New Release: The Vatican Princess: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia by C.W. Gortner

In stores today! 
The Vatican Princess: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia by C.W. Gortner

"Infamy is no accident. It is a poison in our blood. It is the price of being a Borgia.
Glamorous and predatory, the Borgias became Italy's most ruthless and powerful family, electrifying and terrorizing their 15th-century Renaissance world. To this day, Lucrezia Borgia, the Pope's beautiful daughter, is known as one of history's most notorious villainesses, accused of incest and luring men to doom with her arsenal of poison. Was she the heartless seductress of legend? Or was she an unsuspecting pawn in a familial web, forced to choose between loyalty and her own survival?
From her pampered childhood in the palaces of Rome to her ill-fated, scandalous marriages and complex relationship with her adored father and her brothers, this is the dramatic, untold story of a papal princess whose courage led her to overcome the fate imposed on her by her Borgia blood".

Book Review: HIS LAST DUCHESS by Gabrielle Kimm

Lucrezia de’ Medici was Raised in a loving home. She was an innocent young woman awaiting her marriage to the handsome Duke of Ferrara. Having no idea what to expect in becoming the Duchess of Ferrara Lucrezia was more childlike than woman. She believed in fairy tale happy endings until she realized her handsome Duke was anything but a charming prince.

Alfonso de’ Este wanted to love Lucrezia from the moment he saw her but he was incapable of real love. He was a sadist and when it came time to go to the marriage bed he found Lucrezia’s innocence’s a roadblock to his passion. The marriage was left unconsummated and Alfonso began to despise Lucrezia for it. Since he could not control the situation in the royal bedroom he became cruel and sought to control Lucrezia by emotionally abusing her and eventually he escalated to physical abuse. Lucrezia was confused she did not understand what she did to incur her husbands wrath.  She was now afraid of him and what he could be capable of doing, her new home now became a prison under Alfonso’s watchful eye.

The marriage was under extreme strain when Alfonso decided to commission a portrait of Lucrezia. When the artists arrived Lucrezia was enthralled by their artistic skills. Fascinated by the artist’s young apprentice she discovered what it really felt like to love someone and be genuinely loved in return. It was a dangerous choice to have a liaison with anyone let alone an artist right under her cruel husbands nose. If he discovered her infidelity he would kill them both but that was a risk she was willing to take because she had to know what real love was.

4/5 Really good read, mysterious, fast paced and it kept me guessing all the way to the end. It was a real page-turner.

R ~ Rating for sexual references

FTC ~ this novel is from my personal collection

Amazon: His Last Duchess by Gabrielle Kimm

S T A Y C O N N E C T E D W I T H M E :
YOUTUBE ~ BEAUTIFULLY OBSESSED ~ T W I T T E R ‪ ~ F A C E B O O K ~ I N S T A G R A M ~ G O O G L E +‪
~L I Z Z I E~

Book Review: VITTORIO THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice

In this last novel of the “New Tales of the Vampires” series we are introduced to a new vampire Vittorio. Vittorio was a young boy on the verge of manhood during the 15^th century Italy. His family ruled on high from their mountain top castle in northern Tuscany. His ideal life was shattered in one tragic night of murder. The family castle was invaded in the dead of night by what Vittorio would later find out is the ghastly Order of the Ruby Grail.  Every single man woman and child was murdered except Vittorio. He was the only one spared by the super natural killers. Vittorio fought valiantly to protect his little brother and sister but could not stop these freakishly strong killers from their mission of death.  Spared by the woman who had helped destroy his family Vittorio became obsessed with vengeance and finding out more about this supernatural woman Ursula and the Order of the Ruby Grail.

4/5 I enjoyed a brand new vampire and a new romantic one too! I wish Anne had written more of this branch of the Vampire Chronicles because I would read those too. This one was a short, fast paced read and I enjoyed it. I would recommend this one to historical lovers alike because it does not really tie into any of the other novels in the series, it defiantly can be read as a stand-alone novel.

