

Again.

So did the rush of him appearing in my finished work, my joy squelched by the expression on his face. Usually he wore a smile—a sad one, but still a smile. That night, he’d just looked miserable.

I stopped pacing and stared at the canvas, reaching out to the spot where I’d last seen him. Maybe if I could touch him or knew where he went when he disappeared, I wouldn’t feel so hollow from his absence.

An icy trail ran down my arm a moment before my fingers grazed the wet paint. I pulled away, checking to make sure I hadn’t smeared the field. It was the first time he’d appeared since I’d arrived at Aldridge, and I didn’t want to ruin whatever connection I had to him. My hands shook as I picked at my nails, which were coated in splatters of color from painting all day. A glimpse of him, sad or not, had been enough to keep me working, hoping to see him again. I’d picked my fingers mostly clean when a knock came from the door to the adjoining room.

Please go away.

The knock came again, more urgent.

If you’re here, he won’t come back.

He wouldn’t anyway, though. He never came to the same painting twice.

“Libby, if you don’t open this door, I’m going to break it down.” Travis sounded more concerned than angry.

I sighed heavily as I dragged myself across my studio and into my bedroom, kicking a path through my discarded clothes to open the door. “This is solid walnut and has a steel lock. You’d only hurt yourself trying to break it down.”

“Hmm… good point.” His eyebrows knitted as he gave me a once-over. “Did you forget, or are you wearing that to dinner?”

I glanced down at my paint-covered T-shirt and jeans. “This is what I always wear to dinner.”

“Right. Surprise, surprise. Olivia Tanner forgot.” He breezed past me, patting my shoulder on his way to my bathroom where my closet and dresser were located. “You’re lucky you have me as your social director,” he said, ducking behind the door.

He wasn’t joking. If not for Travis, I’d probably never leave my private suite. We’d met two weeks ago, on my first day at Aldridge Art Academy. He’d enrolled several months before me and was assigned as my student liaison, a job he took very seriously. We were both from the States and had clicked right away—probably because he was the only person I’d ever met who liked Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall movies as much as I did.

Travis emerged from my bathroom, holding up my red dress. “You’re also lucky you have me as a fashion consultant.”

I hadn’t been paying attention to what he was wearing, but as he stood waving the gossamer fabric between us, I noticed his white shirt, black coat, slacks, and tie. His usually tousled blond hair was combed neatly, and he wasn’t covered in bits of clay from sculpting all day.

“Oh, crap. I forgot.”

“Yep, we’ve established that.” He thrust the dress at me. “I know you’d rather stay locked in your room like an old maid and sniff paint fumes all night, but trust me, you do not want to miss this.”

I grabbed the dress and glared at him. “I don’t sniff the fumes. My studio is well ventilated. And if you’re telling me I don’t want to miss a fluffy dinner where a bunch of teenage girls ogle over a bunch of teenage boys, sorry. Not for me.”

“See, that is something an old maid would say, and you are a teenage girl.” He shook his finger at me. “Or did you lie about being sixteen?”

“No, I didn’t lie. I’m sixteen going on seventeen, not seventy.”

“Anyway…” He waved me off.. “I hear there’s a fresh batch of cute guys, and you haven’t met any of the performing arts students yet. Most of them are great people.”

“Most of them?” I put one hand on my hip, the other still clutching my dress.

“Well, I don’t know all of them. Yet.” He waggled his eyebrows. “But the point is, you have to come out of your studio, and this dinner is mandatory.”

Huffing at him, I flung the dress over my shoulder and stomped into the bathroom. After an impressively fast shower, I pulled my chestnut hair into a bun and fastened it with bobby pins, allowing a few curls to fall around my neck. I stepped into my dress, glad I’d shaved recently, and tugged at the hem. The style reminded me of the famous Marilyn Monroe image, the one with her skirt billowing up around her. Mine had the same plunging neckline and gathered waist.

