nora of florence

"The Girl in the Glass" by Susan Meissner is the tale of three women on two continents and two centuries.  The novel starts out with Nora of the prominent Medicis from the 14th century in Florence, Italy and Meg, a California woman in the 21st.  Meg works for a travel book publisher and receives chapters from a budding writer, Sofia, living in Florence.  Sofia believes she is a descendant of the Medici  and that Nora speaks to her through statues.  Meg has a life-long dream of visiting Florence.  Her father sends her to Florence shortly after Meg was introduced to Sofia.  The three women's lives become intertwined in Florence.
The beginning of this book is hard to get into.  Meg is rather immature and has a weird emotional  dependency with her parents.  Nora is rather vague.  When Sofia steps into the story, the novel takes on a whole new take.  Sofia's writing is phenomenal.  No matter that it is unbelievable, it is still a wonderful voice.  I know almost nothing of Italy, let alone Florence.  During most of Meg's trip to Florence, I had to read near a laptop so that I could google the works of art they were talking about.  There is a lot I have been missing.  The art was amazing.  If the goal of this book is to make you want to go to Florence, then buy me a ticket.  Florence is my new destination on my "must see before I die" list.  Top of the list at that.  The novel really comes to together at the end.  Not my favorite Meissner novel, but still awesome writing.  I won this book in a contest from Water Brook Press.  (The contest was to choose the cover of the book.  They didn't pick my fav, but I still got the book!)