The Senator's Wife

A moving story of secrets and discovery, The Senator’s Wife is a gripping tale of two love affairs spanning oceans and centuries—and the art inspired by each. In the 1940s, American artist Alistair Smith embarks on a fifteen-year affair with Elizabeth Calhoun, wife of Senator Teddy Calhoun. Along the way, he makes dozens of paintings and drawings of his mystery lover, taking the secret of her identity to his grave. Marie Barlowe is modern-day political royalty in Washington, DC … until the unthinkable happens. Her Senator husband leaves her for his mistress. She is lost, cut adrift from her old life, until a surprise gift from her best friend lands her in the orbit of one Luc Marchand—grandson of a famous painter and infuriatingly sexy Frenchman. Marie dives headlong into a journey of self-discovery. Then the unthinkable happens again. Her estranged husband calls off the divorce. Desperate to save her newfound freedom, Marie hatches a plan that ignites a high-stakes political scandal … and brings to light secrets from Luc’s past. In Paris, the two couples’ lives converge before a painting of Luc’s grandmother, in which she is wearing an emerald and diamond necklace that is identical to one worn by Elizabeth Calhoun in another, earlier painting. Can Luc and Marie avoid the sad fate of Alistair and Elizabeth’s doomed love? An engrossing, sexy novel that strolls the intimidating halls of power in Washington, the famed museums of Paris, and the gritty streets of Pittsburgh. The Senator’s Wife is at once a passionate romance, a tale of one woman’s journey to her truer self, and an ode to the seductive power and mystery of art.