The Witch of Painted Sorrows, MJ Rose

Sandrine Salome leaves 19^th Century New York, fleeing both her sterile marriage and her grief over her father’s death. Arriving in Paris she is drawn to the opulent home, Maison de la Lune, where her father grew up and where her grandmother, a famed courtesan, still holds court. She finds the house shuttered, her grandmother claims that the place needs extensive restoration and Sandrine believes her, at first.

Going by her maiden name Sandrine Verlaine she becomes enchanted by Paris and her rekindled desire to paint coupled with her exploration of all that is sensuous and passionate opens a passage to the past, to the original owner, La Lune. Parts of the house that have been closed off for centuries open for Sandrine and the young architect who will become her lover.

Her grandmother refuses to discuss family history with Sandrine, saying love destroys the women of the Verlaine line because it lets ‘her’ in but the arrival of Sandrine’s husband, convinced she has evidence that could bring him down causes Sandrine to unleash powerful forces that could lead to her destruction.