Treasures of Venice - Loucinda McGary
Apr 27, 2019 16:25:15 GMT -7
Banana Boat, bj, and 1 more like this
Post by secretromancejunkie on Apr 27, 2019 16:25:15 GMT -7
Treasures of Venice – Loucinda McGary
4.0 / 5.0
Heat 5/10
Genre – CR, rom susp, slightly paranormal
Trigger Warning – one sudden scene of graphic violence, happens to a peripheral character, h is stripped of her upper clothing by a kidnapper and fondled, but nothing else
The h is supposed to be on her honeymoon but her fiancée broke it off just before the wedding. Since the tickets were non-refundable she decides to come to Venice by herself. Near the end of the trip, a man suddenly appears and asks for her help. He needs her to pretend to be with him in order to shake someone who’s following him. Later, he appears in her hotel room, wet and wounded.
Eventually she learns that the H’s sister has been kidnapped and the ransom is a set of jewels that have been lost for over 600 years. His sister is a historian who might have found their location. The two of them start a romance while wandering around Venice looking for clues and being chased.
Intermingled in their story, is the story of how the jewels were originally stolen and then hidden. The couple in this secondary story are Nino (a poor sculptor) and Seraphina (the daughter of a nobleman). The story of this couple is about 20% of the page time for the whole book. There seems to be some kind of a link between this couple and the H and h or the present day story. This is the paranormal element.
There was a good balance in this story between romance, mystery and suspense. My only complaint was that the writing could have used just a bit more polish in a few places. Also, I didn’t like the fact that every time a non-English word was used, the author followed it with the English word(s). Even when it was repeated or easily determined from the context. There was a lot of this and it became annoying.
4.0 / 5.0
Heat 5/10
Genre – CR, rom susp, slightly paranormal
Trigger Warning – one sudden scene of graphic violence, happens to a peripheral character, h is stripped of her upper clothing by a kidnapper and fondled, but nothing else
The h is supposed to be on her honeymoon but her fiancée broke it off just before the wedding. Since the tickets were non-refundable she decides to come to Venice by herself. Near the end of the trip, a man suddenly appears and asks for her help. He needs her to pretend to be with him in order to shake someone who’s following him. Later, he appears in her hotel room, wet and wounded.
Eventually she learns that the H’s sister has been kidnapped and the ransom is a set of jewels that have been lost for over 600 years. His sister is a historian who might have found their location. The two of them start a romance while wandering around Venice looking for clues and being chased.
Intermingled in their story, is the story of how the jewels were originally stolen and then hidden. The couple in this secondary story are Nino (a poor sculptor) and Seraphina (the daughter of a nobleman). The story of this couple is about 20% of the page time for the whole book. There seems to be some kind of a link between this couple and the H and h or the present day story. This is the paranormal element.
There was a good balance in this story between romance, mystery and suspense. My only complaint was that the writing could have used just a bit more polish in a few places. Also, I didn’t like the fact that every time a non-English word was used, the author followed it with the English word(s). Even when it was repeated or easily determined from the context. There was a lot of this and it became annoying.
