Today a woman can be single and have a career and a joyful life. During the Victorian era many a maiden aunt was taken in as helper in the homes of better off relatives. But in the 16th century, we find that many aristocratic Italian families, only being able to afford one dowry, would force one girl into marriage and dispatch the other young women to convents.

At first I found Sarah Dunant’s "Sacred Hearts" claustrophobic (it all takes place behind convent walls) and uninviting. I so enjoyed "I More...

"We� ve come a long way, baby. It may be clich�d, but Sacred Hearts shows the reader the strides women have made in the world. I remain utterly horrified at the fact that so many women were forced into the convents. When your options are to marry the man your father tells you to marry, submit to his whims and caprices, abuse and philandering, I imagine the convent was the best choice for some. Still, that doesn� t make it fundamentally right. Everyone deserves the chance to choose their life.[re More...

I won this book in the give-away--my first. I had high hopes. I've tried picking it up again and again and have read several books in between each time I picked it up. So far, I've made it to page 95. It's very slow and tedious, if you're looking for a page-turner, you won't find it here. Since I am not a Roman Catholic, I had also hoped to gain some insights, maybe they're in there somewhere but so far, this book is just plain boring.

Sacred Hearts tells the story the inner life of a convent in Renaissance Italy, where easily half the nuns were placed there because the were unmarriageable or their families did not have the money for their doweries. Many others have entered the convent because there is no other choice for them. We see the politics as the truly religious clash with those who have no vocation as the reformation fast approaches the convent.

Mixed into this is a young novice who has been placed into the house of Sa More...

Story Description:

Random House|June 10, 2011|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-4000-6382-6

The year is 1570, and in the convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, noblewoman find space to pursue their lives under Gods’ protection. But any community, however smoothly run, suffers tremors when it takes in someone by force. And the arrival of Santa Caterina’s new novice sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to its core.

Ripped by her family from an illicit love affair, six More...

I wanted to like this book, but it was very dull. Basically, if you've ever wondered about the mirocosm world inside a 1500's Italian nunnery, this may be the book for you. It was not the book for me, and I did not finish it.

It was actually quite a bit like an all girls boarding school in many ways, with the cliques and factions, power-struggles and influencing attempts to gain one's own stature or priviledges.

The twist here is that most of the women in this particular nunnery are there against More...

"Sacred Hearts" is Sarah Dunant's best novel yet, and one of the very best I've read in a long time. Through her exquisite writing Dunant brings to life, vividly and intimately, the realities of convent life in 16th-century Italy. The struggle between piety and politics, spirituality and sensuality, as well as faith and science is powerfully depicted in this engaging story. We come to know well the women whose everyday lives we are made privy to and see, and feel, the turmoil beneath the apparen More...

An era convulsed by religious reformation and a convent on the threshold of irrevocable change are the basis for Sarah Dunant's eloquent, compelling third novel in her Renaissance trilogy, SACRED HEARTS.

When young and willful Serafina is immured against her wishes in the Convent of Santa Caterina, in the Italian city of Ferrara, she is merely following in the terrible footsteps of countless unwanted or tarnished girls before her. It is estimated that by the late 16th century, dowries had grown More...

What an absolutely satisfying, wonderful book. I can never get enough of Sarah Dunant, and Sacred Hearts, her third novel set in Renaissance Italy makes me wish I could read it again for the first time.

Sacred Hearts takes the reader completely into a time when women’s lives were absolutely ruled by men – fathers and husbands on the one hand, and the prevailing rulers on the other. Young girls, particularly in the noble class, had no say in their futures. Their lives could either be lived in the More...

I read Sacred Hearts for the Vibes & Scribes book group, and thoroughly enjoyed it for its imagining of convent life in16th century Italy although its story has a modern flavor to it. The story is told from the viewpoint of a senior nun, the dispensary sister who might have worked as an apothecary if she had been born male. The tender balance of convent life is upset when a young noblewoman is forced to enter it after she falls in love with the wrong man. Her presence ignites a political st More...

