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lakedarling 's review for:
The Vatican Princess: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia
by C.W. Gortner
I thoroughly enjoyed The Vatican Princess by C.W. Gortner. It immersed me in Renaissance Italy and introduced me to a lot of information I hadn’t known before. I found that the story took a backseat to the setting but that didn’t bother me.
I always finds that Gortner builds a beautiful scene and stays quite close to known or presumed history. That seemed to irk some readers (based on reviews) since he didn’t completely avoid the rumors that surrounded the Borgia family. I thought said rumors were included in a way that kept them as just that though. He also did not fall into the narrative of Lucrezia being a ruthless poisoner and I found her character to be more true to the time period. She was a girl born into a power hungry family who used her for their own gain. She had aims to move and shake like the men but couldn’t ever quite execute that plan.
I will say the first 60% of the story felt like set up for the last 40%. This didn’t really bother me but it would likely dissuade some. I am excited to now find more works centered on the Borgia especially Cesare.
I always finds that Gortner builds a beautiful scene and stays quite close to known or presumed history. That seemed to irk some readers (based on reviews) since he didn’t completely avoid the rumors that surrounded the Borgia family. I thought said rumors were included in a way that kept them as just that though. He also did not fall into the narrative of Lucrezia being a ruthless poisoner and I found her character to be more true to the time period. She was a girl born into a power hungry family who used her for their own gain. She had aims to move and shake like the men but couldn’t ever quite execute that plan.
I will say the first 60% of the story felt like set up for the last 40%. This didn’t really bother me but it would likely dissuade some. I am excited to now find more works centered on the Borgia especially Cesare.