In the Shadows of Royalty: Labor of Love in the Medici Court

In the Shadows of Royalty: Labor of Love in the Medici Court

by | Apr 17, 2024 | Book review, Historical novels, Italy, Renaissance, Renaissance Florence

Do you think a recent novel entitled, Labor of Love, is:

  1. Related to a Shakespeare play
  2. The story of a pregnant woman’s experience giving birth
  3. Something entirely different

In the case of Marguerite Martin Gray’s recent novel, answer #3 is correct.

 

Labor of Love, by Marguerite Martin Gray, cover image

Summary:

Without further clues, you probably wouldn’t guess this author’s Labor of Love is set at the Pitti Palace, the residence of the Medici family that ruled Florence in the late Renaissance. Martin Gray takes us behind the scenes to reveal much about the Medici family in the weeks before their youngest daughter, Lucrezia, marries Duke Alfonso d’Este. And this is only the background in which Ana and Marco, the young protagonists, attempt to pursue their life’s goals and encounter each other.

The Medici family dominates the lives of many in Florence, including Ana, the family’s impoverished country relative. Not only do the Medicis control Ana’s activities at Pitti Palace, but Duke Cosimo chooses a husband for her (Guido Salviati) without giving her any say in the decision. This creates the novel’s major conflict—the more Ana gets to know Salviati, the more he repulses her, yet she is only a pawn in the Medicis’ political chess game.

 Characters:

  • Ana Geovani—the sympathetic female protagonist, cousin and companion to the Medici daughters. Her passion is working in gardens, communing with God through nature.
  • Marco Rossi—the male protagonist, he’s a gardener with big plans for design, architecture, and ultimately owning his own land.
  • Duke Cosimo de’ Medici—ruler of Florence, he’s a wealthy banker and master politician and powerful as a king
  • Duchess Eleonora de’ Medici—Cosimo’s wife, strict and controlling all matters relating to her family and its position in society
  • Lucrezia de’ Medici—privileged youngest daughter of Cosimo and Eleonora, Ana’s closest cousin. Her life presents a marked contrast to Ana’s.
  • Guido Salviati—the villain, a military acquaintance of Duke Cosimo. The duke promises him Ana’s hand in marriage, in an effort to maintain Salviati’s loyalty.
  • Ernesto and Rosa Arturo—Head gardener at Pitti Palace, and his wife; they befriend Ana, modeling compassion and love

Strengths:

Labor of Love is an engaging story about life in Florence’s Pitti Palace with vivid details about the gardens and plants, descriptions of clothing and foods.

Weakness:

In an era when only priests had access to Bibles, the author didn’t demonstrate clearly how Ana, Rosa, and Ernesto, all lay people, were able to learn so much about religious faith—other than they saw God in nature and attended Mass.

Content review:

This novel definitely qualifies as clean, but it contains references to spousal abuse and allusions to threatened sexual violence

My recommendation:

 Labor of Love offers an entertaining way to learn about life in late Italian Renaissance Florence and its ruling family, the Medicis, as well as characters in less fortunate positions in society. Readers who enjoy a faith-based romance will especially appreciate this novel.

Reader, can you recommend other novels about Renaissance Florence?

Fight, Flight, or Hide: the Huguenots’ Choice

Fight, Flight, or Hide: the Huguenots’ Choice

by | Mar 17, 2024 | author interview, Book review, France, French Protestants, Historical novels, Huguenots

Where would you go if your convictions or your family’s roots endangered your life in your homeland?

What would you do if the people you counted on to give you refuge turned out to be as intolerant as the rulers of your native land?

A decade or two ago, these questions might have been relegated to distant history, but today they are top of mind for a shocking number of people in our world.

Find Me in the Stars, Jules Larimore’s second novel about 17th-century French Huguenots and their struggles, now takes on a new relevance in the 21st century:

• What would I have done facing the Huguenots’ predicament?

• How was their situation similar to one that people I care about, or even I, confront?

Find Me in the Stars, by Jules Larimore, cover image

This is an adventure- and suspense-filled story of 17th-century Huguenots (French Protestants) driven into hiding or away from their remote homeland, the Cévennes region [once called Languedoc, now (since 2016) Occitànie] by religious persecution.

