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Belladonna's Kiss Trilogy #1
Belladonna's Kiss
Belladonna—deadly, beautiful, and Renaissance Florence’s best-kept secret.
They hide in plain sight, disguised as nuns. But the Belladonna don’t spend their days praying. Instead, Florence’s elite female assassins scale walls and poison their enemies—wealthy men who abuse their wives. Until a shocking death throws Florence into chaos.
Lorenzo de’ Medici is dead. Florence is in chaos. Can an assassin bring peace to a warring city?
Serena Fortuna has enough problems on her hands. Her best friend disappeared six months ago. The head of the Belladonna won’t answer her questions. And now she’s going undercover in the Medici Palace, home to Europe’s richest and most ruthless family.
When a groom named Matteo throws a wrench in Serena’s plans, she has to scramble to stay ahead of her enemies.
Enter the fast-paced world of the Belladonna in Book 1 of the Belladonna’s Kiss Trilogy.
They hide in plain sight, disguised as nuns. But the Belladonna don’t spend their days praying. Instead, Florence’s elite female assassins scale walls and poison their enemies—wealthy men who abuse their wives. Until a shocking death throws Florence into chaos.
Lorenzo de’ Medici is dead. Florence is in chaos. Can an assassin bring peace to a warring city?
Serena Fortuna has enough problems on her hands. Her best friend disappeared six months ago. The head of the Belladonna won’t answer her questions. And now she’s going undercover in the Medici Palace, home to Europe’s richest and most ruthless family.
When a groom named Matteo throws a wrench in Serena’s plans, she has to scramble to stay ahead of her enemies.
Enter the fast-paced world of the Belladonna in Book 1 of the Belladonna’s Kiss Trilogy.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 6, 2021
30 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 11, 2021
My review is really 2.5 stars, but when forced to round up or down, I had to give it 2 stars. Please consider: I am very critical and my bar for excellence is extremely high.
What drew me to this book was the plot. It's an incredibly great plot and that stays true throughout the book. However, the characters never fully take on life for me. They seem like automations crafted to carry out the plot and, while they had motivations and emotions, I couldn't quite grasp what those were. Sometimes the main character went through so many emotions in one paragraph, I couldn't follow how they reflected her train of thought or built her character.
There is a mystery to the plot so I am left wondering, with such a solid plot, could the writer be intentionally misdirecting with characters? If so, that could easily be forgivable if the other two books pan out.
Also, this book needs a good edit. Certain descriptive phrases were repeated to indicate emotional states (clenched jaw) and simple mistakes with they're/there/their and your/you're were repeated. At one point one characters name was substituted for another and another sentence started "Name she ...", so the editing was enough to distract from the writing.
Further, instead of feeling like the first book in a trilogy, it felt really more like a third of a book.
However, and this is important, I did not find the story boring in any way and I want to find out more. I am definitely committed. I'm looking forward to reading the next book and the one after that and I am hopeful that the series won't disappoint!
What drew me to this book was the plot. It's an incredibly great plot and that stays true throughout the book. However, the characters never fully take on life for me. They seem like automations crafted to carry out the plot and, while they had motivations and emotions, I couldn't quite grasp what those were. Sometimes the main character went through so many emotions in one paragraph, I couldn't follow how they reflected her train of thought or built her character.
There is a mystery to the plot so I am left wondering, with such a solid plot, could the writer be intentionally misdirecting with characters? If so, that could easily be forgivable if the other two books pan out.
Also, this book needs a good edit. Certain descriptive phrases were repeated to indicate emotional states (clenched jaw) and simple mistakes with they're/there/their and your/you're were repeated. At one point one characters name was substituted for another and another sentence started "Name she ...", so the editing was enough to distract from the writing.
Further, instead of feeling like the first book in a trilogy, it felt really more like a third of a book.
However, and this is important, I did not find the story boring in any way and I want to find out more. I am definitely committed. I'm looking forward to reading the next book and the one after that and I am hopeful that the series won't disappoint!
Displaying 1 of 1 review