Historical fiction at it's best. Whitney Scharer's debut novel is beautifully written. The novel immerses us into Paris life during the 1930s. It introduces us to Lee Miller, a model, photographer, journalist, and war correspondent. As all good historical fiction novels should do - I found myself googling Lee Miller to learn more about her. She was a strong and amazing woman. Miller, I believe, never saw herself as a strong and accomplished person but I see her as one. She moved from America to Paris with little to no money with a dream to get out from in front of the camera to become the one behind it - to produce her own photographic art. She had an abusive childhood but she pursued avenues to make her dreams come true during a time when women weren't encouraged by society to accomplish things on their own.
In Paris, she meets Man Ray, the famous photographer, and lobbies to work for him. She gets the job and learns much about photography from him. Their relationship becomes intimate. Her life was quite the adventure - from her creative endeavors to her time as a war correspondent. She excelled as an accomplished chef toward the end of her life. She had her demons and turned to alcohol during her time as war correspondent and toward the end of her life which was a shame because she had such potential to accomplish even more. She lived before her time - when society did not admire women for what they could accomplish.
This novel made me think about our lives. If we weren't so busy living and could step out of our day to day to see the whole picture of what we are accomplishing - we just might be happier. Step back every now and then and look at the good things in your life - you just might be amazed - as I was with the life of Lee Miller!

Age of Light is geared toward readers who enjoy coming of age stories about personal growth. Lee is a character who is very unlikable; she is materialistic, vain, confident, and beautiful, as she likes to remind you throughout the novel. She looks down on others and believes she is more beautiful than the majority of females throughout the novel. I would say readers who enjoyed reading The Bell Jar would most likely enjoy the storytelling in this book, unfortunately, I did not enjoy either.

The story has three different timelines. The past where Lee moves to Paris due to be tired of modeling and wanting to find her own pathway. The present where she is an old woman with an alcohol problem and struggles to write/take photos. The mid-way point where she is smack dab in the middle of the war where she captures what is happening with her camera. The majority of the time period is her account of her relationship with the famous photographer, Man Ray, and her development of her photography skills. Although this novel takes place in the early 1900’s I struggled with the “historical fiction” aspect since the history was brief. Since the time line switches throughout the novel, I expected more of a plot or story, but everything felt extremely disjointed. The author fails to answer the first timeline of Lee as an older woman and why she is the way she is: What happened? Why does she drink to excess? The timeline where she is in the midst of a war is captivating, but extremely rare. In addition, you do not know how she even became involved in becoming a photographer for the war and writing stories.

Lee is an independent woman who does not always makes the right choices or knows what she wants in life.
She is a free spirit who does not want to be tied down yet loves fiercely in the moment. The characters were vividly described, and I could see every aspect of them, their looks, their personalities, their best/worst qualities. However, the plot was disjointed and lacking terribly. The timelines were sporadic and did not align with each other. I was intrigued at first, but the main timeline had me struggling to continue. This novel would interest a certain audience, but unfortunately it was not me.

I received an advanced reader's copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the writing in this book - it was evocative of a time and place, with lots of descriptions of food and art and clothing. I enjoy those sorts of details. I also appreciated that this was not a historical fiction where the author throws all their research in your face, though the name-dropping did get a bit much sometimes. Overall, you can tell that Scharer did a lot of research about Lee Miller, and this book made me want to know more. I'd say with any historical fiction, if you've made me want to know more, it was successful.

My one issue was the description of the book didn't quite match what we got. I expected there to be more psychological exploration of the relationship between Lee and Man, but it was more... sensual, and the emotions were mostly limited to love and passion, rather than the darker aspects. Which I expected to see more, especially later. Lee's conflict when Man tells her she can only do the film with Cocteau if she promises to be with him forever would have been a good place to insert that more contemplative character exploration.

