The Shepherdess of Siena by Linda Lafferty

578 Pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Release Date: March 31, 2015

Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction, Italian, Tuscany, Horses, Orphan, Convent, de Medici family

Virginia Tacci is 6 years old. Her parents died from an epidemic and she lives with her aunt and uncle and tends their sheep. She dreams of horses and wants to complete in the famous Siena’s Palio horse race. She gets secret riding lessons by moonlight. It is hard to imagine how a young girl could be such a threat to a powerful man as the Gran Duca Francesco de Medici. She was gaining the love of the people. In his eyes, she had to go.

The story had a steady pace, the characters were well developed, and it was written in the third person point of view. I enjoy reading books about the de Medici family since they were an interesting and powerful family. My only disbelief with the book was how young Virginia was supposed to be. She certainly appeared to be older than her years. If you like historical fiction with family murder plots and a few horses, you will enjoy reading this book.