The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice by Laurel Corona

The Four Seasons: A Novel of Vivaldi's Venice by Laurel Corona

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I'm taking away a whole star for using Vivaldi's name in the title when he's only a reoccurring supporting character in the story. The theme of the story, how art can shape lives as much as lives shape art, is shown through the lives of two sisters, orphaned as infants and raised within the very interesting patronage system that made Venice the art center that it once was. As a romance, there's a distinct lack of any kind of passion, but the setting, as a HF, is pretty well done. There's a sense of receptiveness with the descriptive passages, a problem when your entire story takes place in what was a very insular, small town kind of city. I had the feeling that the idea for the story came first and that Corona invented characters to populate it - they weren't nearly as dimensional as the orphanage, casas, and of course, this being Venice, the canals.

View all my reviews >>