Hiding the Flame
Hiding the Flame is the second volume in the Women of Renaissance Florence series. It is a portal to another world, transporting us to Florence in 1495, where the pursuit of art and beauty is a collective obsession, exemplified by the paintings of Botticelli. The city is on the brink of revolution as reforming preacher Savonarola wages war on the vanities of this world: anything that will distract from God must be destroyed.
Francesca Rosini has grown up, nurtured and protected, at the heart of a loving family, who encourage her talent for painting, and her friendship with Maestro Botticelli. But for Francesca the world is about to change as marriage to the handsome, but deeply conservative, Marcello looms.
Sims has captured the atmosphere of fear and rising political tension as Francesca must choose between her love of her family, her ambition to paint and her duty to her husband. For Marcello, and his disapproving mother, a wife’s only function is to manage the house and to produce a healthy heir. Love is an irrelevance. Sims has cleverly balanced the conflict in the city with the conflict between the hopes and desires of Francesca and Marcello as their marriage gradually disintegrates.
When the beautiful Vittoria appears in the studio of Maestro Botticelli, this carefully negotiated balance is upended. As Francesca paints Vittoria’s portrait, her two passions, her love of painting and her love for Vittoria, merge into a single glorious obsession. But in a time of religious ferment, a forbidden love is a dangerous thing.
Hiding the Flame is a multi-layered and engaging story which shows that whatever the period, human nature remains the same; the themes of the need for love and the need to find our place in the world are both universal and timeless.
