Wonderful fun, snappily written -- this is part historical novel and modern day, with a complicated plot playing out in the past while in the contemporary chapters, a history student tries to figure out what happened (for her dissertation). It's all set in a sparkly, enticing Venice with charm and intrigue and action and romance. The author is very good at playing off the two interleaved sections of her novel and at keeping the suspense going. ( )

I actually read this book after The Devlin Diary, not realizing DD was a sequel until I started reading it. I'm glad I read DD first...this book started out really slow, and had I read this one first, I might never have read DD, and that would be a shame, because it's a good book. ( )

I have been to Venice twice and this books reminds me nothing of the Venice I saw. I think I might see the author's Venice if I stayed for more than a few days. This book definitely improved as I read the book. The ending was very good. I didn't really understand how the few pages describing working with Andrew Kent in the Biblioteca Marciana solved Claire's dissertation research problems, but, perhaps, that is a minor detail. There is a lot of growing up detailed in this book, which I enjoyed.

Christi Phillip’s “Rossetti Letter” has the right mix of history and present day.
The sequences between the past Venice and the present day Venice were very good. It was like reading two stories at once. And the similar situations between Claire and Alessandra, being two women from two different eras, who are alone in the world and trying to make the best of it gives the story a very timeless theme.
I also seem to get the message that you do not need to give up femininity to make it in the world either.
Claire seems to have lost any interest in the opposite sex and her femininity and only gets it back with the help of Gwen and Giancarlo and the atmosphere in Venice. As Gwen puts it Claire needed to get her groove back.
Without giving too much away it was a great read. I enjoyed the historical parts of the story as much as the present day escapes of Claire and Gwen and would recommend it to anyone who likes a light hearted story laced with history. ( )

I wish it were possible to review a book by cutting it up into three separate books. Because two out of the three would get favorable reviews from me while the third... well, I don't think I'd have read the third after the first 20 pages or so if I had the choice.

Basically, The Rossetti Letter is three stories - that of modern-time Claire, out to prove her dissertation on Alessandra Rossetti, that of Alessandra, a courtesan who lived in seventeenth century Venice, and finally, a political conspiracy taking place in Venice in which Alessandra has a part in.

The modern story, I think, is given more credit in the summary than deserves, but it was entertaining, I found Claire likeable, I found the reason she actually got to go to Venice a bit laughable, and the relationships formed in Venice a bit contrived, but still - it was mindless fun.

I actually enjoyed Alessandra's story the most. I enjoyed learning about the lifestyle, the choices given to women without dowry and I had no idea that only one son in a family was usually allowed to marry, thereby making courtesans "necessary evils".

But the political, historical stuff - seriously, I felt so lost and I floundered my way through it because, frankly, it just wasn't that interesting. If the book had more of that part of the story in it then it did, then I honestly would not have finished the book, because as much as I enjoyed Alessandra and was amused by Claire, it wouldn't have been worth the boredom.

But, for the $5 this book ended up costing me - it was an okay read, just nothing to write home about. ( )