Books!
Sacred Hearts is Sarah Dunant's latest book of Renaissance historical fiction. I adored her Birth of Venus, and liked In the Company of the Courtesan, but this one was just as good as the first, I think. Serafina is a young girl who has been taken into the convent of Santa Caterina. But while many girls brought to the convent against their will are upset with their predicament, Serafina's ire is much more vehement than what the convent is used to seeing and sets her apart. Will the convent assimilate Serafina into their ranks? Or can Serafina escape to pursue the life she had always dreamed of?
What I love about Sarah Dunant's books is that I become so attached to her characters. You feel like you know them, you want them to have everything they've ever wanted, and the "villains" are never truly that (I adore how the character of Umiliana turned out. ADORE). You wonder what Suora Zuana would have been like outside of the convent, and then realize that she would never have had the kind of freedom she has inside the convent to practice medicine. In the Renaissance it is a very fine line for women, and I love how Dunant shows this in so many of these characters.
When I started reading, I decided three ways that the story could end satisfactorily, and I got my ending and then some. Well done, Ms. Dunant.
The more I read this series, the more I wonder if I'm missing something. It's been like that since the beginning, me wondering if maybe having not watched the last (two?) seasons of Buffy I was missing out on background that made the whole storyline make sense. Like, why does Xander have an eyepatch? And why does Dawn seem to be at the mercy of some sort of curse, judging by the fact that she's suddenly gigantic? Did I miss something? Or did this series just start out in media res, and we're just supposed to hang on for the ride and pick up the backstory as we move along? (I do know that someone had to discuss Kennedy in this volume before I put it together that that was who Willow was with. I totally missed that entire storyline.)
But this one, I know I was missing something. This volume features Fray, a future-slayer from Whedon's comic of the same name. I never read Fray. And I'm not entirely sure that I'm interested in reading it now. This storyline wasn't bad, in fact I rather adored the ending, but I'm not really interested in more of the Fray world.
But! The ministory at the end is awesome. It took me back to when I still loved the show, and I like that. They were so wee!