{My Thoughts}
What Worked For Me
The Novel’s Structure – I really liked the way debut author Whitney Scharer chose to set up her book. It begins with a prologue set in 1969. In it we see Lee Miller long past her glory days as a Vogue model and a WWII photographer/correspondent. She’s a mess and I immediately wanted to know more. From there the story shifted to 1929 when Miller fled to Paris, abandoning her modeling career and wanting to do something with photography. We see her love for the art and her drive to learn to be better at it. Most of the book spans just the couple of years she worked intensely with Man Ray, first as his assistant, then his muse, eventually his lover, and finally an artist in her own right. The Miller/Ray story in itself was fascinating, but interspersed with it were very short chapters from Miller’s years as a WWII photographer. These were brilliant and gave you just a hint of the trajectory that drove her life to where it was in the prologue.

A Woman in Evolution – I’ve read other stories about Lee Miller and have always admired all she managed to accomplish in her own era. For a beautiful woman to move from in front of the camera to behind it and travel across bloody battlefields was truly a feat. Scharer did a wonderful job highlighting that. Yes, The Age of Light is historical fiction, but it felt like Miller’s true story and her actual feelings, which is exactly what I want in good historical fiction.

“She thinks of telling Man about her picture: the woman’s mouth rounded into a perfect O, her emotions as visible as her flesh. But it is not Man she wants to tell. She wants to tell herself, so she plays it back in her mind, reliving again and again the feeling of power she got when she released the shutter at the exact right moment.”

A Love Story/Not a Love Story – The main focus of this debut is definitely the relationship between Lee Miller and Man Ray. Their’s might be described as a typical artist/muse relationship if The Age of Light wasn’t written from Miller’s perspective. The evolution of their love proceeded exactly as one might expect, until it didn’t any longer. Miller was a complicated woman with an even more complicated past and she wanted more then to be the woman behind a famous man. That fact made her story so much more interesting.

An Epilogue That Works! – As many of you know, I’m not generally a fan of epilogues. I feel like they too often put an unnecessary neat and tidy bow on a story, but in The Age of Light the epilogue worked. Miller’s story had to have some sort of resolution, the circle of her life had to be completed and that’s exactly what Scharer did with the end of her book. I loved it!

What Didn’t
Slower Middle – For me there were a few chapters toward the middle of the book where it sort of lost its momentum. These chapters were important to the growth of Miller, but they might have been a little more succinct. Overall, they slowed the book just a bit.

{The Final Assessment}
You will RARELY hear me say anything like this, but The Age of Light left me wanting a sequel. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Miller during her first few years in Paris, but the hints of what she accomplished later in her career and especially of her years as a war correspondent left me hungering for more. I want to know more about what she did in the years between the early 30’s and the start of WWII and I especially want to travel with her in the harsh years of that war.

“If they knew – they had to know – there is no way they didn’t know –

If she – the smell. She will write of it to Audrey.

One by one the members of the press corps leave. Lee stays. She must bear witness. The film canisters fill her pockets, grenades to send out for publication.”

If that follow up ever comes along, I’ll be first in line to grab it! Grade: A

Note: I received a copy of this book from the Little, Brown and Company in exchange for my honest review. Thank you!

Is The Age of Light worth a million bucks? If you follow the book business, it’s a question you’ll be asking yourself the minute you pick up author Whitney Scharer’s debut novel, which Little, Brown and Co. bought for more than $1 million after a bidding war with other publishers.

I mention this from the get-go because the debut literary fiction author with the $1 million-plus deal has become such a Thing (big promotions, big buzz come with big book deals) that, as a reviewer, you know your review copy is one of these novels before you begin reading. Does it color the critique? How could it not? The ideal we strive for is objective reading; the reality is that I’ll start the new Colson Whitehead book with different expectations than the latest James Patterson. Let’s pause to acknowledge the humanness of both reviewers and authors, then move forward, because The Age of Light is a dazzler of a debut that deserves the buzz.

