The Seventh Unicorn

by Kelly Jones

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 Alex to a career-making find--and to the man she thought she had lost forever.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller, Art History

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Kelly Jones grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho. She graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, with a degree in English and an art minor. During her junior year in Italy she developed a love for both travel and art history.
Her Dana Pierson mystery series includes Lost and Found in Prague (2015), Bloodline and Wine (2019), and Angel Boy (October 2021.)
The Woman Who Heard Color (Berkley Books, October, 2011), is a historical novel set in Munich, Berlin, and New York. A story of family loyalty, banned art, and creative freedom, it spans a period of over a century.
Other novels include The Seventh Unicorn (Berkley Books, 2005), inspired by The Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries in the Cluny Museum in Paris, France, and The Lost Madonna (Berkley Books, 2007), set in Florence, Italy.
In her novella and short story collection, Evel Knievel Jumps the Snake River Canyon . . . and Other Stories Close to Home, she departs from these settings in a story set in her hometown of Twin Falls, Idaho.
She is a mother and grandmother and is married to former Idaho Attorney General Jim Jones, who also served on Idaho’s Supreme Court. They live in Boise.

Visit Kelly at http://www.kellyjonesbooks.com

Reviews

[kostas vamvoukakis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Τίποτα το ιδιαίτερο... Πολύ επιπεδο μυθιστόρημα... Ούτε η ιστορία αγάπης ούτε η έρευνα δεν έχουν κάποια μορυφωση

[Carmen Pérez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightful reading written by Kelly Jones and published in 2005. This novel weave history, art, and love. This debut novel is a haunting and breathtaking story. American-born Alex Pellier, a curator for the Cluny Museum in Paris relishes the idea of discovering a medieval tapestry, part of the world-renowned The Lady and the Unicorn series. The legend behind the tapestries fascinates Alex, whose marriage to rich Thierry was never happy. A mystery unfolds, and an exciting new journey begins. With the help of an old art school flame Jake Bowman, she embarks on her journey of discovery. The story is rich in detail, color, and mystery. Although very well written, I would have liked to read a lot more about the medieval history behind the seventh tapestry. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

[Mιss •kαthєяίиє• Τhε Emεrαℓd Pяίиcεss® · Rating 3 out of 5]

I choose this one because I happen to be intrigued of the Unicorns and those tapisseries. I've read another book with the same topic The Lady and the Unicorn and I liked it so I had thought that this book would be an interesting choice too.

As a romance book, I liked it. It was a nice homey story about two classmates who when students in college fell in love with each other but in the end life got them seperated. As all romance stories, they found each other again and stayed happily together.

As an adventure book, I expected a bit more. You know, some adrenaline rush (it would be nice, in my opinion, if they lost it or destroyed it or even better, if it was stolen and they had to catch the thief.) in the book so that I would gladly stay up all night to finish it, trying to figure out what is going to happen (suspence!).
I would recommend it to anyone who loves romance books with adventure.

[Nitrorockets · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a love story, and normally I really can't take the cheesy love story lit. I find it boorish. But then, after being so incredibly bored with all the work focused reading I have been doing, this looked pretty darn good. And it actually was interesting. Kind of exciting, and then almost too much so. It seems like in parts to be written almost as a soap. You know, jump from one person's story to the next, all sequential of course. So that bothered me a bit, but not as much as I expected. Still it was a nice quick read and the discussions about tapestry art was a nice break.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was easy and light reading, perhaps a bit predictable. France is one of my happy places, so envisioning locations and reading the simple French sentences was extra fun for me. (The translations were skillfully added, if I got stuck on a word or two.) I have always been a fan of unicorns and grew up with The Cloister's being only a subway ride away. I learned a bit more about the "Unicorn Tapestries" by reading this novel, and my heart was warmed with a tale based on love throughout the ages.

