Starred Review ALA Booklist (Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2002)

Starred Review Belleza, a city that exists in a parallel dimension to sixteenth-century Venice, boils with political espionage, danger, and deception in Hoffman's vivid, suspenseful time-travel novel. Lucien, a twenty-first-century English boy, is being treated for cancer. When his father brings him an old Italian notebook to write in, his world changes as he falls asleep each night clutching his journal. At first he thinks he's dreaming of Venice, a city floating on the water, laced with canals, and full of domes and spires. But soon it becomes clear that his dreams aren't dreams at all and that he has somehow entered Belleza as Luciano, one of the Stravaganti, a brotherhood of time travelers. Before long he meets the lovely, strong-willed, 15-year-old Arianna; becomes an apprentice for the powerful magician-scientist Rodolfo; and foils an assassination attempt on the violet-eyed Duchessa. As he learns to stravagate back and forth between time and worlds, his split life becomes increasingly complicated--and dangerous. Utterly fascinating, this rich, rip-roaring adventure--the first in a series--will no doubt whet readers' appetites for Italian history and culture as well as the next installment.

Kirkus Reviews

Political intrigue unfolds against the glittering backdrop of an alternative Venice, in the first of a promised trilogy. Fifteen-year-old Lucien copes with chemotherapy in present-day London, but when he falls asleep clutching an exotic journal, he wakes up in Bellezza, the Venice-analog of a parallel Renaissance Italy. This rare gift of "stravagation"—using a talisman to travel between worlds—brings Lucien the protection of a powerful nobleman and friendship with the headstrong young Arianna; but also entangles him in the maneuverings of Bellezza's glamorous Duchessa against the wily Chemici (read: Medici) clan. Meanwhile, as his visits to Bellezza become more enthralling, Lucien's body in his home world is slowly dying. Hoffman's ( The Color of Home , p. 1225, etc.) fast-paced plot tightly integrates the fantastic with the historical and frequent cuts between viewpoints ratchet up the suspense. Unfortunately, Lucien and Arianna are not particularly compelling characters, and are too often merely pawns in the intricate factional machinations. The story is dominated by the overwhelming personality of the Duchessa, but even her most devoted adherents admit that she is a "ruthless, selfish, stubborn, bossy woman"; many teens will lack the historical background to appreciate her motives. While Hoffman clearly adores the setting, Bellezza is too sketchily realized for the reader to care passionately about its political fate. The tidy resolution seems to leave little room for sequels; still, some intriguing minor characters and glimpses of other cities hint at a richer world than so far revealed. (Fantasy. 11+)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Dying of brain cancer in modern London, a teenager is transported to an Italianate world in his dreams—and to a city that mirrors Renaissance Venice. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">PW said, "The novel will likely intrigue more sophisticated readers." Ages 10-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Oct.)

School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Arianna wants to be a mandolier, but in 16th-century Bellezza, the city on the water in Talia ruled by the Duchessa, the training is open only to boys. Meanwhile, in 21st-century England, Lucien is coping with the aftereffects of chemotherapy. Holding onto a notebook rescued from the trash brings him strange dreams of a Venetian-like city, and soon he is in Arianna's world. She is outraged when he is chosen to enter the Scuola Mandoliera, and he plunges feet first into life in Bellezza, where he can escape his sick body. With the notebook, Lucien/Luciano "stravagates" between his home and the past, and is soon burning the candle at both ends. He soon becomes fast friends with Arianna and apprentice to Rodolfo, a favorite of the Duchessa whom Luciano rescues from an assassination attempt. Hoffman has created a dazzling world; vibrant characters; and a wondrous story of politics, intrigue, and youthful romance. Though some of the plot twists are hardly surprising, getting through them is rewarding. The author's gift for detail brings life to cathedrals, lagoons, and lace, and some of her parallels to Venice are clever, such as a Bridge of Sorrow instead of the Bridge of Sighs. As the book draws to a close, Lucien dies in England, but continues to live in the past. Readers of this fascinating novel will be thrilled to learn that it is the first in a trilogy.-Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.