If 'Outlander' is the gold standard by which readers rate time travel books, this one falls a bit short in comparison. I mention 'Outlander' only because it's touted as appealing to fans of that series. Thank goodness we could start and end this piece of fiction in one book versus multiple tomes.
One of the biggest takeaways from the book (for me) is learning about how immensely Siena suffered from the Plague (or Black Death,) than did her neighboring cities. I had absolutely zero knowledge about this before I started reading. Though 'The Scribe of Siena' is described as a sweeping love story, I viewed it more from the mystery angle of why it was decimated so badly and the authors attempt to solve that puzzle. The protagonists brother (who remains largely a mystery as he's never fleshed out as a character) began uncovering clues then unexpectedly died leaving our heroine, Beatrice, to carry on. If you don't get hung up on the details of how a neurosurgeon effortlessly switches into the role of historian, then shifts 600+ years back in time on a thought then it's an interesting premise to think a power hungry family from nearby Florence had something sinister to do with it.
Putting the underlying mystery aside, the love story aspect of the book was pretty much a non event. I definitely didn't get caught up in the allure of Gabriele Accorsi like I did Jaime Fraser but then neither was there much of a build up between Beatrice or Gabrieles characters or frankly much interaction between them at all. I can only say don't expect to be swept away in a romance.
Lots of difficult things to believe in the book, the main one being Beatrices' transport between centuries. The author suggests it's a person in another period that calls the character there. I found that much harder to buy into than a portal (like the Stones were in Outlander.) If only it were that easy... Also a bit of a stretch that anyone could go so far back in time and fit in so easily.
Beatrice lucked into a job, a place to live and a support system almost instantaneously. It is a fictional work tho so do we give all the incongruities a pass on that count???
If you have interest in medieval Italy or historical fiction in general, maybe this one is for you?
There are interesting tidbits throughout the pages but on the whole it was a bit slow and left a lot of unanswered questions. Maybe it was too ambitious for the author to think she could cover so much ground in one book??
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