Liszt's Kiss by Susanne Dunlap

Liszt's Kiss takes place in the 1800's, during the cholera outbreak in Paris. Dunlap did her research and the cholera outbreak in the book is accurate to what happened, and she also included two characters who did indeed exist in this time. Franz Liszt himself, a famous Hungarian pianist, and Marie d'Agoult, a countess. Each section of writing is switches between their point of views, Annes', the main protagonist, Anne's cousin, and a young doctor who wishes to marry Anne, whilst Anne has her heart set on Liszt.

As much as this sounds as your average romance novel with drama sprinkled on top, it isn't. Deception and mystery is at the core of this book. Relationships between the charterers don't come easy, and seemingly innocent characters jump to great lengths for those they love, including law breaking. The drama is kicked up a notch with classical misunderstandings, leaving everyone confused at the end.

The mystery is what really kept me around, the questions that shrouded Anne's family gave the book some much needed suspense. Lizt's Kiss has suspense, has intense drama, has mystery, and passion for music. However, all this is dampened because of the time period. It can be hard to feel the intensity of a scandal, when the scandal is something as small as holding hands. Accurate to the time period, but not that exciting. Some creators can put emotion behind otherwise bland historical fictions, this is not one of them. 

Personally, Liszt's Kiss is not one of my favorites. The book wasn't able to drag out any emotional response from me. The character's were good, but not great and relatable. The writing was good, but not fantastic. It turned out to be a mediocre work with a lazy 'wrap-up' ending. I would only suggest this if your very into the 1800's or if you're lacking a next book to read.