The Contessa's Vendetta by Mirella Sichirollo Patzer

Are you in the mood for some Gothic romantic revenge fiction set in the mid sixteen hundreds in Italy?  Even if this is not your favorite genre, the author's lyrical and lovely writing style may capture your heart.  We are treated to a first-person memoirs written by a woman who has voluntarily sequestered herself in a convent after a tumultuous young life.

Now, long after my ordeal is over, I want to narrate the events of one short year; the most agonizing year in my life...

Carlotta Mancini of Vicenza, Italy, was an extremely innocent woman, and dangerously wealthy, too.  She attracted cads and rakes, and one rake in particular, the sociopathic man she married.  The older Carlotta warns us of her shortsightedness along the rocky road, hinting at events to come in her tale.

Without doubt, he was the most majestic looking man I had ever encountered, and I, his late wife, still trembled in the wake of his splendor.

Carlotta offers many warnings to her female readers that they make their own messes with men, by allowing the men to abuse their emotions.

Woe the blindness of women.  With all our abilities; with all the world before us to conquer, we crumble at an abusive word or rude gesture by a man...

This is escapist fare of 370+ pages transports the reader to another world, Vicenza and Venice, Italy, in the 1600s.  We get high drama, Gothic horrors, death, ghosts, cunning plots galore, and the central vendetta is the story of extreme innocence turned to extreme hate. 

There were multiple moments when I mentally yelled at Carlotta to stop her deadly plot and turn to living life, but that was not to be.  She lost her mind early in the book because of a severe trauma, and became monomaniacal about her vendetta, not seeing the chances that were before her for a second chance at happiness.

From the book's description (some spoilers):

To be buried alive is everyone's worst nightmare, and when faced with the ultimate betrayal, a murderous vendetta is one woman's only solution.

A deadly plague is raging, killing thousands in 17th century Vicenza Italy.  Carlotta Mancini struggles to protect her family and servants, but despite her precautions, she is the one who falls prey to the deadly illness.

Her body is tossed into a coffin and swiftly buried in the underground, dank confines of her family’s vault.  But Carlotta is not dead; she is merely unconscious because of the illness.

She returns home to her beloved husband, her best friend, and her darling daughter.  But before she reveals herself to her loved ones, she learns of an endless series of lies, deceits, and betrayal.

As she unravels the labyrinth of shocking treachery, her wrath breathes life to an overwhelming need for vengeance.  Slowly, meticulously, she launches her diabolical vendetta.

The Contessa's Vendetta is a historical fiction thriller ripe with suspense from first page to last. A tale of betrayal and revenge that will hold you spellbound until the shocking ending!

The Contessa's Vendetta is a retelling of the classic novel, Vendetta by Marie Corelli.  Inspired by this epic classic novel; a new and captivating tale in a new setting, a new century, and with new plot twists while remaining faithful to key story elements.

Here is a direct link to The Contessa's Vendetta at Amazon.com:

 

This author is an established Indie author, with several quality books to her name, each with an attractive cover and book design.  Here are all her historical novels set in Italy, with direct links to the books at Amazon, through the images.

The Orphan of the Olive Tree
(click on the image to go to the book's Amazon.com page)

AWARDED THE B.R.A.G.G. MEDALLION for Indie Fiction

A compelling historical romance and family saga.  A blood oath, a dreadful curse, and the evil eye. A dark family secret that will shatter lives and the woman who must risk everything to keep it buried.

From two neighbouring villas in the heart of the Tuscan countryside to the elegance of Siena; from a world steeped in ancient superstitions to a culture where family honour is paramount comes, this multi-layered novel of the lives, loves, secrets and strivings of two women and their families in the 13th century.

The Contessa's Vendetta
(click on the image to go to the book's Amazon.com page)

The Contessa's Vendetta is a historical fiction thriller ripe with suspense from first page to last. A tale of betrayal and revenge that will hold you spellbound until the shocking ending.

The Contessa's Vendetta is a retelling of the classic novel, Vendetta by Marie Corelli. Inspired by this epic classic novel; a new and captivating tale in a new setting, a new century, and with new plot twists while remaining faithful to key story elements.




The Novice (reviewed on this site)
(click on the image to go to the book's Amazon.com page)

In 10th century Naples, Saracens run rampant, annihilating villages, murdering women and children.  Death and despair is everywhere.  Alone in the world, Sara is a young novice plagued with doubts about taking her final vows to become a nun.  When her convent is attacked, she flees for her life straight into the arms of a group of Saracens who leave her to die alone in the woods.  An honorable cavaliere named Nicolo comes to her rescue and offers to take her to the safety of Naples. 

As they journey together, they are irresistibly drawn to each other.  Believing Sara to be a nun, the honorable Nicolo is torn between love and duty to respect her vows.  Heartbroken, he does what honor demands and sets her free before she can tell him the truth that she is not a nun.  In her search to reunite with Nicolo, she encounters Umberto, a dark and dangerous man who will stop at nothing in his obsession to possess her.  With her sharp intellect, and her heart, Sara must rely on her own courage and strength to escape her abuser and find the only man she will ever love.

The Betrothal
(click on the image to go to the book's Amazon.com page)

Two young lovers bound by their love for each other. A dreadful overlord who will shatter lives to possess the woman he loves, and the dark secrets that one woman will risk everything to keep buried. An absorbing novel about wicked intentions, murder, obsessive love, undisclosed secrets, unstoppable destinies, and the woman whose secret will either destroy or restore lives.

