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Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
Poinsettia Girl by Jennifer Wizbowski is a historical novel set in Venice in the early eighteenth century. Agata Farusi was a ten-year-old girl trying to come to terms with the untimely death of her mother. Cared for by her loving Nonna (grandmother), in their neighborhood bakery, Agata is feeling lost and bereft, especially as her father, an itinerant musician, is frequently not there, and when he is, he casts a shadow over her and Nonna’s life. In a desperate move to protect young Agata, her Nonna arranges for her to be admitted into a girls’ orphanage that specializes in producing musicians and singers for a closed and secretive organization whose ethereal music attracts a wealthy and noble audience. Many of the graduates of this program will end up with offers of marriage from young noblemen. For Agata, it is new, scary, and something she absolutely did not desire. However, she, like all the other girls, must study and train. As she succeeds spectacularly at the conservatory and grows into adulthood, she must decide on a future that involves her love of music or marriage from an unlikely and almost forgotten source.
Poinsettia Girl is a sweet story of love, family, and salvation wrapped up in just a small degree of treachery and backstabbing. Jennifer Wizbowski has done a wonderful job of characterization with Agata and her fellow acolytes. This book delves deeply into the thought processes of the characters. Written at a gentle pace, it allows readers to soak up the atmosphere of the conservatory, its strict rules, and also the wonderful job it performs in turning these young orphans’ lives around. The perspective changes from chapter to chapter, from Agata to her Nonna, Guilelma, and later on to one of Agata’s teachers and friends, Margarita. This gives the story more depth and insight. The love between Agata and her childhood best friend, Gabriele, offers an interesting difference of perspectives. Her success and love of music clash with her growing attraction toward Gabriele, and she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life. I loved the pace, gentleness, and deep characterization. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.
