Starry nights by Daisy Whitney

Bloomsbury, 2014. ISBN 9781619634367
(Age: 12+) Recommended. Julien loves spending his free time at the art museum, looking intently at all of the art pieces created by the great impressionists. However one night a peach falls out of a Cezanne and Degas Ballerinas dance and rolls across the floor. Julien knows that he is not hallucinating. The art works in the museum are reacting to a curse placed upon them; this same curse trapped a beautiful young muse, who goes by the name of Clio. She has been kept in a painting for over a century in a private home and she has not seen anyone in that century until she is moved to the museum. Julien begins to fall in love with her and soon realises that he is the only one who has the power to free her from the curse. Although soon after he realises he has this ability, the other paintings in the museum begin to bleed and are disappearing forever. Julien must save Clio before her painting too, is lost forever.
Starry Nights is set in modern day Paris, and centres around a teenage boy, Julien, who is an artist whose talent is only limited to certain things. He loves all forms of art including music, paintings and also sculptures using different kinds of mediums. His mother runs a Parisian art gallery, where he conducts tours of the gallery for people visiting. This gallery is also the place where he first notices the paintings coming alive and where he first meets the lovely Clio.
The main themes that were present throughout the book were romance, mystery, and fantasy. The novel was written in first person, and from the point of view of Julien. I enjoyed that Daisy Whitney wrote this novel in first person, but from the perspective of Julien. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys art, mystery or fantasy.
Emily Madden