Matt Chamings

A young painter's apprentice with a dark secret is on his way to paint the portrait of Lorenzo de Medici's beautiful young daughter. But he has a darker purpose in mind as well - for the Medici's bloody past is twined with his own.

In present-day Italy, Maria finds herself drawn to the story of a lost painting of this young girl in white - but she also fears its curse. For everyone who has found the painting has suffered deep misfortune, and now Maria has begun to see visions of a young girl dressed all in white...

To be honest, I thought the Medici chapters were easily ten times more interesting than their contemporary counterparts. I liked to hear about Leonardo da Vinci's eccentricities, I enjoyed the story of the Pazzi Conspiracy, and the slowly growing Romeo & Juliet style love story. Arnaldo's interactions with Lorenzo de Medici were just bubbling with suppressed emotion and action. We have sword-fighting, painting, fanatical priests. There's just no way the modern sections can keep up. Ultimately the modern story left me unsatisfied. I think the book would have been richer had it been scrapped altogether.

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