Da Vinci’s Tiger

Da Vinci’s Tiger by L. M. Elliott

I am a subscriber to OwlCrate, a book box, and for the December box I received this book. The theme was Get Inspired. I thought the cover of this book was very pretty.

Here is the description of the book:

The young and beautiful daughter of a wealthy family, Ginevra longs to share her poetry and participate in the artistic ferment of Renaissance Florence but is trapped in an arranged marriage in a society dictated by men. The arrival of the charismatic Venetian ambassador, Bernardo Bembo, introduces Ginevra to a dazzling circle of patrons, artists, and philosophers. Bembo chooses Ginevra as his Platonic muse and commissions a portrait of her by a young Leonardo da Vinci. Posing for the brilliant painter inspires an intimate connection between them, one Ginevra only begins to understand. In a rich and vivid world of exquisite art with a dangerous underbelly of deadly political feuds, Ginevra faces many challenges to discover her voice and artistic companionship—and to find love

This book is a historical fiction book and used a real painting for inspiration. I thought it was a fun read, it was quick and easy. It was not my favorite book but I did enjoy reading it. I thought the story was interesting and liked that it was about Ginerva and Leonardo breaking the system of how women were usually painted, and really how paintings were painted. This idea of Platonic love was very interesting to read about, because from it you can see that it isn’t as straight forward as some would say. It can be seen that Bernardo really wants more than Platonic love from Ginerva, but she stands her ground, which to me seems like would be hard for women of that time. I did like the little almost romance that was happening between Ginerva and Leonardo, even though it was one sided. I like to believe that if he were different he would have liked her. I did feel bad that she really did not get to find love in this book and instead mainly stays in the convent, however I understand that she was a different woman than many.

I do not believe I would have read this book if it were not for getting it in my book box, but that is one thing I enjoy about getting these boxes is that it opens me up to books I would not have read. I do think the writing was well done and had some fun parts to it.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars