Book Review: Sins of the House of Borgia by Sarah Bower

About the Book:

A Notorious Duke
An Infamous Duchess
An Innocent Girl

Violante isn’t supposed to be here, in one of the grandest courts of Renaissance Italy. She isn’t supposed to be a lady-in-waiting to the beautiful Lucrezia Borgia. But the same secretive  politics that pushed Lucrezia’s father to the Vatican have landed Violante deep in a lavish landscape of passion and ambition.

Violante discovers a Lucrezia unknown to those who see only a scheming harlot, and all the whispers about her brother, Cesare Borgia, never revealed the soul of the man who dances close with Violante.

But those who enter the House of Borgia are never quite the same when they leave—if they leave at all. Violante’s place in history will test her heart and leave her the guardian of dangerous secrets she must carry to the grave.

About the Author:

Sarah Bower is a novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, The Needle in the Blood, was Susan Hill’s Book of the Year 2007. Her short stories have appeared in magazines including QWF, Buzzwords and The Yellow Room. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in 2002. She teaches creative writing at UEA and for the Open University. She also works as a mentor and manuscript reader for leading literary consultancies.

My Opinion:

This was a powerful book. It was not an easy book to read; that does not mean that I did not enjoy it. The subject matter is dark and a feeling of sadness hangs over the tale. The book is rich in detail and written as sort of a memoir by Violante, one of Lucrezia Borgia's ladies in waiting. The stories told are fictional; woven from the tiniest shreds of information left in the historical record. The Borgias have such a negative reputation and this book does nothing to repair it.

Violante (Esther Safarti) starts life as a Jew in Spain but is forced to travel to Rome with her mother when the Jews are removed. Her mother dies on the way and her father uses her blond beauty as a way into the household of Pope Alexander VI. His daughter, Lucrezia Borgia stands as godmother as  Esther converts to Catholicism and enter her household. She takes the name Donata but is nicknamed Violante by Lucrezia's brother Cesare.

Violante bears a striking resemblance to Lucrezia.  She ultimately falls in love with Cesare and becomes pregnant. She presents him with his son Giralomo but their relationship barely exists. The inter-relationships of family and the secrets they hold are the two overwhelming themes in the narrative.

History has not left us with warm feelings for the Borgias and as I said above this book will not help. There is little happiness in it. Nothing to really lighten the mood so I found myself reading it in shifts. I actually read two other books while reading this one. I found I could not take too much of it at once.That being said, it is very well written and excellently researched, just very dark. I am keeping it to read again.

The Sins of the House of Borgia will be available at Sourcebooks after March 8th.

Disclosure:  I received a gratis copy of The Sins of the House of Borgia. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.