Review: 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.

 

Marietta is stuck in a horrible marriage that her father arranged when she was a young girl. Marieta's husband forces himself on her, cheats on her and abuses her. To make matters worse, her mother-in-law looks upon her disapprovingly because she hasn't produced an heir. Fortunately, Marietta escapes the grasp of the family she was married into and rushes to start a new life in Venice. Things aren't as they seem in Venice and that goes doubly for a dashing man she meets along the way ... Nico. 

I'm always nervous when I pick up a novel by an author that I'm not familiar with. I (selfishly) worry about wasted time and effort for a book that I just don't mesh with. But luckily, that wasn't the case with Venice in the Moonlight. I'm a big lover of historical romance novels, something about them is just enchanting to me. And this one did not disappoint. I found myself fairly invested in Marietta's life from the very beginning. McKenna has a way of endearing characters to the reader and making them feel like they are part of your family. And that is EXACTLY how I felt about almost all of the characters in this novel. I felt like I really knew them and that made me more attached and invested in the outcome of the story. 

I really enjoyed how the novel took place in Venice. It reminded me a lot of my trip through that captivating city which may have played a part in why I loved this novel so much. I could picture these places in my mind because of McKenna's on-point descriptions and it felt like I was right there again feeding the pigeons in the Piazza. I would bet that McKenna's imagery could help any reader place themselves in the center of Venice, not only just someone who had been there before. Before I go any further, I wanted to clarify a little bit. Were the descriptions too much? Did it take away from the novel? Did I find myself skipping because of the descriptions? The answer to all three of those with this novel is a resounding no. I didn't feel bogged down or bored or even find myself wishing that it was over already. Just like the depth of the characters, I found that the light descriptiveness just added so much more to an already fabulous novel.

Basically, I loved this book. I blew through it today and I just couldn't put it down. If you're a fan of historical romances, this is definitely one to add to your library.

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