Excerpt: Jenny Kidd by Laury A. Egan
- Archaeolibrarian
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Book Details:
Book Title: Jenny Kidd
Author: Laury A. Egan
Publisher: Spectrum Books
Cover Artist: Thomas Stewart, design by Laury A. Egan and Andrew May
Release Date: October 18, 2025
Pairing: FF and FFM
Tense/POV: third person/past tense, single POV
Genres: Mystery/Suspense
Tropes: Dangerous infatuation
Themes: Sexual awakening, dark romance, artistic achievement
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 66 682 words/182 pages
It is a standalone story and does the book end on a cliffhanger
@laury.egan @gaybookpromotions
@laurya.egan @gaybookpromotions
While spending autumn in Venice, a young American artist, Jenny Kidd, hopes to create a portfolio of paintings to launch her career and establish her independence from her tyrannical father. At the Guggenheim Collection, she encounters Randi, a colorful British woman, who invites her to a masked ball at the Palazzo Barbon. There, she meets the seductive Caterina Barbon and her brother, Sebastiano, who entice Jenny into a world of glittering façades that cloak sexual perversion, art forgery, and murder. As Jenny struggles between her attraction to Caterina and her growing awareness that she is in danger, Jenny discovers an inner strength and spirit worthy of her infamous pirate ancestor.
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Jenny Kidd stood at arm’s length from the Wassily Kandinsky painting, White Cross. She had an overwhelming urge to rotate it, so the upside-down “3s” were righted, just to satisfy her visual curiosity. Sometimes she felt the same way about her life. If only she could examine it, turn its orientation, and set off in another direction. That wish, and the opportunity to paint, had prompted her trip to Venice, a destination her grandmother had said was an enchanted place for artists.
The city was lovely in late September—still monstrously crowded and expensive—but Jenny was staying in a flat off Campo Santo Stefano, furnished and hers for ten weeks, an apartment swap arranged with a Venetian friend studying in New York. Even with the free rent, the cost of living and airfare had depleted Jenny’s savings and was skyrocketing her credit card debt. It would be such a relief to have a wealthy and supportive patron, someone like Peggy Guggenheim, whose famous art collection she was now admiring.
As she mused on this, she began to leave the museum’s drawing room, then hesitated, sensing strange vibrations coming from someone nearby. She studied the visitors but didn’t see anyone staring at her or who looked odd. A few minutes later, when the museum was closing, Jenny reluctantly left.
Strolling home, she attributed the odd feeling to a desire to be with people. Living in this romantic city by herself was surprisingly sad, as if Venice’s beauty couldn’t be assimilated into her being unless she shared the experience. Despite her shyness, she had attempted to make friends. First by chatting with tourists, but she soon learned this was pointless. They were like fruit flies: quickly gone. So, too, were most young Venetians, who scurried off at day’s end for Mestre and the mainland because they couldn’t afford to live in their own city. And even if she did meet someone, would it be a man or a woman?
Her ambivalence frustrated her, a confusion that had become more pronounced in recent months and had precipitated the end of her relationship with Greg, which occurred two weeks before she left for Italy. Now, in this foreign place, would she be liberated from her personal history and the overshadowing influence of her parents? Although she had always been too timid to act on her romantic feelings toward women, Jenny hoped Venice might open new doors.
October 18 (Release Day)
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Laury A. Egan is the author of fifteen novels: Fair Haven; Jack & I; The Black Leopard’s Kiss & The Writer Remembers; The Psychologist’s Shadow; The Firefly; Once, Upon an Island; Wave in D Minor; Doublecrossed; Turnabout; The Swimmer; The Ungodly Hour; A Bittersweet Tale; Fabulous! An Opera Buffa; The Outcast Oracle; and Jenny Kidd; two collections, Fog and Other Stories and Contrary: Stories and a Play, and four volumes of poetry: Snow, Shadows, a Stranger; Beneath the Lion’s Paw; The Sea & Beyond; and Presence & Absence. She lives on the northern coast of New Jersey.
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Tour hosted by: Gay Book Promotions
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