The Stars Compel

This book, like its predecessor, pulls your right in to another world, one full of drama, intrigue, and amazing kitchen smells.

After absolutely loving Michaela Roessner's first book about Tommaso & Caterina de Medici, I was delighted to find the second book. The details of life in Renaissance Florence are incredible, and not only make me feel what it must have been like to live back then, but give me an understanding for the politics of government and daily life for both the leaders and the common people of the time. Ms. Roessner does a great job of weaving in historical fact, details of cuisine and the actual storyline, and in the process, also creating interesting main and subsidiary characters.The number of characters in the book, while great, reinforced the knowledge that much of the book actually happened (the cast of characters at the end of the book is invaluable).I hope I'm not the only person who was "compelled" to read more history of the time period after reading these books...

Set in Renaissance Florence which has recently survived a visit from the Black Death & is now listening for the thunder of marching barbarians, just as Rome had done earlier, we follow Tomasso's & Caterina's rise to prominence within the surviving society. He as her personal chef & she as the Duchessina, niece to the pope & valuable political pawn in the struggle for power within the Holy Roman Empire.Now they are summoned to the haggard city of Rome to become part of the venomous intrigues as Pope Clement barters her virtue & dowry in exchange for power, promises & poison.Again, as in The Stars Compel, Michaela Roessner continues her steeped, tightly woven coming-of-age saga of the life & times of a dangerous era. Tomasso has become a model for the great Sculptor Michaelangelo & is growing into a handsome if scarred man. Caterina is wayward, obdurate, loving & beautiful. For everyone the iron fist is clenching tighter & tighter, the magic needs to be fierce, the cats valiantly struggle with rats & Tomasso & Caterina must face the human vermin.If you love historical fantasies with just the right balance of fact & fantasy as to make the read seamless, then this is a book for you. For my full review & eInterview with Michaela Roessner do visit my site [...].

I liked this book as much as, if not more than, the previous one (which I do recommend you read before trying this.) In it we follow the fate of Catherine de Medici, seen through the eyes of her chef and friend Tommaso, scion of a famous cooking family from Florence. There are a number of themes running through this novel, and like a master weaver, Roessner twists and threads them through the weft and warp of Italian politics during the Renaissance. Throughout we can follow strands of pagan magick, bright threads of Italian cooking, the poignant theme of thrwarted lovers, and the brilliance of the world of art through which this novel moves. The variety of names and characters does get a bit confusing at times, but I did not find it detracted from my enjoyment of the book. An engrossing, entertaining read, don't hesitate!

Although The Stars Compel is the sequel to Michaele Roessner's The Stars Dispose, it doesn't require familiarity with the prior novel, though such familiarity will lend to an easier reading of this story. Tommaso is the son of famous chefs and has been named personal chef to the Duchessina in early Rome: his encounters with politics and romance as he attends to his duties provides an excellent story line steeped in Renaissance-era Florence and Rome atmosphere. Highly recommended.