Recently I took a trip to the goodwill nearby to donate some clothes with my husband. Since we were already there we decided to look around, and in the store there was a fairly large book area filled with pretty decent books. I picked this one up because (I know you aren't suppose to judge a book by it's cover) it caught my eye in the crammed bookshelf it occupied. After reading the synopsis of the book I decided to give it a try, and boy am I happy I did!
Sarah Dunant portrays the Italia Renaissance scene with vivid and great details (without being too wordy). When I closed my eyes I could imagine being the houses and streets that the main character was in. The language was neat and easily understood. All in all, I thought the author's writing style was great.
As for the story line itself, I thought it was pretty sweet. It follows the life of one Alessandra Cecchi as she grows into adulthood and describes the world of women during this awesome time in Europe. There was a lot of detail about the way females lived and what they did, where, and why packed in this book. And although the way they lived their lives and where they lived are very different from the world we live in today, I think many of the things Alessandra struggled with could be related to by young adults.
The main character wants nothing but to be able to paint, draw, and read books instead of doing "womanly" things. One night her father accompanied by a strange painter from a monastery comes into the picture and flips her world upside down. She is immediately fascinated by this painter and tries to learn and be friends with him even though he refuses to speak to her because of his vows of never speaking to women.
But to Alessandra's surprise and disappointment, she is soon married off to a much older person who is as intelligent and artistic as the bride herself. However, there is a secret he is hiding from the public eyes and begs his new wife to keep it a secret as well. Disaster could happen if anyone else finds out about it, and the burden is heavy.
Overall this book was quite enjoyable. It wasn't extremely long, but it had just enough details in it to be great. Would I recommend this to a friend? Yes I would, especially an artistic one :3