We women, you know, are pretty strong. This novel shows us again, the truth of our lives by telling us a story. A story of making the best of it, of finding grace, even within unchosen boundaries. Did you know that half of all noble women in 16th century Italy were forced into nunneries because their families could afford only one lavish dowery? In her author's notes, Sarah Dunant quotes one such woman, a nun form Santi Naborre e Felice convent in Bolgna , written to the pope: "Many of us are sh More...

A novel that brings the reader into the minds and hearts of the participants. Having been raised Roman Catholic I was familiar with many of the rituals and procedures performed by the nuns and priest.

All characters are fully fleshed-out and believable. Dunant does a superb job of conveying the claustrophobia of the nunnery, the forbidding high walls, the dark solitude of each night in the "cells". But there is also beauty and serenity inside the convent. The details and background information a More...

I have to stand back and think about this one. I'm not spiritual enough to appreciate the life of monastic seclusion so had to peel back the religious references to get to the core of the story. Definitely some interesting finds. Historical fiction isn't for everybody but the fun in reading a book like this is that one is obliged (at least)to understand the context. While Sarah Dunant certainly doesn't leave the reader guessing on this score.....bottom line: Sixteenth century was pretty rough on More...

I'm an unapologetic fan of Sarah Dunant's, and her latest novel, set in 1570 in Ferrara, Italy, is another stunner. As she did in The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan , Dunant immerses the reader in the Renaissance and shines a light on the constricted lives of women in that era. Sacred Hearts introduces us to sixteen-year-old Serafina, who, like many others of her milieu, has been forced to enter the convent against her will because her noble family cannot afford her dowr More...

Any reader of my reviews knows that I’m a sucker for historical fiction. If it sucks, I will finish it anyway, bitching all the way. If it’s good, I thank the fiction gods above. Sometimes it’s hard to find that good novel that makes an honest attempt at historical facts and attitudes while also maintaining an engaging writing style. Sarah Dunant’s Sacred Hearts has it nailed.

I’ve read several of Dunant’s novels before, all set in Renaissance Italy. She has a fascination with women, art, and the More...

Sacred Hearts tells the story the inner life of a convent in Renaissance Italy, where easily half the nuns were placed there because the were unmarriageable or their families did not have the money for their doweries. Many others have entered the convent because there is no other choice for them. We see the politics as the truly religious clash with those who have no vocation as the reformation fast approaches the convent.

Mixed into this is a young novice who has been placed into the house of Sa More...

Every time I listened to this book, I felt transported to the halls of a sixteenth century convent. So many novels use convents as backdrops for either forbidden love affairs or terrible cruelty stories, but Dunant draws a much more balanced picture. She does not shy away from the fact of Renaissance life that many younger sisters in noble families as well as any women who were lame, deformed by disease, or simply not pretty enough for marriage were forced against their will into convents. But D More...

Each time I picked up Sacred Hearts and read it I felt like I was entering into the quiet hallways of a convent. While the plot of this book has it's fill of drama and conflict, the portrayal of the nuns in the convent was such that you get a full picture of what their daily life is like with its routine and stability.

I have often wondered what it would have been like to be a nun, in any era, but somehow I had never really given any thought to those nuns who were forced into convents. It is some More...

Novels about nuns are difficult to get right. Many are too evangelical; others simply seize the trappings of veils and prayers as a dramatic setting for a forbidden love story. Sarah Dunant's "Sacred Hearts" gets it right: a passionate but balanced story of a nunnery in Renaissance Italy poised on the brink of change. The convent is presented as an insular but surprisingly sophisticated little sphere, worldly enough to accept an Abbess with political connections and sisters who took their vows m More...

Like the previous two novels (The Birth of Venus, In the Company of Courtesans), Dunant once again weaves a rich tapestry of politics, art religion and intrigue in sixteenth century Italy. Bowing ungracefully to the demands of her family, the headstrong, lovesick young woman brings to a once-powerful convent a musical talent it desperately needs in order to assure its continued existence. The would-be nun's adjustment to her new circumstances is not only tempestuous but engagingly contemporary - More...

