The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci by Belle Ami Review
Goodreads Rating: 3.77 Stars
Reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code, it drew readers in with a mixture of time traveling and intrigue along with romance and action. There is quite literally something for everyone. The book deals with a supposed painting that has been attributed to a student of Da Vinci, when in truth the painting had been of a secret wedding painted by Da Vinci himself, that has gone missing. The book then follows a couple, Angela and Alex, as they try to find the painting.
I love the book. The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci calls to the very imaginative portion of us all as Belle Ami takes us on a whirlwind journey into Fifth Century Florence to World War II era Florence to Modern Florence. The descriptions that she has in the book is amazing and I am sufficiently hooked. The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci did exactly what the first book in a new series is meant to do, intrigue readers enough to make them want to get the next books.
I have a myriad of reincarnation books. Fallen by Lauren Kate, Elixir by Hilary Duff, and several others. Each had something different that were attractive to me but this book took the other books down. The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci made me feel for Fioretta and Guiliano and for Sophia and Gerhard and for Angela and Alex. It made me feel for people that lived but that I had no prior connection to. It established a friendship with Leonardo Da Vinci that I had not known was possible.
To me, Leonardo Da Vinci was simply an amazing person was before his time. Belle Ami made him more. She made him approachable. She humanized him and brought him down from the pedestal that most people have him on. Belle Ami also made the Medici family, one of the most powerful ruling families in the history of Florence, seem like any other family with familial disputes and bickering siblings.
The pace of the book, however, never really took off for me. Even in the action scenes, it seemed that the book was being told in slow motion. There was no frantic energy pouring off the pages. Despite the fact that it was essentially told in five points of view, three of which were pretty much the same person. Overall, the book hit all the amazing spots and more, I would have just liked a bit more of a frantic or fast energy for the climax.