The Age of Light is a historical novel that follows photographer Lee Miller through her Paris years, starting in the late 1920s, with flashes forward to her years as a war correspondent during World War II in the ’40s. Despite an interest in photography’s golden age, I’d never heard of Miller. To this day, her work is widely overshadowed by her mentor and lover, Man Ray. Perhaps Scharer’s novel will change that.

Scharer follows history’s lead in cutting Lee as a complex figure. At the book’s open, she’s hosting a dinner party for her editor at Vogue. It’s a meeting she’s dreading, because she knows she’s lacking stories, so she’s hiding in the kitchen, nursing a bottle of booze and trying not to succumb to panic attacks. Lee is opaque at first, both here and in the opening chapters in Paris. Why did she really leave her successful modeling career in New York? Her excuse—that she’d rather be the one taking the pictures—is lacking, too simplistic, but there’s a nagging sense that all is not well in her past. Don’t worry. Scharer is getting there. Despite the steamy sex scenes and the speed of events unfolding in The Age of Light, the unravelling of Lee’s character itself is a slow burn. But this is the fire that kept me reading late at night, when I should’ve turned off the light.

When Lee meets Man Ray (in an opium den! So 1920s Paris), he gives her his card. She shows up at his gallery and insists on becoming his apprentice, even though he tells her he’s given up mentoring photographers. She works as his assistant, using her modeling experience to make herself useful in the studio when people come in for shoots. But Lee’s true desire is to be behind the camera herself, and when she develops a roll of film wrong but pulls interesting images out of it, Lee and Man develop a technique for it, called solarization, together, she begins to come into her own as an artist, not just the artist’s assistant and lover.

As Lee the character grows in her art, she encounters the same problems that surely plagued the real Lee Miller and other female artists: Fellow artists and benefactors view her as Man Ray’s girl, if they regard her at all, and she’s denied entry to the spaces where her work could gain recognition, including the journal Man himself started. As the apprentice begins to outgrow her apprenticeship, Lee begins to strain at these constraints, and it becomes clear that untangling the romantic relationship from the work relationship will be a messy business.

As the relationship grows more complex, aided by some rather shocking events initiated by Lee herself, this portrait of a woman experimenting, sometimes wildly and disastrously, as she comes of age seems due for a reckoning. (That’s not a spoiler. We know from the start that Lee doesn’t end up with Man.) But for all the complexities of the affair, Scharer gives them a gift of a plot point: one singular infraction that makes their split black and white. There’s plenty of drama leading to it, yes, but the ending is an awfully neat and tidy way to force the issue.

But that’s a small gripe for an entertaining, absorbing look into the mind of an artist who is a fascinating figure history has overlooked. Hopefully The Age of Light will bring about a resurgence of interest in Lee Miller’s work. And it should create an interest in seeing more of Whitney Scharer’s insightful, engaging work, no matter the price tag on the advance for her next novel.

This book was captivating and beautifully written. I felt like I was there in Paris along side the characters. This book will appeal to fans of historical fiction and romance, and anyone who wants to be swept away by a great story.

The Age of Light is a beautifully written intimate portrayal of a woman’s journey to find herself in the glamorous 1920’s Paris art scene. This story feels modern and relevant as it’s heroine fights for her place as a respected artist in a man’s world. This book is both compelling and heartbreaking and I couldn’t put it down.
Thank you Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing that really pulled me in about The Age of Light is the cover. It’s gorgeous. For me, it really nailed all the glamour and lackadaisical excess of being somebody in the 1930’s. It screams Great Gatsby and evokes thoughts of a golden, dreamlike time.

Lee Miller, who I actually had no idea was a real person until after I finished the book (oops), is a former model and feminist of her times. She isn’t content just being the most beautiful woman in the room. She doesn’t want to just be in front of the camera, she wants to be behind it.

Lee is the perfect heroine. The girl who you want to hate because she is talented and beautiful, but it’s hard because she’s so gosh darn ambitious and relatable. Granted, I have no idea if this is how she was in real. But in Scharer’s imagined world for her, she’s a gem.