[Jimmi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like being able to support local authors, and this author grew up in my hometown of Twin Falls, Idaho. I was able to attend a reading that she did a couple years ago when we both lived in Boise, Idaho. It's a fun little modern day story about a medieval tapestry and its history through the ages as told by a woman who visits Italy as a young woman and again as an adult.

[Lisa H. · Rating 2 out of 5]

*sigh* My recent luck with picking books has not been good - most recently that piece of crap, The Mask of Atreus, and now this. Note to self: pay attention to who writes the blurbs. Nicholas Sparks should have clued me in right away that this was going to be more schmaltz and less suspense.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book where you can see what’s coming from the very beginning, this was very well-written and a very enjoyable read! The development of the story line and the characters was detailed and interesting, and the ending is quietly triumphant.

[Marijalas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet

An art mystery in France with a sweet romance.
The bits of history added to the interest of the book.
A book meant to leaving one pleased.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can read a good book in a day or two if I really like it. This book took me over eleven months to finish.

I don’t understand how we’re supposed to root for the male mc in this. He has a fiancée, who he clearly couldn’t give two shits about, but continues to string her along long distance. While still in that relationship, he chases after the woman he really loves, the female mc. She is “the one that got away”, but when she doesn’t immediately fall into his arms, he cheats on both women basically by having a one night stand with an acquaintance.

I had hopes that the historical story would be interesting enough to make up for the lackluster love story, but it was boring. There was very little adventure through history, no real mystery.

[Barbara Cryer · Rating 3 out of 5]

. It was a little slow, but it did pass the "Do I care how it got to the end" test.

[Bear · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 but I’ll go ahead and round up to 4. The writing is alright and the ending was predictable but I still enjoyed it for the most part.

[Ema · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito bom. Passa por tanta história...

[Alina Stepan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Une très, très belle histoire.. j’aimerais qu’il ait été véridique et que la septième tapisserie se trouve vraiment quelque part, dans un mur, en attendant d’être découverte.

[Lucie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jolie petite histoire facile à lire. L’intrigue est légère mais prenante.

[Kate Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Art, love and a bit of mystery set in France… all things I absolutely adore. Definitely worth getting lost in this sweet tale. Recommend.

[Books and Tea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was obsessed with unicorns as a little girl, and the fact that this book features La Dame a La Licorne is the only reason this book gets two stars from me. The "hero" is, frankly, completely unlikeable. He quits his job and runs off to Paris to paint, leaving behind (but not actually breaking it off with) a fiancee with no apparent personality or function other than to add some tension and make the hero look like a jerk.

Then the hero falls back in love with the heroine, cheats on his fiancee with some random artist who works for the local art co-op, and then of course leaves his fiancee for the heroine. We are of course supposed to believe that he will love the heroine eternally.

The good news is that the actual story around the tapestries can at times be really interesting - particularly the story around what the tapestries "mean". But that's about it. The author throws needless roadblocks and tension in the way (e.g. mother-in-law refusing to tell the heroine where the tapestry is for No Apparent Reason Whatsoever) in order to make this story novel-length.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. It was a nice, pleasant read with engaging characters. Nothing particularly radical happened to any of them, but what did happen was very logical and neatly executed. Alex's daughter, Soliel (or Sunny) was a delightful minor character, who pretty much stole her scenes. This books uses many of the set pieces of the romance novel, but in a beautifully understated way that really worked for me. There are no continual, sighing reflections on the other person's physique, no trembling glances or limbs and definitely no hard and throbbing or wet and tingling places depending on gender. Instead, the growing connection and relevant doubts etc we worked into the plot rather than taking it over.

I wish I was more of a visual person so that I could visualise the tapestries and Jake's paintings. But I'm not and there's nothing I can do about that. I have a feeling this is Kelly Jones' first novel. I think she's made a great start and I'll happily read more by her.

