My Two Blessings : The Rossetti Letter by Christi Phillips

Back Cover synopsis: 1618. A beautiful young courtesan writes a secret letter to the Venetian Council warning of a Spanish plot to overthrow the Republic, thereby endangering both herself and her lover. Who was the mysterious Alessandra Rossetti and why did she choose such a perilous path?

Today. PhD candidate Claire Donovan races to locate the documents that will finally reveal the motives of this woman whom history forgot. As she searches the ancient city of Venice, she too falls under it's spell.

When Alessandra finds herself practically penniless when her benefactor and lover dies, shes accepts the offer of Venice's most beautiful and classy courtesan, La Celestia, to train her in the arts of love. She captures the attention of some high ranking men which puts her in the position to learn about their political deceptions. Meanwhile in the present day, Claire Donovan is struggling to complete her doctoral thesis and discovers a writer is presenting a paper in Venice on the same subject. She really doesn't want to have to scrap her thesis and start all over again. She can't afford the trip so when the opportunity comes up with chaperone a 16 year old to Venice, she accepts.

The Rossetti Letter would have worked well solely as a historical fiction novel with the world of politics and the courtesan creating quite an intriguing story. However, Christi Phillips does a beautiful job of blending together two time frames mixing seventeenth-century Venice with the present day and pulling you deep into the story. I was completely fascinating with the story and look forward to reading Phillips next story continuing with Claire Donovan - The Devlin Diary.

Released: Feb 19, 2008
Pages: 438
Setting: Venice, Italy
Challenge: Dusty Books / Continental
Rating: 4 - Excellent
YTD: 1

3 comments:

StaciJanuary 8, 2013 at 4:05 PM
This sounds great and I love it when an author can work both story line and really make it work!
Beth FJanuary 9, 2013 at 3:06 AM
I love the mix of the two time periods. What a great first book of the year.
Monika @ Lovely BookshelfJanuary 9, 2013 at 10:20 PM
I love back-and-forth time period reads. And I definitely love Italy! :) Thanks for the review, I think I'm going to put it on my list. The pile is growing thanks to this 52 in 52 challenge, haha!

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