Venom

Author: Fiona Paul
Goodreads Rating: 3.98
Pages: 432
Format: ARC from BEA12

Cassandra Caravello is one of Renaissance Venice’s lucky elite: with elegant gowns, sparkling jewels, her own lady’s maid, and a wealthy fiancé, she has everything a girl could desire. Yet ever since her parents’ death, Cassandra has felt trapped, alone in a city of water, where the dark and labyrinthine canals whisper of escape.
When Cass stumbles upon a murdered woman—practically in her own backyard—she’s drawn into a dangerous world of courtesans, killers, and secret societies. Soon, she finds herself falling for Falco, a mysterious artist with a mischievous grin... and a spectacular skill for trouble. Can Cassandra find the murderer, before he finds her? And will she stay true to her fiancé, or succumb to her uncontrollable feelings for Falco?
Beauty, love, romance, and mystery weave together in a stunning novel that’s as seductive and surprising as the city of Venice itself.

I'm sorry to say that this book didn't grab me at the beginning. I wanted to like, but, but at first I didn't. It took me a few days to get into it. By the time I got to page 80, the book had sufficiently grabbed me to make me want to finish the book. 

I think my biggest problem with the beginning was that while I loved the whole world of Renaissance Italy, and the glitz and the glamour, there was so much description, and I felt that it just dragged on forever. Don't get me wrong, it was a totally beautiful world that had a lot of details, but there were a lot of details in the beginning that I started to get bored.

Enter Falco and the mystery. Now the book really had my attention, Falco was pretty sexy, but suspicious, I wasn't really sure of his intentions as he and Cass tried to figure out who was killing all of these people. As the book progressed, I still didn't trust him, there were a few too many things that seemed off about him.

I wasn't a huge fan of Cass. She seemed to play the poor bored rich girl who didn't think her fiance was good enough, whether that is an accurate characterization of her, I'm not sure, but she irked me. She also irked me because of her inability to make a decision concerning the love triangle she found herself in with her fiance and Falco. Both of them had their redeeming qualities, but not sure how I feel about them because they both had their secrets.

One thing this book was not short of was mysteries, and I love that they all (mostly) got tied up at the end along with a super fancy wedding. I am still excited to get to read the second book and find out what is going to happen next with Cass, Falco and Luca.

The Courts Decision: