Review of The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci

[Dana Lawrence Lohn]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci" by Belle Ami.]

---

4 out of 5 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Belle Ami's The Girl Who Knew DaVinci is an ambitious work of historical romance. It also includes time travel and supernatural suspense. This book is written with a specific profile of the reader in mind. It is ideal for one who loves art, books previously authored by Dan Brown, Italian geography, and five-star cuisine. The descriptions of meals that protagonist Angela Renatus shared with male lead Alex Caine are rich and indulgent with adjectives. I found myself hungry each time I picked up the book! There were moments in reading in which I was tempted to categorize this book as a work of gastronomical fantasy.

Angela begins as a Los Angeles-based art historian and intern at the Getty Museum. She specializes in the High Renaissance period and focuses specifically on the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci. Following sexual harassment by her boss, she decamps for Italy at the invitation of Alex, who is investigating a missing painting while backed by vast financial resources. The story builds into a multigenerational investigation of the provenance of the missing work, culminating in major discoveries about Angela's family tree. Along the way, Angela and Alex fall into romantic love and enjoy some spicy bedroom scenes across the cities and vineyards of Italy. The romance is interspersed with subplots and high drama and ends with the climactic discovery of the missing artwork and the resolution of the spiritual unsettling of past generations.

This is a romantic and sexual book. It leans heavily on common narratives in romance.
Alex is rich and Angela is naive.
Alex has professional-level chef and military ninja skills and Angela has been sheltered.
Alex is sexually dominant and Angela shudders, swoons, and faints at least four times in this book.
There is a stereotypical aspect to the narrative along with a stilted feel to the dialogue. It feels at points as though historical dialogue was inadvertently introduced into contemporary scenes. It's difficult to imagine, for example, a modern woman turning to a man and saying "You can go back to your playboy ways." This anachronistic dialogue and plotting occasionally distracted me as a reader and is the reason I rated this book 3 out of 4.

I would read a Belle Ami book again. She adds abundant detail and writes beautifully about art, cuisine, and Italian history and culture, all of which I appreciated. Those who enjoy reading thrillers with depth and detail will derive value from this book.

******
The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Gerry Steen]

I love Italy. I have been there twice. The food is one of the great attractions of Italy as is the art and historic architecture. That being said, I think I would enjoy this book. The mystery, romance, and Italian flavors are a great combination to make the plot very interesting. Thank you for this well-written review.

[Risper Ouma Anyango]

I love me some books that get me hungry because atleast I will have an excuse to eat. But I however love art more. I know Davinci as an artist so my guess is that he is also a character in the book.

[Tomy Chandrafrost]

The combination of historical fiction with romance, along with the mystery surrounding Da Vinci's painting, seems intriguing. Reading your review makes me even more eager to read this book. Thank you for writing this. What a great review.

[Stephen Christopher 1]

Ok, so I loved this book, and actually rated it as one of my top 5! Yes there were some cliches, but for me that made it easier reading, and I could focus on the fascinating connection between the three couples. Belle Ami's next book is on my must-read list and I hope to get to that shortly.

[Harshitha Nayak]

This is my favourite book, so probably I have ignored few red flags in it. The reincarnation theme is bit tough to pull off,so the author actually did a good job here.

[Dana Lawrence Lohn]

Ok, so I loved this book, and actually rated it as one of my top 5! Yes there were some cliches, but for me that made it easier reading, and I could focus on the fascinating connection between the three couples. Belle Ami's next book is on my must-read list and I hope to get to that shortly.

Stephen I think you are (maybe secretly) a big huge romantic! It is a VERY romantic book. I want to introduce you to historical romance as a genre!!! I have suggestions for you!!!

[Stephen Christopher 1]

Stephen I think you are (maybe secretly) a big huge romantic! It is a VERY romantic book. I want to introduce you to historical romance as a genre!!! I have suggestions for you!!!

Oh I'm a huge romantic, just ask my husband! I think historical romance is awesome, I read Gone With the Wind and Wuthering Heights when I was in my late teens haha. (not first editions of course!!)

[Dana Lawrence Lohn]

Stephen I think you are (maybe secretly) a big huge romantic! It is a VERY romantic book. I want to introduce you to historical romance as a genre!!! I have suggestions for you!!!

Oh I'm a huge romantic, just ask my husband! I think historical romance is awesome, I read Gone With the Wind and Wuthering Heights when I was in my late teens haha. (not first editions of course!!)

That is fabulous! Hey, Amazon just suggested the Belle Ami Caravaggio book to me and I might check it out!

[Stephen Christopher 1]

That is fabulous! Hey, Amazon just suggested the Belle Ami Caravaggio book to me and I might check it out!

yes, that's the next book and on my list; funnily enough, today I got an email from Belle Ami, the author, recommending her new book Mona Lisa's Daughter, so I'm adding that too.

[Dana Lawrence Lohn]

That is fabulous! Hey, Amazon just suggested the Belle Ami Caravaggio book to me and I might check it out!

yes, that's the next book and on my list; funnily enough, today I got an email from Belle Ami, the author, recommending her new book Mona Lisa's Daughter, so I'm adding that too.

Her email marketing is on point. I want to learn from what she’s doing for my job (financial services) because she’s extremely excellent.