The Seventh Unicorn

by Kelly Jones

Book Overview

By the author of The Woman Who Heard Color ... In her quest to discover a medieval treasure, curator Alex Pellier visits a convent in Lyon, but its storehouse of items dating back to the thirteenth century turns up little. Then, Alex discovers a centuries-old poem and sketches. These suggest to her that there may be a seventh, yet undiscovered tapestry in the world-renowned Lady and the Unicorn series. Now a journey of mystery begins that could lead...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425206254
• ISBN13: 9780425206256
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The Seventh Unicorn

What a pleasure to read Kelly Jones' Seventh Unicorn. The characters are believable, the premise interestly unusual. Mostly, the writing is superb.

Good Read

I chose this book because it seemed like a nice easy-going read. All in all it was a great read. This book was kind of slow in the beginning but picked up towards the middle. The whole book is set in the fictional world of the undiscovered seventh tapestry of The Lady and the Unicorn. The book starts in Medeval times with a rich girl named Adele Le Viste who falls in love with a common person. It then morphs into modern day Paris with a museum curator Alex Benoit and her ex boyfriend Jake Bowman. It is a nice love story but somewhat predictable. There are similarities between Adele and modern age Alex. Even though this book has a slow start it is a great book and I would recommend it for some light easy reading.

A Wonderful Read!

A wonderful story, related in such a way that leaves you content, not worn out. All of your emotions are teased, but ever so slyly. You don't hate, but you want to. You don't fear, but your uneasiness urges you to read faster. You don't cry - well that's not quite true - Sunny will surely remind you of someone that warms your heart and tugs those strings. There is much more here than a simple mystery. I highly recommend this book.

remarkable contemporary romance

Reverend Mother Superior Alvere sends a note to Madame Demy, Director of the, Cluny Museum in Paris, that states that the Convent of Saint Blandine is closing and before they do they need to "dispose" of their valuable medieval tapestries, linen, and manuscripts. The nuns hope to sell their collection in order to preserve their way of life. Demy sends her expert American born curator Alex Pellier to examine the treasures only to find the Mother Superior ill and others not quite as cooperative. A bit disappointed not to start, Alex spends time with the sun of her existence, her daughter Soliel. Alex returns to the convent and finds two drawings that strongly imply a seventh Unicorn Tapestry exists; the Cluny possesses six. Needing assistance she hires her former art school lover Jake Bowman to help her track down the tapestry while promising the nuns to obtain best value for them if she finds it. As they search together, each knows that they work along side their true love, but she tried marriage once and that failed. THE SEVENTH UNICORN is a remarkable contemporary romance due to the fascinating parallels between the tale of the tapestries and the life of the heroine. The intriguing story line allows the sexual tension to grow at the same time a melancholy exists as the end of several centuries of existence is coming because progress requires a hotel not a thirteenth century monastery at Saint Blandine. Fans will feel the varying emotions that make for a superb modern day romance with a nostalgic look at the heritage treasures including architecture that becomes extinct in the name of the economy. Harriet Klausner

(3.5) Sweet and mellow

I think it was A.S. Byatt's _Possession_ that got me addicted to the historical-interest mysteries that are in vogue lately. I've come to really love the sort of book where people hunt around looking for ancient artifacts or long-lost manuscripts. So I couldn't resist picking up _The Seventh Unicorn_, which tells the story of a (fictional) seventh tapestry in the (real) "Lady and the Unicorn" series, and two former lovers who rekindle their romance while trying to preserve it. This book is not bad at all. It is, however, a first novel, and there are two things about it that just didn't work for me. First, the male lead, Jake, doesn't appeal to me as much as he's supposed to. Even if he was having problems with his fiancee before running into his former lover, he would have at least spared his fiancee half a thought in the course of several hundred pages. Instead, she seems to vanish for about two-thirds of the book and is much less important to the story than she should be. Second, the author was perhaps a bit too easy on the characters. I'm used to novels like this having some conflict--some cutthroat tactics, some suspense, at least some interpersonal tension. Instead, the denouement of this book seems to be a series of things falling too perfectly, too easily, into place. Characters I thought were menacing turned out to be merely gruff but well-meaning. Exes who should have been bitter, instead smile and nod magnanimously. And the Deep Dark Secret that underpins the story was too easily guessed. I think the prologue telegraphed far too much of the plot. Again, this book was not bad at all, and I did like it. However, I think it needed some more conflict. It was just a bit too placid.