The Betrothal is a retelling of the classic novel, The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi) by Alessandro Manzoni. Inspired by this epic Italian classic novel; a new and captivating tale in a new setting, a new century, and with new plot twists while remaining faithful to key story elements.

The Pendant
(click on the image to go to the book's Amazon.com page)

A medieval tale about a lost ancient treasure. A 100 year family feud. And a woman with a passion richer than the bloodstone pendant she wears around her neck.

This Italian historical romance novel with a Gothic flare has it all - an ancient mystery, a bloodstone pendant with a secret, murder, vengeance, and a love story to take your breath away.  An historical Gothic romance of murder, desperation, and true love.

Italian Historical Box-Set
(click on the image to go to the book's Amazon.com page)

Please visit the author's website and blog, and her historical novel review site.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Stargazers by Allan Chapman

The subtitle of Stargazers is Galileo, Copernicus, the Telescope and the Church, but that is a bit deceptive, since the book is really a history of astronomy itself.  The author spends the most time, however, discussing the "Astronomical Renaissance" from the year 1500 to 1700.  I requested a review-copy because of the large section of the book us devoted to Galileo Galilei, the famous Italian astronomer. 

The section on Galileo begins about 29% into the book and goes to about 43% of the book.  The whole book covers:

• Aristotle's universe
• Copernicus's revolution
• Tycho Brahe's earth-sun-centric universe
• Kepler's laws of motion
• Galileo Galilei's telescope and visual proof
• The Jesuits missionaries' telescope based astronomy around the world
• Protestants and science
• Francis Bacon and natural philosophy
• The Royal Society and the International Fellowship of Science
• The heavenly clockwork and the power of the scientific method

There are Notes, Further Reading suggestions, a full Index and illustrations throughout the text.

The spread of the study of astronomy was thanks to the Jesuit schools set up to educate young men in thinking critically, and knowing how to argue and defend a proposition.  They were educated in the seven liberal arts, one of which was astronomy. 

But those teachers would have had nothing to teach without the ancient texts that were preserved by religious monastic societies throughout the middle ages:  the ancient scientists provided many instruments, astronomical tables, calculations and observations.

Galileo's drawings of the phases of the moon

And the ancient texts would not have been available to the teachers and students without the printing press, which from 1500 onward provided affordable texts throughout Europe of books that previously were the domain of mainly churches and princes.

It is the printing of the new ideas of the learned that made the astronomical renaissance possible.  Ideas built upon ideas, observations stimulated more theories, which pushed thinkers to desire proof, which lead to more instruments...

Galileo comes alive through the details provided by the author about Galileo's life, upbringing, his world and his public record of arrogance and cruelty.  The Italian was:

...unmystical, hard-headed, argumentative, and possessed of a powerful personality that did not take easily to being contradicted.

There has been much myth-building surrounding Galileo, many stories that may not be true, lots of anecdotes to show the man's greatness, but few reveal his nastiness. 

Frontispiece of Opere Di Galileo Galilei, Published in Bologna in 1656

Traveling around Venice, Padua and other important Italian city-states, the centers of learning during the Renaissance, the author looks at the advancement of astronomical mathematics, engineering, and astronomical tools that Galileo had a hand in.

Galileo was a mathematician and theoretician who used his applied mathematics and engineering skills to create a refracting telescope with special lenses that allowed him to observe the objects in the sky better than anyone before him, and he wrote about his observations of Jupiter, the moon, Saturn's rings, Venus's transit of the sun, and the milky way's stars.

One of the myth-making stories of Galileo experimenting with gravity from the top of the leaning Bell Tower of Pisa

You have to be something of an astronomy fanatic, or a beginning student of astronomy, to read this book.  It is rich with detail, but since it covers such a long period of time some sections are rather cursory.  The curious reader will want to check out the Further Reading suggestions to flesh out the story of astronomy.  But this is an excellent introductory text!

From the book's description:

Stargazers presents a comprehensive history of how leading astronomers, such as Galileo and Copernicus, mapped the stars from 1500AD to around 1700AD.  Building on the work of the Greek and Arabian astrologers before him, church lawyer Nicholas Copernicus proposed the idea of a sun-centred universe.  It was later popularized by Galileo – a brilliant debater whose abrasive style won him many enemies – who presented new evidence, which suggested that the earth moved.  

This thorough examination of the work of both men explores both their achievements and influences. It then traces the impact of their ideas on those who followed them, including Sir Francis Bacon, Dr John Wilkins, Dr Robert Hooke, Sir Isaac Newton and Reverend Dr James Bradley.  

Chapman investigates the Church’s role and its intriguing relationship with the astronomers of the day, many of whom were churchgoers.  He rebuts the popular view that the Church was opposed to the study of astronomy.  In reality, it led the search to discover more.  In 1728, Copernicus’s theory of the moving earth was finally proven by the young Reverend Dr James Bradley.

Frontispiece of Galileo's 'De Systemate Mundi' Depicting Aristotle, Ptolomy, Copernicus, 1635

Here are direct links to Stargazers at Amazon.com:

This is a sanitized version of Galileo's life and work:

Visit the author's page at Gresham College.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.