Allegra

Allegra is the sequel to Christine De Melo's Sabina. Allegra Castagno is Sabina Rossi's granddaughter. She learns basic goldsmithing in her father's workshop but has a special talent for jewelry. Her father decides to allow her to be apprenticed to a friend of his, Domenico, even though the guilds, clergy and magistrates forbid women from working in the trade. After completing her training Allegra begins designing a few pieces. Her work becomes in demand but her father cannot tell anyone who the designer is. He decides to say that "La Castagna" is the designer. Allegra works tirelessly in the business, spurning many wealthy suitors over the years because marriage would mean having to give up her goldsmithing. One day a man returns to her life that challenges her desire for both a work and family life in 16th century Florence.

Allegra was an enchanting novel but it is impossible not to compare it to Sabina. Sabina was better. However, I must say that Sabina was so good that nothing could probably come close to being as good as it was. Allegra did not have the lavish setting descriptions that the earlier novel had. Instead, it was action driven. Most of the characters were less developed than those in Sabina except for Bianca Cappello. She led an extravagant life which the author wrote about in detail. This detail was something I expected after reading Sabina where each character's sinful behavior was generously recounted. Allegra, however, seemed to me to be a 16th century version of how can a woman have it all, both job and marriage. Does she get it all? Read the book!

4 out of 5 stars!

Book of the Month: January

I read 9 books in January. It was a great month for reading. The book that I enjoyed the most was Sabina by C. DeMelo. It is a historical fiction novel that takes place in 15th century Florence. I was captivated by Sabina's life story but more than that I loved the author's luscious setting descriptions. They made the book come alive. From the clothes that the ladies wore to the architecture and the bucolic surroundings, the setting was a big part of the story. The characters were amazing as well, particularly the men that Sabina loved. I loved them too. Sabina is a must read for historical fiction fans.

Sabina

Sabina is a historical fiction novel set in Florence beginning in 1477 when Sabina Rossi is twenty-years-old. The Rossi family is a noble Tuscan family who have become penniless. When her father arranges a marriage for her with an older but wealthy man, Tommaso Caravelli, he is trading her gorgeous looks for a dowry. However, Sabina is in love with Marco Alfani, a poor boy her age whom she has been sleeping with. Marco's request for her hand in marriage is denied by her father as Sabina has already agreed to marry Tommaso. After her marriage Sabina tries to live a respectable life. Her brashness could get her into trouble but her good looks seem to smooth things over with Florence's elite Medici family, especially Lorenzo de Medici. After her new husband suddenly dies, Sabina finds herself extremely wealthy with plenty of options on how to live her life. The question is will her headstrong nature take over or will she adapt to living in a man's world? This story is a three generation saga that ends with Sabina's death at age 80 and includes her daughter and granddaughter.

I LOVED this novel! The setting descriptions were delicious, from the bucolic surroundings to the grand architecture and exquisite fabrics that adorn the walls of homes and churches. The reader feels like they have been transported to Renaissance Italy.  The characters were extraordinary.  Sabina is a great heroine. She begins life as a spoiled girl but grows up learning how to live as she wishes under the restraints of fifteenth century Florence. Her sister Cecelia is her opposite. Cecelia becomes a nun after her husband and son pass away. She is subserviant whereas Sabina is willful. These two sisters still manage to get along despite their different lifestyles. You know that one will always back up the other. Marco is interesting. He enters the story as a lustful boy but later enters the priesthood and becomes lustful for power. His desire for sex has never waned though. The men whom Sabina has relationships with are dreamy. I am personally not opposed to meeting Tommaso Caravelli, Lorenzo de Medici, or Sabina's other men. She chooses them well. All have plenty of money to lavish upon her, are good in the bedroom and do not care that she is an independent woman with a sassy tongue.

Historical fiction and romance fans simply must read Sabina! Passion drips off its pages; passion for sex, romance, art, political power, religious power, and personal possessions. 5 out of 5 stars!

The King's Justice

This is the first installment  of the Stanton and Barling Mystery series by E. M. Powell. It takes place in 1176 England with Aelred Barling, court clerk to Henry II's justices, and Hugo Stanton, Barling's messenger. They are sent from the traveling royal courts to investigate a murder in Claresham after Sir Reginald Edgar arrives at the court in York to request permission to hang a suspected murderer. Edgar is a little drunk and a lot obnoxious and since he has no witnesses his request is denied. Barling and Stanton are ordered to investigate the matter and administer the king's justice, if necessary.  The case initially appears to be an open and shut case with a suspect already locked up in jail. Additional bodies begin to be found but with the suspect escaping from jail, the villagers in Claresham are demanding that he be caught and hung immediately.

The king's justice is the name of a test that determines if a person is innocent or guilty. The test is performed by tying the suspect's hands to their ankles and submerging them in water.  If the suspect drowns, he is innocent.  If the suspect floats, he is guilty and is hung later in the day.  I wondered while I was reading this whether the person controlling the rope that submerges the suspects was able to decide who was guilty. It seemed to me that this person held onto the rope at all times and could submerge you in a way that you floated as a guilty person.

