Stravaganza!!!!
I am currently reading Mary Hoffman's STRAVAGANZA series, and I am completely in love with those books! I finished City of Masks, now I'm almost done with City of Stars. I MUST HAVE CITY OF FLOWERS in my hands in the next 24 hours!!! Or I shall go mad. HAhahaha. The author bases her world in an alternate dimension of 16th century Italy. City of Masks is set in Venice (but they've got different names for everything, like Italy is Talia, Venice is Bellezza, and so on). City of Flowers is set in a town called Siena (I forgot its book counterpart name). Anyhow, this REALLY makes me want to visit Italy someday... And it doesn't help that I'm also watching Aria, which is also set in a futuristic Venice called Neo-Venezia, and it is about the adventures of a female gondolier. The show is just so light and happy, it reeeeeaaaaaaally makes you want to go to Italy to see all those sights in real life. *_______* *sighhhh~*
Oh, there's also a twist to the Stravaganza series (I forgot to mention the most important part). Though most of the action happens in Talia, the main character Lucien, a boy with cancer from 21st century London happens to chance upon a notebook, which turns out to be a portal key / talisman thingy that opens the gate between these two dimensions. So I was pretty much shocked because I was expecting a 16th century feel of story all the way (like suspense, cloak and dagger, politics, spies, assassinations of Duchesses, romance, all the stuff you find in Shakespeare), but then I found myself seeing words like chemotherapy and internet and google. It was pretty refreshing and unique. O_O
Oh, there's also a twist to the Stravaganza series (I forgot to mention the most important part). Though most of the action happens in Talia, the main character Lucien, a boy with cancer from 21st century London happens to chance upon a notebook, which turns out to be a portal key / talisman thingy that opens the gate between these two dimensions. So I was pretty much shocked because I was expecting a 16th century feel of story all the way (like suspense, cloak and dagger, politics, spies, assassinations of Duchesses, romance, all the stuff you find in Shakespeare), but then I found myself seeing words like chemotherapy and internet and google. It was pretty refreshing and unique. O_O