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Jed (2013)

by Fiona Paul(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Egmont

series

Secrets of the Eternal Rose

review 1: There was a time I used to read only historical novels. I´ve always loved travelling in time and still being able to enjoy the convenience of regular showers and car rides. My favourite ones are set in Italy, preferably in Venice. And wohoo, book set in Venice!! Jackpot, right? I was a bit afraid I´d be disappointed, but I worried for nothing. There are few things more beautiful than walking along the Canal Grande and watching gondolas sailing by. And if you don´t have opportunity to watch it live the next best things is reading about it. I always imagined that Venice had a special charming magic (even more than nowadays) in the past. The Palazzo Ducale was even more impressing, the water was bluer and nights were darker (which makes for more danger and a higher creep f... moreactor, but also for more little secrets). All these things are captured in this book, so diving into the story wasn´t difficult at all. I liked the characters a lot. Cass is a perfect heroine for a historical novel: tough (but nothing compared to YA heroines like Penryn from Angelfall or Alex from Covenant), intelligent, but naïve as well (mostly in the most inconvenient situations) and with a healthy dose of fear at the right times. Because seriously, imagine an aristocratic girl, well-educated and proper, being as fearless as Rose from Vampire Academy. I tots could understand them dreaming big; of handsome strangers and adventures, breaking out of the golden cage. But they surely wouldn´t have turned into a Bond Girl right away. Bottom line of my babbling: I liked Cass. For her, this dream comes true. Falco (handsome, dark, secretive) is the perfect distraction, allowing herself to live a secret life at night. (Of all things to think when Falco was introduced into the story, I fixated on his name. Call me shallow, but of all Italian names. Giacomo, Giovanni, Antonio, Francesco. He´s named Falco? Oh please. Gladly, he´s a painter, which can basically be compared to a band member today, so he´s redeemed.) And although he has a secret himself (which isn´t that much of mystery at all, when you think about it a little bit.), he still is nice and sweet around his girl. One thing I´ve always appreciated about historical novels is that love triangles come more naturally. It´s a fact that girls often were engaged by their parents and not exactly knowing their future husbands was a common and logical consequence. So girls were left to discover their husbands being kind, cruel, douchebags, womanizers, gay,… You name it. Luca being the tall, handsome type was kind of predictable, because where´d be the moral conflict if he was a complete, full – grown jerk? Therefore, he´s wonderful ( a little mysterious too, but where´d be the excitement in a marriage otherwise? ). You probably shouldn´t search for historical facts too much, but it was a captivating story with a lot of thrilling, dark scenes and possibilities to dream about living in a big Palazzo and sharing secrets with your handmaid. It all goes down when the murderer shows himself and Cass has to decide what to do with her life between her fiancé (who is gorgeous, as I may´ve mentioned already) and her first love (who´s a painter and mysterious and even more gorgeous.). The mix of Sherlock Holmes (Well, probably rather Nancy Drew), Casanova and Titanic works and I´m curious about the 2nd instalment.
review 2: I'm still not sure why this book is called Venom, but I liked it anyway. I liked that it was historical fiction with no supernatural elements. And the historical aspects were done very well. There was enough description to make the period live so vividly yet it wasn't overwhelming to the story. And even though there is, technically, a "love triangle" there really isn't. And it's done in a way that works really well and remains true to the period (shocking!). Every character is well drawn and complex. Even things that could easily have been done in a flat way (such as Cass' aunt) are given fully rounded personalities.Well worth the read. And looking forward to reading the next one. less

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