Calgon, Take Me Away! – Kate Noble

London weather is chilly—and the social scene even more so. Luckily, Bridget Forrester is just getting warmed up…

Bridget longs to meet a gentleman who doesn’t mention her beautiful sister upon shaking her hand. But since being branded a shrew after a disastrous social season, Bridget knows she’s lucky to even have a man come near her. It’s enough to make a lady flee the country…

So Bridget heads to Venice for music lessons with the renowned Italian composer Vincenzo Carpenini, with whom she’s been corresponding. But not only is Carpenini not expecting her, he doesn’t even remember her! His friend, theater owner Oliver Merrick, does, though. And one look into her tantalizing green eyes has him cursing his impulsive letter-writing, which brought her across the continent. Yet before Merrick can apologize, Carpenini has ordered her away.

Little does either man know that they will soon be embroiled in a wager that will require the beautiful Miss Forrester’s help—or that there’ll be far more at stake in this gamble than money…

 

~~~*~~~*~~~

Calgon, Take Me Away!

 

 

Let’s face it, with increasing fuel prices, airfare, and the horrors of going through whatever new torture the TSA has devised, the idea of travel is more romantic than the reality.  After all, who wants to be jammed into a plane like sardines, placated with 40 channels of basic cable, or forced into a minivan with small children and no iPads for a trip?

 

Problem is, I love to see new places.  I love to taste new foods, see breathtaking architecture, and hear different languages.  I love having new experiences.  And when life gets in the way of those desires, I have the happy luck to be able to escape via books.

 

Which is a good enough reason to set my latest novel, Let It Be Me in Venice, Italy.

 

But of course, it’s not the only reason.  Bridget Forrester, my heroine, desperately needs to get out of London.  She’s had a bad time of it – an unsuccessful first season living in the shadow of her sister, an unearned reputation as someone cold and shrewish.  Which is why, when she’s offered the opportunity to study music with renowned composer Vincenzo Carpenini, she doesn’t hesitate to get on a ship and sail for Venice. She needs the chance to be new again.

 

And it works.  Being introduced to Venice gives Bridget life.  It opens her eyes and her heart to the wonder of a city built on an island crisscrossed with canals.  It also opened her up to meet Oliver Merrick.

 

Oliver’s in Venice learning about himself too – but a bit more literally.  His mother was Italian, by his father English.  He wanted to get to know that half of his heritage he had previously been denied.  But his eyes are opened up to Bridget too – especially when his friend Vincenzo Carpenini needs her help to win a musical competition that Vincenzo embroiled them all in.

 

As stressful as the competition is, it does give Oliver and Bridget the chance to wander the streets of Venice together.

 

There is something remarkably alluring about being someplace foreign.  It can change the way you see the world, and it can change the way you see yourself.

 

So how about you?  What is your dream place to visit?  One lucky commenter will win a signed copy of Let It Be Me!

 

www.katenoble.com

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