I spent half the book trying to figure out what the final act is, since a lot happened, and of course we find out on the chapter. I LOVED it. I loved the three different timelines/eras, as it helped piece together the overall picture of what was going on. We see the drama that unfolds as Caroline and Patrick find this rare portrait, and we see what inspired Juliette to paint it in the first place.
Also each time period has a death that turns into it’s own mystery. And they are all also interconnected. I pieced together one of the big twists, and I feel pretty proud of myself for that because it never happens, and everything else was just mindblowing.
This really takes the line “a picture is worth a thousand words” to a whole new meaning. Imagine solving an old murder case by examining a painting for hidden clues?

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Books for the egalley for review!

This was the perfect mix of family drama, mystery, history and overall enthralling literature.

I enjoyed the mystery aspect of this the best and then the extent of the family drama that was so well done.

This is perfect if you love a mix of genres and story twists and turns throughout.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.75/5

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby beautifully intertwines multiple mysteries across three time periods! This book kept me on the edge of my seat 😮 I was thoroughly invested in figuring out the mysteries and how everything was connected. An extremely enjoyable read! I highly recommend you pick this one up 😊

Highlights:
✨ 3 interconnected mysteries 🔍
✨ Story spans the 30s, 90s, and present day
✨ Told from multiple POVs
✨ References real figures from the surrealist art era 🎨
✨ Interesting characters and relationships
✨ Unexpected plot twists 😮

Although the book starts off a little slow, it had me hooked after a few chapters. The 1930s, 1990s, and present-day overlap throughout the story, but it is paced so well that it is never confusing. Even with the story being told from three different points of view (Caroline, Patrick, and Juliette), it is easy to follow along and get lost in the story!

The characters have depth and are so well fleshed out that they feel real. I also love the inclusion of real people from the surrealist art movement throughout the story. Even if you're not into art history, the unraveling mystery and well-written characters are sure to make for an enjoyable read!

Thanks to Ellery Lloyd and Harper Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Multiple timelines lead us to discover what happened to Juliette Willoughby. Not only did she tragically lose her life in a fire in 1938, but her painting, Self Portrait as Sphinx was also lost.
Over 50 years pass, and now Patrick and Caroline are studying art history and stumble upon information that Juliette’s death might not have been accidental. There was a lot to uncover between these pages. For me it was a slow burn, but one that kept me intrigued. I did enjoy the multiple timelines and when everything comes together, I was surprised.
My first book by these authors, and I’m definitely going to see what else they’ve written.

This book is actually having me on the fence. The historical aspect was very interesting. However with the multiple points of view and the non-linear timeline, I just could not keep track of the happenings or allow myself to invest in the characters unfortunately.

Two Cambridge Art History students set out to find a missing painting from a Surrealist artist that was supposedly burned in a fire. But they could never imagine that 30 years later, revealing that famous painting in Dubai, one of them would be arrested for murder.

Clever and sophisticated, this novel did admittedly take me a bit to get into. Very far removed from the art world or the prestigious education world, I found the first third a bit slow and hard to relate to. But as the three timelines progressed it became much harder to put down.

History and mystery are woven well together here, and the relationship between the two main characters is well developed and intriguing to watch throughout the novel. Some fun twists along the way, and once I was engaged I was sold on the story.

3.5 rounded up

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley.

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is a clever novel about a mysterious artist, a complicated family with many secrets, and the indefatigable energy of two Cambridge art history graduate students who pursue the mystery of artist Juliette Willoughby’s life, art, and legacy.
The story unspools in two timelines, 1937 and 1991. It reads like historical fiction as it is peppered with names of well-known artists and their works, but it is charged with suspense as Juliette’s joy in her painting and romance in Paris is burdened by her ruthless Willoughby family in England.
The story is well-plotted with plenty of dramatic tension as clues are presented and as the reader is also treated to some fine art history along the way. I found the story and the female characters—Juliette in the 1930s and Caroline in 1991—to be engaging and suitably strong, independent women. The intelligent prose added to my reading pleasure.
The author, Ellery Lloyd, is a pseudonym for husband and wife writing team, journalist Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos, professor of creative writing at a university in the UK. Their writing skills result in an excellent novel that hits the sweet spot, for me, of well-crafted suspense and art history!

Thank you to Harper Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Books about female artists not given their due is a new theme and I'm here for it.

The story is told in several POVs, starting with the present, a historic art sale and a murder.

We time travel to 1991 Cambridge and then to 1938 Paris the stories linked by Juliette Willoughby, a surrealist artist whose only exhibition painting is presumed to be destroyed. We learn about Juliette and her relationship through her journals which Caroline is researching for her thesis.

It's far less confusing than it sounds and actually mashes together quite well. It's a love story, a mystery, of wealth as mirage and though it struggles a bit here and there for some narrative cohesiveness (and does require.a level of remembering this is a fictional story with liberties) it's still enjoyable.

4.6
Slight downgrade in stars for a heavy belly in the middle of this one, but a tight, tight ending, which I adore, relentlessly.

This could have been a slam dunk for me - it has three intersecting timelines, multiple POVs, an interesting historical fiction aspect, and several different mysteries set in the art world. The problem for me is that I guessed several of the big twists on page 37 (not joking). So, I basically read 300 more pages to confirm what I already thought.

