A review by ilaria_ilady
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

2.0

Easy and enjoyable reading. The story is captivating and keeps suspense to get reader's curiosity to know more. I appreciated author's engaging writing style with good mastery of description. However, I have been quite disappointed overall. The storyline is very simple and easy to follow. As an Italian who knows about Italian history during Reinnasance and how importance both Medici and D'Este families, I think the author missed a good opportunity to fully picture the magnificence of courts in Florence and Ferrara where the story is set. During that times, the two families were engaging in intricated and bloody relationships...while there were some references they were not included in the story and it could have added a lot of value. Sadly, I must conclude is one of those historical fictions written by non-Italian to a non-Italian audience and setting just the scene of a very superficial "charming Rainnasance" with a romanticised look of how arts were developing . Probably I was just not the right target audience for this novel.