[Copied across from Library Thing; 17 October 2012]

[CatarinaG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Não foi assim uma leitura por 'aí além' mas não desgostei de todo. é uma história e amor não resolvida na adolescência e que acartou alguma infelicidade até poder ser arrumada 'como os intervenientes desejavam'.
Lê-se muito bem entre dois livros mais pesados, para desanuviar ou assim despreocupadamente, nas férias.
A história à volta da tapeçaria é engraçada e bem construída. Sem ser de tirar o folêgo é um livrinho de leitura muito agradável, um pouco na onda do "A dama e o Unicórnio"...
É um livro muito "visual". Vive um pouco à custa da nossa imaginação nesse sentido, quer relativamente às tapeçarias quer relativamente aos quadros do Bowman.

Fez-me ter muita vontade de ir a Paris ver estas: http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/h...
E a Nova Iorque ver estas: http://www.metmuseum.org/explo...

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a pretty good read, a wee, tiny bit slow to get into it, but once you are...
Very much a tale regarding the origins of the well known medeival tapestries. Interesting viewpoint, and not entirely without merit.
It does flip back and forth between the past and the present, and the ties between them.

[Juliana Haught · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting mystery, going into some art history and themes in art. Some (predictable) romance. At first, I found the male lead character extremely annoying, not sure if I ever really came to like him that much - liked the female lead better. I enjoyed the book, but I'm not going to make it a point to find any more books by this author.

[Margo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like either of the two main characters, to the extent that I could not root for either of them to achieve what they wanted. The premise is interesting, but the plot development was poor enough that the events that are supposed to build up to the "big moment" are insipid and uninspiring. Very disappointing.

[Paula García reynaldos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soy una entusiasta de los unicornios y de la serie de tapices medievales de La Dama y el Unicornio que están en el museo Cluny de París. La historia no parece demasiado original si uno ha leído cosas similares al "Código Da Vinci", pero es suficientemente entretenida y tiene detalles que parecen bien recreados, sobre la vida de las mujeres en la Edad Media.

[Schneehase · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tja, war ganz nett, aber mehr auch nicht. Ich hatte mir etwas mehr Spannung versprochen, etwas geheimnisvolleres oder ein mysteriöses Rätsel; evtl. auch ein bißchen Krimi. Auch der historische Teil beschränkte sich auf wenige Seiten im Prolog und Epilog. Der Rest war viel langatmiger Beziehungskram, die eigentliche Story plätschert so dahin.

[Panagiotis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ένα ευχάριστο ανάγνωσμα για παραλία. Είναι αυτό που είναι χωρίς να θέλει να μεταμφιεστεί σε κάτι άλλο. Μια ιστορία αγάπης ένα καλογραμμένο άρλεκιν με όλα τα κλισέ δοσμένα στις σωστές δόσεις και με λίγη ιστορία τέχνης δοσμένη μέσα από την ιστορία μιας άτυχης ιστορία αγάπης στη γαλλική αναγέννηση. Τι άλλο θέλει κανείς για δυο ευχάριστες ώρες στη παραλία;

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could view the medieval tapestries that are the heart of this book. It is a nice tale with a little history, mystery, art, romance, and the French countryside all mixed together. You can't go wrong with those ingredients. A nice read all around. I feel the need to visit an art museum this weekend -- if only it could be the one in the story set in Paris!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned some things about art history and the artistic process through reading this book. Since I don't know anything about these subjects and don't find great joy in going to art museums, if you enjoy art you would probably like this book more than I did.

[Isaura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se me hizo muy fácil de leer, es una historia sencilla, sin mucho misterio ni drama y con el toque justo de romance... No la clasificaria como un "debes leerlo" pero si tienes el tiempo y la oportunidad, leerlo no estaría mal...

Eso si... ahora quiero ir a ver los tapices al Cluny jajajaja

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that's a story that didn't grow with me. Jake and Alex both exhibited behaviour fitting more to their college lives, not their adult lives. Alex occasionally showed moments of clarity but Jake was just immature from start to finish, frankly.

[Lene · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that I enjoyed while I read it. Now, three weeks after I finished it, I could not remember what it was called or what it was about without physically going to pick it up and look at it. So, it is easily forgettable, but not a bad book at all.