Their struggle to survive includes:
• disagreements within their communities about the correct course of action
• betrayal by supposed friends and supporters
• above all, the enmity of France’s egomaniacal king, Louis XIV, who used his nation’s wealth, wars, tariffs and religious persecution to make himself the ultimate authoritarian, declaring “L’état c’est moi.” (I am the state).

Characters:

• Jehan BonDurant—protagonist, he was torn away from his Huguenot parents as age 7 and converted by Dominicans. Trained as an apothecary, he inherited his parents’ properties and the responsibility to administer them wisely.

• Amelia Auvrey—Jehan’s muse; a free-spirited holy woman and healer

Both Jehan and Amelia wrestle with the conflict between their idealistic and their very human selves. The author also places both in situations of great danger, making those scenes difficult to put down.

• Commandeur Timoleon—head of Order of St. John of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller Commandery, friend and ally to Amelia

• Menina Elise—wise woman, healer, midwife, and Amelia’s grandmother and mentor

• Abbé du Chaila—French Catholic Abbé of Chaila, merciless persecutor of Huguenots

• Pasteur Guillaume Barjon—Jehan’s maternal uncle, a strict Calvinist pastor and leader of a group of refugees in Aarau and Germany

• Charles Sieur de Sailly—French nobleman refugee in service of William III of England and Lord Galway as an agent to organize and recruit Huguenots for resettlement schemes

 

Strengths:

The author skillfully weaves fictional and real-life characters and events into an exciting story, setting it within a vivid background (topography, customs, architecture, clothing, food) that immerses readers in that time and place.

 

Weakness:

Although this novel can be read as a standalone, readers will more fully understand the backgrounds and relationship of Jehan and Amelia if they have read The Muse of Freedom, the first novel in The Cévenoles Sagas series.

 

Content review:

This novel includes references to violence by French dragonnades against Huguenots, threats of sexual violence against a woman, and an unmarried couple’s sexual encounter.

 

My recommendation:

Find Me in the Stars will appeal to readers who enjoy a suspenseful story grounded in history, with characters they can root for, as they reveal both their foibles and their strengths.

Reader, can you share a brief mention of a heroic character in your family’s past?

Keep reading for an interview with Jules Larimore, author of Find Me in the Stars!

Interview with author Jules Larimore:

What drew you to focus Find Me in the Stars on this particular moment and characters?

The period I write about in this novel chose me, actually. I’ve always had a love for the Middle Ages and Renaissance, yet felt a calling for over twenty years to write a story inspired by Jean Pierre Bondurant dit Cougoussac—my 8th great grandfather—a French Huguenot ancestor from a minor noble family. Jehan’s motivation to give up the estate he inherited and flee the country always intrigued me, and I knew there were many sides during this divisive period that needed to find a voice.

Once I dove into the research, I became utterly fascinated with this overlooked period in the late 17th century that led up to the Camisard War. I blended it with Cévenole magic lore into a coming-of-age story and family saga of courage, tenacity, and the power of love, hoping to transport the reader to this thrilling and obscure slice of French history.

How did you discover details of that time and place?

I began research for this series twenty-plus years ago shortly after I learned about my connection to Jean Pierre Bondurant. The first thing I did was to take a trip to Genolhac (Genouillac), France. It is important to me to embody the setting and culture first, to experience a place through its flora and fauna, geology and architecture, and to hear the voices of the people who lived during the era I am writing about, even before I do much other research.

I have returned to the Cévennes a few times in recent years and I was invited to visit, (even spending the night on my last visit) the old Bondurant maison de ville (townhouse) in Genolhac, whose owner shared a few secrets about the house and what transpired there. I have also spent much time in the Museé du Desert to learn about the tools, furnishings, clothing, weapons, and religious artifacts that were in use in the late 17th/ early 18th centuries. In addition, French Departmental archives became a primary method for research. One of my best sources has been Les lien de chercheurs Cévenols.

Did you discover surprises while researching this novel?

 I did! Not to give away any spoilers, one was a secret element at Jean Pierre’s townhouse in Genolhac that aided his family in conducting clandestine Huguenot prayer meetings which were outlawed by Louis XIV. Hopefully readers will discover that when they read the first book in the Huguenot Trilogy, The Muse of Freedom.

