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Adiamo Roma!!
Alora, quindi, dai…
Required words for the truly Italian.
Also, kidnapping.
Isobel Chace had been writing for awhile by 1977 when this novel was published, with 26 Harlequins before this one.
Diving into the trope trove, Chace came up with captivity for The Mouth of Truth.
As the cover suggests, Domenico Manzù makes his pretty prisoner, Debbie Beaumont, comfortable.
First, with a new wardrobe a Corsa, “Rome’s equivalent to Bond Street.” OMG I can’t wait.
Debbie is an artist. She does a lot of “ultra modern stuff” as a sculptor and painter. She tells Domenico on her maiden limo ride minutes into her captivity: “It takes a while to break out of the chrysalis of needing someone else’s approval.”
Truer words, Debbie…
I wanted to read Isobel Chace (1934-2005) because she’s a career romance novelist. Goodreads shows 30 books, but I think there are more.
In spite of the yolk of reader expectation, Chace had likely broken out of her shell by The Mouth of Truth.
Goodreads (House of the Scissors) reports that Chace wrote under the pseudonym of Isobel Chace, and under her real names: Elizabeth Hunter and Elizabeth de Guise. Born in1934 in Nairobi, Kenya, she lived in in Kenya and South Africa, and studied at the Open University.
After 26 books, Chace is mastering the art of “swan lake in a phone booth” to quote romance author phenom and gajillionaire Nora Roberts about the category romance.
The Mouth of Truth had me at hello.
Chace opens with a father-daughter conflict, and with it, I was hooked. Let that be a lesson to you. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t terribly well-written. The prose wasn’t memorable, and the characters were a bit obtuse, but I got pulled along in spite of all the imperfections.
It’s all we need, dear author: a little conflict.
Deborah’s Dad is rich, absent (remarried with other kids), but still wants to protect his estranged daughter.
Debbie just wants to go to Rome with her friends. It’s on her own dime. Sure he’s paid her bills in the past! Is he going to begrudge her that now? (Exclamation point alert. Chace spares no spear.)
Deb’s Dad explains that his company had some business dealings in Italy recently and may have inadvertently thrown an election. It’s not ideal for someone sharing his name to visit Italy, not right now.
There’s some foot-stomping, some you-can’t-stop-me, and poof! Debbie is on the plane, staring out the window, wondering if she was right to come.
The plane ride to beyond is a recurring scene in this category line, where the heroines travel just about anywhere…as long as they’re under somebody’s thumb from tarmac through touchdown.
Do you suppose I like being kidnapped?
Thus, the need for this contrived and silly trope.
It’s a hard pill to swallow now, this plot template, but consider the plight of woman in 1977.
The world has shifted beneath the words on these pages, so it’s only fair to take them for what they were worth fifty years ago, recalculating for inflation.
In spite of the fact that this category line resorted to kidnapping, captivity, and a continuum of lock-her-in-a-room scenarios, the machination allowed women to travel the world, essentially on their own.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, romance is a feminist enterprise.
‘That is one of the advantages of being a man, signorina. My family, like yours, would undoubtedly be far more shocked at your allowing me to kiss you than by my doing so. It’s the way of the world!’
She opened her eyes wide. ‘You mean they’d blame me?’
And gosh, if we compare women’s rights 50 years ago to what we have now, a few elements of 1977 look pretty good.
Anyhoo.
Adesso…Roma!
Enjoy old-school historical romance? Me too! Start with Wolfe Island. It’s available in paperback, ebook, and Audible.
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GIULIA TORRE 