Allegra

A Novel Set in the Italian Renaissance

By: C. De Melo

Narrated by: Brook Van Beuren

16th century Florence, Italy: Allegra Castagno harbors a secret so big that it can ruin her life and her father's reputation. Exceptionally talented, yet banned from the Florentine guilds, she devises a clever ruse in order to secretly ply her beloved craft. In time, the exquisite jewelry designs of "La Castagna" are being praised in noble courts from Venice to Rome.

Resentful of the male-dominated society in which she lives, Allegra rejects all suitors in order to maintain her carefully constructed farce - until an embittered man with a tragic past melts her icy heart. Faced with a serious dilemma, she seeks the help of her scandalous friend, Bianca Cappello, lover of the powerful Francesco de' Medici.

©2017 Christine De Melo (P)2018 Christine De Melo

Beware of narration

I regret not reading the reviews before buying this book. Like others, I am appalled at how poorly the narrator is. Besides the mangling of many, many words, her voice was stilted with badly placed inflection. Virtual voice, which I despise, would have done a much better job. I had to keep skipping through chapters to finish what would have been a decent book. I will remove other books by this author from my wish list for the simple reason of the narration, even though other books are not read by the same person. Now I know why the author’s books have low overall ratings. If you are well educated, skip this book.

Love the story behind Allegra!!

This was my first 16th century setting audiobook that I have listened to and enjoyed it very much. It took me a little time to adjust to Narrator but that is me.

Male dominance, greed. and betrayals

The struggle is real, and it still exists today!! The theme of this story of inequality and male dominance still reins today, but not as severely. Greed and betrayals abound. Poor Bianca and her spouse- what treachery and greed!!! I liked that Bianca remained a loyal friend to Allegra to the end. I highly recommend this book. I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator did a great job.

Awesome Story

This one is my favorite so far. The audio was perfect and the narrator was flawless with bringing it to life. This one is epic and a must have

Ruined by the Narrator

Based on the Amazon reviews I took a chance on an unknown-to-me author. I spent two summers in Florence and have a love of fine crafts. Unfortunately, the reader so consistently mispronounced common words that I was too distracted to enjoy the story. Some Italian names were pronounced the way an Italian would say them, others were pronounced as if by an American. The pronunciations should be consistent. And the English mispronunciations made me wonder if anyone had listened to the audio before releasing it. I know I am a bit of a crank when it comes to my reaction to incompetent readers but they ruin what should be a pleasurable experience in the same way a printed book would if it were full of poor spelling, inconsistent punctuation, and a constant misuse of homonyms.
I hope to have other opportunities to listen to books by C. De Melo with better narrators.