The Marriage Portrait is a novel selected by my book club for our April read. I wasn't really sure what to expect as this is the first book I have read by Maggie O'Farrell. The group read Hamnet earlier in the year but I was not at the meeting so I did not read the book. For fans of readers of historical fiction not set around WWI and WWII this is a good pick. It is set in 1500s Italy. I did find it a bit difficult to follow at first as there are multiple time points that are bounced between. as well as different narrators. The story is about Lucrezia Medici and her role in the family's place in Renaissance Italy. Having visited Florence and seen the Medici palace adds another layer of intrigue to this book for me.
Free spirited in her youth and suddenly thrust into marriage, Lucrezia plays a vital role in the Medici heritage. This is an interesting historic fiction novel that is a bit of a suspense work as well.
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Great historical period piece set in 1500s Italy. Even more engaging if you have been to Florence and the Medici palace. There is quite a bit of jumping between 3 time periods so sometimes it is a bit confusing to remember which point in the story you are at. Otherwise a great read
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Challenge Prompts
The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:
- Goodreads and Reading by the Numbers #ReadingByNumbers2023 Book # 55
- Library Love #LibraryLoveChallenge Book # 43
- Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2023 Book #48
- Historic Fiction #histficreadingchallenge Book #4
- 52 Book Club #the52bookclub2023 #18 Set During a War other than WWI or WWII
- Around the Year in 52 Books #41. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists
- BooklistQueen #booklistqueenreadingchallenge2023 #4. With More Than 500 Pages
- Beat the Backlist #BTB2023 #52 picked out by a friend with no context
- HP Quidditch 23 #46 Weasley is our King: Contains royalty
- Nerdy Bookworm #NerdyBookwormChallengeXO #44. Read a book set around wartime
- Nerd Daily #thenerddaily #nerdreading2023 # 37. SELECTED BY FAMILY OR FRIEND
- PopSugar #popsugarreadingchallenge #29 A book your friend recommended
- Pick your Poison # 114 A book about our ancestors
- Diversify your reading #DYRC23 Mar Literary Fiction
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