Beneath the Lion’s Wings is set between Venice and Los Angeles. The novel does an admirable job of capturing the essence of Venice. The female protagonist, Victoria, is a thirty-something woman who works as an executive assistant in a talent agency, who visits the city on the lagoon and falls in love with a fourth generation gondolier, Alviso. It’s a romance that has the usual ups and downs and a few surprises along the way.
Author Nardin also does a great job capturing the “fish out of water” emotions at being in a new place, learning a new language, and adapting to different customs. Having had similar feelings while learning to live in Milan, I appreciated the accuracy of her descriptions. In particular, the descriptions of local cuisine are exceptional.
There is a bit of a surprise along the way. One chapter, fairly early on, drops the story in Venice and reappears in Scandinavia and introduces new characters, with no explanation what so ever, not even a transitional sentence, before returning to Venice and resuming the original story. This odd chapter simply hangs in the air until towards the end of the book when it becomes clear exactly why this occurred. The chapter felt harsh and out of place.
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Beneath the Lion’s Wings (Waterline Publishing, February 6, 2018) is available through Amazon.
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