My Rating: 3 stars
I will admit that I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I
thought I would, probably because I knew this book was categorized as
historical fiction and so I was expecting a story with a bit more substance, a
bit more seamless blending of history and story, a bit better balance of seriousness and
lightheartedness. To me, the story felt
a bit all over the place, at times being overly serious, other times bordering
on comedic. I did love the setting
though and I felt the author Christina Lynch did a good job capturing the
atmospheric charm of the Italian countryside as well as the local food,
culture, and people – reading the descriptions of the various places Scottie
went to during her exploration of the city, also the palio races, the descriptions
of food that made my mouth water, and other aspects of Italian culture, I
definitely felt I was there in Siena alongside the characters. For me, this was when the story was at its
best – when it covered the historical aspects and the culture and how the local
people lived. Unfortunately, I found my
mind wandering during most of the segments about politics, especially the ones
that go a bit too in depth about the various political factions and parties.
Aside from the setting, the other aspect I appreciated
with this story was the author’s treatment of the characters. Lynch did a great job presenting realistic,
flawed characters in Michael and Scottie, both of whom had many secrets they
were keeping from each other and in some aspects, were living in a world of
lies – both made many mistakes throughout their lives and yes, did things that
were morally questionable, as did most of the other characters in the story,
yet I still found it difficult not to like these characters. The relationship that Michael and Scottie had
was unconventional and I found it interesting the way it was developed and the
direction they eventually went. I find
it refreshing whenever I see authors write characters and relationships that
are well-developed and outside the stereotypical “norms” – this was definitely
an area of strength with this book and one of the aspects that kept me engaged
even though the overall story itself was a bit slow at times.
Despite this one not being what I expected, I still feel
it was worth reading, especially for the insight it gave into the time period and
the historical context of post-war Italy.
I think if the story had been a bit more tightly-written and less
inconsistent, I would have rated this one somewhat higher, as the characters
and the setting truly did draw me in. I
know many readers enjoyed this one and I can definitely see why, as certain
parts of the story were intriguing and fun and I think as an relatively light-hearted
story about spies, this one works fine overall – just not really for me due to
the different expectations I have towards historical fiction. Perhaps check out some of the other reviews as
well for a more balanced view before deciding whether to pick this one up!
Received ARC from
St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley
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