City of Secrets (Stravaganza Series #4)

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Overview

Set in Talia, a parallel-world version of Italy, the Stravaganza series combines Renaissance court intrigue with time travel, subterfuge, romance, and revenge. In this new story arc, we meet Matt, a painfully dyslexic and insecure boy (despite a beautiful and clever girlfriend!). Matt has just discovered that he is a Stravagante - someone capable of traveling between two worlds. A leather-bound book transports Matt from our world to Talia, where he meets Luciano. Luciano has killed the head of the powerful di Chimici family in a duel, and has gone into hiding. The di Chimici are on the verge of making a terrifying breakthrough into our world, and it will fall to Matt, Luciano, and the ...

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Overview

Set in Talia, a parallel-world version of Italy, the Stravaganza series combines Renaissance court intrigue with time travel, subterfuge, romance, and revenge. In this new story arc, we meet Matt, a painfully dyslexic and insecure boy (despite a beautiful and clever girlfriend!). Matt has just discovered that he is a Stravagante - someone capable of traveling between two worlds. A leather-bound book transports Matt from our world to Talia, where he meets Luciano. Luciano has killed the head of the powerful di Chimici family in a duel, and has gone into hiding. The di Chimici are on the verge of making a terrifying breakthrough into our world, and it will fall to Matt, Luciano, and the other Stravaganti to stop them….

Editorial Reviews

VOYA
The fourth book of the Stravanganza series lives up to the quality of the prior three books. Seventeen-year-old Matt is acutely embarrassed by his dyslexia. On his birthday, he gets the inevitable book token from his great aunt. Usually he finds no use for it, but on this memorable occasion, he happens to wander into an antique shop and finds an old book in a strange language. Drawn to it, he buys the book, which turns out to be his talisman, taking him to the Talian city of Padavia (a virtual twin of Padua). Here he becomes embroiled in the perpetual war between the Stravaganti, those who can travel between worlds, and the powerful di Chimici family. Readers of any of the three previous books will find this one comfortably familiar and completely engaging. The book stands well enough on its own, however, to be completely comprehensible to anyone who picks it up as their first outing into Hoffman's charming and believable parallel world. Characterization and plotting are solid, but Hoffman's strong suit is depicting setting, and again the land of Talia almost steals the scene from her characters. Full of magic, adventure, and possessing a satisfyingly complex chain of events, this title is a welcome addition to a growing oeuvre. Reviewer: Ann Welton
Children's Literature
Matt Wood acquires an unusual book on his seventeenth birthday in this fourth novel in the "Stravaganza" series. Dyslexic Matt usually avoids reading but feels connected to the book after following eccentric classmates Georgia and Nick into an antiques store. Matt frets about attaining his parents' academic expectations and losing his girlfriend Ayesha. Falling asleep with the book, Matt awakens in an unfamiliar place which Professor Constantin explains is the Scriptorium, a printing studio at Padavia University in Talia, a country resembling Renaissance Italy. Constantin tells Matt he is a Stravagante and the book is a time travel talisman, enabling Matt to assist Constantin print outlawed anatomy texts in the Scriptorium and attend school in modern London. Matt learns Georgia, Nick, and Luciano, a former schoolmate he encounters in Talia, are Stravagante. He meets alchemist Doctor Dethridge, who initiated stravagation; Talian aristocrats; and antagonistic di Chimici family members, who desire stravagation secrets to acquire power. Restrictions against practicing magic and worshipping unapproved spirits divide the Talian community, with people risking execution by public burning for violating those laws. Matt endeavors to save the condemned. His dilemmas in both settings expose his strengths and intensify tension. Scientific and cultural details, such as autumnal rituals past and present, indicate shared interests across centuries. Hoffman wrote a companion short story, "Sugar Fox," posted on www.stravaganza.co.uk, for this novel Reviewer: Elizabeth D. Schafer
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
School Library Journal

Gr 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

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781599902029
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
  • Publication date: 6/24/2008
  • Pages: 400
  • Sales rank: 460,948
  • Age range: 10 - 15 Years
  • Lexile: 830L (what's this?)
  • Series: Stravaganza Series , #4
  • Product dimensions: 5.44 (w) x 7.86 (h) x 1.28 (d)

Meet the Author

Mary Hoffman is the author of the Stravaganza series, Amazing Grace, and more than eighty other books for children. She has three grown daughters and lives with her husband in Oxfordshire, England. The Stravaganza website is: www.stravaganza.co.uk

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 10 )

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Sort by: Showing all of 10 Customer Reviews

  • Posted May 9, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Ridiculously boring and mostly disappointing

    Ugh. After picking up five exciting books from the library, this was the one I got around to first, because City of Flowers (its immediate predecessor) ended so suspensefully. If City of Flowers was something of a disappointment compared to City of Masks and City of Stars (which remain some of my favorite books of all time, especially Masks!), then City of Secrets was a mega-disappointment.

