The Scribe of Siena

I???m a sucker for anything set in the Italian Renaissance, and I???m an equally big sucker for a timeslip romance, so since this book basically squishes all those things together, I knew I had to read it.

And you know what? I enjoyed it! I wasn???t sold on a LOT of things though. I thought the protagonist???s extreme empathy that somehow allowed her to read minds (sorta) and travel through time (????) was a bit weird, but hey: I???ve seen weirder. The romance wasn???t as well executed as I might have liked, but it wasn???t utterly objectionable. Actually I think the reason I wasn???t all that sold on the romance is that and the male half of that romance could???ve done with some (a lot) more character development - actually everyone could have used some more character development. As for the plot, it had a lot of deus ex machina going on, and maybe a bit too much melodrama.

But I was sold on this book because of the SETTING. Medieval Siena, both before and after the Plague, is a character unto itself and it is FABULOUS - strong enough to support everything else, really.

So! Not a bad read, all in all, as long as you???re not asking for a lot, like I was.