Even though I love romances set in unusual places, sometimes those same qualities end up weakening the main characters and their relationship.
Lord of the Night by Susan Wiggs
(1993, 16th Century Venice) 1/22/05
Grade: 4
In 16th century Venice, Sandro Cavelli, Lord of the Night, is devoted to solving murders. But when he meets beautiful artist and courtesan-in-training Laura Bandello, he wants to forget his dedication to order and duty. Laura is willing to give up her virginity to become an artist, but Sandro makes her dream of more - if she is willing to risk everything.
The setting was fascinating - I loved reading about the history of Venice and Venetian society. The descriptions were so vivid, I felt like I was there. The secondary characters were unique and well done. But the love story wasn’t as interesting as the setting. I was never really drawn in by the relationship between Sandro and Laura, and all the running around and mystery solving kept taking time away from it. (There was nothing really wrong with the romance, it just didn’t seem that unique or compelling.) I give Wiggs a lot of credit for the unique setting, but the main characters just didn’t thrill me.
This book just tried to do too many things at once - Wiggs would have been better off to leave out most of the mystery elements and focus more on the main characters. There wasn't anything wrong with them, the relationship was just kind of blah and unoriginal.
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1 comment:
I really enjoyed LORD OF THE NIGHT. I think I liked the relationship more than you did, but I agree that the setting was the most interesting part. I also thought the mystery was well done, but the setting is what makes this book so unique.
-- LFL
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