Another surprise occurred after I connected with a distant French cousin who shared documents showing that Jean Pierre’s father had been imprisoned for a month in the Tour de Roi in Uzès.

How much did you have to deviate from history to create a satisfying story?

The timeline, locations, and the majority of characters are true to history. Although several characters are the creation of my imagination to bring a diverse, multi-layered experience to the story. But even the historical characters had to be used fictitiously, acknowledging that no one can ever entirely know the true story of bygone eras. So, I filled in gaps using extensive research on the history of the era and took my characters on journeys that seemed befitting based on my personal analysis and inspiration.

Since novels with a bit of romance seem to attract more readers I had intended to develop a fictional love interest for the character Jehan, but I didn’t know until I opened up to it that it would be a free-spirited, mystic holy woman. My research led me to discover that healers who practiced ancient healing techniques were common to the Cévennes Mountains.

What were the most challenging aspects of writing this novel?

Since most of the primary source documents and many of the scholarly papers I used for research are in other languages—French, German, Dutch—they had to be translated. If it were not for the translation programs now available, I’m not certain I could have completed enough research to have developed this novel properly.

And then there was also the editing process—one of the most challenging aspects of writing.

What did you enjoy about writing this novel?

The research is always my first love—traveling to the locales and studying the history. But I love the moments when I sit down with my laptop on my patio and let the characters speak to me. After the research, I can immerse myself in their world and channel their thoughts and feelings. That’s when it feels like magic.

What do you hope readers will take away after reading Find Me in the Stars?

The themes in Find Me in the Stars are very relevant to events happening in the world today—bigotry, authoritarianism, persecution—so the timing for it has been meaningful. Writing this novel gave me the opportunity to convey the positive qualities of courage, tenacity, and transcendent vision while the entire Huguenots trilogy contains overarching themes of love, compassion, and tolerance. I hope that after reading this novel, readers will have a new awareness for the Huguenot refugees and hold a place in their hearts for all people, past and present, who have struggled to escape persecution, oppression, violence, war, or poverty.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with my readers?

 I will be presenting this September at the Historical Novel Society conference in Devon, UK alongside two French historical authors, Keira Morgan and Michèle Callard. We are part of an authors’ collaborative who share history articles on France’s Splendid Centuries Facebook page. Our presentation is on “The Allure of French Historical Dramas on Screen and in Novels”.

As part of our presentation, we will be sharing the results of a survey running through March 25 asking “What do YOU like about France & Historical Fiction? We’d be happy to have your readers participate. It is short, only about 5 minutes, and it is anonymous. Anyone wanting the results can simply provide their contact info in the survey and we will send it to them after we compile the data. Here is the link for anyone who is interested.

The Mystery of Two Duchesses and their Duke

The Mystery of Two Duchesses and their Duke

by | Jan 17, 2024 | Book review, Historical novels, Italy, Renaissance

Greetings, Reader!

Why would you want to read about Duke Alfonso II, who ruled Ferrara during the Italian Renaissance, and his first two duchesses?

Why do 21st-century authors keep writing novels about these 16th-century Italians (who are unknown to 99% of people alive today)?

Spoiler clue: It’s the mystery that appeals to authors and readers—

  • Was 16-year-old Duchess Lucrezia murdered by her husband,
  • poisoned on his orders,
  • did she die of “putrid fever,”
  • or did something else happen?
The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O'Farrell, cover image

When I picked up The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell’s recent novel set in Renaissance Italy, about Lucrezia de’ Medici (the third daughter of Grand Duke Cosimo de’Medici of Tuscany and first wife of Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara), I wondered:

How would this new novel compare to The Second Duchess, by Elizabeth Loupas, about Alfonso’s second wife, Barbara of Austria, (which I read when it came out in 2011)?

