The Venice Secret by Anita Chapman

Book Blurb
In 2019, Rachel is stuck in a rut when she discovers what appears to be a Canaletto painting in her grandmother’s loft along with a note addressed to Philippa in 1782. With help from Jake at the local art gallery, Rachel endeavours to find out if the painting is an original and uncovers a secret from the past.

In 1780, governess at Chipford Hall, Philippa is offered the role of mistress by Earl Rupert. She escapes to Venice as companion to bluestocking, Lady Cordelia who reveals a secret that changes both their lives. They do their best to keep the secret from Lady Cordelia’s social circle, but their nemesis is determined to reveal all and ruin them.

My Review
When I was offered the opportunity to be part of the blog tour for The Venice Secret I jumped at the chance. Regular readers of my reviews know of my love of historical fiction, art history and Italy, and this book has all three. With a dual timeline, the present is the story of Rachel who finds a painting in her grandmother’s attic that seems to be a Canaletto. With the paintng is a letter to Phillipa from 1780, and this leads seamlessly into the second plot line, about Philippa and her journey to Venice as a companion to Lady Cordelia. Both timelines weave a story of love, loss, secrets and mystery that spans nearly two hundred and fifty years.

Split timeline novels frequently favour one over the other, but what I loved about this book was that each timeline was given equal attention and that both had me completley engrossed. Whilst there were two hundred and fifty years between the stories, there are similarities in the circumstances of Rachel and Philippa. Rachel is facing a difficult time after being made redundant, she has split from her boyfriend and has had to move back to her mother’s house. Philippa finds also finds herself needing employment after the death of her father, and this is how she finds herself at working as a governess at Chipford Hall. Both women find themselves in new employment where the chance of love also comes along, but for neither does the path to love run smoothly. I really beame invested in the stories of both women who went on very different journeys both physically and metaphorically during the book.

I loved Anita Chapman’s writing, she had my attention from the very first page (after studying Art History I would love to find a Canaletto in my attic), and kept it until the very last page. The alternate chapters kept me reading longer than I should of as I needed to find out what happened next to both Rachel and Philippa. The prose was very descriptive and I thought Anita Chapman brought eighteenth century Venice to life, with the beauty of the palazzo’s, St Marks Square and the delicious food from Florian’s cafe. She obviously did a lot of research into late eighteenth century England, its social structure and practices as well as Venice in that period giving the plot an authenticity adding to pleasure of reading the book. There was also a lot of detail into the procedure for verifying a piece of art and it’s provinance. At the the front of the book there are black and white pictures of the paintings that influenced the book, but I ended up looking on the National Gallery website to remind myself of the beautiful colours used by Canaletto and it’s something I recommend if you haven’t seen them.

The Venice Secret is a fabulous and fascinating the read. The split timeline works really well with equal attention paid the both plot lines and they weave seamlessly together. I was totally immersed in this book and honestly found it hard to put down as I became invested in both the characters and the mystery of the Canaletto painting. Beautifully written and well researched The Venice Secret is a stunning read.

I’d like to thank Neets Press and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour in return for my honest review.