• FTC ~ this novel is from my personal collection.
• R-Rating for sexual reference and violence.
• Amazon: VITTORIO THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice

~Lizzie~

Book Review: BLOOD AND GOLD by Anne Rice

Marius child of the millennium, one of the oldest vampires in existence finally tells the story of his life. Stolen from his home at the height of the Roman era, Marius was given the dark blood by a captive druid vampire that was forced into living in a tree and only allowed to feed once or twice a year. Escaping the same fate as the druid vampire Marius was called to Egypt on a mission to save the mother and father of all vampires. The caregiver of the king and queen had given up all hope and took the king, queen, and himself into the sun to die. Little did he or anyone else know at the time that if he killed them it would mean instant death to the whole vampire species. Taking his king and queen Marius fled Egypt and instantly became the keeper of "those who must be kept”. The burden of caring for the king and queen would weigh heavily on Marius for centuries to come.

Marius had given the dark blood to his one time mortal love Pandora; both lovingly cared for the king and queen for centuries in Antioch. Their relationship took a dreadful turn when after a fight between the two Marius packed everything up including those who must be kept and fled. At the time Marius had been blinded by his anger and could not see that abandoning Pandora would cause him great pain in the centuries that were to come. Lost in his loneliness Marius was heartbroken that his glorious Rome had fallen. At this point he felt he had no other choice but to leave the beloved city he was born in and start over anew somewhere else.

Constantinople was proclaimed the new Rome and Marius went east with his king, queen, and two other ancient vampires to start all over. His new life in Constantinople did not go as well as he had planned. After a vampire drama fest once again Marius abandoned everyone but his king and queen and fled. Hiding the queen and king in a remote Italian mountain top crypt he spent decades alone. Once again victim to his own loneliness Marius was driven out of the crypt and found himself in full-blown renaissance Italy. The world had completely changed and it was completely to his liking. He found himself enthralled by the art of this new era. Marius was always a passionate artist in his heart of hearts and the idea came upon him that it was time to re-enter the mortal world as he once had done centuries ago in now ancient Rome.

Venice Italy breathed new passions into ancient Marius. He made a new life for himself with a beautiful home and filled it with new friends and servants. Bianca, beautifully mortal Bianca entranced him from the moment he met her. Marius truly loved Bianca but he also loved another named Amadeo. He rescued Amadeo from a brothel in Venice and brought him home to be educated with all the other boys he took under his wing. They would have many adventures together in Venice but like all good things they must come to an end. All would be ruined in one tragic day in Venice that almost took Marius' immortal life. Amadeo was stolen from him, Pandora was forever lost to him, and now Bianca was trying to hold it all together for Marius. For him nothing could or ever would be the same again but he could not just give up because the secret of those who must be kept must always be protected at whatever the cost even if it cost him everything and everyone he ever loved.

5/5 loved it! I finally got Marius' whole story even though I had to wait until book eight in the series to get it. It was well worth the wait though with an ending I never ever saw coming. I am really looking forward to reading "Pandora" even though it is technically part of the new vampire chronicles because it will give a whole new aspect to Marius' story. I would recommend this novel to history lovers alike because all of Anne's vampire chronicles focus not just on the vampires but the history of the era's in which they lived.

PG-13 for mild violence
FTC- this novel is part of my personal collection
Amazon ~ BLOOD AND GOLD by Anne Rice
~Lizzie~

Book Review: I, MONA LISA by Jeanne Kalogridis

Lisa di Antonio Gherardini was born into a life of secrets layered upon even more secrets. At this time Florence Italy was ruled by the de’ Medici. Lorenzo the magnificent co ruled with his brother Giuliano during the golden age of the Renaissance. Before Lisa was born Giuliano de’ Medici was tragically murdered in the dumo. His tragic end sent Florence into instant turmoil. Giuliano’s murder would scar each and every person who loved him for the rest of his or her lives.  Stricken with the grief of his brother’s death Lorenzo hunted down his brother’s murders with a cruel vengeance. All of them except one was found and destroyed. “The pennant” was the man that gave the first lethal blow to Giuliano and only Lorenzo’s faithful artist Leonardo da Vinci saw the face of the man. Leonardo never forgot a face and had struck a deal with Lorenzo that should he find the elusive pennant he was to be left to live because Leonardo did not believe in capital punishment. The pennant was never found and yet even with Giuliano gone his death would continue to haunt all of Florence.

