thebookishblonde 's review for:

The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche

4.0

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This was such an interesting and unique story and played into so many of my personal interests, i.e. Florence, the plague, witchcraft & the occult, secretive & shady church stuff, the Late Middle Ages time period, and the power stones have or we perceive they have. We also have a wonderful main character in our “stone witch” Ginevra. This book did a great job at balancing historical facts while weaving in fantasy elements that somehow still felt like they legitimately could have happened. I’ve never been to Florence even though I’ve been obsessed with that city since elementary school. The world building in this book make it so vivid in my head and I’m able to go down a rabbit hole googling certain places or events or items mentioned throughout the story. This book sort of gives a mix of A Discovery of Witches vibes mixed with The DaVinci Code vibes (or, at least the very little I remember from that book, which I read 20ish years ago). Others might disagree with me, but the magic/occult stuff and churchiness rolled into the legit historical realism reminds me of those two books off the top of my head. I think this is a really great, atmospheric read or a great way to dip your toes into the fantasy genre if you’re hesitant to dive right in. I liked this book so much I bought it in hardcover and an additional kindle version. I hope we get many more books like this from Anne Rasche in the future!