A story about Lucrezia Borgia, the famous Italian aristocrat daughter of the most corrupt Pope in history.

I was expecting a much more historical account of Lucrezia. This is a fictional story of her attempt to clear her name of poisoning one of her ladies - in - waiting.

The most interesting part of the book was the descriptions of Ferrara, which by chance I had stayed in a few weeks prior to reading the book.

I did not particularly enjoy the story, finding the action stilted and often confusing the characters in the story. I would like books to provide a list of the "cast" with a brief explanation as to who they are at the beginning of the book for dummies like me. I'm sure the author can remember who they all are, but I mix them up, especially when their names are unusual.

The descriptions of Ferrara and some of the court rituals are interesting. To stereotype I think this would interest women more than men.

Sent to aneca by request today.

Thank you so much for sending it to me Pollyanna-n!!

Well I just finished it. I didn't enjoy it as much as her straight historicals and like the previous reader I found there were too many characters and not enought depth in them. I like more character driven stories than this one proved to be.
If you want to try Gellis for the first time don't start with this one...

Reserved for bookring. Participants:

1 - penelopewanders - Switzerland
2 - Mallary - France
3 - Twynnie - UK
4 - Wandeca - Canada
5 - Sugaryfun - Australia
6 - BlossomU - Portugal

and back to me...

This book arrived as part of a ring today... I am currently reading another ring which takes place in Renaissance Italy (The Birth of Venus) so this will be an interesting continuation. This would be my first Gellis... maybe I'll take aneca's advice and first quickly read Rosalynde by her which I have in my TBR pile...That one looks like a very fast read, so I can promise I'll be quick about it!
Thanks so much for making this available.

So, I didn't read the other Gellis first, and indeed, now it will stay pretty low on my TBR pile... maybe I'll take it with me on holiday so I don't have much choice at some point.
I found the end of the book a bit better than the beginning, as finally Lucrezia began to have a tiny bit of depth to her character. Otherwise the whole thing felt as stilted as courtlife in these times must have been. The relationship between her and Alfonso also very gradually becomes more interesting - only to be dropped like a dirty sock at the end of the book. Is there to be a sequel? The ending is so inconclusive...(The mystery is solved, fair enough, but the relationship between Lucrezia and Alfonso is totally up in the air). If you are intrigued by food and clothes, you will get plenty of lengthy descriptions about this. There's a lot of slow speculation about a murder, but slow is the operative term.
I am always grateful to those who make these bookrings available as I do love to read and I do love to discover new authors. I can console myself by thinking Gellis can only go up from here. Thanks so much... I'll be contacting the next person on the list for the address.

RELEASE NOTES:

This book is finally leaving the Swiss alps for France... thanks for the ring!

Arrived today, can't wait to read it!

I've at last finished the book! Not as quickly as I would have liked but I didn't get as much reading done over Christmas as I thought I would ;o)
I thought this was easily one of the best books I have read, not least because when I had a query about the story I emailed Roberta Gellis and she replied immediately!
I will definitely be looking out for more of her books, thanks for the opportunity to read this one.
Posting to Twynnie as soon as I have her address.

Posted to Twynnie today - sorry for the delay!

This arrived today and it looks good - thanks mallary for sending this to me and to aneca for sharing it! I have a couple of other rings to read too but I won't be too slow with it.

This was very enjoyable if a little unbelievable at times. I liked the way the story built up slowly with quite a lot of detail - I would have liked to find out more about Lucrezia herself though, she is always hinting at her past but not going into much depth.

I have PMed Wandeca for an address but no reply yet, I@m sending another now so hopefully this will be on its way soon...

Received the book, thanks for mailing it, Twynnie. I'm hoping to read it very soon, I have a couple books ahead of it.