14 November 2014

Review #75: Venice in the Moonlight by Elizabeth McKenna


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“This was Venice, the flattering and suspect beauty - this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism.” --Paul Thomas Mann, German novelist, penned these words in his book Death in Venice.

Turn back the clock to 18th century and find Venice as a lover's paradise, where every men end up with more than 1 lover in their lifetime in Venice and those carnivals where the masked men and women find each other equally. All these beauty has been strikingly portrayed by the author, Elizabeth McKenna, in her new novel, Venice in the Moonlight. This book portrays a beautiful love-story wrapped in a dark and terrifying thrilling mystery.

Synopsis:
A young widow, Marietta Gatti, was shunned from her in-laws house after her husband's death, and soon finds herself travelling back to Venice to her father, where she belonged. But en-route, she discovers that her father has died very recently and because of her evil mother-in-law, she never ever once could contact her father for once after her marriage. But reaching Venice, she finds out from her father's lover that her father was murdered by some powerful men. Meanwhile, Nico Foscari, the most famous womanizer and playboy of Venice, tries all his means to woo Marietta. But being reluctant and determined to find her father's killer and not to end up with a man like her deceased husband, she never pays heeds to his conquest. As Marietta digs deeper into her father's past, the more she invited danger to herself. After almost getting killed and losing Nico, she finally uncovers the real villain.


Marietta was one hell of a determined and bravest woman. She even used to dress up herself into her father's clothes to spy on those powerful men. Not for once, she got distracted from her motive, even though Nico was driving her crazy. She fell hard for Nico's charms long time back, but she revealed that and always kept to herself. The author has depicted Marietta very strongly and beautifully. Also how remarkably she has illustrated the 18th century history in Venice, practices of dark forces, masked people escaping to the carnivals and those arts carved in each and every building. Capturing each and every moment so eloquently with her words is what makes the book an interesting read as well as a getaway for the readers to escape to this amazingly beautiful world. Adding to the surprising twists and turns completes the books as a page-turner.

The book is highly intriguing, filled with passion, love, and a colorful carnival, reading which you are bound to lose yourself in this mist of dark mystery and a passionate love-story.

Verdict:  Read this book and fall in love with Venice and travel into the past to uncover the mystery.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Elizabeth McKenna, for giving me an opportunity to read and review her book. 
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Author Info:
Elizabeth McKenna works as a full-time technical writer/editor for a large software company. Though her love of books reaches back to her childhood, she had never read romance novels until one Christmas when her sister gave her the latest bestseller by Nora Roberts. She was hooked from page one (actually, she admits it was the first love scene). She had always wanted to write fiction, so she combined her love of history, romance and a happy ending to write her debut novel Cera's Place. Her short story, The Gypsy Casts a Spell, is available for free on her website http://elizabethmckenna.com/. She hopes you will enjoy her latest novel, Venice in the Moonlight, as much as others have enjoyed her previous works. Elizabeth lives in Wisconsin with her understanding husband, two beautiful daughters, and a sassy Labrador. When she isn't writing, working, or being a mom, she's sleeping.
Visit her here 

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2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for reviewing my book. I'm glad you liked it!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much! And I'm so glad that you liked my review :-)

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