“Dunant has created a vivid and compellingly believable picture of Renaissance Florence: the squalor and brutality; the confidence and vitality; the political machinations. Her research has obviously been meticulous....A magnificent novel.”
–The Telegraph (London)


I agree...a magnificent novel!!

sending to lauraloo29 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada as part of the "Women's Fiction" relay"

Arrived today. A beautiful looking book. Thank you.

I'm not sure that I liked this book. I normally enjoy historical fiction, but I felt quite lost in this one. I felt like I was only reading it to figure out the beginning......

I do think it was an interesting time that I was unaware of, and I will need to read up on it.

Sending as a Reverse Wishlist Bookrelay to Sidney1220. Enjoy!

Received today. Thanks...

I agree with lauraloo on this one. The author does paint a vivid portrait of Florence in the 15th century, but I felt that Alessandra was too passive a character for me to care much about her. She's not nearly as courageous as other people in the book seem to think she is- actually, she's quite stupid most of the time aside from her love of art- and her actions during the final parts of the book confound me. Why did she make the choices she made? It didn't make sense and was very out of character. I could think of no other reason than that the author wants to shock us.

Reserved for pbs.

Mailed at the post office.

Oops! I received this quite some time ago on Paperbackswap and accidently registered it on my bookshelf because I didn't check the inside cover for Bookcrossing labels. My bad!

I haven't read this book yet, but since found a cheap copy at the thrift store yesterday I'm making it available. When I read my copy, I'll make sure to add my thoughts to this book's journal, too.

RELEASE NOTES:

sent to Teresa Dzieweczynski of Biddeford, ME via the Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics forum.