This novel tells the story of Verity, a young academic in modern day, and Beatrice, a medieval illuminator of manuscripts whose trail Verity is following. While the historical elements of the novel were quite detailed, the characters were not well fleshed out and made nonsensical choices. The prose was strange, particularly in the historical part, with many weird metaphors that just didn’t work.

The historical side of this split-timeline novel is exceptionally well researched; it features intriguing characters and strong world-building. Unfortunately, the contemporary story is unconvincing. The protagonist's dialogue is often stilted, her love interest is unappealing, and it is very difficult to follow what is at stake for her in terms of her career. To be blunt, it often seems as though the contemporary story was shoehorned in for purposes of exposition about medieval history. In an unfortunate touch of irony, while the protagonist is chided for an overly novelistic tone in her scholarly writing, there are long passages in this novel that read like straightforward scholarship.

After a personal tragedy, Beatrice has to flee her home along with her mother which means she also has to give up her dream of becoming a book illuminator. In the 21st century, historian Verity is captured by a folio containing an illustration in a book by the medieval French writer Catherine De Pizan.

Cities of women is a dual timeline historical novel. We meet Beatrice in medieval France who has a dream of becoming an illuminator and Verity, an historian tangled up with herself and her research projects.

As is often the case with dual timeline novels, I liked the historical perspective better. But this time mostly because Verity's story was a mess - with a problematic romance, a research project that was very far-fetched in my opinion, and heavy attention to certain detail that gives too much space to the modern story. Catherine and Beatrice's story could also have been better developed I think. But I certainly enjoyed reading their story much more.

This is clearly Jones' debut novel: it lacks focus and coherence. A pity because I had hoped for more as I find the subject of book illumination by medieval women quite interesting.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

this historical tale alternates between two perspectives: verity, a modern academic, and beatrice, a medieval french artist, with occasional chapters from the pov of christine de pizan's, a real-life 14th century french-italian proto-feminist writer.
cities of women explores understanding women's history and pursuing one's passions. in verity's quest to prove that the illustrations in christine's manuscripts were by a woman rather than a man, she uncovers the life and experience of a woman in medieval history.
the writing was descriptive and well paced, and beatrice's narrative, though slow, fit the historical context. the perspective shifts were a bit confusing though, and i surprisingly related more to verity's. but overall the book was engaging (for the most part) and informative, a testament to the author's commitment to the research done for this novel.
rating: 3.25⭐

3.5⭐ Cities of Women was a study of juxtaposition for me. I loved the premise of this novel. I really enjoyed the storyline and writing set in medieval times, but the modern thread just left me wanting more. Interesting concept for a book!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

I liked this book a lot! I loved the writing style and the themes. The plot was incredibly interesting. At times, it felt a bit too much like telling-not-showing, if you get what I mean.

"If we do not preserve these masterpieces," Gilles told me, "we would lose the wisdom of centuries. Not only sacred texts, but also poetry and philosophy, medical works, and accounts of great voyages; all these texts our work safeguards for generations to come. Remember, Béatrice, stories keep us alive. Without stories to console us, the world would be impossibly bleak."

I recommend to lovers of historical and women’s fiction, because this is truly a good story.

Not gonna lie, I definitely lost the plot of this around halfway through. It was very well researched though and I can relate to Verity as a fellow historian. The dialogue and characters felt dry to me, unfortunately and I wasn't as curious about the mystery of Christine de Pizan as I thought I would be.

This was a book that should have really hit all my marks but for some reason it just didn't resonate for me. I read about 60% of it and it was taking me SO LONG to get through because I kept zoning out and having to reread the same bits over again to try and follow the story. I decided to try a few other books and come back to this one, but when I eventually did, I couldn't remember what had happened in the story. I'm giving it 4 stars because it was well written and will be fascinating to the right reader but I just didn't personally connect with the material.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for access to a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I had trouble getting into this book. I found the older timeline focusing on Anastasia more appealing, as it seemed to carry the essence of the story more effectively. Like others, I felt that the newer timeline centered around Verity didn't add significant value to the narrative. Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC!

