The Borgia Betrayal by Sara Poole

Title: The Borgia Betrayal
Author: Sara Poole
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Source: St. Martin’s Press in exchange for a review

Book Cover of The Borgia Betrayal

In the summer of 1493, Rodrigo Borgia, Alexander VI, has been pope for almost a year. Having played a crucial role in helping him ascend the chair of Saint Peter, Francesca, haunted by the shadows of her own past, is now charged with keeping him there. As court poisoner to the most notorious and dangerous family in Italy, this mistress of death faces a web of peril, intrigue, and deceit that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance.

As dangers close in from every direction, Francesca conceives a desperate plan that puts her own life at risk and hurls her into a nightmare confrontation with a madman intent on destroying all she is pledged to protect. From the hidden crypts of fifteenth-century Rome to its teeming streets alive with sensuality, obsession, and treachery, Francesca must battle the demons of her own dark nature to unravel a plot to destroy the Borgias, seize control of Christendom, and plunge the world into eternal darkness.

This book came out after the first season of The Borgias began to air. I began watching the tv series but I don’t recall if I finished the first season or not. The premise behind this book, about a court poisoner was most interesting. This is the second book in the Poisoners Mystery series. I did not read the first book, Poison. According to the Reading Group Gold interview with Poole, each was written as a stand alone book. Poole felt there could be as many as a dozen books in the series but to date only three have been written. In fact, the Sara Poole site is no longer in existence and Goodreads indicates Sara Poole is a pseudonym for a New York Times bestselling author who wanted to write historical fiction. As the Twitter and Facebook accounts haven’t been updated in a few years, I think it’s unlikely there will be more than the three books.

I’m disappointed as I fell a little bit in love with Sara Poole’s Francesca. Francesca could easily have an ordinary life with a husband and child and she sometimes thinks about it. She learned poisons from her father and her profession puts anyone who cares about her in danger. She wishes to avenge the death of her father and the life of an ordinary woman would not allow that. Francesca’s intelligence and the trust Borgia places in her provides her with opportunities she otherwise might not have. Francesca’s complexity is why I liked her so much.

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