The story of Marthe de Florian is fascinating and certainly made me run to do some research about the apartment and Boldini, Marthe's lover. The author has clearly done her research about the history of the period and portrays the sumptuous elegance and extravaganza of Marthe's world convincingly. I was also introduced to the wonderful paintings of Boldini, with the lavish swish of the fabulous fabrics and the stylish people of his portraits.
It was also interesting to read about the world of top end auctions through the story of April Voigt. However, I found her an irritating, rather superficial person and it was difficult to care much about her dilemma with her failing marriage, especially as Troy was such a one dimensional character.
I wish the author had done as much research about modern day France and spoken French. I found the errors in the snippets of French distracting. For example, the solicitor, Luc, who is French would surely not use a masculine adjective when asking April if she is ready. Similarly, the term for having a drink was wrongly translated by April who was supposed to be fluent in French. Surely a good proofreader would pick up these mistakes.