“The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”) is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community. We are a sister competition to both SPFBO and SPSFC, and we highlight greatness in the novella format in all areas of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).” – From the official SFINCS website.
Note: The following review contains only my personal thoughts as a judge and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole. No cuts or semi-finalists will be announced until Team Bookend Elves has read all of our books!
REVIEW
Katelyn Brehm’s The Art Collector is a short, sweet Gothic romance that hits all the notes Romance fans hunger for, and which includes a touch of erotica for those readers in want of steamier moments that aren’t too wild or too kinky.
The novella centres Madelyn Frye, an art appraiser and historian who lives a relatively quiet life in a rural community. As the story progresses, Madelyn becomes entangled with love interest Thomas von Dreiss (a dark and mysterious aristocrat living on the outskirts of town in a mansion dogged by superstitious rumour). The von Dreiss estate is the kind of place kids whisper about beneath their breath, children daring each other to enter the grounds before chickening out at the last minute. Madelyn’s childhood experiences are certainly in line with this, so when as an adult she’s hired to appraise several pieces in Thomas’s collection, the stories of humans transformed into living 
statues in the mansion’s sculpture garden can’t help but come to mind. True to genre, however, Thomas is handsome and charming (if also a little coy when it comes to answers). Madelyn can’t get him out of her mind, and soon her world is transformed by a passion that feels anything but natural.
I won’t spoil the mysteries The Art Collector has to offer, though the puzzle of Thomas and his family is less of a focus here than is the budding romance between our two protagonists, and you’re likely to catch on early as to who and what Thomas is. My impression is that Brehm very much intended this to be the case, however, and the story’s interest lies more in tantalizing the audience as they await the consummation of Madelyn and Thomas’s flirtations. There’s a steady but intense build toward that consummation as the novella continues. Just as Madelyn is drawn deeper into Thomas’s web, the text becomes gradually and inevitably more ensorcelled by Thomas and the promise he represents. We see a definite shift away from the more humdrum life Madelyn once led and toward the elite world of the mansion and Thomas’s history.
As with any Gothic work, an aesthetic register is key to how The Art Collector unfurls. Brehm easily paints a scene (pun intended), and Thomas’s mansion and its environs are full of the kinds of flourishes you’d want and expect in the subgenre. That said, although a Gothic visual language pervades the book, the The Art Collector is more likely to appeal to romance fans and readers who prefer a thin patina of Gothic, rather than horror fans of the same (Gothic is a wide umbrella). Thus, while Thomas is a tortured soul with deep secrets, the emphasis isn’t on the disturbing nature of those secrets (something typical of darker Gothic works), but on how he plans to leave the past behind and move on with Madelyn’s help.
Although the Gothic pieces are essential to the subgenre, I feel compelled to mention that Brehm truly shines in the non-genre chapters early in The Art Collector’s opening. I was particularly impressed by the rich and believable sense of place that she creates in just a short span of time, and you can really sense that Brehm is drawing on her own experiences and research to texture Madelyn’s everyday world. There was also a delicate restraint to the language in these chapters that for me made them more compelling than the later romance. While the richer Gothic prose in later chapters is typical of the subgenre, I did find that at times the work felt overwritten, and this made it more difficult for the book to cast a spell on me and make me forget that I was reading. This was a minor issue, however, and The Art Collector was very readble throughout. It’s also worth noting that one reader’s purple prose is another reader’s lush prose–it’s a highly subjective measure by any account. That said, I’ll be on the look out for future work from Brehm that mines the kind of skill on display during the scenes describing Madelyn’s everyday life, as I was hugely impressed by her talent.
The Art Collector is a short, self-contained romantic story that features some sexy moments for those readers who like open-door sex scenes. If you’re in the mood for a light Gothic read that plays to popular tropes and has a relatable protagonist, definitely give it a look!
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