ARA Review by WD County of The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci

[WD County]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci.]

---

4 out of 5 stars

---

Share This Review

---

The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci by Belle Ami is the story of Angela Renatus, a young art historian at the Getty Museum. Angela has recently been having blackouts during which she seems to relive a past life. The past life is that of Fioretta Gorini, a close friend of Leonardo Da Vinci and mistress of Giulaino Medici. In that past, Leonardo paints a depiction of Fioretta and Giulaino showing them about to be married. The painting is sublimely beautiful, in contrast to the misfortunate about to befall the lovers.


Thrillers often use a plot device called a Macguffin, which is some specific object which provides initial motivations for the characters. The Macguffin in this novel is the painting by Da Vinci. The painting is lost centuries later and forgotten except for vague rumors. However, if the painting is found, it would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.


Angela’s ability to experience and communicate with past lives convinces her the painting is real, and that she might be able to track it down. She is aided in this task by Alex Caine, a charming and very successful art detective. She quits her jab at the museum to work with Alex. Predictably, Angela and Alex are attracted to one another, and this attraction builds even though both of them try to resist it. Their efforts to find the painting are opposed by a despicable art dealer, Angela’s former boss, Alberto Scordata, who suspects something of Angela’s ability. He who will stop at nothing to obtain the painting for himself.


The Amazon description compares the novel to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, and categorizes the story as “a romantic suspense/thriller.” However, Belle’s novel is at best only ten percent thriller. The romance takes up about fifty percent, and the remaining forty percent I would classify as paranormal adventure. It’s tempting to combine the last two categories and call the novel a paranormal romance, but that would be misleading because the romantic scenes occur as normal, physical events between couples sharing the same historical setting. The paranormal aspect only arises when the past-life characters communicate with present-day Angela.


I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars. Overall, this story is well-written with a clear plot, vivid descriptions, and believable reactions by Angela to her newfound paranormal ability to jump into a past life. I enjoyed the historical aspects. The author does a great job linking three sets of lives through reincarnation. Each set is separated by decades and centuries of time, and each set is connected by the same painting by Da Vinci. However, the novel is disappointing in two respects. First, the antagonist, Alberto Scordato, is so over-the-top in greed and lust that I couldn’t take him seriously. Second, I felt that Alex’s good looks, wealth, morality, and charm were too good to be true. Nevertheless, it’s definitely worth reading, especially if you’re drawn to paranormal romance. It’s also the first of a series, which makes it attractive to readers who become familiar with likable characters.

***
View The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci on Bookshelves