Books with author Mark Hoffmann

This book is aimed at age-range: 12+. This is the sequel to the international best-selling "City of Masks". The time period is the same - C16 Talia as a parallel world version of Italy - but the setting has moved from Bellezza (Venice) to Remora (Siena). The main character in this book is Georgia - who has a love of horses. She is desperate to buy a little, dusty winged horse that has appeared in a local antiques shop. This little, winged horse will prove to be the talisman (as the notebook was for Lucien in City of Masks) that will transport Georgia to Siena - right into the rivalries and the high-octane excitement of the hugely compeititive Stellata horse race - and more. Mary Hoffman has proved herself a mistress of a narrative tour-de-force with "City of Masks" and this sequel will not disappoint.

Georgia is an ordinary girl, living in London with her mother, stepfather and bully of a stepbrother and coping with the difficulties of growing up. But all that changes when she buys a tiny figurine in the form of a winged horse and suddenly finds herself swept up into the world of the Stravagante. Her talisman, the figurine, transports her to Remora the Talian parallel to Siena, Italy. There she meets Lucien, the Stravagante we first met in City of Masks and many other fascinating people who are in the midst of preparing for the Stellata, the city's annual horse race. Intrigue, romance, and the rare appearance of a true winged horse ensure an exciting adventure to rival the first in this captivating series.

Set in Talia, a parallel world very similar to 16th-century Italy, the narrative follows Lucien, who in our world is very ill. Given a marbled notebook to use as a diary, the notebook is the unexpected means that transports Lucien to this dangerous new world; a world that thrills to the delight of political intrigue and where a life can be snuffed out with a flash of a merlino blade. The city of Bellezza (Venice in our world) is astonishingly evoked, with a filmic eye to detail, from the sensuousness of silks and velvets, to the thrill and danger of assassination attempts both and foiled and successful. The world of Talia is unforgettably and convincingly real.

The award-winning author of the Stravaganza series has done it again with this atmospheric adventure set in Renaissance Italy. Sixteen-year-old Silvano da Montacuto has wealth, good looks, and a new hawk-but none of these can save him when his bloody dagger is found near a dead body. For his own protection, he is sent to a Franciscan House, where he poses as a novice, or a young monk. There, he lays eyes on Chiara, a lovely novice at a nearby abbey who is also living in secret. When they fall in love, their secret identities make it impossible to reveal their feelings to one another. Murder seems to have followed Silvano, and soon several other dead bodies turn up. Who is committing the crimes? Will a young man accused of multiple murders be able to clear himself? And what about the girl he adores? Fans of Mary Hoffman's critically acclaimed Stravaganza series won't be disappointed in the romance, colorful web of intrigue, and rich, marvelous setting.