A richly textured picaresque full of adventure, intrigue, and erotic passion.
Two Venetian men fall in love while battling the city-state’s enemies in Mellman’s rollicking medieval romance novel.
In 1371, the Republic of Venice is threatened by a potential alliance between the loathsome Lord Francesco Carrara of Padua (who is pillaging Venetian territory and illegally selling salt below the customary price) and the arrogant King Louis of Hungary (who covets the Venetian-held town of Treviso). Centering the story are Niccolò Saltano, a 17-year-old aide to His Exalted Serenity, the Doge of Venice and the finest crossbowman in Venice, and Donato Venturi, the son of a Venetian nobleman and an enslaved Malian princess—hence his fetching combination of brown skin and sapphire blue eyes—and the finest swordsman in Venice. On a spy mission to Louis’ court, the duo dispatch bandits, kill a wild boar, save Louis from a bear attack, and then slaughter the assassins he treacherously assigns to murder them. Along the way they are taken in by the monks of Saint Mary’s, who encourage them, after much spiritual counseling, to consummate their mounting sexual attraction in the priory’s grotto. Back in Venice, Niccolò and Donato enter the thick of the ensuing war with Padua and Hungary as they formulate strategy, lead troops in battle, are captured and escape, and investigate conspirators selling state secrets to the enemy. They also delve into the murky activities of Niccolò’s monstrous father, Marcantonio Gradenigo, who raped Niccolò’s mother—and raped and killed Donato’s mother as well—and is now posing as the Augustinian monk Brother Bernardo as he plots with a cabal of disgruntled nobles to overthrow the Republic and place Niccolò’s odious half brother, Ruggiero Gradenigo, on the Doge’s throne. With all of that on their plates, Niccolò and Donato still find plenty of time for lengthy, graphic sexual trysts.
Mellman’s period adventure feels a bit like a gay take on Othello without the madness or much jealousy, featuring sharply etched characters (“He speaks with precision and supreme authority,” Niccolò observes of Louis, though “[h]is lips, full and pendulous, fill me with repugnance”) and rousing, well-staged action scenes (“I plunge my blade into his exposed flank, twisting to force him to his knees, raging and helpless as I stomp him flat, pinion him with my boots, and with every ounce of strength in my being, plunge my sword into his heart again and again”). With pungent, evocative prose, Mellman immerses readers in a fine re-creation of medieval life and worldviews, especially the centrality of Catholicism, whether in ecstatic devotion (“Christ ascendant hovers majestically in the golden dome above our heads, where sunlight pours through the windows of the transepts over the gold tiles framing the last scenes of Christ’s earthly journey,” Niccolò notes while gazing at St. Mark’s Cathedral) or in earthy, Chaucerian observations of social mores (“Between here and Trieste, I know every village with a humble church, a stingy bishop, and a bawdy housewife with plenty of hay in the barn and a spare penny for a knuckle from the little toe of St. Agnes of Todi,” chuckles a mendicant friar Niccolò and Donato meet on the road). This captivating period saga mixes precise, colorful details with epic sweep.
A richly textured picaresque full of adventure, intrigue, and erotic passion.Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781648906565
Page Count: 439
Publisher: NineStar Press
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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