I am delighted to be on the Blog tour for Lynne Shelby’s A Venice Summer!
The Blurb
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 six-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 her employer, 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?
My Review
A Venice Summer: a sunlit summer romance by Lynne Shelby
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What a gorgeous story!
This dual-timeline tale focuses on an art conservator, Rose, who moves to Venice for the summer to work on a special project.
While there, she begins to unravel a mystery connected to the 16th-century painting she is restoring, and possibly falls headlong in love not only with Venice but also with a certain young man.
Reading the short snippets relating to a young Italian noblewoman, rumoured to be the subject of the artwork being restored, really added another layer of depth to the whole story.
Rose’s character warmed to me as she isn’t a flighty young thing but is undergoing her own metamorphosis when she escapes to Venice for a job that fell at her feet at an extremely convenient time.
Luca, the owner of the palazzo where Rose is stationed, is a brooding Italian hero with his own responsibilities, which he never forgets, and I love that in a man!
When I read destination books, I always want to go there to experience the place, and this book did exactly that. The authors’ fantastic descriptions of the areas in Venice and the architecture really made me want to visit personally, too.
The details regarding the restoration of artworks were fascinating, and I now want to go to a proper Venetian masked ball!
Purchase Links
https://www.amazon.com/Venice-Summer-sunlit-summer-romance-ebook/dp/B0GGX58TWJ/
About the Author
Lynne Shelby writes contemporary women’s fiction/romance. Her debut novel, ‘Meet Me In Paris,’ (originally titled French Kissing), won the Accent Press and Woman magazine Writing Competition. She has done a variety of jobs from stable girl to child actor’s chaperone to legal administrator, but now writes full time. When not writing or reading, Lynne can usually be found at the theatre or exploring a foreign city – Paris, New York, Rome, Copenhagen, Seattle, Reykjavik – writer’s notebook, camera and sketchbook in hand. She lives in London with her husband, and has three adult children who live nearby.
Social Media Links –
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LynneShelbyWriter
Instagram: lynneshelbywriter
Bluesky: @lynneshelby.bsky.social
Threads: @lynneshelbywriter
Twitter: @LynneShelby5
But I Smile Anyway... 