The Second Duchess, by Elizabeth Loupas, cover image

Although the two novels portray Lucrezia de’ Medici and her fate in very different ways, they share several elements:

  • Both novels engaged and entertained me, with strong plots and portrayals of their cultural settings
  • Protagonists (1st and 2nd duchesses) are pawns in the marriage checkerboard of ruling families—relatively young women sent to marry a man they’ve barely met in order to enhance their family’s standing.
  • Both women face danger when they marry the duke and move to Ferrara because of:
    • Their position as outsiders in the court at Ferrara
    • The duke’s unrestrained power over the people and places he rules, combined with his volatile temper
  • Both duchesses take agency as they can—they don’t passively do their husband’s bidding
  • Both novels revolve around the question of how the 1st duchess, Lucrezia de’ Medici, died at the age of 16 after little more than 1 year of married life in Ferrara

Now, on to focus on The Marriage Portrait:

Characters:

  • Lucrezia – protagonist, third daughter of Grand Duke Cosimo de’ Medici of Tuscany, portrayed as a brilliant, lonely misfit whose major way of expressing herself is by creating art
  • Emilia – Lucrezia’s loyal personal servant who goes with her from Florence to Ferrara when Lucrezia marries
  • Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara – mercurial husband of Lucrezia
  • Leonello Baldassare – Alfonso’s cousin and best friend, he shows instant dislike for Lucrezia
  • Elisabetta – Alfonso’s beautiful sister, friendly to Lucrezia
  • Nunciata – Alfonso’s less attractive sister, suspicious and unfriendly to Lucrezia
  • Jacopo – artist’s apprentice, bonds with Lucrezia due to their shared dialect (of Naples) and love of painting

Strengths:

  • Great character development and build-up of suspense
  • Strong plot and portrayal of cultural setting
  • Remarkable ending in which the author pulls together all the clues she has planted throughout the novel

Weakness:

Although the author mentions locations and dates at the beginning of each scene, alternating time periods between chapters may be confusing

Content review:

  • Marital sexual relations are mentioned, primarily to highlight both the era’s pressure for distinguished families to produce male heirs, and the wives’ lack of agency in this area
  • Depictions of violence common in this era

I recommend The Marriage Portrait to readers who enjoy novels with strong characters, surprising plots, long-ago settings, and plenty of suspense.

Reader, what are your favorite historical novels that include an element of mystery?

A Surprising Era in Salerno: Book Review of Rebecca of Salerno

A Surprising Era in Salerno: Book Review of Rebecca of Salerno

by | Nov 8, 2023 | Book review, Historical novels, Italy, Jewish History

Women in the United States only began to practice medicine in the 1800s (see my review of The Physician’s Daughter), so how could a young Jewish woman become a physician back in 1195?

Author Esther Erman answers this question in her action-packed recent novel, Rebecca of Salerno.

Rebecca of Salerno, by Esther Erman, cover image

In these days of conflicts related to ethnicity and religion, it’s a relief to escape into a novel set in late twelfth-century Salerno, Italy, where Rebecca could attend medical school and become a physician.

Remarkably, Salerno had a reputation as peaceful, prosperous, and tolerant of diverse groups, as exemplified by the medical school founded in the eighth century by a Greek, a Latin, a Jew, and a Muslim.

But Salerno’s atmosphere had changed by the time Rebecca, our protagonist, disembarked there. Why?

  • Crusaders arrived, en route to and from their destination in the East. They set up camp outside the town and committed acts of vandalism, robbery, and rape—with impunity
  • The Hohenstaufens, a German dynasty, conquered the Normans and took Salerno in 1195, installing a relative, Duke Henry, as ruler of the city. He didn’t want to offend the pope or the king’s regent, William of Capparone, by cracking down on the crusaders’ misdeeds.

The conflicts Rebecca faces animate this story:

  • Her father and extended family pressure her to assume the traditional role of Jewish women–marriage and life as a wife and mother—but Rebecca aspires to an independent life
  • Her colleague, Rafael, repeatedly proposes to Rebecca, but her trauma after losing her first love, Ivanhoe, leads to her secret vow not to marry
  • Even in Salerno, Rebecca faces discrimination based on her gender and religion

Characters:

