Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Blood and Beauty
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
Rooted in the energetic, brutal and corrupt world of 15th-century Italy, Blood and Beauty opens with Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, clever and charismatic, buying his way to the Papal crown. In this he is not unusual. Neither is the fact that he has illegitimate children. What does mark him is his blood; he is a Spaniard in a country run by established Italian families. To thrive, even to survive, he must create his own dynasty using the papacy and his family as the building blocks of power. His son Cesare is his most brilliant pupil. Fearless and calculating (later immortalized in Machiavellis The Prince), he provides the driving energy and the muscle. The Popes daughter, Lucrezia, beloved by both men, is their marriage tool. Just twelve when the novel opens, she is to have one dynastic union annulled and a secondbelovedhusband murdered by her own brother to make way for a third strategic marriageall before the age of twenty. Hers is a journey from pawn to political player. Using the high-wire tension of a political thriller, this portrait of power and its personal costs is the most thrilling family saga to come out of Italy since The Godfather. The Borgias emerge not as the poisoning sexual monsters of popular myth, but in all their ruthless determination and complex humanity.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
quote
asterese
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image

"Family. The greatest loyalty after God."

"There have been none like us before. And there will be none afterwards. Be careful what you write."

blurb
asterese
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image

My new book sleeve just arrived and I'm over the moon about it. 🥰🪐🌌 It's the perfect companion for Blood and Beauty, which I started yesterday to get out of an almost-reading slump.

P.S. It glows in the dark. 🤓

blurb
asterese
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image

How am I only discovering stickers now?? 😲

It's already Valentine's Day on this side of the world so Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! 💕

7 likes1 stack add
quote
Vansa
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image

Exactly what's happening here right now.

3 likes1 stack add
review
LibraryCin
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
Panpan

How was this even acceptable for a pope!? How did he get voted in? And for a cardinal (Cesare)? All the sleeping around. Even if there wasn‘t any incest going on, Rodrigo‘s children made it obvious he wasn‘t celibate. Was this not a requirement of priests and higher ups in the Catholic Church at the time!? Cont in comments...

LibraryCin Anyway, I just didn‘t find most of the book very interesting. I found the parts that focused on Lucrezia the most interesting and paid most attention to that, otherwise I was often skimming. 6y
4 likes1 comment
review
jlondon1963
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image
Pickpick

Excellent historical fiction on the Borgia‘s. set in 15th century Italy surrounding Roderico Borgia who becomes the next Catholic Pope (Alexander VI) he uses the papacy to elevate his illegitimate children. Political intrigue, assassinations and marriages that lead to conquests of lands.

SandyW The Borgia pope was one of the characters in 7y
jlondon1963 @SandyW may have to push that book up in myTBR pile. 7y
19 likes2 comments
blurb
MallenNC
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image

Not #MyBloodyValentine but books from my shelves with blood in the title. They are all royalty related, and most of these stories did not have happy endings. #heartsandhardcovers @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks 🖤❤️🖤❤️ 7y
23 likes1 comment
blurb
Shmemilina
Blood & Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image

So, I haven't quite read this one yet but I had to bring it out for my favorite #dysfunctionalfamily, the Borgias. They're not exactly fictional, but this is a historical fiction novel so I figure it counts. #24in48 #readathon

6 likes1 stack add
review
CrazyBookLady
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image
Bailedbailed

Call me picky but this line killed it for me. I like my historical fiction accurate and I am fairly sure the phrase "take a crap" wasn't used in the 15th century. I may be wrong, but to me it just feels inauthentic.

ValerieAndBooks I agree with you. Seems like it should have been caught before it went to press! 8y
Texasblues That kind of stuff drives me bonkers. 8y
8 likes2 comments
blurb
CrazyBookLady
Blood and Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image

review
glitzandshadows
Blood & Beauty | Sarah Dunant
post image
Pickpick

A gorgeous and meticulously researched novel following one of the most fascinating families in papal history. Scandalous Borgia books are easy to come by, but this book treats this corrupt family with respect (and intrigue)