When she meets Man Ray, a surrealist photographer, and realizes who he is , she works her magic. First securing a spot as his assistant, later as his lover. And even as he seems to respect her and treat her as a partner, we see that equality has a long way to go in 1930’s Paris.

The book dazzles. Scharer paints such a gorgeous picture of their lives and surroundings that I felt transported to Paris myself. This was what really appealed to me about the book. The settings, the attention to detail that the author went to as she brought the reader truly into the story.

I would have liked to see more. More of what Lee had done in the time between her brief but life-changing affair with Man Ray and old age. But that wasn’t this book. And maybe, when fictionalizing true people, it’s easier to focus on one bright moment in time.

I would definitely recommend this book to those who love biographies and historical fiction. Special thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown and Company for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my review.

I had to put this one in the dnf pile. I couldn't connect with the characters and was having a hard time staying in the story.

Lots of buzz surrounds The Age of Light, a fictionalization of the life of model and photographer Lee Miller which focuses squarely on her time in Paris with Man Ray in the 1920s. For such outsize historical figures living in one of the most written about eras in history, there was a lot to live up to with The Age of Light and whether or not it delivers depends a lot on what you're looking for. As a lighter beach read type novel with a heavy dose of kink, it's entertaining and the story moves pretty quickly. But what the book really left me wanting was a deeper look at Lee Miller's life. The frame story, which hypothesizes on Lee's life at the end of her career, doesn't get much resolution, a few pages at most. And the interspersed fragments of Lee's time as a WWII photographer did not do a modicum of justice to the subject matter they covered. The clear focus here is on the Man Ray years, for better or worse. It was very interesting to read about different photographs and be able to look them up to see the real art work being written about. There is also a lot of prestigious bit characters, from Gertrude Stein to Hemingway to to Jean Cocteau. You could google nearly any character mentioned and find an illustrious artistic career. It was engaging to imagine with Scharer how all these personalities coexisted in the same scene. But, overall it wasn't enough and the book fell a bit flat for me. I wanted more.

Setting: Paris' artistic era. The author, Whitney Scharer, used detailed descriptions to paint pictures in the reader's mind and tell her story. While it was an enjoyable read, there were times when it seemed to bog down and I would find myself having to go back and reread parts that I had not connected with. It is not a book that will linger in my mind for long.

The Age of Light is the story of Lee Miller. A Vogue model turned photographer. Lee went to Paris to work with Man Ray and learn the art of photography. It's the 20s in Paris, so imagine the vice and decadent lifestyles. Lee and Ray had a love affair. But, he was obsessed with her beauty. She didn't want to be viewed as a beautiful toy for any man. Their relationship suffered and eventually ended once her talent in photography eclipsed his. The student becomes the teacher. Miller went on to take stunning photos of WWII. This is a fascinating story about a remarkable woman. Definitely recommend if you have any interest in the subject. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

We discussed this book and recommended it as a favorite in Episode 157 of What Should I Read Next: https://modernmrsdarcy.com/157-episode/

As a big fan of stories about the artists and writers in Paris the first part of the 20th century, and a former English major specializing in 20th century American lit, I was a fan of Whitney’ Scharer’s “The Age of Light” as soon as I read the description.

I’d recommend this book to my own book club, to fans of stories set in the early 20th century, to Francopiles, and to any reader who likes a good woman-coming-into-her-own tale. And if you like Paula McClain’s fiction, chances are you’ll be hooked by Scharer’s tale as well.

The story is based on Vogue model-turned photographer Lee Miller and her passionate relationship with Man Ray, who becomes both her mentor and lover. I’d never heard of Miller before this book, and was totally engaged by this fictional telling of her time in Paris during the 1930s, where she parties with the local crowd, learns photography and develops interesting new exposure techniques, acts in a Jean Cocteau film, and later serves as a war correspondent who photographs and writes about Europe during WWII.

