Stravaganza City of Secrets [Paperback]

Mary Hoffman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Stravaganza | Publication Date: July 7, 2008

When Matt is unexpectedly transported to the Scriptorium of Padavia (real-life Padua) University, he discovers he is a Stravagante who can travel through time using his talisman, a leather-bound book. Together with Luciano, now studying at the University, and Arianna, in disguise as a boy, he must fight the dangerous di Chimici clan who are on the verge of making a terrifying breakthrough into our world. A breathtaking and thrilling novel that will delight all Stravaganza fans.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—In this addition to the popular series, 17-year-old Nick discovers that he has the power to travel between his home in contemporary London and 16th-century Talia, a country in which some magic and sorcery is possible. In his own time, Nick struggles with dyslexia and is insecure about his relationship with popular, beautiful Ayesha. In Talia, he reads effortlessly and is apprenticed to a printmaker in the city-state of Padavia, where he befriends Luciano, a teenager from his own time and the protagonist in the first book in the series, Stravaganza: City of Masks (Bloomsbury, 2002). Together, the two young men and Luciano's betrothed must find a way to stop a plot by the powerful de Chimici family to take over Talia. Secrets stands on its own, though teen fantasy and history buffs will likely clamor for the first three books in this wonderful series. The author's richly detailed, fully imagined world of Talia comes alive for her characters who "stravagate" there, and for readers as well. The action moves seamlessly from present to past as Nick struggles to maintain a balance between the two worlds while becoming stronger and more secure in both.—Leah J. Sparks, formerly at Bowie Public Library, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

'City of Masks is a poignant, touching and exciting novel ... without doubt a masterwork of contemporary children's literature' Edgardo Zaghini, Booktrust City of Stars: 'A fabulous story of power, intrigue and flying horses. This is story-telling at its best' Bookseller Of City of Flowers: 'I was barely allowed to finish it before my god-daughter snatched it away with breathless anticipation. "It's so real!" she drooled' Independent 'An absolute triumph. Writing like this makes a parallel situation appear in the mind as more real than reality itself' School Librarian

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books (July 7, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747592500
• ISBN-13: 978-0747592501
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,653,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masks and Stars, Flowers and Secrets, April 29, 2009

By 

Jeannie Mancini "vernefan" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stravaganza: City of Secrets (Hardcover)

With all the hundreds of young adult fiction books that are published each year, Mary Hoffman's Stravaganza books still remain my all-time favorite series since I picked up the first installment seven years ago. City of Secrets continues to carry over a high standard mix of quality writing, fabulous characters and thickened multi-layered plots. One warning about this episode, it is not a stand alone story. One must read all three other novels before starting the City of Secrets. Without first reading City of Masks, City of Stars, and City of Flowers, you will be totally clueless and will not understand who is who and what is happening. There are many, many references in this book to events and characters in the previous novels that are key to this story's unfolding. The author has clearly put many years and incredible effort into creating her world of Talia, an alternate world of Italy in the 1500's. Each book is about a different character in a different city state of Talia, cities that correlate to real places we have in Italy today such as Venice, Florence, Siena and Padua. The period detail that Mary Hoffman gives to this series of a glamorous Renaissance Italian world is incredible. Every page a work of art as the reader is totally transported out of the room they are reading in, far away to Talia. The writing is totally evocative of the whole culture in Italy at that time, rich in wealth, and steeped in romance, art, religion and history. These stories are so full of adventure, and are enchanting and exciting.

The series is about a group of teenagers in London who all happen to meander into an antique shop. Each picking out a trinket to take home. These selected items become their Talismans in which when the teens fall asleep with them, they are transported to the world of Talia. When they arrive, they are found and informed that they are chosen members of a selected secret society called Stravagantes. Stravagantes can travel back and forth, with their Talismans, alternating from modern day England to this Italian Renaissance world. Stravagating, as explained in book one, was accidently invented by one Dottore Dethridge, an Elizabethan alchemist, who early in the series adopts the main character of all the books, Lucien, or Luciano, as his foster son, a cavalier being groomed to be the future Duke of Belezza.

Book four, City of Secrets introduces a new Stravagante, young Matt or Matteo, who is given a book token as a birthday gift from his aunt. Matteo doesn't care much for words, writing or reading, for he is dyslexic and finds reading nearly impossible. But when he stumbles into Mr. Mortimer's antique shop, for some reason he is fascinated by an antiquarian leather bound book in Latin and takes it home as a cool novelty. Little does he know that after he falls fast asleep, he will enter the city of Padavia of Talia. And in Talia, as is a normal occurence, any afflictions one has in England is corrected in the new world. So in Talia, Matteo can read just fine making it hard to return to a world where he is insecure and dysfunctional. Each Stravagante is brought to Talia for a purpose, consistanty so far, to help the main character Luciano in his fight against the evil family, the de Chimici. This series is a hard one to review, its so very difficult to explain, due to the fact that there are numerous characters all coming and going and many plots with subplots intertwining from one book to the other. It is almost easier to review the series as a whole, rather than each book individually.

