Rating: 
Summary: Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review: "Through Grazia, [Park] elucidates the intricate and perilous world of Italian Jews during the Renaissance, telling her spellbinding story with honesty and humor and meticulous historical accuracy."
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant!
Review: 10 October 1999 Got stuck in a traffic jam on Viale Guidoni for an hour. Walked into a meeting 1/2 hour late with a smile on my face. Why? Because I had this book in the car with me. Who cares about the exhaust fumes, the motorini buzzing at you from every side, the dirty looks your going to get when you walk into the meeting late? You're not really living in modern-day Florence! You're living the life of a 16th century Italian Jewish woman who happens to be beautiful and rich, although she never describes herself as either. You live through her education, her various careers, her loves, and her marriage of convenience. (I don't undertand why we should think that 16th century women didn't use explicit language, or didn't have sex just for the fun of it. Why should they have been any different from us?)19 October 1999 Got stuck in a traffic jam on Viale Guidoni. Walked into a meeting 1/2 hour late and growled at everyone assembled. Why? I've finish reading this book. And Jacqueline Park hasn't written anything else. Yet. Can't wait!
Rating: 
Summary: Would recommend for all lovers of historical fiction
Review: A Jewish woman provides a facinating perspective of Renaissance histoy. I not only enjoyed the richness of the history but also the experience of seeing it through the eyes of a Jewish woman. It was educational and exciting read for me as a Christian and a lover of history.
Rating:
Summary: A great read.
Review: A terrific read! Really put me into rennaissance Italy and the lives of these interesting characters!
Rating:
Summary: I loved looking into the lives of two Renaissance women.
Review: As an artist and painter who is highly influenced by Rennaisance art, I was intrigued by this book and the historical glimpses it gave into the lives of both the Jewess Grazia and the Christian Isabella. I enjoyed the ties to real historical events and people. Imagine my delight when I came across a real painting of "Federigo Gonzaga" (Isabella's real son who was taken hostage). The painting was done in July 1510 by Francesco Francia when Federigo was taken hostage and sent to Rome. Apparently Isabella got the painting back when she got her son back. The painting is in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: Books about "strong, determined women" tend to scare me. First of all, any female character who does more than sit around and cry (read "strong and determined"), tends to be compared with Scarlett O'Hara. Don't get me wrong...Scarlett has her place in literary history...but I'll be damned if I want to read endless variations of her in other books! Plus, it seems that when a female character is described as "strong and determined", she inevitably winds up being manipulative, spoiled and prone to tantrums (like Scarlett). So, when I picked up this book and the first thing I read was "Grazia could be the ancestor of Scarlett O'Hara" and "a strong a determined Renaissance woman!" I dropped it like a hot potato. Of course, as readers all over the world will tell you, when you're meant to read a book, it follows you around like a stray puppy until you're forced to give in and buy it. So I bought it. And loved it. Grazia is truly an amazing woman and she's NOTHING like Scarlett. At an early age Grazia is forced to choose her path in life: will she use her beauty or will she use her brain? She uses both with the delicacy of a diplomat and the fearlessness of a warrior. Grazia is forced to maintain a delicate balance between two completely different lifestyles...and, true to her name, she does so with the utmost grace. Grazia's path in life is made even more precarious by the fact that she's a Jew. History was never easy for women...imagine being a Jewish woman in Catholic Italy! Grazia brings to light some interesting thoughts about Judaism and what it means to be a Jewish woman. She battles with loss of faith throughout the entire book yet she craves spiritual connection and redemption. Her confusion is something which many of us, from all walks of lives, can relate to. Grazia's decisions always seem real...and her mistakes are the kind that any of us might make in her position. Yes, she is a "strong and determined" woman but she manages to show her strength through her kindness towards others and her deep loyalty to those she loves.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: Historical fiction meets romance. Trudged my way through this lengthy novel. Some points were interesting, but overall, I felt it wasn't worth the ride.
Rating:
Summary: wooden and inaccurate
Review: I am a great fan of historical fiction; when I read that this book was about an Italian, Jewish woman during the Renaissance, I figured it was a "can't miss." I was wrong. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't finish it. The prose was wooden. In the first part of the book, I found a gross historical inaccuracy that made me lose faith in the story: The Jews of Trent were NOT put to the sword. A group of Jews was arrested and executed for an imaginary crime, (ritual murder/blood libel) which the infamous preacher, Bernardino da Feltre had preached was likely to happen during Holy Week. To reduce a complex set of circumstances such as the Simon of Trent case to a few lines of awful prose dishonors the dead. If readers are interested in reading about the life of Jews in Renaissance Italy, a wonderful, and very readable source, is Leon Modena's autobiography, The Autobiography of a Seventeenth-Century Venetian Rabbi. Or if you prefer to read fiction, Richard Zimler's The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is a fabulous read.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful characters
Review: I am about halfway through this book and not sure whether I am going to be able to finish it. The writing is amazing and the historical details vivid -- but the main character is the most stupid, shallow, insipid creature I have ever come across. She leaves her faith and her people because she has fallen in love with a Christian prince. The main reason for her love seems to be that said prince has blue eyes and good legs. She loses her virginity to him after seeing him about three times, and then is shocked when he leaves her. The other characters are all stereotypes -- narrow-minded rabbis and priests, spirited, beautiful young women, and domineering wives. The latter two types of character persist despite the author's view that everyone in Renaissance Italy hated women and was comitted to subjugating them. This book IS a fast-paced page-turner, so it makes a wonderful read as long as you don't need any characters to identify with.
Rating:
Summary: A good read. Lighten up, people.
Review: I am surprised at the number of people who have their knickers in a knot over the author's research or lack thereof, depending on who is doing the bellyaching. If you want exacting,unassailable pristine research, then read non-fiction and do it yourself. A novel is a novel. Although I am descended, on my mother's side, from the heroine/villainess of 'Grazia' I have to say I would have found it interesting anyway. It is a fun book. It loses a bit of steam toward the end and leaves some loose ends, but so what? The plot moves well and it is easy to read without being insulting.
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