Heart of Glass

Gr 9 Up—Gould's sequel to Cross My Heart (Delacorte, 2012) once again finds high-society Venetian Laura della Scala in a tricky situation. This time, her fiancé, Roberto, stands accused of murdering a young foreigner. Laura still belongs to the Segreta, a clandestine society of women who wield secrets like the deadliest of swords. But when her appeals to the group for help in clearing Roberto's name are not answered, she takes matters into her own hands. Meanwhile, Halim, a visiting Turkish ambassador, singles Laura out to give him a tour of the city. She is oddly drawn to the dark prince but then learns that the murdered girl was his sister. Now the Turkish fleet threatens Venice's shores with attack, Roberto has mysteriously escaped from prison and disappeared, and somehow Laura's old enemy Carina resurfaces-not dead, but very much alive, and bent on revenge. Laura doesn't get a break from action and neither will readers, who can just about feel their own slipper-clad feet racing through the cobbled streets of Venice from one crisis to another. Clumsy segues between action sequences and relentless plot twists notwithstanding, Gould offers a fast-paced adventure. Readers who stick with this one will be rewarded with an exciting tale of romance, intrigue, lies, and of course-secrets.—Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