I enjoyed the book but with 6 or 7 murders to investigate it was a bit exhausting. There were several intriguing suspects and many twists and turns, perhaps too many twists and turns if that is even possible. The back and forth between new victims, new suspects and new twists should have been suspenseful but it just seemed to be too much for one book.  With each new victim there was a new suspect. Also, it was surprising that Stanton was a more cerebral sleuth than Barling. I expected the opposite. It will be interesting to see how their work relationship grows in subsequent novels.

4 out of 5 stars.

Let Slip The Dogs

In book 5 of the Francis Bacon Mysteries the story takes place at Richmond Palace in 1591. Courtiers and titled ladies are in each other's arms while Tom Claraday and Trumpet conclude their plans to fool Trumpet's soon-to-be husband on the wedding night.  They will get him drunk and substitute a lookalike in the bed chamber while Trumpet meets Tom in his room. Even the main character Francis Bacon will get involved in a private liaison. However, when a young man who is known to collect gossip is found dead in the Queen's orchard there is only the question of whether he was murdered to keep a romantic secret or a political one. Bacon does not want to get involved. He is particularly bothered in this installment of the series by not having a position or patron and has considered being bought by a foreign entity for money.

I enjoyed this book but would have to say that it is my least favorite so far in this series.  This just goes to show how well the earlier books were written.  The actual murder did not occur at least until a third into the book with sex taking prominence in the plot. It seemed out of character for Francis Bacon to get involved in a sexual liaison and to be so depressed about his finances that he considered committing a treasonous act just for money. Everyone gets down in the dumps and does stupid things but not in a mystery series. Also, the investigation of the murder did not involve Bacon because he was busy with his pity party. It was done by Tom and Trumpet talking between themselves. They didn't interview witnesses, etc... The main character/sleuth should be the one doing the sleuthing and this was a mistake on the author's part.

Let Slip the Dogs was a departure from the mystery formula that the author has followed in the series. Let's see what she does with the final book in the series.

The Library of Legends

I have been patiently waiting for Janie Chang to publish her next book since I finished reading Dragon Springs Road last year. Last week I received an advanced review copy of The Library of Legends from William Morrow through the Early Reviewer's Program at Librarything. The book will be published on May 12, 2020. The story takes place in China in 1937.

When Japanese bombs begin falling on the City of Nanking, nineteen-year-old Hu Lian and her classmates at Minghua University are ordered to flee. Lian and a convoy of students, professors, and staff must walk a thousand miles to the safety of China's western provinces, their journey under constant threat of aerial attack from the Japanese. More than refugee lives are at risk. The students are carrying a priceless treasure, a five hundred year old collection of myths and folklore called the Library of Legends. Their duty to safeguard the Library forms unexpected bonds between them. Lian finds friendship and romance with the wealthy and handsome Liu Shaoming. After one classmate is murdered and another is arrested, Lian realizes that she must escape before a family secret is revealed, putting herself in danger of being arrested also.

I enjoyed this book but at the midway point I got bored with the students constantly marching through China. Not much happened with the characters at this point in the story to carry the plot forward while the students walked for hours and then rested. There were approximately 60-75 pages that were sluggish. The story soon picked up when a professor and then a communist student were murdered. In addition, there is an element of fantasy in the plot. The Library of Legends has a folklore story about celestial beings, gods and guardian spirits living on earth to help humans. There are several of these guardian spirits woven into the plot. I wouldn't normally like the fusion of the historical fiction and fantasy genres but it fits the setting of this book. It takes place in China which,  even today, has a focus on ancestor worship.

The author chose a great historical subject to write about. In 1937 China, when the Second Sino Japanese War broke out, the universities were evacuated. The students, called liuwang, school administrators and professors all walked through China to safer areas where they could continue their school activities. They carried luggage, lab equipment, library books and kitchen ware. They stopped often at Buddhist and Daoist temples where they could rest for a few days before resuming their walking. The author chose this subject because her father was a liuwang from Nanking University.

4 out of 5 stars.

Introduction to the Greek New Testament

Dirk Jongkind of Tyndale House at Cambridge wrote this small, 124 page book, chronicling how the editors at Tyndale House produced a new version of the Greek New Testament. You do not need to know how to read Greek to read this book. The book is just an explanation of how the new edition was put together. The author introduces the reader to manuscripts, textual criticism theory, and textual variation all in a very readable work.

The author provides background information on how and why decisions were made to use certain words over others.  In addition, the editors rejected the use of the Textus Receptus and the Byzantine Text, also known as the Majority Text, as their source text because those texts were from later time periods. I was quite surprised by this as I thought that most Bible translations used one or the other as their source text. Tyndale House used a Greek New Testament text from Samuel Prideaux Tregelles. Tregelles lived in the 1800s and produced his own Greek New Testament that was based on ancient manuscripts. The author also discussed the differences between a translation, an edition and an original. A section on how to spot an error in a manuscript was interesting as well as another section discussing decisions on what to print.

I do not read Greek. What will I remember most from this book? Probably that the early church scribes used what is now called nomina sacra to abbreviate the words for God, Jesus, Christ and Lord. The scribes would only write the first and last letters of those words and write a line over the top of them to connect the letters. Some of the early manuscripts that were analyzed to produce this new edition of the Greek New Testament had nomina sacra writings on them. These contracted words are still seen in Greek icons today.

This was a great book introducing a new edition of a Bible. I wish all translation committees would publish a book like this one so readers would know how decisions were made on what to include and what to exclude.

5 out of 5 stars.