Rating: 
Summary: ultimately rewarding
Review: I really appreciated the scholarship and historic detail of this book. However, as another reviewer has pointed out, it was a string of episodes linked by some pretty fragile links. Park suffers from a temptation that many authors of historic fiction have -- she places her characters in every possible situation and historic event that occured during the time period covered. The effect is something like the old Woody Allen movie, "Zelig," where the title character pops up in virtually every major and minor event of the 20th century. The characters and settings were compelling enough without having to move them around madly on intricate tapestry of history. I got bogged down about 3/4 of the way through but really enjoyed the end and the appendices. As a Jewish woman, I found the historical documents included incredibly affecting.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: I recently completed The Secret Life of Grazia dei Rossi and found it to be thoroughly engaging as it is a leisurely read packed with adventure. The battles and time frames are all historically accurate, which aids in the reader being able to allow his or her imagination to conjure up what it must have been like. Also, some of the characters were real, such as Isabella de Este (look it up) and all of the rulers of the time. A fascinating, wonderful story of life for Jews during the Rennaissance.
Rating:
Summary: Good book - bad ending. I don't know about the facts.
Review: I thought this was a great book, and I whipped through it. After reading some of the reviews posted, I wondered if perhaps my lack of concrete knowledge of many events + traditions described influenced my enjoyment. I think that I would have enjoyed the novel a lot less if I actually knew about everything in it. This isn't a crime - perhaps if the book is as incorrect as some reviewers say it is, it ought to be marketed as fiction as opposed to historical fiction. At some points the soap opera-esque relationships got tiring, but then people were in many ways more promiscuous in the Renaissance. Without paying much attention to the historical accuracy, I liked it - up until the end. The ending felt quite contrived. Switching tenses near the end and suddenly tying everything together loosely didn't satisfy me. While the rest of the book seemed plausible, the ending wasn't. This is a real pity, but it doesn't ruin the book for me. I would reccommend it - but perhaps only to those who DON'T know too much about the history of the time, or at least aren't nitpicky about it. However, you might want to (as I plan on doing) read it with an open mind, and perhaps check the facts before you accept them as true....As I said, though, I'm only basing that on others comments.
Rating:
Summary: Hey! I liked this book!
Review: I was under the impression that I was not a big fan of historical fiction.....until I read THE SECRET BOOK OF GRAZIA DEI ROSSI. Who would of thought that the life of a Renissance-era Jewish woman in Italy would be so absorbing! This book went everywhere with me! Granted, life back then was not easy for anyone, but to be Jewish and a woman and told where you will live, what profession you will persue, and who you will marry and STILL life a full life, is an accomplishment beyond comprehension. Grazia is a wonderful character, intelligent, full of fire and passion, my only disappointment is that she was not real. Ms. Park makes her seem so.
Rating: 
Summary: A presumptuous book by a pompous author.
Review: I'll keep this brief and to the point: Jacqueline Park is a woman, and a very, very pompous woman at that, who, although she is intelligent enough to spot interesting subject matter, lacks even the most superficial knowledge of the human psyche required to write a novel of the scope with which she has attempted in The Secret Book of Grazia Dei Rossi. The book was replete with disguised "insights" into the human conscience that turned out to be nothing more than the idealistic whims of money-greedy woman. The first time I read this book, I didn't mind it. The second time, with the addition of the author at my side with her own commentary, it became readily apparent the shallowness of her views and truth in her motives for writing such a "epic". If you seek a trashy novel mixed with the misguided musings of a middle aged woman, the The Secret Book of Grazia Dei Rossi is for you. However, Jacqueline Park is not the woman to read if you are truly interested in contempary "fantasy" literature set in Italy.
