A nice historical tale that mixes intrigue, the treatment of women and romance to create a story that pulled me in and allowed me to 'watch' it as it unfolded. Laura is an appealing main character, her father a complete self-absorbed lout and Roberto, a dashing and nicely-flawed paramour. ( )

Read my overall review of the whole series here! Spoiler Free!

I read this book as soon as it came out but before I started the second book, [b:Heart of Glass|18667292|Heart of Glass|Christy Hayes|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1381714109s/18667292.jpg|16801498] I decided to reread it because I couldn't remember what exactly had happened.

I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book. The mystery element is a nice feature and I find I don't often read books that are mostly a mystery plot so it was a nice change.

As you can see from my overuse of the word "nice" that's all I can really think to summarize the book as: it was a "nice" easy and quick read. While I think there is enough going on plot-wise, it still felt like something was missing from the book. I don't know what it is but I think it is just missing that little something that would make it a 5/5. Perhaps it was a little rushed in how the plot progressed? But I'm not sure if that was really it.

I also think the romance is a little lackluster--I don't really get their connection so I would have appreciated a little more romance there.

Overall: A decent start to a series that was fun to read but needs just that little bit more. It's sequel on the other hand is a completely different story!

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESousBookReviews.com as well as read book series recaps!


( )

Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould is a historical fiction/mystery and is perfectly styled towards its target audience of ages twelve and up. While I enjoy historical fiction with a lot of historical details, I am not convinced that a younger audience is always looking for the same thing in that area, so I find this nicely balance. The setting is historical, but Sasha Gould has done a wonderful job in creating characters and a suspense story line that are more in-depth than the historical piece itself. She manages to keep a nice writing style while keeping it MG/YA. I am always happy to read a book for a younger reading audience that isn't trying to eek out good reviews by writing for their adult reviewers.
The beginning of the story lays the groundwork for the protagonist, Laura, where the reader gets familiarized with her circumstance of living in the convent, her family relations, and then the tragedy that changes everything. From that point on, the suspense builds and romance buds.
This is a mystery, so the suspense element is built better than the romance piece, but I would have liked to have seen a few more real and intimate moments between Laura and her love interest before love was declared. I did love the suspense portion, it is done in a way that leaves the reader unsure of which characters can be trusted until the end, and plenty of unexpected turns that keep the pages turning, which is why I enjoyed this read as much as I did.
I found a lot of pleasure reading about all of the interesting characters that are involved here. One minute I was sure that the Segreta, the secret society, was responsible for the death of Laura’s sister, and the next minute I thought that it could be Laura’s love interest, who is full of his own secrets. I am not going to give anything away here, so if you enjoy MG/YA suspense, give it a try. I hope that you enjoy it. ( )

Set in Renaissance Venice, this is a book filled with romance and intrigue. Laura is a strong protagonist, refusing to marry the old man her father has chosen for her. Instead she falls in love with Giacomo, an ordinary painter. Of course he is stunning to look at, but in my opinion rather one dimensional and I guessed his story early in the piece. Their romance is rather ho hum, although I did enjoy the murder and mystery that are woven throughout the book. It took quite a while to really become engaged with the story, which is why I only gave it three stars, but it did end well.

One issue I have with YA fiction at the moment is that every book written seems to be part of a series. "Cross My Heart" is a stand-alone book until the very last page. If there is a sequel I hope it has new characters - Laura's story has been told and it doesn't need to be dragged out in another book. ( )

Very good love story set in 16th century Venice. Love action and secret societies! ( )