I’m back on the TLC Book Tour and with such a great book— A Thousand Painted Hours  by Barbara O’Neal.

I received a free review copy of this book from the author for this stopover.  I was not paid for this review and all opinions, thoughts and rants are completely my own.

A Thousand Painted Hours is her latest novel. I have always enjoyed her books so I was excited to review this one.

About the book:

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Publication date: August 11, 2026

An epic, emotionally charged novel about love, art, and survival spanning 1900s colonial India to Blitz-era London by the USA Today bestselling author of When We Believed in Mermaids.

In the shadow of the London Blitz, artist Elsie Turner clings fiercely to her canvases, refusing to let war dim the colors that define her. The bombs test her nerve, but the struggle also stirs memories of her golden youth in India and of the long-lost love of her life.

The daughter of a British civil servant in the Himalayan station of Nainital, Elsie crosses cultural divides to forge an unlikely bond with Tanveer Singh, a Sikh prince with hopes, dreams, and far-reaching ideas. What begins as shared sketchbooks and stargazing becomes first love and a secret correspondence. When Elsie’s father is summoned to England, Elsie is severed from the world she knows—and is determined to preserve it through both her art and a connection with Tanveer that endures through the most tumultuous years of their lives.

Across four decades and two continents, Elsie navigates a journey from lush colonial India to war-torn London, amid landscapes of beauty, protest, and peril. As past and present collide, the most impossible choices and sacrifices are yet to be made in the name of love, war, and survival.

“From the forested hills of India to the bomb-scarred streets of London to the searing heat of Cairo, A Thousand Painted Hours is a colorful, transportive, and heartrending novel. In a sweeping tale of friendship and love through the ages, O’Neal grabs her readers by the heart and doesn’t let go. Not to be missed!” —Heather Webb, USA Today bestselling author of The Hope Keeper

About the author:

Barbara O’Neal is the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Amazon Charts bestselling author of twenty novels of women’s fiction, including the #1 Amazon Charts bestseller When We Believed in Mermaids, as well as The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth, Memories of the Lost, This Place of Wonder, and The Starfish Sisters. Her award-winning books have been published in more than two dozen countries. She lives on the wild Oregon Coast with her husband, a British endurance athlete who vows he’ll never lose his accent. For more information, visit www.barbaraoneal.com.

What I thought…

When Lisa at TLC Book Tours contacted me about this new book, I jumped at it. O’Neal’s novels are not only full of food (right up my alley), but she also creates characters that you root for and love. Most of the time the characters are flawed but you still can’t help being in their corner.

I previously reviewed Memories of the Lost, The Lost Girls of Devon, The Art of Inheriting Secrets and The Lost Letters of Rachel Ellsworth. You can read all my TLC reviews of her books here. I guess I’m a fan. (I’ve also read When We Believed in Mermaids and rated it five stars on GoodReads.) O’Neal always hooks me in quickly and I have been known to stay up all night to finish one of her books. Thanks for the opportunity to read this, TLC and Lisa!

I did not stay up all night reading A Thousand Painted Hours because it is a huge book, clocking in at 531 pages. I know some do not care for the alternating storylines but I thought O’Neal did a great job of switching back and forth between the WWI and the WWII eras to further the plot. The romance between Elsie and Tanveer is bittersweet to say the least and I had no idea if their tale was going to work out for the better or worse. (And, I’m not saying.) O’Neal covers a great deal of territory with a great many characters but I never found it to ramble. I really liked this one. If you like historical fiction paired with an epic romance, pick up this novel! This is my favorite O’Neal book to date.

The Food:

As mentioned above, there is always a focus on food in O’Neal’s novels. I am listing everything I found because I did take meticulous notes. 🙂

• Rose Water Sponge (5)
• Ginger tonic (7)
• Lemonade, bowl of small apples, dal vadas, coconut cake (36)
• Tomatoes, potatoes, parsley (from the Victory Garden) (46)
• Chai (48)
• Picnic with strawberries, cold ham, jam puffs, cheese biscuits and lemonade (67)
• Bread, vinegar, runner beans (69)
• Salad of peas, lettuces, shredded carrots, and potatoes with vinegar (71)
• Mint tea (83)
• Rajma and dal, mutton korma with almonds, roti, naan, puris and rice, jalebi, petha (102)
• Another picnic of lemonade, bread and butter, shortbread, apricots (114)
• Apple butter (126)
• Kichdi (rice & lentils) (127)
• Beef roast and apple pie (173)
• Kheer (191)
• Sole Veronique, plate of lobster, cheese tartlets, lobster salad, ice cream, petit fours (musings on forgotten food during the wars) (212)
• Woolton vegetable pie (212)
• Chicken salad with apples (216)
• Rich, deep stew with herbs, fluffy rolls and pie (262)
• Fresh trout, new potatoes, fresh green beans, strawberry tart with cream (274)
• Curry sandwiches (289)
• Little crabs, iced cakes, cold venison pasty, chicken sandwiches with yellow curry powder, aspic (294)
• Blueberry pudding with honey and cream (369)
• Oatmeal, tea, cheese and baked beans (358)
• Oatmeal with a small spoonful of jam (387)
• Cake “without fakery” (from The Kitchen Front) (387)
• Mulu Khiyah (green stew with jute leaves, cardamom, cloves and bay leaves) (415)
• Bread and olives and tomatoes (426)
• Cakes and samosas (436)
• Pakoras, parath, guava lassi, fresh dates (455)
• Rotis and dal (474)
• Watermelon (476)
• Mock fish cakes (479)
• Ovaltine (482)

What I made….

As I was reading, I mentally marked the coconut cake. But as I digested the novel, I decided to use some spice that I had just ordered from the Diaspora Spice Co. I also wanted to use the surplus of tomatoes that my sister had brought to us from her garden.

Tomato-Cheese Masala Bagels

Based on Priya’s Tomato-Cheese Masala Toasts

Ingredients

• 1 bagel, split (or any bread type)
• 2 slices of a large tomato
• ¼ cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon Chaat Masala, plus more if needed

Instructions

1. Preheat broiler.
2. Lightly toast the bagel. Place a slice of tomato on each bagel slice. Top with the cheese.
3. Place the tomato-cheese bagels under the broiler and toast until the cheese has fully melted and is a bit browned.
4. Sprinkle the toasts with the chaat masala, adding more to taste

Yield: 1

I used bagels because that is what I had on hand. As I mentioned, I also had the tomatoes to use. This made me think that Elsie might have whipped up something similar for her mother or during Tanveer’s recovery during the war years when things were scarce. She would have used whatever bread and cheese she might find along with some cherished spices she might have hoarded from India.

I did enjoy this and rated it 5 stars on GoodReads. I’m linking up with Foodies Read for August.

Take a lesson from Elsie and Tanveer. What was your “one beautiful thing” for the day?