Review by Zelinda -- The Girl Who Knew da Vinci

Zelinda · Post by **Zelinda** » 12 Jul 2018, 16:02

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

3 out of 4 stars

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The Girl Who Knew da Vinci tells the story of Angela Renatus, a young intern at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. She loves her job, researching paintings and their artists, but does not love her boss, Dr. Alberto Scordato, and dreads meetings with him. After a particularly unpleasant encounter with him, she leaves her job and accepts a position working with Alex Caine to research and investigate the alleged existence of an undocumented, secret Da Vinci painting. Her new job takes her to Florence, Rome, and other historical settings in Italy. Scordato, who has been fired from his job as director of the museum after Angela leaves, follows her there. He is convinced that the painting actually does exist and that Angela is the key to his finding and stealing it.

Meanwhile, Alex comes to discover that Angela is subject to trances in which she is living in past times as a woman who is associated with the painting that she and Alex are trying to find. Alex is also caught up in some of these experiences, though not to the same degree as her. For example, as Angela sits in front of a painting, caught up in a daze that takes her into another time, Alex sees and hears a character in the same painting who speaks to him. However, Alex remains fully in the present as he receives the message.

This is an exciting book that will appeal to anyone who likes suspenseful crime fiction. I would have to say that this book is for mature readers because of the explicit and frequent sex scenes. If they were toned down and less frequent, it would probably be appropriate for young adults also. This was one aspect of the book I didn’t care for. I believe the author could have shown the burgeoning attraction between Angela and Alex with fewer erotic scenes. After a while they became repetitive and impeded the flow of the story.

What I did like about this book were the imaginative scenes that took place in past times and the sense of the culture and history of those times. The depiction of the various Italian locations and scenery, both in the past and the present, was appealing and delightful. The presentation of the idea of past lives was also interesting and believable. And the chase to find the painting, the connection of the current search to events of the past, and the dangers encountered by Alex and Angela, were engrossing and very well written.

There were no editorial errors that I encountered. I would have liked to have given this book four stars, but the number of times I felt irritated by what I saw as unnecessary and almost redundant sex scenes was too many. I really wanted the author to move ahead with the story and was impatient for that to happen. For this reason, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.

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The Girl Who Knew da Vinci
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