Synopsis From Back Cover:
The Creation of Eve is a novel based on the true but little-known story of Sofonisba Anguissola, the first renowned female artist of the Renaissance. After a scandal in Michelangelo's workshop, Sofi flees Italy and joins the Spanish court of King Felipe II to be a lady-in-waiting to his young bride. There she becomes embroiled in a love triangle involving the Queen, the King, and the King's illegitimate half brother, Don Juan. The Creation of Eve combines art, romance, and history from the Golden Age in Spain in a story that asks the question: Can you ever truly know another person's heart?
I'm still trying to figure out how much of this book I enjoyed and how much of it just wasn't for me. On the one hand we are presented with a fantastic character in Sofi. A woman, with the support of her family, pursues her passion of art. Her father pushes her and supports her to the point of getting the attention of Michaelangelo himself. She is constantly trying to prove herself in a world dominated by men. Through her own actions she is forced into a situation where she is bound to serve the King of Spain as an attendant to his new bride.
Now if the book would have stayed with her story at this point I would have enjoyed the book more, as it was it seemed she was the tool used to tell the story of King Felipe, Queen Elisabeth, and Don Juan. That everything Sofi did or said, even about her own life, was to illustrate a point abou the lifes of those she was obliged to serve.
What I was wanting, was more of Sofi's story. More about her childhood and the reactions of her community to what she was doing and how far her father was willing to go to help her. I wanted more details about the art aspect of her life, about her process and actual works. I wanted to know more about her life after she left the service of the royal family, I know it's talked about in the afterword, but imagine how much better it would have been to have her entire life fleshed out in prose. Essentialy, I wanted more of Sofi and less of everyone else.
With that being said I enjoyed the author's writing style and her way she was able to bring every scene to life in my mind. It's obvious she did some serious researching and while quite a bit of the personal stuff may have been made up, whe was able to put in enough "reality" that the rest of it was still believable. I found myself being dissapointed in the book anyway. Now this could simply be the fact that I'm not familiar with that much historical fiction, as this is really the first non mystery historical I've really read. It could be that maybe this genre really isn't for me. I don't know but I'm willing to read more to see if it could be.
For more on the author please visit her website, lynncullen.com.
I was give the opportunity to read, review this book by Trish of TLC Book Tours.
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