Welcome to my stop on the Alchemy's Daughter Blog Tour
hosted by Italy Book Tours.
by Mary A. Osborne
Release Date: May 15th, 2015
Synopsis:
Santina Pietra is seventeen and in medieval San Gimignano, daughters of merchants are expected to marry. But Santina cares only for Calandrino, a brilliant young scholar who is preoccupied with his ancient alchemical texts.
Soon Santina meets Trotula, the village midwife, who might or might not be a strega, or witch. Trotula challenges her to forget Calandrino and become the woman she is meant to be. Some say she is a victim of the midwife’s spell, but Santina is determined to follow in Trotula’s footsteps even as calamities strike.
The setting is 14th century Italy, yet in Santina contemporary readers will discover a strong-minded young woman whose search for meaning echoes their own. Alchemy’s Daughter is the author’s second novel.
Santina Pietra is seventeen and in medieval San Gimignano, daughters of merchants are expected to marry. But Santina cares only for Calandrino, a brilliant young scholar who is preoccupied with his ancient alchemical texts.
Soon Santina meets Trotula, the village midwife, who might or might not be a strega, or witch. Trotula challenges her to forget Calandrino and become the woman she is meant to be. Some say she is a victim of the midwife’s spell, but Santina is determined to follow in Trotula’s footsteps even as calamities strike.
The setting is 14th century Italy, yet in Santina contemporary readers will discover a strong-minded young woman whose search for meaning echoes their own. Alchemy’s Daughter is the author’s second novel.
Cindy's Review:
Alchemy's Daughter follows a young girl, Santina, who has many dreams, which defy her father's pre-destined fate for her. First, she becomes infatuated with a tutor, who teaches her about alchemy and allow her to watch experiments of turning things to gold. Her father, an alchemist himself, did not mind her interest in this subject. But when her father discovered the budding romance between Santina and Calandrino, everything started to go wrong. Calandrino fled the city and left Santina all alone.
That's when Santina made a decision to talk to Trotula, a midwife of the town. Even though Trotula help save lives and deliver babies, townsmen still think of her as a witch who practices witchcraft. Maybe don't trust her, yet they need her to deliver children. Going against her father's wishes, she moved in with Trotula and learned many skills to being a midwife's apprentice. Although Santina is inpatient, she spent a quiet few years learning the skills of midwifery. Surprisingly, C-section was experimented with, although everyone else thought it as stregoneria (witchcraft).
A few years later, trouble comes to Santina and Trotula when they allegedly delivered an illegitimate grandson of a rich man. He brought trouble upon them and accused Trotula of being a witch for killing his son. Soon, another disaster awaited Santina, when her father finally forced to get married to Toddeo, someone who turns out to be very nasty about Santina's opinions of alchemy and midwife skills.
This young adult novel follows Santina, growing up from a teenager to a young women, becoming wiser with the expertise she learns throughout the years. If you're looking for a bright, inspiring character, here is one for you! Taking place in the 14th century, in Italy, Osborne takes you into the world of medieval time period and what life was like then.
The Rating: (1-10): 7~
Author Bio:
Links:
Author Website: http://maryaosborne/
Giveaway:
