The Backlot Gay Book Forum discussion

I’ve mentioned previously how much I’ve enjoyed Kim Fielding’s work, and so I was happy to see she has a new book out: Venetian Masks .

Jeff Dawkins’s last partner left him with a mortgage he can’t afford and nonrefundable tickets for a month’s vacation in Europe. Despite a reluctance to travel, Jeff decides to go on the trip anyway. After all, he’s already paid for it. He packs a Kindle loaded with gay romance novels and arrives in Venice full of trepidation. There he meets the handsome and charming expat Cleve Prieto, who offers to serve as his tour guide. Jeff has serious misgivings—he wasn’t born yesterday, and something about Cleve doesn’t sit right—but anything is better than wandering the canals alone.

With Cleve’s help, Jeff falls in love with Venice and begins to reconcile with his past. For the first time, Jeff finds himself developing strong feelings for someone else. But he can’t be sure who that person is because Cleve’s background remains a mystery embroidered with lies.

Then a dark figure from Cleve’s past appears, and Jeff must choose whether to let Cleve flee alone or to join him on a desperate run through central Europe. Maybe Jeff will finally be able to see behind Cleve’s masks—if he survives the journey.

The story starts out a bit dryly, perhaps, with detailed accounts of Jeff planning and embarking on his trip; the very beginning of the book seemed more like a travel guide than a novel. While at least one Amazon reviewer found this opening slightly dull, it didn't bother me at all---I've never been on a similar trip myself and didn't mind getting a sense of the process.

Once the protagonist arrives in Venice, however, the story takes off. By the midpoint of the novel the reader is faced with a full-blown mystery, which then turns into a light sort of thriller/action piece after Jeff discovers what is really going on with Cleve.

Venice does have a certain sort of allure for me: I’ve read a few books and seen a few films set in that ancient city and so was pleased that it was the setting for much of the novel. I checked in with Google Earth a few times while reading, as an aid in getting a real sense of the place. It really does help get into the spirit of a story, to see maps and photographs of the specific sights and locations that the main characters are experiencing.

I don’t know that this quite compares with Fielding’s best work---I am always going to have a particular fondness for Brute ! But I’d rate this at the upper end of the “pleasant diversion” scale. I enjoyed it, and will recommend it for pleasant light reading.

This is the only book by Kim Fielding I have yet to read. Waiting for a sale to buy it. You do not happen to have it as lendable do you OC? I don't think I saw it on your lendable folder but wanted to double check.

Sorry, I don't have it to lend through Amazon since I bought it directly from the publisher. But who knows---perhaps it will come on sale soon (though remember, it's already discounted on Amazon).

I finally was able to read this one. I agree with you that this is not quite K Fielding's best (or favorite of mine at least). But I lied it all the same. I don't know how she does it but I love each and every one of her MC's.

I was surprised by the subtlety, the cool, clear-headed writing, the beautiful sense of character and place that the author brings to the unusual story line.

Jeff Dawkins has cocooned himself in a world of predictable normality, while Cleve Prieto has never had a safe or secure moment in his life. They find each other in Venice, that magical and illusory city, as each of them - in very different ways - flees a horribly failed relationship. As divergent as their lives are, the experience of sudden death is something they share, and in each other Jeff and Cleve find the possibility of an escape from the pain and fear that has proscribed their lives.

Kim Fielding offers us an m/m romance novel (in which the main character is addicted to reading m/m romance novels on his Kindle, LOL) that goes deeper than the average fare in this much-loved genre. Kudos to Ms. Fielding. I expected to like this - but not as much as I ended up liking it.