Told in a flashback, the descriptions are beautiful and the narrative is lively, engaging and sultry all at once. The publisher sums up the character Lee Miller really well: she’s “a brilliant and pioneering artist-[who comes] out of the shadows of a man's legacy and into the light.”

It’s also worth noting, that, while it fits into the narrative, there is some reference to child sexual abuse by a family friend/uncle, as well as seemingly inappropriate photography sessions by Miller’s father when she is young.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Feb 5, 2019

As an amateur photographer and someone who loves photography as art, I was thrilled to get an advance copy of this book about Lee Miller and Man Ray. It took me back to the days when photography was as much about developing a picture as taking it. The book shines when the descriptions turn to the art of photography, especially when Lee is framing a shot or Man is teaching her how to develop for maximum effect or they come up with a new technique. When she is determining how to take a shot, I could totally envision it. What I didn’t enjoy it was when it lingered for pages on the romance and sex.

I liked that the book alternates between Lee in Paris with Man Ray and her time as a war correspondent in London and France during WWII.

I am not a fan of romance novels and I tend to get irritated at books that purport to be historical fiction when they’re really more romance novels. So parts of this book definitely irritated me and I skimmed over those sections.

In the end, I had trouble relating to Lee. The author needed to do a better job of explaining her. For those who enjoy Paula McLain, this book will probably be enjoyable as the writing styles are definitely similar. In case you can’t tell, I’m not a big an of McLain.

My thanks to netgalley and Little, Brown for an advance copy of this novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free review copy of this book.

The Age of Light is about American model and photographer Lee Miller, and her romance with famous surrealist Man Ray in late 1920's Paris. It is based on the true story, and is formatted as flashbacks. The story starts with a middle-aged Lee being asked to write about her time in Paris, and the rest of the book jumps between that romance and Lee's time as a photojournalist during WWII.

It actually took me a few chapters to realize that this was a true story! I knew of Man Ray, but not Lee Miller, and once I looked into her story I was amazed. She led a truly fascinating life. If nothing else, I'm grateful to this book for introducing me to this piece of history. I loved the setting of the art scene in 1920's Paris, which is full of parties, glamour and famous names. I enjoyed the conversations about art and inspiration, as well as the technical photography information. The characters were honestly not super likeable, which was interesting and perhaps more genuine. I did find the timeline of the book a little jarring and disconnected. The war parts were important, but I think maybe the two storylines could have been woven together better.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It definitely made me want to find out more about Lee Miller and that time in history. I would recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction, especially historical romance!

This debut novel details the coming of age story of Lee Miller, a former Vogue model who moves to Paris. Lee wants to get away from modeling and into a profession behind the camera. Her goal is to meet and learn from the famous surrealist Man Ray.

Lee eventually attains her goal of working for Man Ray and evolves into a photojournalist who finally photographed WWII. In the process of her creative growth, she experienced an intense love affair with Ray. This novel illustrates the bohemian life of the Paris in the twenties and thirties. The sexual promiscuity in the community. And how men, supposedly brilliant men, exploited talented women to further their careers.

This novel serves to illustrate that even a strong feminist such as Lee Miller could not escape the claustrophobia of men admiring her beauty, not her talent.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

'Or Lee could tell the real story: the one where she loved a man and he loved her, but in the end they took everything from each other- who can say who was more destroyed.'

Man Ray was an American visual artist who spent much of his career in Paris, France and was a part of the Dada and Surrealist movement but this is about his love affair with Lee Miller. Lee Miller was an American who began as a fashion model in the 1920’s, her passion was photography leading her to become a serious photojournalist in her own right for Vogue during World War II. Certainly photographing horrific carnage, Nazi horrors is a far cry from her days of posing nude, her wild nights of partying and lovemaking while she was working in Paris as Man Ray’s assistant and lover. Being a man’s muse wasn’t ever going to be enough for Lee, whose beauty betrayed a talent that could rival the men she worked for. Man was seventeen years Lee Miller’s senior, photographed her obsessively, hungered to understand her beyond her flawless, ‘ideal’ beauty. Her beauty was overwhelming, blinding, a thing most people cannot look past. One must imagine she was a fascinating woman, Man Ray photographed some of the most famous people of our time and yet couldn’t get enough of Lee. Their love blazed for years, and in that time both betrayed each other in love, and in career (Man failing to credit her in famous work).