Lisa’s father was very strict and her mother was sick; her home life was anything but pleasant. On the verge of womanhood her mother told her of Giuliano’s murder and had taken her to the dumo where her mothers only link to the past still existed. All questions about her mothers ties to him were left unanswered because her mother was brutally murdered by the evil propaganda preacher Savonarola. Her father had been taken in by this fanatical preacher and truly believed his radical sermons. He had dragged her sick mother to one of these sermons to meet Savonarola and she had fallen into a fit during the service. God’s work held all accountability for murdering her mother. Lisa would never be able to forgive Savonarola or her father for not helping her mother and for pushing her into an early grave.  Lisa in that instant saw another side of her father she had never seen before.

Since Lisa’s father was a rich wool merchant his family had been employed by the de’ Medici for generations. It was her mothers final wish that Lorenzo be the only man to play matchmaker for Lisa and her future husband. She met Lorenzo in her finest gown and Lisa made introductions with some of Florence’s finest artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. After meeting all of these new fascinating people Lisa had a firm new conviction that she was ready for a new life far away from her fanatical father.

Lorenzo’s son named after his beloved uncle, Giuliano met Lisa at the end of her first visit to the de’ Medici household.  It was love at first sight and he wanted to ask for permission to have her hand but his father’s health was in rapid decline while the fanatical preacher Savonarola was quickly on the rise. All of Florence flocked to this mad man that was apparently an anti de’ Medici fraction. He was succeeding in turning Florence against the de’ Medici while Lorenzo lay dying.  Lorenzo’s eldest son Piero was going to struggle in taking over his father’s rule of Florence. Taking a dramatic hold on life Lisa and Giuliano married with out her fathers consent and barely two days a married woman all of Florence turned against anything de’ Medici. Piero was ousted and fled for his life and Giuliano had tragically died trying to find Lisa. With him gone there was no reason to live but live, as she must Lisa must find justice and the truth because it was all she had left.

4/5 Excellent story lines, I really enjoyed this one because it was a real mystery surrounding Mona Lisa’s mother all the way to the very end. I loved this one but I defiantly would not recommend this one to my readers that need historical accuracy because their were a lot of liberties taken here by the author.

R-Rating for violence

FTC this novel is from my personal collection.

Amazon ~ I, MONA LISA by Jeanne Kalogridis
~Lizzie~

Book Review: DUCHESS OF MILAN by Michael Ennis

Beatrice d’Este Duchess of Bari was married to one of the most powerful men in Italy during the Italian Renaissance. Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Bari, Regent for the Duke of Milan ruled Milan for his incapable nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza. Gian prior to Beatrice’s marriage had married her cousin Isabella of Aragon. The cousins had shared a grandfather, Ferrante I, King of Naples and were not strangers to the brutal rivalries between Italy’s powerful leading families.

The cousins had been reunited upon Beatrice’s marriage and it was clear from the beginning there was no cousinly love between them at all. An intense rivalry was instantly born, hate at first sight, as I like to call it. The cousins knew they could each be each others undoing yet at times they found they did love each other but really could not stop the rivalry that had escaladed as the years progressed. On the cusp of the Italian Wars the cousins find each other at odds over titles and the rights to rule Milan. Beatrice had everything to loose and Isabella had already lost everything. Faced with an uprising and the French practically at the city gates the cousins discover their fates are forever intertwined with the survival of Milan.

4/5 I enjoyed this novel but it was a bit on the dramatic side. I enjoyed the liberties the author took and found it a bit on the smutty side at times. This is not a novel I would recommend to my more reserved readers. Yet if you’re anything like me you enjoy a little bit of smut in your history then this is the novel for you!

X~ Rating for graphic sexual encounters.

FTC~ this novel is from my personal collection. 