Cities of Women is one of the more befuddling books I’ve had to review in some time. The novel has a split structure, with one part set in contemporary time and focusing on Verity, a young academic struggling with her big project and up for tenure. Viewing an exhibit of 13th century illuminated manuscripts associated with a female author of the time, she impulsively decides to drop her ongoing project (in her specialty area) and wholly switch gears into art history by trying to track down the unknown artist, whom everyone assumes was a male, The second part of the narrative is set in the older time period and follows the artist and the author from early ages and depicting how they became collaborators.

The befuddling issue is that had you shown me segments of these plot lines out of context, k would have been positive they were by two authors at wholly different stages of their careers and honestly with quite a gap in talent as well. To start with the positive, the historical sections, while having some issues, were mostly well written with a good sense of the time period, good characterization, a smooth flow, and good pace. On the other hand, the contemporary sections were simply put hard to get through thanks to issues of plausibility, dialog, and characterization. I don’t like to belabor a non positive review, so I’m not going to list every issue. Suffice to say, very little if any of it rang true to either the situational contexts/logistics or how people act. My margin notes often consist of “no she didn’t” when the main character says what she did or “implausible” or simply “c’mon”. I can’t recommend a book half of which was this level of quality. However, if you pick it up and find yourself having the same reaction to the contemporary parts, I’d say don’t drop the book but just skip the Verity segments and read the historical parts, which should give you a satisfying reading experience

Cities of Women by Kathleen B. Jones was a nice read for me!
The dual storytelling was engaging and interesting.
In this we follow Verity a modern day historian and Beatrice from the 1300's.
The amount of research that has gone into this book just on face value is clear! Women helping women across history is an incredible concept for a novel and the discussion of the dismissed contribution of women is something that needs to be spoken about much more often.
The writing style was beautiful and the prose has you drawn in instantly.

The only issue I found with this book was the depth of the characters. Verity felt a little flat and I would have loved to know more about Beatrice and Christine.

Overall I would absolutely recommend giving this one a read! Especially if you are into historical fiction.

(Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!)

Being a medieval historian who actually wrote a thesis using Christine de Pizan as a source, I was SO excited for this book. But it just isn't my style. I don't connect with the writing. It is too flowery and descriptive. It drags down the entire pacing and flow of the story, which becomes secondary to the imagery. I like plot-driven books, and this was the total opposite of that. Not a bad book, just definitely not for me.

Switching POVs and timelines between Verity in 2018 and Beatrice in the 1300s, which I enjoyed in the first half but quickly became bored and just wanted to finish the novel.

A little overly descriptive for my taste-the author clearly did her research and wanted to include everything she found. But it made the story drag and threw off the pacing, almost pulling me out; accuracy got in the way of the flow. I honestly started skimming especially in Verity’s chapters, this book could’ve been cut by 1/3 and nothing of substance would change.

I preferred Beatrice’s chapters and felt like we skimmed so much of her life, giving brief sentences about what’s happening spanning 5-10 years at a time. I wanted to hear more from her! I wish the minute details describing Verity’s routines and the buildings had been cut and made more space for Beatrice’s life. More balance should’ve been given to both timelines as we get a day by day look at Verity, but then we get a few years or a decade at a time for Beatrice.

Actually I wish Verity was cut period, this would have been a MUCH stronger book if it focused on the past from Beatrice and Christine instead. We get two chapters from Christine’s POV before she meets Beatrice. Once this happens, we don’t hear from her again so I questioned what the point of that was.

The characters lacked depth maybe because the author tried to include a lot from her research without giving us any insight into the people and their motivations. For this reason I didn’t connect with a single character. The romance in the present timeline happened so quickly that it was unbelievable and felt forced. It was also problematic at times and distracted from the main plot rather than building onto it.

The ending felt rushed and surface level, almost unfinished. I read the whole book and felt I had learned next to nothing. It was as if nothing stuck because the main info was so passed over, in exchange for excessive details about the setting. And at times was more of an info dump than a cohesive novel.

Overall the novel held a lot of promise but fell flat in its execution. If it weren’t for the romance I would’ve kept this around 3 stars, but it drove me so crazy I’m dropping half a star. This is a book I should’ve loved based on the synopsis and similar concept novels I’ve read before, but sadly it’s my worst book of July 😭 Finding out that the author is in academia and this is her first novel, it makes sense why it’s so info heavy and lacks character/world building.

