Albanese artfully weaves Adele's story with Maria's harrowing life under the Nazis, and reflections on marriage and fidelity. But it's hard to read Stolen Beauty without seeing ugly echoes in today's headlines, with the clarion call of 'America first' and immigrants singled out as 'the problem.' Seven decades after World War II, have we learned nothing?"
- USA Today
"This sensual and mesmerizing novel brings to vivid life Gustav Klimt and his greatest muse and model, Adele Bloch-Bauer. For fans of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Paula McLain's Circling the Sun, Stolen Beauty is a must-read. I tore through the pages."
- Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train
"Albanese has written a gripping historical novel that revolves around the lives of two extraordinary women who live in extraordinary times... The well-paced stories of both women, told in alternating chapters, are presented in clear, crisp language, beautifully described settings, and credible dialogue that moves each woman's story forward, compelling readers to keep the pages turning, as do the historical elements of the novel...With all the elements of a good novel-love, sex, tense relationships, events spiraling out of control, family dynamics, personal conflict as well as war-coupled with real people and true history, this accessible novel of strong women, self-discovery, evolving social mores, artistic challenges, and a rapidly changing world makes for satisfying reading, whether one's interest is primarily women, history, art, or life in one of Europe's most beautiful cities in the time of Freud and free love."
- New York Journal of Books
"Readers will be swept away by the depth of feeling and sensuous writing; whether depicting the salons of Vienna or its slums, the ballroom dances of debutantes or the takeover of a textile factory by German troops, Klimt fervently sketching, or the relaxed atmosphere of a coffee house, Albanese's prose brings the people and the times to life. This novel is a bonanza of information about art history, philosophy, feminism, war, and love."
- Historical Novel Society, Editor's Pick
"With her opening sentence, Albanese draws readers into a world of glamour, art, intrigue, power and fear...In this complex yet utterly readable novel, historical characters are brought to life against the setting of a city on the verge of artistic greatness and societal collapse. Albanese treats thorny moral issues with clarity and depth. Fans of Philippa Gregory, Tracy Chevalier, and those who enjoyed the film Woman in Gold won't be able to put it down."
- Library Journal, starred review
"Laurie Lico Albanese has given us a powerful and important tale of love and war, art and family. Filled with lush prose and vivid historical detail, Stolen Beauty is a work simultaneously intimate and sweeping in its scope. I was transported; I loved being swept up into the glorious, golden era of fin de siecle Vienna."
- Allison Pataki, New York Times Bestselling Author of SISI: EMPRESS ON HER OWN
"With Stolen Beauty Laurie Lico Albanese has effected a perfect marriage between the Vienna of the early years of the 20th century and the Vienna of the Anschluss and the Nazi Occupation. This is particularly remarkable because the mood and tone of the alternating chapters are so different. One wants to dwell or linger on the rich pleasures of the earlier period; one is held in frozen horror by the author's realization of Nazi brutality...Ms. Albanese understands and powerfully shows how people can be comfortably blind to the realities of others' resentment and hatred...you cannot read this book without being made aware of the recurring, perhaps never wholly absent, corrupting power of greed, envy and hatred, a deforming hatred which allows us to see others as objects, not people. Stolen Beauty is a work of art itself--one that is simultaneously alarming and comforting."
- Wall Street Journal
"Stolen Beauty is painfully topical, reminding us in excruciating detail what happens when prejudice wins... an irresistible story, we're taken from the refined worlds of classical music, exquisite gowns and sumptuously appointed homes to the hate-fueled politics that ravaged Austria ... Too often when books alternate between different characters and different times the result is jarring and tiresome. Though each woman is nuanced enough to support an independent novel, the intertwining makes for a stronger, more compelling story."
- NJ Star Ledger
"Satisfying...Fans of romantic suspense with an art historical bent will appreciate the vigor of Albanese's reimagining of the family saga behind the masterpiece long regarded as Vienna's Mona Lisa."
- Kirkus Reviews
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