Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould - ADVISABLE

Gould, Sasha  Cross My Heart, 263 pgs.  Delacorte Press, 2011.  $17.99  Content:  Language: PG (8 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: PG-13.  

Laura is the second daughter to a man who is financially struggling in Venice during the late 1500s, so at the young age of ten, her father unceremoniously drops her at the doors of a convent.  Laura longs for contact with her sister Beatrice and is beyond relief when at the age of sixteen, her father sends for her to live with him again.  When Laura arrives home she is heartbroken to find Beatrice has been murdered and that Laura is to take her place in marrying an old perverted merchant.  In an attempt to thwart her marriage, Laura joins a secret society of Venetian women with the cost of admission being a secret.   Throughout the book, Laura finds herself attracted to a painter commissioned by the Doge and she has to learn who she can trust and who might be behind her sister’s death.  

This was an exciting historical romantic suspense that takes place in the beautifully described city of Venice.  Laura is a strong character who finds strength as a woman regardless of the controlling men in her life.  I also enjoyed that this novel can stand alone.  

MS, HS-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.