  • Rebecca – protagonist, a young Jewish woman who has always wanted to devote her life to healing
  • Rafael Lopes Dias – young widower who attended Salerno’s medical school; he prefers translating texts into Hebrew rather than practicing medicine
  • Isaac ben Shmuel – renegade Egyptian rabbi who alienates nearly everyone he meets; he’s blamed for murdering a crusader
  • Rebecca’s father – traditional Jewish father who wants his daughter to marry and have children
  • Laura di Petrocelli – Rebecca’s medical student; her life exemplifies the challenges faced even by a Christian female native of Salerno who pursues a medical career
  • Leah Sara Garcia – from an older generation than Rebecca; she completed her studies at Salerno’s medical school, but went on to a traditional Jewish life as mother of many children
  • Baruch Mendoza – patriarch of a prominent Jewish family in Salerno; he plays a key role in the story

Strengths:

  • Engaging plot
  • Distinct, interesting characters
  • Offers readers a window on a place and era unfamiliar to many

Weakness:

This is an inspiring story, but Rebecca’s good fortunes may not strike all readers as credible. 

Content review:

References to sexual violence in the later part of the story may disturb some readers.

My recommendation:

If you enjoy journeying with a bold heroine to discover a distant, unfamiliar time and place, and at the same time solving a murder case, Rebecca of Salerno will provide an enjoyable and educational reading experience.

Reader, have you read a novel about this era that you’ve enjoyed?

When Exceptional Art Meets Everyday People

When Exceptional Art Meets Everyday People

by | Oct 8, 2023 | Art history, Book review, Germany, Historical novels, Holocaust, Netherlands, World War II

Have you ever encountered art, literature, or music that impacted you in a way you can’t forget?

This month, we discuss a historical novel about a painting that altered several lives, and a work of history in which opera changed two ordinary lives, which in turn saved numerous lives.

But first: join me and three other historical novelists on October 17th on Zoom for “Women Breaking the Rules: Heroines in Historical Fiction.” To join us for the discussion, sign up (no charge) at:

Women Breaking the Rules: Heroines in Historical Fiction

Now to the reviews:

Girl in Hyacinth Blue, by Susan Vreeland, cover image

How can a novel about a painting keep you turning the pages?

Susan Vreeland, author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue, pulls this off with 8 chapters that work on their own as short stories, but leave readers wanting more.

With its focus on a Dutch painting, this novel (published in 1999) explores the artwork’s origins, the paths it traveled over the centuries, and its impact on individuals who possessed it.

Girl in Hyacinth Blue has likely served as a model for authors of more recent novels with through lines consisting of objects (especially of art) rather than individual people.

Characters:

Beginning with the painting’s most recent owner, going back in time to the girl the artist portrayed, the author reveals the core of each personality through his or her relationship with the painting.

I would spoil the story if I mentioned the relationship of each character to the novel as a whole. So, while I must avoid comments about specific characters, I can mention the topics these stories bring up:

  • The position of girls and women in earlier times
  • Artists’ economically vulnerable professions
  • Calamitous floods in the Netherlands
  • Execution of “witches”
  • The “Middle Passage” slave trade
  • Nazi looting of art treasures owned by Jews

Above all, the individual stories show how the painting at the heart of this novel revealed or changed the character of each owner.

Strengths:

  • The author’s creative connection of the stories is part of the wonder of this novel.
  • She uses key details to create a distinct setting for each of the 8 stories.
  • In a brief space, she develops each character and his/her relationship to the painting.

Weakness:

  • If a reader hopes for a single set of characters throughout the novel, s/he won’t find it in this novel.

Content review:

  • The novel contains references to physical intimacy, but not extensively throughout the novel.

My Recommendation:

Although this novel isn’t lengthy, it covers much ground. If evocative, well-written stories combining a painting, people, and their times interest you, you’ll enjoy Girl in Hyacinth Blue.

Overture of Hope, by Isabel Vincent, cover image

I love to read about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, especially when the stories are true—and I hope you do, too.

In Overture of Hope, two unassuming British sisters show their courage and heroism during World War II, venturing into Nazi territory to rescue Jewish opera stars facing extermination.

Author Isabel Vincent reveals the true story of how in the 1920s, Ida and Louise developed a passion for opera by listening to vinyl records, and she shows where that led them.  They loved to attend live opera so much they took brown-bag lunches to work and saved their meager salaries to buy tickets (standing in line for discounts, of course) to operas in London.

Ida, the outgoing younger sister, took the lead in reaching out to visiting opera stars, such as Amelita Galli-Curci. Bold correspondence led to fan relationships with luminaries. By the time Hitler came to power, the sisters had established friendships with several stars and often conversed with them backstage when they came to London.