Their love seems to move in phases, sometimes he seems like her father, sometimes like her child, at other times an erotic lover hungry for all sorts of playful exploration involving pushing at the edge of each other’s boundaries. Speaking of fathers, ruminating about the relationship between Lee Miller and her own father Theodore, one can understand where the rumors of possible sexual abuse by him was born. It’s no secret she was sexually abused (raped) when she was only 7 years old while in the care of a family friend, contracting gonorrhea, a downright horrific disease for a child to suffer but that nude photos followed that event, that her own father snapped of her “as art”, can’t help but leave one feeling disturbed. There relationship was strange, he seemed at times more a lover than a father, which comes into play in the novel when Man finally meets him. Her beauty and body didn’t belong to her in the early years, it’s hard to understand how free and open she was about nudity and sexuality after such a traumatic violation. Maybe being raised as her father’s model made her body become an instrument for her? We are the sum total of our experiences, whether we like it or not, we can let the horrible trauma we suffer be our ruin or we can decide to own our destiny. She had some serious grit! This wasn’t a woman who was going to cower in the presence of any Master.

Man Ray’s own sexuality was a curious thing for the times, rumors swirled about him, naturally he used his love of Miller as a shield. Certainly that didn’t endear him to her, nor the ways he tried to control and manage her. She was a young woman, not quite resigned to a life of staying in and playing at the ‘happy couple’ he wanted to be, she hungered for experiences that would fuel her artist’s mind. There is a line in the novel, “Their gaze made her into someone she didn’t want to be”, and Man was guilty of molding her into some ideal too. There was always a distance within her, she loves him and questions that love, sometimes you can feel a hesitation in giving all of herself to him. She has made this happen, she was the master of her own ship, famously telling him she was to be his student, mind you he wasn’t taking any students.She wasn’t a woman who waited for things to happen, she pursued her desires whether it was for flesh or photographs. Such ambition and commitment is difficult for any of us, but for a woman in the 1930’s, wildly admirable. She needed open love, needed to fall into bed with whom she pleased, separating love from sex when it came to different people. Not such an anomaly really, plenty of people are into open love, and her youth and beauty certainly provided her a smorgasbord of opportunity and temptation, is just doesn’t bode well in a relationship with a man who wants promises. Man was possessive and jealous, he began to need her and desperation is never attractive to the young. She has her warning early in the relationship upon meeting another of his muses, a former lover Kiki (sultry performer and dancer) who causes a jealous scene. Man tells her his former relationship was simmering in jealousies.

As with any love, the cracks begin to appear. Lee’s fresh ideas are in contrast to Man’s own lack thereof, then comes their perfecting a technique called solarization, based on her discovery, but it is the bell jar photo series that is at the heart of their relationship’s decline. Masters can’t let their students eclipse them completely, right? It’s his studio, his name… Throughout the novel he wants to possess and consume her, crack her skull open, know all her secrets and dissect her because he never seems to reach the center. Man becomes a vulnerable mess, a beggar, desperate that she never leaves him. He loves her, they have fierce passion for each other, but sometimes love that starts as a fire can fizzle out, and all that’s left is ash, smoke.

The story flows between the past and the future where Lee Miller is working as a photojournalist for Vogue, where some of her most famous, shocking work was produced, during the Second World War. The woman she became seems nothing like the beautiful muse of the past, but she was always there inside, waiting to break free. Then she reinvented herself into a wife, Lady Penrose. The attic becomes the keeper of her past. What a hell of a story! I am going to read her son’s (Antony Penrose) memoir about his ‘unconventional’ mother, The Lives of Lee Miller.

