Blood and Beauty the Borgias a Novel by Sarah Dunant(though the picture is from the show which is available on Netflix and is equally fabulous).
It seemed only fitting that I read and reviewed this book right around Easter time about Pope Alexander the 6th and his infamous, illegitimate children.
The novel starts with Rodrigo Borgia winning the papacy and making his son Cesare a Cardinal. The author dives into Cesare's love for Lucrezia that borderlines on inappropriate the whole book before finally taking the plunge per say three quarters of the way through the novel after forced divorce to her first husband, the death of her innocent lover and very handsome second husband. You of course can't have a book about the Borgia family without delving into the loosest of the cannons Juan and Jofre both completely unstable and married to beautiful woman used as pawns to enable to future of the Borgia family.
The book ends with Rodrigo and the whole Borgia family going strong(well minus the tragic unsolved death of Juan-though we all know he deserved it). Cesare is getting everything he is willing to admit he wants in his life(besides his love of Lucrezia). Jofre is unhappily married but that is the theme throughout the whole book and Lucrezia is finally hoping to escape the insanity of her family by an third marriage to another powerful family.
I would definitely give it 4/5 stars. It starts out a little slow but quickly gains momentum as the stakes of the Borgia family increases. A historical drama for the ages...or at least the fifteenth century.
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