Rating:
Summary: A skillfully crafted period AND character piece
Review: It is rare that I develop the fierce attachement to a novel and its characters that I did when reading this novel. The novel skillfully intertwines history with the plot without bogging the reader down in mind-numbing, plot-detracting, detail (almost as if the plot were an excuse for the research the author did). Many historical novels fall into this trap. Park makes Renaissance Italy come alive for the reader. You come away with a sense of actually having been there. This is accomplished by Park's style of skillful description without the using the mystifying authority of a research novelist. The protagonist Grazia is a strong and able woman with all the faults and vulnerabilites of any real woman. Her actions always reflect her emotional development at each point in the story. Hence she allows herself to be seduced by her dashing Christian suitor...at the age of 13...when we are all prone to romantic flights of fancy and passion. What is so amazing is that Park manages to keep her characters REAL and plausable while still keeping them and the plot infused with enough drama and unpredictability to intrigue the reader. An excellent first novel and I eagerly await another.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice historical background, but a little too long.
Review: Park's book starts out promisingly. She paints a scene with words very effectively, and the heroine, Grazia, is intriguing. It is obvious that Park did a prodigious amount of research. Unfortunately, the book goes downhill at the halfway point. There are too many soap opera elements thrown in after the first half and Park describes the infighting and intrigue between the various religious and political factions in too much detail. The book is too long and it ends with a thud. It is too bad, since the beginning is exciting and even touching at times.
Rating:
Summary: The Renaissance of my country, Italy, comes to life.
Review: Reading this book recalled to my mind the country and the historical period that are never too far from my heart. The details, at the same time beautiful and cruel, brought me back to my beloved Italy, to the Florentine buildings and the Venetian bridges I walked past every day, to historical figures so familiar to me years ago, so alive that they could have been my contemporary, to a way of thinking that may sound absurd or at best contorted in our current frame of thought, but nonetheless predominant and normal at the time. This book reawakened my love for the art, history and architecture of the time. An additional point of interest is the life of the Renaissance Italian Jews, a subject that is not usually much discussed in or out of Italian schools, which I realize now, is an issue of consirable importance for a comprehensive understanding of the culture of the time. Of course, the main character renders the whole thing enticing and easily readable. I found myself soon enthralled by Grazia, that, far from being the shallow and silly character some readers suggested, lives in first person the struggle of human desires and spirituality, the difficulty of descerning right from wrong--rarely a black and white answer--the problems of every day life, the wildness of childhood and adolescence, the changes of our mind and heart throughout life. The romance just adds some charm to the story, especially for those of us who had to overcome unusual difficulties and cross oceans to be with the beloved one... Romance, it looks like, exists sometimes in real life. The sex scenes could have perhaps been just hinted at, but they do underline the detailed, concrete reality of the whole story. After all, when everything is treated with strong colors, why treating body and heart any different? The language used by the main characters, which may seem at times offensive and anachronistic to modern sensibilities, is probably closer to the mark than one would suppose. As a student of history of Italian language, I soon found out that what is nowaday considered grossness was not so uncommon in that vocabulary, more colorful than most people today would assume. All in all, I loved this novel, and I'm definitely adding to my permanent library.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Book for the Discriminating Reader
Review: The author wishes everybody to know how much research she did, but she gets some very basic facts about Jewish practice entirely wrong (the levirate marriage in particular) and the story is a little too pat to ring true for the period. It is really more of a romance than a serious historical novel. The writing style intrudes in irritating fashion throughout the book. If Ms. Park is a professor emerita, I would avoid her lectures. Nevertheless, if one can be elastic about versimilitude, and not too fastidious about the style, the book can be enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Good writing, mediocre research
Review: The author's subject matter is fascinating. Alas, the author has no knowledge of the matter she is writing about. Her Sepharadic / Italian characters speak with Ashkenazi accents, furthermore she describes acts that are an religious abominations. The leverite marriage she describes is impossible. A brother would not and could not marry the widow of his brother if she already had children from the deceased brother! Where were her advisors? Where were her editors? The work reads well, however the author has no knowledge of the people she is writing about.
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