Looking to travel to Medieval Italy? | Mini-review of The Scribe of Siena

I'm a sucker for time-slip romances. You know, the books where a character is thrust out of their modern, comfortable life into an impossible past, full of antiquated customs and a lack of medical knowledge. And all seems crazy and horrible but at the same time irresistibly interesting and other and then they meet a significant other who, even though they are from such a foreign time something ethereal seems to transcend the time barrier.

(*cough*Outlander*cough*)

The Scribe of Siena is one of those time-slip romance novels; a neurosurgeon finds herself in Siena, Italy right before the Plague-- yes the Plague-- is going to deal its horrible blow. I called this a mini-review not because I'm 100% certain of my shorter review theory but because I honestly don't have much to say about this novel.

It felt extremely well researched, but the problem is that sometimes it came across as a dry info dump instead of an engaging narrative. It had technical success-- interesting plot, interesting characters-- but it lacked a soul. And since soul-searching is such a personal endeavour, I can not say that someone else wouldn't just adore the novel, not seeing any of the holdups I experienced.

I was disappointed by the way the author decided to deal with the Plague-- after all, that was the main reason I picked up the novel; such an interesting, horrible time period to write about!

Even with the tendency of info-dumping, it was not a difficult read; sure it was a bit slow at times, but the plot did keep moving. Overall, it was an interesting novel with a cute romantic plot and while it didn't exactly live up to my high standards, it was an enjoyable read.