All the previous Stravagantes, Luciano, Georgia, Nick and Sky, show up in this latest novel to assist Matteo in his goal to help Luciano fight the de Chimici who are now instruments of the church, dictating that those who no longer follow the church and continue to follow pagan faiths, will be arrested and burned at the stake. In the other three previous stories we meet the nomad group of Gypsies called the Manoush, friends to the Stravagantes and Royal families of Talia. The Manoush have their own pagan ceremonies and rites and celebrate feast days to honor the goddess of Belezza. With the new laws, now they are thrown up against the wall, warned that if they do not stop their heathen ways, they will be imprisoned, and put to death. So with this new threat to the city states of Talia, installed by a de Chimici Cardinal, Luciano, Matteo, and all the other players must once again combat this fearful enemy, and rush to save their friends the Manoush with all the ingenuity, strength and Stravagating magic they can muster up as a team.

With an ongoing slow-building romance, non-stop action, mystery upon mystery, and plenty of espionage and court intrigue, the pace never ceases. With the ending of each book the Stravaganza fans give a standing ovation, and plead for more. And as of yesterday, after corresponding with the author, I find joyfully there are at least two more books coming, and this girl can't wait!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "It's Always Somehow Connected to the di Chimici...", June 5, 2011

By 

R. M. Fisher "Raye" (New Zealand = Middle Earth!) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Stravaganza: City of Secrets (Paperback)

This is the fourth book in Mary Hoffman's "Stravaganza" series, but by this stage they're wearing a little thin. They're still very well written, but the freshness and originality of the first couple of books are long gone and what's left is just formulaic.

The concept itself is great and somewhat reminiscent of The Chronicles of Narnia, in which a select group of young adults chance across talismans that allow them to travel in their sleep to the world of Talia. This alternative version of Renaissance Italy and its cities allows the protagonists (known as Stravaganti) to experience a sense of freedom and to gain the strength and skills they need with which to face the difficulties in their everyday lives. Each book introduces a new Stravagante (both from this world and from Talia) and is set in a new city (in this case Padavia, an alternative Padua).

But where previous books used this setup to good effect, by "City of Secrets", it just feels stale. Lucien was a great protagonist, as was Georgia. Sky was a little bland, but Matt is just plain boring. Where the first two characters had to deal with a terminal illness and a sadistic step-brother, Matt's only obstacle is dyslexia and his subsequent insecurity about his girlfriend Ayesha. Now, dyslexia is a perfectly viable difficulty for a character (or indeed, a real-life person) to have; the only problem is that it barely makes it into the story. Ayesha is never developed properly as a character, leaving the reader indifferent as whether her relationship with Matt is worth worrying about, and though it's revealed that Matt's dyslexia disappears whenever he's in Talia, this never has any bearing on the plot. He finally comes to terms with his dyslexia at the end of the story, in a near-perfect case of telling-not-showing.

Things are more interesting in Talia where the Stravagante of the previous books are forced to deal with the perpetual threat of the di Chimici family, despite the death of their patriarch in City of Flowers. A warrant is out for Luciano's arrest after Niccolo di Chimici's suspicious death, and the Duchessa Arianna is constantly risking her safety by visiting her fiancé in secret. The two young lovers have been separated by Luciano's desire to attend the University of Padavia, but they find an unexpected ally in the form of Enrico Poggi, a former-spy of the di Chimici who now has his own score to settle.

When Matt begins to stravagate into Padavia's Scriptorium he is thrown headfirst into this intrigue, particularly when the current heads of the di Chimici family realize that he too is a Stravagante. Desperate to learn the secrets of the brotherhood, they send out their network of spies at the same time they begin to enforce new anti-magical laws that are designed specifically to target the Stravaganti. The book also includes the persecution of a group of goddess-worshipers, Matt putting the evil eye on a school rival, the kidnapping of two major characters, and the threat of a fire in the city. It's all written in an episodic manner, leading to rather choppy pacing in which one crisis is resolved only for another to arise directly afterwards. It tends to kill the suspense rather than build up to a satisfying climax.

The di Chimicis make for interesting villains, for though some are certainly worse than others, none of them are wholly evil. Likewise, they have understandable reasons for being suspicious of the Stravaganti given their dealings with each other in the past. Even though the major nemesis of the Stravaganti is no longer among them, it would seem that his son Duke Fabrizio seems as though he'll match his father in cunning and ruthlessness, all the more so because he truly believes himself to be in the right.

Finally, the city of Padavia simply isn't as vivid or interesting as Bellezza, Remora or Giglia. Reading the afterword that Mary Hoffman provides, she reveals that Padavia is the most different from its Italian counterpart, perhaps leading to the lack of detail and color that was so prevalent in the previous books. Places like the university and the anatomical theatre seem to have been included mainly because of famous existing buildings in Padua, and don't seem quite as well integrated in the plot.

I still enjoy and recommend the Stravaganza books, but they're certainly weakening as the series goes on. The formula of introducing a new protagonist and city for each new book means that the dizzying array of characters is difficult to keep track of (needless to say, you'll be lost if you start the series here instead of with City Of Masks) and though the deepening circles of intrigue and espionage are well-plotted and certainly interesting, they don't quite seem to go anywhere. It's as if Hoffman has a plan in place, but that this particular installment is just filler before we get to the really good stuff - and I hope it gets here soon.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Readable, August 29, 2008

By 

Ennelai "Quadri Il Cerchio" (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stravaganza: City of Secrets (Hardcover)

It is not as well written and there are a lot more hanging subplots at the end, but this book is still worth the read. (It is difficult to persuade a fan of the series to say otherwise.) I would recommend reading its 3 predecessors first, nevertheless, because "Secrets" can become a bit tough to follow with its ginormous and overgrowing cast.