This book has quite a bit of sexuality, of course it does, this is Paris in the 1930’s following a Bohemian set. It’s all sex, art, and libération! Much of Man Ray and Lee Miller’s relationship was about their sexual need for each other as much as their creative life together, it is said Man couldn’t get enough of her. This really is a brilliant book!

Publication Date: February 5, 2019

Little, Brown and Company

It is hard to believe that this is a debut author; the raw writing talent is impressive. On the surface it is historical fiction, based on the life of photographer Lee Miller and her relationship with artist Man Ray. Yet it is much much more, painting a portrait of Lee herself. Raw, dark, sensual, tortured, brilliant, perceptive, lost, self-absorbed, weak, strong, creative - these words all describe this complex woman. Lee lives her youth in a magical time and place; Paris in the twenties and thirties was a bastion of creativity, of exploration of art, a time of experimentation, rebellion, and savage selfishness. Scharer also sparingly uses Miller's years as a war photographer to juxtapose the trauma of the Holocaust for all the witnesses. At times I wanted to shake Lee until her teeth rattled, hug her close to chase away the demons, take a shower to wash away the decadence of her life, or stand in awe at the art she created. Scharer is a prodigious new talent, a bit reminiscent of Donna Tartt (occasionally too wordy but always the master storyteller). I wonder what others will think of this book as it leaves one with many questions and so much on which to turn over and over in one's head? There is no perfectly wrapped bow to end Lee Miller's story, making this debut novel one helluva book to ponder and argue and endlessly discuss. It. Is. Brilliant.

First and foremost, I want to say thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This galley pique my interest as I love historical fiction, WWII, and a good love story, as well as a great setting- Paris, France.

Written in both a reflective past and present tense, Scharer introduces us to Lee Miller, a model turned photographer who studied under the great surrealist, Man Ray. Upon her introduction, Lee is serving a dinner for to some professional guests while downing a bottle of wine- and when the guests request she retell the story of her time spent with Man Ray, it's as if the reader is transported back to Paris in 1929.

Lee had just moved to Paris from Poughkeepsie, and happened to meet a handful of photographers while at a bar. They end up introducing her to Man, and from there, their attraction to each other can't be denied. Lee tells man that she would like to work for him, not as a model but as an assistant. Though he was hesitant, soon Man can see that Lee has a special talent behind the lens- even though she still manages to be in front of his camera a time or two. As the two become close, they give in to their attraction and form a handsome couple that many envy.

Lee enjoys the status of being with a man like Man. She is learning a lot from him, and blossoming as a photographer. He allows her to live luxuriously, they attend gatherings and parties, and they have a steamy relationship in the bedroom. However, as the "honeymoon" stage wanes, Lee starts to realize that Man is getting possessive, jealous, and increasingly needy as she receives more and more attention for her beauty and art. Soon, Lee is faced with advancing her own career at the cost of her relationship, or sacrificing success to keep the man she loves.

Scharer's debut novel is a beautifully intimate reflection of love, art, and loss. Set mostly in the 1930's, there is a historical nod to the creative masterminds of the decade (Picasso, Hemingway, etc.), but also a touch on what it meant to be a war correspondent photographer during WWII (ie. Margaret Bourke-White). Though the love story is the central focus, art and it's many outlets (photography, painting, and film) are heavily woven throughout the plot line. It's absolutely lovely, like walking through a gallery yourself, with a touch of Vogue-meets-Gatsby glamour. 

I absolutely enjoyed this read. It was refreshingly modern despite the historical context, and the character development is excellent. It's a very mature read, and the relationship between Man and Lee could definitely fall into a toxic-bordering on -abuse category, so please consider that before reading. Otherwise, I would certainly recommend The Age of Light for those who love a romance, historical fiction, or artistic read.

This review will be shared on my blog at www.thelexingtonbookie.com in January, 2019.