Venice in the Moonlight by Elizabeth McKenna

Considered useless by his cold-hearted father, Nico Foscari, eldest son of one of the founding families in Venice, hides his pain behind gambling, drinking and womanizing.

After her husband’s untimely demise, Marietta Gatti returns to her hometown of Venice in hopes of starting a new life and finding the happiness that was missing in her forced marriage.

When Fate throws them together, friendship begins to grow into love until Marietta learns a Foscari family secret that may have cost her father his life. Now, she must choose between vengeance, forgiveness, and love.

Elizabeth McKenna’s latest novel takes you back to the days of eighteenth century Carnival, where lovers meet discreetly, and masks make everyone equal.

Venice in the Moonlight is a great novel with a lot of twists and turns.  Marietta Gatti is a strong woman who has been through so much in her young life.  After the death of her husband, she is “asked” to leave her in-laws home.  So she decides to return to her father in Venice.  Only when she arrives there she finds out that he was murdered.   

But during her journey back to Venice she meets Nico Foscari who comes to her rescue after her coach becomes broken down.  He is blind he but that doesn’t stop him from being a ladies man; that is until he meets Marietta.  He falls in love with her and tries quite a many ways to woo her. 

This book was really well paced.  I actually didn’t want to put it down at times and since I read in bed I fell asleep a few times reading it.  The murder mystery had some really great twists and turns and I thought I knew who the killer was a few times, but then I would second guess myself. 

Getting to know Marietta and Nico you just knew that they would be a great couple.  They complimented each other and brought out the best in the other person.  When I first picked up this book I thought that it would be another typical romance novel.  But I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it so much.   

Venice in the 18th Century actually became its own character in this story.  We have all seen pictures of Carnival, but to have it actually come to life was wonderful.   If you are a fan of historical romance with a murder mystery twist (or even if you are not) this is the book for you.  I loved it and couldn’t put it down.   

About the Author - 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. She has also written a short story titled The Gypsy Casts a Spell, which was published in the February 2012 issue of eFiction Magazine. You can read it for free here. 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.

 

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  Stephanie