There were many elements of the book that just felt unnecessary. Several storylines didn't go anywhere, and one character is given a tragic backstory with absolutely no pay-off. It felt like the writers (Ellery Lloyd is a pseudonym for a husband-and-wife team) decided they needed to add a bit more trauma into the plot, but this wasn't really explored at all besides making the novel a bit more heavy in parts. They also tried to include a weird almost supernatural theme since one of the characters is obsessed with Egyptology. None of this worked for me.

I definitely understood what they were trying to do with these characters, but the predictability ruined it all in the end.

I took a chance on this one for sure, and it definitely delivered. The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby surrounds the mystery of the Willoughby family and a famously lost painting from the 1930s.

We follow three POVs through two timelines and three perspectives that eventually emerge into one single timeline that ends in murder and finding out what happened to two missing persons.

This book is packed full of mystery. It pieces together in a way I did not expect, although I did figure out one pretty big piece along the way. Overall, this book was incredibly enjoyable once it got going. I will admit that the beginning was a bit slow. To be honest, with the way the story was put together, I don’t know how it could be written any differently.

Overall, thoroughly impressed! Would definitely read Ellery Lloyd again!

Absolutely captivating. Often I don’t care for multiple story lines set in different periods but this was executed perfectly. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is a great mystery filled with twists. I truly enjoyed this story told through different eras.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper for an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is the second book I have read by Ellery Lloyd and I have to say, I want to read more from them. I loved the premise of the book, and it did not disappoint.

There are only two things people know about the Surrealist painter Juliette Willoughby - that she died in a fire with her more famous artist lover, and that none of her artwork survives. But, when two art students begin to study Juliette they find there may be darker secrets beyond the story everyone knows. Secrets that are still having repercussions decades later.

This was an absorbing mystery that I did not want to put down. I loved the different timelines that were layered on top of each other to bring the story to life and create layers to the mystery. The characters were engaging and their stories in the overlapping timelines, the revealed the secrets which remained hidden for so long.

I really loved this book, it has great references to the art world of the 1930s and was intriguing. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc digital copy to read and review.

Ellery Lloyd is back, with their best novel yet. The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is like if The Goldfinch and Maestra had a baby. Since those are two of my enduring favorites, that’s high praise. There might even be a dash of Saltburn thrown in for good measure (think big heaping English manor with expansive grounds and eclectic mix of characters). It spans decades from the 1930s to present day, with shifting points of view between Juliette’s diary entries from the 1930s in Paris, and Caroline and Patrick’s POV from both 1990s Cambridge and present day Dubai. Juliette was the young daughter of an English MP and an aspiring artist, and ran off with a much older German artist to Paris. Her one and only piece of art caught the Surrealist art world by storm just before her until timely death in a fire that cost the life of herself, her artist lover, and her art. All that survives of her is a few footnotes in the art history books. Fast forward to the early 1990s in Cambridge, Caroline is an art history student interested in studying Juliette for her thesis. Together with Patrick, they inexplicably find items of Juliette’s in the library - items that should have perished in the fire. When they later find photos of her painting mixed in with photos from her family estate, Caroline and Patrick begin their quest for the what happened back in the 1930s. Flash forward to present day, and Caroline and Patrick have Juliette’s painting… but how? This is where our book begins - and the rest of the novel is spent piecing together the clues, while jumping around in the timelines and POVs. Engrossing from the very first page, I had trouble putting the book (my kindle) down until the very last page.

i’ve enjoyed Ellery’s other books. this one was a little harder for me to get into with all the art talk and different timelines. once i powered through the beginning, i did really start enjoying it, but it was a very slow start for me. can’t wait to see what they put out next!

Thank you so much to Harper and netgalley for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I had a hard time keeping track of all of the storylines and it was just a lot. I was also just bored throughout and I wasn’t enjoying it.

I think art lovers might like this one a bit more than I did.

I hope others love this one but it wasn’t for me.

This was an intriguing story, but sometimes jumping between storylines and timelines can make a book a little more difficult to follow, and I thought that was the case here. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Ellery Lloyd's previous books, so I was very excited to get an advanced copy of The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby. Between the history and the art aspects, there's a lot of intrigue built in. However, I struggled with all of the time and perspective jumps. It slowed the pace in a way that made me struggle to stay interested. It wasn't a fit for me, but I'm sure lots of other readers will love it.

This was quite the intriguing read! The story is set during 3 different times throughout history. First, in Paris in 1938 when runaway heiress, Juliette Willoughby dies along with her lover in an accidental studio fire, along with her masterpiece, Self Portrait as Sphinx. Second, in Cambridge in 1991, when two art history students uncover proof that something more than an accidental fire happened to Juliette. Third, in Dubai, current time, an art dealer is accused of a brutal murder of a friend, who happens to also be the last surviving member of the Willoughby dynasty.

Woah! This story is just as much murder mystery/suspense as it is historical fiction. It was such a fun ride, and a super fun book to read. If you like multiple timelines, and especially if you like art, then this would be a great read for you! I enjoyed it greatly.