Book 63
Venetian Masks by Kim Fielding
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another vacation spent reading one of Ms. Fielding's books. It's becoming a tradition with me it seems. I was laughing a little because I was having Stracciatella gelato reading about the romantic lead doing the same (Only he was lucky enough to be in Venice). I don't usually read contemporary fiction but I've always enjoyed everything I've read by Ms. Fielding and the cover was amazing on this. Also, I suppose this could be considered suspense.
Jeff Dawkins, a sweet, sort of nerdy homebody is on his very first really big vacation. It was supposed to be with his boyfriend but Jeff has been dumped. His mom convinces him to use the nonrefundable tickets anyhow. Jeff figures he'll just bum around Venice and a few other cities, staying in timeshares his place of employment holds. It's a bittersweet trip for him, thinking of all the things he's seeing that he was meant to see with his ex.
Soon he meets a handsome, tattooed stranger, Cleve, who offers to be Jeff's personal guide. In spite of catching Cleve in a couple lies about his past, Jeff agrees to it. Cleve is an excellent guide and Jeff begins to fall hard for him even though he's aware Cleve's keeping secrets. Things go sideways when Cleve's dark past catches up to him and the men are forced to go on the run just to stay alive.
I really loved Jeff, almost instantly. It took a little longer to warm up to Cleve (I guess I thought he should be a tad better at spinning tales than he was but I think I might have been laboring under the impression Cleve had been at it longer than he had). What I really loved is the settings. Ms. Fielding is a traveler and it shows in this. Venice is almost another character in the story it's so well drawn. This ends pretty much how I expected since I didn't see too many ways it could have ended with a HEA otherwise. It was a fun read and thanks to American Airlines crappy service I had time to read it all in one go almost!
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