Relief

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 180 pages
• Published by: Regal Crest Enterprises, LLC; First edition April 1, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1932300988
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1932300987
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 8.8 ounces

Product Description
Set in 1912, Relief follows young widow Katie Larkin as she escapes a troubled past in Boston and pursues a career as a painter in Venice. When she meets the enigmatic ballet-girl Rusala at La Fenice theater, she is instantly infatuated. Rusala introduces Katie to the bohemian underworld of Venice, the world of futurists, muses, and poets. The two women dream of achieving artistic success, of earning enough money to live together, independent of patrons.

Though Katie's painting garners accolades, she and Rusala are never sure of their future. Relentless poverty--and the ghosts of their pasts--threaten to pull them apart. Katie finally takes a desperate step, one that will either ensure the lovers' freedom--or ruin them.

Only then does she discover Rusala's secret, a secret that has been before her eyes all along.

In her debut novel, L.E. Butler draws upon her own background as a ballet dancer, her travels in Venice and Istria, and a decade of research on the era. Relief submerges the reader in a world of beauty and deception, offering an erotic love story and a mystery with a shocking twist.

Reader Reviews
Katie Larken is escaping from her past in Boston. After eduring a murder-suicide in the family and a stay in a mental hospital, she is a slave to the drugs that help her to cope with her life, except that she isn't coping very well. She thinks that Venice, Italy, will give her a chance to start over and live off of her painting. Venice in 1912 is a center of bohemian art and radical politics and, at first, Katie, is totally lost. When she meets Rusala, a Russian ballet dancer, she is drawn into a world of artists, poets, and various ex-patriots. The women dream of making a life from their art and escaping to where they will be comfortable to be together without anyone telling what to do. Katie paints, Rusala dances and they plan while being surrounded by a unique group of friends. Katie still has serious lessons to learn about the undependable characters of friends and the betrayal of love. Everything revolves around a secret Rusula is keeping that can destroy all that they hope for. Relief is a different type of book. The setting of the book is very lush and the life of turn of the century Venice provides a unique atmosphere; however, the characters are difficult to relate to and are more interesting than likeable. The relationship between the women doesn't seem to click or generate any real emotion and their friends are as shallow as they are portrayed. The description on the back of the book promises an erotic love story and a mystery. Some readers will say that is misleading. Readers who have been asking for books that depart from the typical formula should find this one fits the bill. This story doesn't promise happily ever after or that love is eternal. It also shows that lesbians can be as deceptive and manipulative in a relationship as heterosexuals. That alone makes this a different story. It's difficult to know if a reader is going to like this book or not. The reader is most likely to finish this book with a "Huh!" rather than a feeling of completion. If the reader is looking for a tale that is about a place and time and the peculiar people who inhabited it, then this book is worth trying. If it's a standard romance that is sought, keep looking.