A review by saboyer
Daughter of Siena by Marina Fiorato

1.0

People keep saying how the city is its own character. Sure, maybe, whatever. Mostly I was bothered by how none of the characters were ever fleshed out. The girl and the boy, the villain and the duchess--they all felt flat, even inexplicable. And the "historical" aspect? She wrote her own history--with all these twists and turns to fit her drama--and then made it null and void in the end by not...revealing it to the world. And even in her afterword she apologizes for her manipulating history. None of these characters were real, which would have been fine had they been left in their world to be affected by real history. But once she presents it as true history, making them key players in historical events--I felt manipulated. It all felt fake and forced and I never understood the "so what" behind it. For those who argue it isn't really a romance then, please, do tell me what exactly it is. Because, frankly, that's all I see: boy meets girl, girl meets boy, they fall in love at first sight and never have to account for why. Life changes and--spoiler alert--boy gets girl. Like who didn't see that coming?

http://by-its-cover.blogspot.com/2011/08/verdict-no-12.html