The story flows. I enjoyed it a lot. I'll look forward to more by this author as they become available.


I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I really liked this book and I loved how it was written. It flowed well and was filled with history. It was very fast paced and very interesting.

“Mine is the greatest sin. I encourage your feelings and use them to fuel the music I write.”

✮✮✮✮✮

Gabriella is due to be hanged the day before her 19th birthday. As she awaits her death on the gallows, a small crowd of three, soon growing in size, allows her to tell her story of innocence. Gabriella was the daughter of a count, and played the Pianoforte wonderfully. One afternoon she wrote the rest of her life to ruin by a wanted sexual exploration, sent to be a music teacher to orphan girls in Venice, she starts a new life and meets a friend, Veronica - the one who will decide her fate.

This was a really different book, and I love historical fiction so was really impressed with this! I was turning the pages constantly, and had real difficulty being able to stop between chapters if I needed to do something! I just had to inhale it…! The characters were great, and so much more than what they each seem to start with… The curse was a great addition too!

If you love a book of suspense, with romance and historical fiction, this one is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-arc.

I am going to start off saying that I really wish the formatting of this book has not been riddled with errors as that definitely coloured my reading experience. This is not through fault of the author.

That being said this book was just sorta… meh. I loved the synopsis and setting (I have been mildly obsessed with Venice since childhood) but the writing and dialogue just sorta felt… awkward? Not terrible but definitely something that needed some extra polish and maybe an outside perspective. It read very much like a first novel and while I am not sure if this is true I do hope the author continues to hone their craft because there is potential.

Not something I would recommend but I am sure some might enjoy it.

I am sorry to say that this book was not my cup of tea, no matter how much I wanted to love it. I thought that the writing was awkward and the plot was predictable.

The book follows the story of young Gabriella, the daughter of a count, and a talented musician, who is sent into exile in Venice after her parents deemed her future ruined.

Most of the story is set in the convent school where Gabriella is sent to. She meets many people who would shape her life, including THE Antonio Vivaldi.

The book is a little homage to Venice in its old days, and to women gifted in music.

It's an easy read to get through, although it bothered me a little how some storylines were not resolved properly, and there needed more development in some.

If you're still starting out with historical fiction, I would recommend this. It's not a bad read.

I give this 3.5 stars.

Thank you for the e-arc, Netgalley!

This was a free ebook given to me by NetGalley and this is my freely given review.

I really enjoyed this novel. This is a story of passions of many types, told as a tale by the heroine, Gabriella. She is literally standing on the gallows, about to be hung as a murderess, awaiting her death, and wanting to tell her story to the crowd, so the literary device in use is her voice, telling her story. When that is well done, it is captivating, and I felt it was quite well done here.

So we go back and forth a bit from the present where she is telling her story to the crowd gathered to watch her death sentence for entertainment, and which starts out rather hostile, as they do believe she is a murderess and not deserving of their compassion. She tells her story, starting from when she was a child, the adored and indulged only child and heir of Italian nobles, with an enormous musical talent and passion for music that was fostered and indulged. Her story goes a bit downhill from there, where she loses her pedestal status, becoming merely an indulged daughter when her mother births male heirs.

As she grows, she becomes aware of carnal passion, and explores this, with unfortunate results, leading to her disgrace, loss of her family, and being sent to convent. However, they send her to a special convent where she is able to teach and indulge in her love of music.

To me, this is a story of passions that coincide and conflict, that both uplift and give solace to Gabriella, but also cause her great pain, physical and emotional, and distress. It is a romance, but also a tragedy, and gothic mystery. Initially I did not feel a lot of compassion and empathy for Gabriella, thinking she is a bored, selfish, spoiled noble... but like her audience, as she tells about her life, her decisions, her passions, conflicts, and hardships, you see her growth and develop empathy for her, and the desire to hear more of her story.

You are pulled along, wondering what her fate will be; going from dismissing her, to being engaged, to having empathy. This was beautifully written in her voice.

I had one massive quibble, and it is more of a technicality than it is about the story itself. There was definitely something wrong with the copy I received, as there were multiple words on every single page that had missing letters - there was constantly missing "t"s, "th"s, "f"s, "fi"s, and other sets like this. So "The" read as "e" and suffering read as "suering", or "su ering", "finally" read as "nally" and so on. This was a literal headache and at times I was ready to give up on the story as it was like codebreaking for dummies at times and incredibly annoying and distracting to guess the words in the middle of the tale.

Other than that, a wonderfully colourful, captivating historical.

Four out of Five stars.

A rather sweet narration, that makes for light reading and a huge part of me wished there were no formatting errors in the eARC I got.
Thanks Negalley for the free ecopy.

Omg this book was such a ray of sunshine in my current book slump days, I finished it in a single sitting. I went into it with a blind eye with much or any expectations or so. But, I love how I have been disappointed by it by not being disappointed. I really enjoyed reading and finishing it.