Amazon: DUCHESS OF MILAN by Michael Ennis

~Lizzie~

Isabella d'Este Marchesa of Mantua

Isabella d'Este Marchesa of Mantua done in watercolor pencil and colored pencil. I recently fell in love with Isabella and her sister Beatrice in one of my new favorite novels "Leonardo's Swans" by Karen Essex. Isabella was a leading lady in The Italian Renaissance. She was a avid art collector and benefactor to many of the artist that had made the Italian Renaissance. I was moved not by her deeds but by her life. Like many of the strong leading women of history I love, Isabella's life was filled with turmoil and tragedy. Considered a great beauty of her times she was also a very well educated woman that excelled in trying new things. She was also politically savvy and played a major role in the Italian Wars that had also involved her sister The Duchess of Milan. I was truly inspired by a bust that I came across on the web of Isabella. Beautiful does not even describe this bust and yet I am saddened by the history that the Nazi's had stolen it during WWII. Luckily for me and the future generations of the world The Monuments Men had a very intriguing story of how the bust was recovered. It is sad to think that the bust could have been lost forever and I never would have even seen it had they not found it. This is my ode to Isabella and the insight she had brought to the start of a art revolution that even today continues on. She is gone but will never be forgotten.

"Isabella d'Este (18 May 1474 – 13 February 1539) was Marchesa of Mantua and one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance as a major cultural and political figure. She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by women throughout Italy and at the French court. The poet Ariosto labeled her as the "liberal and magnanimous Isabella", while author Matteo Bandello described her as having been "supreme among women". Diplomat Niccolò da Correggio went even further by hailing her as "The First Lady of the world".

She served as the regent of Mantua during the absence of her husband, Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and the minority of her son, Federico, Duke of Mantua. In 1500 she met King Louis XII of France in Milan on a diplomatic mission to persuade him not to send his troops against Mantua.

She was a prolific letter-writer, and maintained a lifelong correspondence with her sister-in-law Elisabetta Gonzaga. Lucrezia Borgia was another sister-in-law; she later became the mistress of Isabella's husband". -Wiki

Attributed to Gian Cristoforo Romano, Italian (c. 1465– 1512)

Portrait of a Woman, Probably Isabe!a d’Este, c. 1500 T erracotta, formerly polychromed

21-3/8 x 21-1/2 in. (54.3 x 54.6 cm) 

"This summer, the Monuments Men Foundation and Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas announced that a Renais- sance portrait bust in the Kim- bell collection had been stolen by the Nazis during World War II and was one of thousands of works of art found in the Al- taussee Salt Mine in Austria.

This incredible discovery oc- curred in conjunction with an unrelated project. In the fall of 2009, while researching the missing albums containing photographs of the works of art destined for Adolf Hitler’s Linz
Museum, we came across a war- time photograph of the Steinberg salt mine in Altaussee, Austria. In early May 1945, during the closing days of the war, the Monuments Men were in a race against time to locate the last great Nazi repository of stolen works of art. A key tip led them to the Steinberg mine. They arrived to discover that a Nazi plot to destroy the salt mine and its priceless contents, including more than 6,000 paint- ings, had only hours before been thwarted, a harrowing story recounted in The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest
Treasure Hunt in History.

Hidden inside the mine were many of civilization’s greatest artistic mas- terpieces including Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna, Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece, and two Vermeer paintings (The Astronomer and The Artist’s Studio), to name just a few. Of the many photos taken inside the salt mine, we had not come across the photo above before. The photo shows the Kimbell's terra cotta bust of Renaissance art patron Isabelle d'Este being removed from the mine. We recognized the sculpture imme- diately and knew it had to be the Kimbell's version and not a copy be- cause of the vertical firing-line cracks on the sculpture's front. We were aware that the Kimbell’s provenance for the bust made no mention of be- ing in Hitler's art hideout. 

When the Monuments Men discovered the cache of artwork in the Altaussee salt mine, they had to remove the art as quickly and as carefully as they could from a narrow mine shaft. The artworks were then taken to the Munich Collect- ing Point, which was housed in the former Nazi party head- quarters in Munich, as it was one of the largest buildings left standing after the war. Upon the arrival of the works of art in Munich, the Monuments Men created property index cards for each object. In researching those cards we discov- ered the “smoking gun”: Altaussee inventory card number 1246, which documented the arrival in Munich on June 28, 1945 of the terra cotta bust of Isabelle d’Este, which at the time was “attributed to Leonardo da Vinci.” The back of the inventory card revealed that the sculpture was returned to the Netherlands on June 3, 1946". -Monuments Men Foundation

For more on Isabella d'Este Check out the other good reads on her:
Light on Lucrezia by Jean Plaidy
The Duchess of Milan by Michael Ennis

~Lizzie~