📚’A delightful dual-timeline novel’. Sandra Reviews #Romance A Venice Summer by @LynneShelby5 for Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT #FridayReads #BookX
Today’s team review is from Sandra.
Sandra blogs here https://www.firthproof.co.uk/index.php/book-reviews
Sandra has been reading A Venice Summer by Lynne Shelby.
A Venice Summer is a delightful dual-timeline novel featuring an English picture conservator, Rose Bennet, set to work restoring a mystery painting of a young woman in a blue dress, with chapters set in 1536 explaining the story of the picture’s origins.
Rose and her new boss, Luca Casserini, owner of the Venetian palazzo about to open as an art gallery, don’t get off to a good start. He comes across as rude and arrogant, but realises he has made a bad impression, apologises and offers to show Rose the sights of Venice. He has been hurt in the past and is understandably slow to trust. Having just suffered a bad break-up, Rose too is wary. Their relationship develops at a realistic pace and Rose starts to imagine staying in Venice when her contract is over.
At first, Rose is out of her comfort zone, alone in a foreign country, but slowly finds her feet and starts to make friends. As she uncovers the painting beneath the layers of old varnish, she becomes convinced it was painted by her favourite Renaissance artist, Nicolò Zano, but cannot find any proof.
My favourite aspects of this fascinating book were the vivid descriptions of Venice, albeit slightly romanticised, and the art history which I remember from my studies many years ago. I definitely picked up hints of Pride and Prejudice in the detail. I have read and enjoyed most of this author’s books and A Venice Summer is one of the best.Â
Book Description:
Art conservator Rose Bennet is still reeling from a bad break-up when she is offered a dream job in Venice, restoring an art collection in the Ca’ D’Ambra, a five-hundred-year-old Venetian palazzo. Despite her fears about travelling to a foreign country on her own, Rose is soon heading to Italy for the summer.
While she is awestruck by the breathtaking beauty of Venice, Rose finds the owner of the palazzo, the arrogant and short-tempered Luca Casserini, insufferable. When he questions her ability to do her work, she almost heads straight back to London, but decides that she won’t let herself be intimidated or driven away before she’s even had a chance to ride in a gondola.
Losing her way in Venice’s picturesque maze of canals and alleyways, the last person Rose wants to see is Luca, but when they meet by chance and, to her surprise, he offers to show her around the city, she feels it would be churlish to refuse.
Spending sunlit summer days exploring Venice with Luca, Rose discovers a passionate side to him very different to her first impression, and her feelings towards him begin to change …
Rose knows she can restore a damaged painting, but can she mend Luca’s damaged heart?
