David by Mary Hoffman

This book ticks all the right boxes for me - historical fiction set in Florence during the time between Medici rulers. An appealing central character, art and some romantic entanglements.

And  I did enjoy it. It was well written and engaging. The 1500's came alive as the young man (fictional) that Michelangelo used as his model for his sculpture of David tell us his story.

We see the warring factions in Florence, the life of the artist and young love.

This is not a biography though. The facts of history have been played with a little, so if you like your history strictly by the book, this will not work for you. Hoffman occasionally gets bogged down in explaining who is who and what faction they belonged to, but generally she manages to convey this information via the plot and dialogue.

There are plenty of sexual references and intrigues throughout this book as befitting an Italian lothario! But nothing explicit or gratuitious.