Cities of Women, by Kathleen B. Jones
Rating: 5/5
Published: 5th September 2023
'Women's stories of use and achievement never figured much in the annals of history. Of the inequity accompanying the birth of a daughter, of the treachery hidden between false lovers' words, of the tribulations of women abandoned for the thrill of battle, of the depredations besetting downtrodden poor, of the loneliness and penury of widows, of the discourse of scorn heaped on women, and of their valiant accomplishments.'
This book is absolutely stunning. It shifts between multiple time periods and points of view, but does so without the usual clunkiness that you can encounter with such narratives. The book tells the story of three incredible women; Verity Frazier, an academic; Beatrice, a medieval French artist; and Christine de Pizan, a late 14th-early 15th century writer for the court of Charles VI. Jones’ research is quite stunning. The attention to detail is spectacular, and I loved reading how society treated women in the past, despite them being experts and incredibly capable in their respective fields. Jones’ academic past shines through in the text. I loved following Verity’s hunt for answers and information, and I felt thoroughly invested in her academic pursuit. It reminded me of being a historian myself.
There are feminist tropes in this novel, but it adds to the charm. Jones uses her characters to explore how women needed, and still need, to be creative in order to be taken seriously and respected in their work. The Sapphic romance was a lovely touch too.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Overall, an okay read. I preferred the older timeline (Anastasia) and felt the newer timeline (Verity) was unnecessary to tell this story.

2.75☆

Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity. My review opinions are my own.

I so enjoyed this sweeping historical fiction featuring women who were finding groundbreaking discoveries in history yet never acknowledged. The book follows two women of different times and the trials they face attempting to have careers/discoveries in restrictive mysognist times. Both women are brillant and have much to offer the world. Both disposed of by the culture and controlling men in their careers. I loved the writing as its captivating as the author tells each women''s stories. I highly recommend this book for your reading enjoyment for all of us who wish we could empower the women who went centuries before us and had so much to offer history. A wonderful read for all women's studies courses.

Remember my #1 complaint about people in books dealign with delicate/old manuscripts: WE DON'T WEAR COTTON GLOVES. Moreover, and despite the author being an academic, the whole "abandon one research specialization for another when you're up for tenure and then get more funding for the new project" is also NOT a thing. C'mon. Also not good in this book: the multiple but voices that all read the same; the forced, no-chemistry-at-all romance between the protagonist and a really unpleasant and controlling person--didn't the protag leave Regina for the same exact traits?; and a lot of wishful thinking about how art history works in the academy. It was also, I'm sorry to report, boring. How you could make Christine de Pizan boring is beyond me, but in omitting a lot of context about her and her world, Jones instead gives us an overwrought housewife. Does she not think readers are smart enough to get the philosophy of the City of Women and other books? Ugh.

There's potential, there's an interesting dual timeline but I think this story need some more editing to make the historical details in the two timelines match.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this novel. I choose this book and was so happy to read Cities of Women by Kathleen B Jones. This is my honest opinion of the book.

I am a huge fan of Historical Fiction. This book starts off with Verity Frazier, an academic, and then we are introduced to Beatrice and Christine De Pizan. Christine's point of view is in the Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth century. Beatrice's story started in the late 14th century. I loved how Kathleen gave the reader their points of view and it shows how the story displays the themes of understanding women who strive for success. To me, I loved Beatrice's story. She lost people she cared about but she saw how her craft as being something she can live off of and went on from there. Christine's story was one that was bound in so much mystery and I think once a new reader comes across this story, they will be intrigued to find that women are responsible for parts of history people deemed were created by men. Verity's life and journey are like many of us and I can resonate with. She is an academic that wanted only to figure out a part of History that people believe can never be solved. Who really created the illuminations of the manuscripts of Christine De Pizan? Verity is determined to get her name out there. At the beginning of the book, verity really struggled with Imposter Syndrome and her story reminds me of Julie and Julia. Julie Powelled risked her marriage and sanity to prove she can cook every recipe in Julia Child's Cook Book. This book a good read and I will get this novel once it hits my local Barns and Nobles.

I adored this book! With a host of wonderful female characters, Kathleen B. Jones' writing is truly spectatcular!