Among their operatic friends, Austrian conductor Clemens Krauss and his wife, soprano Viorica Ursuleac, became controversial because of their collaboration with Hitler. At the same time, they enlisted the aid of Ida and Louise to help Jewish opera singers escape from Nazi-occupied lands.

Ida’s success as a romance novelist enabled the sisters to travel as opera tourists who often arranged singers’ and families’ escapes, as well as smuggling out the priceless jewelry of the Jewish people they assisted.

Characters:

They are shown as the very human individuals they were—even the heroines weren’t perfect.

  • Ida – years into adult life, she found success as a romance novelist. Later in life, she enjoyed recounting the stories of what she did in the war
  • Louise – quiet, shy, she lived in her younger sister’s shadow the majority of her life

Strengths:

Exciting plot, well-researched

Weakness:

Sometimes a bit more repetition of facts than readers need

Content review:

Includes accounts of Nazi persecution and acts of cruelty, although not in graphic detail

My Recommendation:

If you enjoy a heroic story involving characters from the world of opera, and you’d like to learn more about what happened in the opera world during the war, this is a book for you.

Reader, what works of art, literature, or music have changed your life?

Into the Heart of Appalachia

Into the Heart of Appalachia

by | Sep 7, 2023 | Appalachia, Book review, Historical novels, Women's Struggles

As I continue to revise my latest novel for publication, I’ll join three other historical fiction authors in a Zoom discussion, “Women Breaking the Rules: Heroines in Historical Fiction,” on the afternoon of September 17th. I’ll talk about my protagonist, Lucia—how I came to write about her, why she took risks, and more. If you ask in the comment section, I’ll send you information about how to sign up to watch the discussion.

Now, on to this month’s book review:

Who could have imagined that a Depression-era project encouraged by Eleanor Roosevelt to promote literacy could find its way into Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes, an exciting and moving novel focused on a group of women who deliver library books in rural Kentucky?

The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes, cover image

Brief Summary (no spoilers):

The women of the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky not only bring books to an isolated population, but they themselves also benefit from their work, receiving salaries, becoming close friends with their coworkers, and gaining self-confidence and independence unusual for women in their era and place.

As the novel unfolds, even this well-intentioned, successful project finds enemies opposed to a more literate community, which endangers the librarians and creates the central conflict of this story.

Characters:

This novel includes so many I can only mention a few, but the author paints each character in a memorable way.

  • Alice Van Cleve– young English woman, the protagonist, who escapes her culture’s constraints only to struggle with the realities of life as a newlywed in rural Kentucky
  • Geoffrey Van Cleve – owner of local coal mines who dominates the individuals and town within his reach
  • Bennett Van Cleve – Alice’s husband, lives under the shadow of his powerful father
  • Margery O’Hare – fiercely independent, freethinking head of the Packhorse Librarians
  • Fred Guisler– horse dealer, kind supporter of the Packhorse Librarians
  • Sophia Kenworth– Black woman who assists the librarians with record-keeping and common sense
  • Kathleen Bligh – Unassuming backwoods widow and mother of young children, she joins the Packhorse Librarians and aids them in an unexpected way
  • Verna McCullough – a young woman isolated for years in her family’s home on a remote ridge, she plays a key role in the resolution of the story
  • Sven Gustavsson– Fireman in the coal mines, he’s sympathetic to Alice and the Packhorse Librarians

Strengths:

A compelling read with complex, interesting characters, and a plot with many twists

Weakness:

I’m not in a position to judge this because I’ve read Giver of Stars and not The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, but questions have been raised about similarities between the two novels. Both deal with the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky, and Book Woman came out slightly earlier. If you’ve read both, I’d like to hear from you.

Content Review:

This novel contains descriptions of violence; multiple scenes focus on issues related to sexual intimacy, and discerning readers will find hints of the topic of incest.

My Recommendation:

If you enjoy deep immersion into an unfamiliar, yet American, culture, and can plow through its rough aspects, Giver of Stars will reward you with vivid, complex characters, and a strong plot. I found this novel both a difficult and yet a satisfying read.

Reader, can you share any knowledge about life in Appalachia?