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Book Review of I, Mona Lisa

I, Mona Lisa
summrsun16 avatar reviewed on + 16 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4


A really excellent read. I'd never read Jeanne Kalogridis before, but I adore her writing style. Fluid, engaging, descriptive, and so nice to read. In the first part of this story, we hear the tale of how Lisa's life events were set into motion. The Medici family, the most powerful family in Florence, was torn apart when youngest brother Giuliano was murdered in the Duomo by the conspiring Pazzi family. After this, Florence was thrust into turmoil - a new preacher came into popularity, hailed as a sort of Messiah, demanding that Florence turn away from materialism, which caused Florence to turn away from the Medici family.

Lisa is stuck in the middle of all of this. She meets Lorenzo de Medici and through him becomes acquainted with Leonardo da Vinci. All the political, economic, and religious issues of the time come to light as we journey through Lisa's life, and Kalogridis does a wonderful job of connecting actual historical events with fictionalized experiences. There are some major twists that you won't see coming, and that will ultimately surprise you. I absolutely loved this book and can't wait to read more of Kalogridis' work.