Review: The Borgia Confessions by Alyssa Palombo

The Borgia Confessions by Alyssa Palombo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  This book was released on February 11, 2020 and is available at your favorite retailer.

This book was well written, and you can tell that the author did her research. I had alway heard of the Borgia's but I never really knew much about them. I learned a great deal from this book, and it prompted me to look up more about them and the actual events that took place. I always knew that the church was corrupt, but this take the hypocrisy to another level

This book takes place in the 1490s, when Rodrigo Borgia rises to power as Pope Alexander VI. Determined to make the Borgia's family a dynasty of its own, he uses his children born of his mistress as political pawns to bring his plans to fruition. The book is told from two perspectives, Cesare the eldest, and Maddalena a maid serving in the Vatican. Cesare would rather join the military as he has a head for strategy and is skilled at fighting, however his father has him join the church to broker political deals within the Vatican. Maddalena ends up as a maid and seamstress for Cesare's younger sister. She tries to be a pious woman, but eventually gets caught up in the power struggles, politics, and lust that seems to surround all of the Borgia's.

This book is long and very detailed about all of the things that happened from the time Rodrigo Borgia was made Pope until Cesare leaves the church. I will admit that this is not my preferred time period to read about when it comes to historical fiction, but it was very well done. I will say that towards the end it got a bit repetitive as Cesare and Maddalena's relationship progressed. Something would happen to upset Cesare, he would call for her to have a lust filled evening to release his frustration, wash, rinse, repeat. While he did confide in her and they had conversations, they both knew there would be no long term relationship between them because of their stations. I don't at all feel like he was using her or she felt forced into the relationship with him, it but their encounters just got repetitive after a while.

I highly recommend reading the author's note about her research and some of the claims made against the Borgia's and what she was able to uncover. It helped clear up some of the fictional liberties she took with the book as well as confirm the actual events that took place during that time.

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