In the 17th century Holland a young widow leaves her hometown and ends up using her artistic talents in making Dutch porcelain. The journey is filled with dramatic, though often unrealistic turns, which make Midnight Blue quite an addictive read. It also helps that the chapters are short and the writing simple. It didn’t come across as very historically accurate though, but that might also be the translation: Simone van der Vlugt wrote the book in Dutch and Jenny Watson translated it into English. But even if the writing wasn’t believable, I felt transported to historic Holland and loved the setting. I just hoped that more time was spent on relationship development and less on plot twists.

2.5 Stars
The story itself was interesting and quite original - I had no knowledge of Delft Blue pottery, and I loved how the author cleverly wove together this bit of history along with other prominent Dutch artists (Vermeer and Rembrandt).
The book was a bit challenging to read, and I attribute that to this book being originally written in Dutch. The translation seemed a bit too literal, making the English version very dry and mechanic.

Overall, I’m very happy I read this novel. There’s some great themes on love, loss, and survival. I think we can all find ourselves in Catrin, our brave heroine.

2.5*
Historische fictie is een van mijn favoriete genres, dus het lezen over de Gouden Eeuw vond ik erg interessant. De bekende schilders zoals Vermeer komen in het boek voor, je leest over het ontstaan van Delfts blauw, en het angstige leven tijdens de pestepidemie.
Wat dat betreft is het feitelijk allemaal goed geschreven, je krijgt een duidelijk beeld van hoe het leven in die tijd was (een weekloon van 4 gulden? dat kun je je toch niet meer voorstellen? ).
Hoewel ik het geschiedenis aspect van het boek erg leuk vond, vond ik de rest van het verhaal wat oppervlakkig geschreven, weinig diepgang.
Gewoon, een leuk tussendoortje.

I gave this book a 5 star rating, not because it is the greatest piece of literature ever written, but because to me this was a beautiful read.

I agree with some of the criticism in the other reviews regarding the immense luck of the main character (plot armor essentially) and the somewhat superficial dialogue. However, this did not take from *my personal* experience.

The book is written from a first person perspective, which gave the impression that Catrijn was writing to me about the happenings in her life. The book does not suggest this in any way, but that's how it read to me. This meant that I didn't feel the need for an exhaustive description of the cities and landscapes, nor of the people she met or was friends with. It all felt familiar from the get go, she didn't need to describe anything to me because I was already immersed in the time period and cities because of the familiarity the book instilled.

I wouldn't say this is a book for everyone, but if you feel like reading some light historical fiction that isn't all fluff, you might enjoy this one.

super cool to read this while in the Delft area. Plot was kind of unbelievable and the characters didnt talk like the 1600s.