Settings: real or fictional?

First off, thanks to everyone who voted for BEDKNOBS & BEANSTALKS. We won the Whipped Cream Book of the Week poll. All the exposure popped us up on the sales charts over at Ravenous Romance, so the authors are very excited. People are coming out of the woodwork to tell me how much they enjoyed it, and the editor wants the lesbian version even more now. That’s next month’s project.

For now, I’m working on my jewel heist story for Torquere’s Color Box series…. and I need some help with choosing my setting.

Tobin is a curator, putting together an exhibit which includes a very famous emerald, and his old boyfriend turns up. In another time and place, that might be wonderful. The problem is Pierce is a jewel thief. Or at least Tobin thinks he is. Things have a way of going missing when Pierce is around, but no one’s reporting the thefts. All Tobin knows is he needs to protect his jewels and his heart.

So, I don’t know where the exhibit should take place.  It could be a real museum, a made-up museum or at some other location like a casino or a castle somewhere in Europe. I’m open for suggestions at this point. I considered a casino in Monte Carlo, but not sure if it’s worth doing the extra research.

What do you think? Do you like to see stories set in real locations? Do you prefer vague locations which don’t say specifically where they are? Or would a made-up museum work for you? Does it matter?

For me, I like to see real places used as settings in fiction ONLY if they are realistic portrayals of the place. Otherwise, I’m fine with a fake place, as long as nothing substantive is completely implausible.

What about you?