4 out of 4 stars
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The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci by Belle Ami was a fantastic read. I breezed through it within 3 days of starting. It was a brilliant blend of modern literature with Italian art history. This was a fast-paced story with genuinely no slow parts. It kept me wanting to read more right until the end. Ami gets the reader invested in their pasts just as much as the present story.
Our heroine in the novel is Angela with her love-interest Alex. They are on a quest to find a long-lost Da Vinci painting. Angela has visions from their past selves that reveal the true history and location of the art. Her former boss and his mafia lackey stalk the pair and try to thwart their attempt to recover and return the painting so they can sell it at auction and retire off the income. Along the way, Angela is visited by the ghosts of her past lives and their lovers. They show her snapshots of their life to help her throughout the journey.
I loved everything about this book. The characters were dynamic, the story was unique and fun, the descriptions were perfect while still leaving some to the reader, and the romance was just enough to keep the reader invested in it. Angela and Alex were likeable characters, but the true stars were the ghosts from the past. They had such unique stories of love and friendship. My favorite relationship was the friendship between Fioretta and Leonardo. They had a playful banter, but clearly both respected the other; their relationship was realistic and what everyone can aspire to in a friendship.
The only thing this book could have done to make me like it even more is include a little Italian English dictionary or explain what all the phrases/words meant throughout the novel. For some quotations, she does state it in Italian and English, but I would prefer it if she did it for all of them that were not common knowledge, such as bella or ciao. It took me out of the story on occasion so I could look up what they meant to understand the full story.
I rate The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci by Belle Ami 4 out of 4 stars. This book would appeal to a wide range of audiences, especially people who appreciate Italian culture and art, love a steamy romance, and enjoy a bit of suspense and action. Due to the nature of main love-interests, I would not recommend this to anyone under 18 or that does not want to read graphic sex scenes. The writing style was easy to follow and always fast-paced. The scenery is enough to make any reader jealous of Alex’s lavish lifestyle. This is one of the best book I have read in a while and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in even one part of it.
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The Girl Who Knew Da Vinci
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