A Cup of Light by Nicole Mones (3)

When a young porcelain expert flies to China to evaluate a collection of artwork up for international sale, she lands in circumstances vastly different from what she expected. Lia Frank finds greed, deception, and political turbulence instead of clarity when she tries to learn the origin of a huge collection of priceless porcelains. From the slightly shady Hollywood Road antique district in Hong Kong, to the professional underworld smugglers who move art illegally out of the mainland; from the rich Western art lovers who don’t ask questions, to the Chinese museum officials who want to bring back every piece taken out by Western marauders, each player in the game carries his own secret. It’s Lia’s job to find the truth. As she sorts out the puzzle and uncovers the true history of the collection, she also yearns to have a relationship with more than an inanimate work of art. As the story unfolds, she gets her chance.

I was drawn to this book mainly for the cover it was so inviting and pretty .... I have to say that it is quite an easy read and interesting ....

It is amazing how a small porcelain cup could fetch over 3.5 million in an auction and more amazing that someone would pay that even on the black market and let it have a pride of place in their home but not let anyone know that it was there ... I would be itching to show it to people ... But that would be me !!!

The detail in the book about the porcelain pieces is lovely and fascinating and it is nice to see an author who really does alot of research ... And it shows ...

The story is basically about a woman Lai who is goes to china to authenticate porcelain pieces to see whether they where from The Forbidden City and once belonged to the Emperor ...

Even though I liked the book and it was an easy read I did find that there was something missing ... I just cannot put my finger on it I think that I was expecting something more to happen in the storyline which never happened !!! There where some story lines that where mentioned but never developed ... And at the end of the book I was abit disappointed as I felt it sort of just ended ....

But all in all it was a nice easy read and I would be interested in reading some more of her books in the future !!

I rate this book 3***

Teaser Tuesday

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers

"And these pieces were the true pieces. They were some of the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of pots smashed because they were not perfect"

Pg 210 of A Cup of Light by Nicole Mones

999

The 999 challenge for next year !!!! Read 9 books in 9 catagories during 2009 ....

You can do it yourself just follow the link:

My List of Catagories are

1) Historical

2) Children's Books/YA

3) Favourite Author's Books that I haven't read before

4) Authors that are new to me

5) LDS Church Books

6) Sitting way to long on my shelf

7) Classics

8) Award Winners

9) Books I found on the internet and in the Bookstore

Historical

1)The Virgin's Lover by Phillippa Gregory

2)The Constant Princess by Phillippa Gregory

3)The Boleyn Inhertance by Phillippa Gregory

4)The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer

5)Royal Escape by Georgette Heyer

6) The Independence of Miss Mary Bennett by Colleen McCullough

7)The Glass of Time by Micheal Cox

8) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Settlefield

9)

Children's Books / YA

1)Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

2)The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Selznick

3)Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke

4)Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

5) 3 Willows by Ann Brashares

6) Graceling by Kristen Cashore

7)Frostbite by Richelle Mead

8) The Chronicles of Spiderwick - Book 1 the Field Guide by Holly Black and Toni Terilizzi

9)The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Favourite Author's Books that I haven't Read Before

1)The Witch of Portabello by Paulo Coelho
2)Brida by Paulo Coelho

3)The Host by Stephenie Meyer

4)Shadow kiss by Richelle Mead

5) All together Dead by Charlaine Harris

6)From Dead to Worst by Charlaine Harris

7)Dead and gone by Charlaine Harris

8) The Tales of Beedle The Bard by J K Rowling

9)The Secret Hour by Scott Westerfeld

Authors that are new to me

1)Will you be there? by Guilaume

2)Head over heels by Chris Harrison

3) Evernight by Claudia Gray

4)The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine MacMahon

5)Tethered by Amy MacKinnon

6) Red Dress Walking by S A Jones

7) The Six Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly

8) Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

9)

LDS Church Books

1) Fishers of Men - Lund

2) Behold the Man - Lund

3) Faith the Essence of true Religion by Gordon B Hinckley

4) A Perfect Brightness of Hope by Canfield

5) Arise and Shine Forth - Talks from the 2000 women's Conference

6)

7)

8)

9)

Sitting on my Shelf for way too long

1) Double life of Doctor Lopez by Dominic Green

2) Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks

3) Lucky Man by Micheal J Fox

4) Sunday at Tiffany's by James Patterson

5) The Conjurors Bird by Martin Davies

6) Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

7) The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

8)

9)

Classics

1) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

2) Possession by A S Byatt

3) To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee

4) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

5) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

6) Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott

7) The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

8)

9)

Award Winners

1) The Kite Runner by Khailed Hosseini

2) Dragon Keeper by Carole Wilkinson

3) The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards

4) Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

5) Someone like me by Elaine Forresal

6) Dead until Dawn by Charlaine Harris

7)

8)

9)

Books I found on the Internet or in the Bookstore

1) Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

2) Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

3) Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

4) A Cup Of Light by Nicole Mones

5) The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
6) Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers

7) The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski

8) The Spare Room by Helen Garner

9)Definately Dead by Charlaine Harris