I picked up this book because I love art and was honestly still stuck in my love for Claire Obscure Expedition 33, and that book screamed at me that it could fill a void. Well, in the end, I had to force myself to finish it. The leads lacked chemistry. The progression of the relationship is a little too fast for me. Coupled with the fact that the story didn't really flow naturally, it made for a very forceful read. Claire's POV didn't really do much for the story most times except drag along the points that drove me nuts anyway. And it made us hear the twist before Jean, so that we have to hear it again when she tells him. The stakes were a little too low, almost the entire book, until the end. For a book that wants to tell a story about a woman who can step into paintings, we spend little time with the actual art. It felt less of an important detail and more a reason for a scene change. My biggest pet peeve was the scene jumps in the middle of a paragraph. Especially in Claire's POV. She would start speaking about one thing and suddenly about something in the past and go right back to the present in the same block of text. SPOILERS: Maybe I forgot between one part or another, but introduction a daughter in the middle of the book while she had no role before feels like a bad decision. I had the thought that she's just there to tether Claire into the real world and make her want to stay. Same with the "ex partner coming back" plot line. It did absolutely lead nowhere and just padded the book with a tiny bit of hope that got squashed pretty fast. The journal felt out of place and kind of forced just to have something at the end. When Claire stole it after the robbery, I had to close the book and take a deep breath. Not even the reasoning could get me to like this whole thing. The whole separation because of Covid felt more like padding and to make it more dramatic. I read another book with Covid as a secondary setting, and that one worked way better.