Book Review: The Muse of Missing Pieces by Thea Hawthorne

February 19, 2025

This short story was so cute and so romantic and my only complaint is that I wanted it to be a full length book. Just as Thea promised, this was a magical, cozy, sapphic romance with low stakes and low anxiety. I would suggest this cute little novella to all.

We follow the story of a young artist, who has not painted in the past year since getting humiliated after creating some of the best work of her career, named Harriet. She works at a bookstore to get by, but was originality planning on making a living out of her art. Her boss, at the bookstore, is sweet and charming and allows Harriet to read on the job, so having to work there isn’t all that bad. One day, while she is working, a young woman comes in and says that she needs her help with a commission and says she loved her work based on the very mural that ruined her career. This sends her reeling and she has to decide if she wants to collaborate with the beautiful Artemisia, or if she is going to let her art career die.

Like I said before, I could not get enough of this book. It was a sweet little novella, but I do think she is going to continue to write stories in this world in the future. As for it being a self published book, I have read books published by major companies with typos and mistakes, but this book had none. This was so well written and well thought out, it is a wonder that it is her debut novel. Thea is going to have a long career in writing, if she wants it.