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By Rachel Dacus
Stories of love stick with us, draw us in easily. They’re often the most memorable stories, the ones we carry around with a glow of happiness—unless they were tragic stories, and then we keep the tender feelings of that. Think of your favorite romance or love story. It’s not hard to bring to mind, is it?
Love in all its forms is the epitome of relationships working as well as they can, given that humans are imperfect. Love stories are sticky, I think, because they’re basic to human nature. It’s the heat in a connection that matters most and indicates depth of feeling.
Shakespeare said, “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is wing’d cupid painted blind.” Love sees the Beloved’s interior, rather than simply the exterior (though gorgeous exteriors don’t detract!). In Romeo and Juliet, one of my favorite love stories, Juliet declares: “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee the more I have, for both are infinite.”
In devising the story I wanted to tell in The Renaissance Club, depth of feeling seemed to me central. Gianlorenzo Bernini was an artist of great feeling, and his sculptures are some of the most passionate and emotional works of art ever made. I posed myself the question: what if I could go back in time and meet Bernini? What would I ask such an amazing genius and man of feeling? I’d want to know more about how he lived so creatively and poured so much life and emotion into his works.
And meeting him, would I feel drawn to them in more than artistic ways? Well, of course! That was the spark of idea for the story. And how May Gold was born as my main character—an art historian with an undercurrent of passion and a creative soul, and with lots of questions for the artist she most admires.
Being lucky enough to slip through a fold in time and meet the living, breathing genius she admires, May is swept into a storm of emotion, but feelings aren’t always easy to live with, and they complicate life. As does a gulf of centuries between you and your beloved! And thereby hangs a tale … the tale of The Renaissance Club.
Would you give up everything, even the time in which you live, to be with your soul mate? That’s what young art historian and teacher May Gold must decide when she slips through time’s folds to meet the man of her dreams and the subject of her master’s thesis — fiery 17th century genius artist Gianlorenzo Bernini.
In her fantasies May is in his arms, the wildly adored partner of the man who steered Renaissance art into the Baroque. In reality, she has just landed in Rome with her stodgy boyfriend and teaching colleagues for a tour of Italy. She yearns to unleash her passion and creative spirit.
When the floor under the gilded dome of St Peter’s basilica rocks under her feet, she finds herself in the year 1624, staring straight into Bernini’s eyes. Their immediate and powerful attraction grows every time she meets him during the tour. Passion blossoms, but history says they have no future. Can May thread her way through time, and will she take a perilous risk to begin a magical, exciting new life?
This time travel romance is perfect for lovers of Italy, art, and love stories.
Enjoy an Excerpt
He lowered the rod and at last, smiled. Historians had written that his smile could charm anyone, but he had never been painted smiling. What a shame.
“Why are you, a woman, studying my art?” His voice wasn’t deep but it was vibrant, with an Italian lilt. “Women only study languages, lute playing, babies, and needle work.”
“I’m a different kind of woman.” She remembered what a range of women he had known, from models to noblemen’s wives. In his era, women’s decent occupations could be listed in five lines.
“I do not wish to be rude, but because of your sex you cannot study art.”
“I’m an exception.” She enjoyed the way that startled him.
“What are you called?” he demanded.
“My name is May Gold.”
He bowed. “Signorina May Gold, Cavaliere Bernini is at your service! Your golden skin makes me think you are perhaps from Egypt, where women aren’t properly schooled in manners.”
She smiled at what he thought would be an insult. “I’m half Italian and half Jewish. And I am a student of your work, despite my sex.”
“How can that be?”
His superior certainty made the sarcasm pinch, but she knew he couldn’t easily understand. She might as well tell him what he would find unbelievable. “I’m a historian studying Baroque art, and you’re the focus of my study.”
He laughed loudly. “A woman historian? Impossible! And I know nothing of your Baroque. I am merely—” he bowed insincerely “—a genius of sculpture and architecture.”
About the Author: 
Rachel Dacus is a poet, essayist, and novelist who writes about love and relationships, with a touch of the supernatural. Love and history are the themes of her debut novel, The Renaissance Club, a tale of romance between a young art historian and her hero, the fiery 17th century Italian sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini. Praise for her novel — “enchanting, rich, and romantic” — describes the kinds of love and adventure stories Rachel enjoys, preferably set in exotic places. She has traveled to Italy and India and plans to expand her journeys beyond countries that start with the letter “I”.
She’s the daughter of a bipolar rocket engineer who worked on missiles during the race-to-space 1950’s. He was also an accomplished painter.
Her interest in Italy was ignited by a course in Renaissance art history that culminated in tour of northern Italy. She’s been hooked on Italy ever since. Her essay on Italy, motherhood, and infertility was anthologized in Italy, a Love Story: Women Write About the Italian Experience.
Dacus shows off her versatility in four poetry collections. Her newest is Arabesque. Three other collections are: Gods of Water and Air, Femme au Chapeau, and Earth Lessons. She raises funds for arts, human service, and healthcare organizations and takes walks with her way-too-smart Silky Terrier.
Buy the book at Amazon.
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Thanks for hosting!
Sounds like a good read.
I liked the excerpt, thank you.
Thanks for hosting my book and my article today! And thanks, Kim and Rita, for reading!
Looks and sounds interesting