Sacred Hearts is a story set in the late 1500's in an Italian convent. A few historical notes are necessary in order to fully understand the story. First, at this time in order for a noblewoman to be married as befit someone of her class, a large dowry was necessary--so large that many families couldn't afford to marry off more than one daughter. Since women needed to be taken care of, the solution was to put them in convents. According to the author, as many as 50% of the noblewomen of that tim More...

This richly layered historical narrative provided a fascinating glimpse into an often-overlooked facet of Renaissance life. Serafina is willful, passionate and adamantly unwilling to accept her fate and a life in the convent. While she plots her escape and creates a web of deception that only her advisor Zuana can penetrate, the rest of the convent struggles to reconcile her presence and her rebellion with the potential for glory that her renowned singing voice might bring them. At the same time More...

A few years ago, Nancy Pearl visited Tucson and spoke to a group of library staff about readers advisory. She light-heartedly challenged us to suggest titles/authors that we either liked or thought obscure, for which she'd suggest comparable material. I mentioned Dorothy Dunnett, and Nancy Pearl countered with Sarah Dunant. (I promised I wouldn't remark on the similarity of last names, but there you are.) It's taken all this time for me to try Dunant, probably because I smugly assumed no one cou More...

Serifina is a young girl who has just unwillingly taken her vows to become a novice in the convent of Santa Caterina. Her family, not able to afford the dowry price for both of their daughters, has decided to marry off the younger, and in turn, give Serfina over to the service of God. From the moment she steps into the convent, she exhibits extreme rebelliousness and anger the likes of which the nuns at Santa Caterina have never seen. When Suora Zuana is charged with her care, the dispensary mis More...

I expected a book about sixteenth century convent life and its nuns to be boring. What I did not expect was Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant her third (and probably her best) novel set in the Italian Renaissance (following In the Company of a Courtesan and The Birth of Venus). I was instantly captivated by the sisters of Santa Caterina, a fictional convent comprised of a group of highly sophisticated women as embroiled in politics, scandal, and deception as their courtly counterparts. Dunant achiev More...

Set in 16th century Italy, the story centers around a young woman, Serafina, who is given over to a convent by her family because it was more profitable to marry off her sister – who had initially been trained and expected to become the nun of the family. The author explores the daily life within a convent, during a time of change in church politics, while Serafina spends most of her time attempting or plotting escape.

The history and the period interested me but I had trouble getting through par More...

This is the first book of hers I've read, but I definitely want to read more.

It's set in a convent in Italy in the second half of the sixteenth century. They've just gotten a new novice (Serafina), and she is not happy to be there. She wanted to marry a poor music teacher and her dad considered the nunnery a far better option.

Another sister there, Suora Zuana, becomes a mentor/friend/adversary of sorts, and it's made complicated by some infighting and the fact that some changes are being made t More...

I loved both The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan, Dunant’s previous works set during the Italian Renaissance. I read the plot synopsis for Sacred Hearts, her latest book, and my first reaction was that a book set in a convent sounded pretty boring. Knowing Dunant’s talent for creating vibrant characters and her great story telling skills I chose to read the book and I am so glad I did because it was an absorbing novel.

In 16th century Italy the cost of a dowry for more than one More...

Seven years ago (whoa!) I read "The Birth of Venus" by Sarah Dunant and really enjoyed it. Remembering that experience, when I saw this book for sale at the dollar store I thought it was definitely worth trying another book of Sarah Dunant's for only $1.

For the first quarter or so of the book, I was suspicious that many copies had found their home in the dollar store for a good reason. However, my mind was greatly changed by the end of the book. I stuck with it and by the end I was engrossed and More...

After reading Hunger's Brides and having been a fan of the Mistress of the Art of Death series, I found this book a happy synthesis of the two. When a young woman is sent to the Benedictine convent of Santa Caterina which is run along fairly liberal lines by Madonna Chiara, her refusal to conform and the friendship she establishes with the convent's most unconventional nun, Zuana, soon threatens to disrupt the serenity of the sisters. Determined to help her new charge, Zuana, the dispensary sist More...