    I could spend thousands of words criticizing this book: The writing didn't flow, characters weren't developed very well, Hoffman didn't spend any time exploring the city of Padavia (a.k.a. this world's Padua)...you get the picture. The no-exploration thing probably got my goat the most, because having never been to Italy, these books are kind of like a free, exciting plane ticket. But this one spent way too much time on Matt's insecurities (Ayesha, anyone? Yuck!)

    Another problem I had with it was my long-abiding love of Lucien Mulholland. I adore Lucien Mulholland. Or Luciano, or whatever the heck you call him. Ditto for Arianna. So even in City of Stars I was a little disappointed that she started introducing new characters with Georgia and Alice, and in City of Flowers, even more so with Sky and Falco. They took time away from the characters I really enjoyed hearing about, even though all four had grown on me by the end of their respective novels. With the intro of Matt and Ayesha, though, it just started getting ridiculous and watered-down. Pretty much very page Luciano and Arianna weren't on was ridiculously boring.

    Last complaint? Luciano and Arianna, WOULD YOU TWO JUST GET MARRIED, ALREADY? Sheesh. I was really crossing my fingers in this one for a big, fancy, old-school Bellezzan party with lots of Duchessa excess, but unfortunately, it just wasn't so. I will continue to cross my fingers and pray that I'll get my wish in a sequel, but if Mary Hoffman introduces yet another Stravagante with annoying problems I DON'T CARE ABOUT, I will scream. Watch me.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 30, 2009

    Great

    Was the fourth great book in a great series.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 20, 2009

    Not the best of the series

    I read the first three books a few years ago and fell in love with them. The first book specifically kept me reading, and I found all the characters interesting and unique. But City of Secrets has a very slow form of writing. There's not much action in the beginning, and when there is action, I don't feel it as intensely as the other books or any other book I have read. The book didn't have the feeling of keeping me reading. I felt like the writing wasn't at it's best, though it could have been. The plot was great, it was just the writing and format that sort of made it less interesting. It was a good book, but not as great as the rest of them.

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  • Posted October 30, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    Reviewed by Steph for TeensReadToo.com

    CITY OF SECRETS is the fourth installment in Mary Hoffman's STRAVAGANZA series.

    Matt is a normal English seventeen-year-old, until a book he got for his birthday takes him on the journey of his life -- to another world. Talia is similar to Italy, but is a few hundred years in the past from the 21st century.

    On his journey, Matt meets Luciano, an old Stravagante who now permanently lives in Talia after having died in London. With Luciano, his foster father Docter Dethridge, a few other Stravagante, and many friends, Matt embarks on a journey of a lifetime. He finds himself being kidnapped, freeing convicts, and trying to pass his driver's exam!

    Ms. Hoffman writes an enchanting tale that takes the reader to another world. The fast-paced novel is truly enticing and recommended to all ages. While the non-English reader might be confused by some of the references, there aren't too many that will defer the reader from the main task -- trying to find out what happens next.

    This is an excellent addition to the series, with the ending leaving room for even more books.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 16, 2008

    Wonderful Series

    Ever since I first read City of Masks, I just knew this was a series I had to see through to the end. City of Secrets has the action, has the romance, and has the humor. Although it was a stunning and terrific book, I just felt it lacked the need to make me keep reading and to not stop, which the other books (especially City of Flowers) tempted me to do. But it was good nonetheless.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 25, 2008

    Extravagent

    I love the series! I'm so excited about this next book. Who can't wait for Luciano's wedding?

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 14, 2008

    Can't wait

    I cant wait for this book. I read the first 3 and they were awesome. This one will just be better than the last.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 13, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 3, 2008

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 22, 2012

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