After seeing recommendations for The Memory Painter on Twitter, I picked it up and found it difficult to put down!  This is the first novel of Gwendolyn Womack and I am looking forward to reading what she is currently working on.  It is an engaging story of love, mystery, intrigue and history.

Bryan is successful artist who is painting the history of people that he ‘remembers’ during his vivid ‘dreams’.  He has a ‘chance’ meeting with Linz in a museum and they have an immediate and unusual connection.  Linz ends up attending a gallery debut of Bryan’s work and is startled to see one painting which depicts an ongoing and disturbing dream that she has experienced since childhood.

Their lives become entwined as Bryan struggles to come to terms with his ‘memories’ and Linz learns more about her dream and about her father’s past history with a drug invented to improve the memories of Alzheimer’s patients.  Linz, a scientist herself, investigates her father’s past, learns about this drug which was buried and finds herself linked with Bryan as they struggle to understand themselves and the past lives that they dream about.  The settings range from Boston to Newfoundland and even Egypt as they investigate their ‘memories’.

This exciting story is difficult to put down and certainly keeps the reader engaged as the couple learn more about their ‘memories’ and their histories.  It is a unique read that keeps the reader thinking about possibilities, reincarnation, the capacity of the human brain and everlasting love. I hope that the next book continues to lives of these two characters as I am curious as to what happens next…