I’d thought I brought a simple black dress, the one I always wore to gallery showings. But sometime after I’d packed my garment bag, my mom swapped it for this one, with a note that read, “Saw this and thought of you. For a girl who sees the world in such vivid colors, you should dress that way, too. Wish I could see you in it. You always look beautiful in red. Love, Mom.” I sucked in a deep breath, willing away my thoughts of home as I tugged at the hem again.

“You almost done?” Travis called from the other room. “We’re going to be late.”

“I still can’t believe they make us do this.” I applied some foundation, wishing I were painting a canvas instead of my face.

“You mean independent study and no one enforcing a ridiculous curfew isn’t enough freedom for you? Wait. Don’t answer that. If your parents had any idea how loose they actually are with the rules around here, they would yank you out so fast it would make my head spin. Oh, the scandal! Teenagers sneaking in and out of each other’s rooms under the cover of night. Anyway, think of it like an assembly, England’s Emily Aldridge Academy of Arts’ special brand of torture.”

I laughed at his horrible attempt at a British accent as he uttered our prep school’s original name. “I thought you said no cell phones and blocked social media sites were their own special brand of torture?”

“Yes, well, they want us to be free-spirited, just not over the Internet.” He sighed. “At least tonight is better than one of my parents’ stupid dinner parties. I have to pretend to be someone I’m not at those.”

“I’ll let you be whomever you want if you let me skip tonight.” I dabbed my lips with a tissue then picked up my jewelry from the counter. “I’m going to lose several hours of painting time, and I’ll probably be out of the mood when dinner is over.”

“Even you don’t believe that. You’re never out of the mood to paint. But sure, I’ll let you skip tonight. You can skip out the door, down the hall, and all the way to the dining room. Though if your goal is to not draw attention to yourself, I’d suggest walking.”

I didn’t respond as I fumbled with my necklace. The delicate silver chain held a single teardrop-shaped topaz, my birthstone. Eventually, I gave up trying to get it on and opened the bathroom door.

“Whoa!” His sky-blue eyes grew to the size of saucers.

I glanced down at myself. “Too much?”

He stood up from my desk chair and circled around me. “No, but I’m seriously questioning my sexuality right now.”

I rolled my eyes and dangled the necklace in front of him. “I need help with this.”

“I’m serious, Libby. You’re…” He took the chain and fastened the clasp with ease before his gaze wandered down to my plunging neckline.

“Eyes up here,” I said.

His lips spread in a wide Cheshire cat grin. “Sorry, even I can appreciate a nice rack.”

“Well, don’t get used to it.” I smoothed down my skirt.

“I won’t. But this”—he waved his hand at me—“is not the way to avoid attention.”

“That’s it.” I gritted my teeth, realizing my rack would soon be on display for the whole student body. “I’m chang—”

“Oh no, you don’t.” He grabbed my hand. “We’re late, and besides, in my opinion, not even your cleavage beats a well-defined six-pack on Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome.”

“You win.” I pulled my hand from his grasp. “Let’s go.” I slipped on my black heels and made my way to the door. “You coming?”

“Yep, just enjoying the view.” He shut the door to my suite behind us. “Committing it to memory actually. It may never happen again.”

I glanced over my shoulder, almost wishing I’d let him try to break down the door. I didn’t want him to get hurt, but I would’ve had more time to paint.

 

About the author: Laura M. Kolar lives with her husband and daughter in a one-stop-light town in northern-lower Michigan. Though she didn’t discover her love of books until she turned thirty, as a self-declared hopeless romantic, she has spent the past few years reading and writing stories with mostly happy endings.

If she’s not at her day-job or with her family, you will find her sipping a cup of chai latte while sitting in her favorite rocking chair, hunched over her laptop writing or spending entirely too much time on Twitter.

Find Ms. Kolar here: web, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Red Adept Publishing, Pinterest

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Happy reading wherever you are and whenever you get a free chance!!!