The Girl in the Glass by Susan Meissner

TITLE: The Girl in the Glass

AUTHOR: Susan Meissner

ISBN: 9780307730428

TYPE: Trade Paperback

GENRE: Fiction

PUBLISHER: Waterbrook Press - September 18, 2012

SOURCE: Received from Blogging for Books for a fair and honest review.

SYNOPSIS: Renaissance is a word with hope infused in every letter.

Since she was a child, Meg has dreamed of taking a promised trip to Florence, Italy, and being able to finally step into the place captured in a picture at her grandmother’s house. But after her grandmother passes away and it falls to her less-than-reliable father to take her instead, Meg’s long-anticipated travel plans seem permanently on hold.
When her dad finally tells Meg to book the trip, she prays that the experience will heal the fissures left on her life by her parents’ divorce. But when Meg arrives in Florence, her father is nowhere to be found, leaving aspiring memoir-writer Sophia Borelli to introduce Meg to the rich beauty of the ancient city. Sofia claims to be one of the last surviving members of the Medici family and that a long-ago Medici princess, Nora Orsini, communicates with her from within the great masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance.
When Sophia, Meg, and Nora’s stories intersect, their lives will be indelibly changed as they each answer the question: What if renaissance isn’t just a word? What if that’s what happens when you dare to believe that what is isn’t what has to be?

REVIEW: When I first saw this book I was not sure what it was about so I looked it up and saw it was about a girl and her dream of going to Italy. I too am a girl who dreams of going to Italy so I thought what a great book to read. I fell in love with the book from page one. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I took my time reading it as I did not want it to end. Meg has been waiting for her dad to take her to Italy since she was a young lady, her dad made her many promises to go and they always fell through, well finally her dream is coming true and she will be going to Florence, Italy. She has had made some friends through her work with a brother and sister writing team Lorenzo and Reneta) and she was also looking forward to meeting them when she gets there and let's not forget her new contact Sophia who is sending her copies of the chapters to a book she is writing and would like published. When Meg gets to Italy she finds herself alone with nowhere to go so she makes her was to Lorenzo's flat only to find him not home but much to her surprise Sophia is home. Sophia then invites her to stay with and a close friendship is quickly formed. Starting the next morning Sophia takes Meg on a tour each day of Florence where she not only learns some history she learns about life. I love the way the author wrote this book, I too learned some things and felt like I was right there with Meg all the way. There is something that just draws you to Italy. I will say the ending surprised me a little as it was not what I was expecting - I can't say a whole lot more without ruining it. I also liked how the author summed things up at the end of the book. This is the first book I have read by this author and now I will be heading out now to find more books by this author. I absolutely give this book 5 stars. 

To learn more about Susan check out her website here

Susan's other books include:  The Shape of Mercy - Lady in Waiting - A Sound Among the Trees as well as others

*"I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review."