This was an interesting novel based on a real Bianca, a woman scientist who literally lived in search of a cure healing malaria.
Bianca can be admired for her assiduous work. However, she appears to me to be a most selfish person who got married to further her interests, a woman who has children because it could not be prevented. She never took interest in them, nor in her husband...
I really disliked her personality !! Nevertheless, I enjoyed the novel very much. It was fascinating to read about herbs, roots, barks which could cure...or not...
I received a digital copy of this novel from NetGalley and I have voluntarily written an honest review.

Bianca’s Cure is a rich and immersive piece of historical fiction that brings to life a bold woman navigating love, science, and power in Renaissance Florence. The story centers on Bianca Capello, a noblewoman pushing the boundaries of her era by pursuing remedies for malaria and discovering her own agency in a world built on patriarchal expectations. Berardi’s writing captures the vividness of the Florentine court, the tension between alchemy and early medicine, and the complexities of ambition, desire, and survival.
What stands out is how the novel blends factual mystery with imaginative storytelling: the elusive fate of Bianca, the poisoning rumours, the tangled politics of the Medici household—all of it feels both historically grounded and emotionally resonant. The backdrop of sickness and science casts a haunting shadow over the romance and intrigue, which gives the narrative deeper stakes than typical palace drama.
If I were to note a reservation, it would be that the brisk length means some threads feel more lightly sketched than others; certain secondary characters or historical setups could have been drawn out further. But those moments never undercut the novel’s power—they simply hint at how much more there was to be discovered.
Overall, Bianca’s Cure is an elegant, compelling read with both intellectual depth and emotional drive. It will especially appeal to readers who enjoy historical fiction with a strong female protagonist, a scientific edge, and a touch of mystery.

Berardi does an excellent job of taking the reader into 16th century Europe - more specifically, Florence. Also, you can almost smell the herbs as the story goes along.

Bianca's mom taught her a lot about herbal remedies. But her mom died and Bianca wanted to learn more. Through a circuitous route, she ended up in Florence where she met Francesco de Medici who helps her by giving her a "laboratory" where she can grow herbs and make tinctures, etc.

The biggest threat to life at the time was malaria and Bianca was sure she could find a remedy - and she did, but only if folks came before they were too sick and often times they did not.

I really got tired of the male dominated world which put her down (she was just a woman after all). She was in every sense of today's word - a scientist and she made copious notes to detail her work.

I was unhappy with the ending, but this novel is based on fact, and the conclusion of the story follows the fact as much as possible.

Good read.

Bianca's Cure by Gigi Berardi is an historical novel that takes you back to the 16th century in Italy. This book is interesting in that it shows how had it was to be an intelligent woman in a very male dominated world. Bianca does not conform to the female model. She does not have any motherly instincts. She is obsessed with finding a cure for "the heat sickness" that is killing millions. I found the book interesting, but I did not care for the characters. Bianca is self centered in that she had a driving purpose that consumes her. Nothing else matters. I did enjoy the historical aspects of the book. I realize that Bianca was a real person as well as several other characters in the story.

I received an advance copy of this book through NetGalley.com and Book Whisperer and I always review every book that I read. I recommend this one specifically for the historical content. Enjoy.

As malaria ravages Italy, young Bianca watches her mother, a healer, die. She vows to escape from her father's remote estate to the city of Florence and manages to run away and marry a bookkeeper. But life as a wife and soon-to-be mother is not for Bianca who has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and the desire to find a cure for "the heat disease." She finds various ways to continue her herbalist experiments until she finally meets the young son of Arch Duke Medici. Becoming his lover, Bianca is afforded the chance to work in a real laboratory to refine her extracts. As her knowledge grows, the Church takes notice and Bianca must continue her experiments in secret lest she be declared a witch and sentenced to banishment or death even as she proves that her medicine can save lives.

The author has done a lot of research into the "healing arts" of those times as well as the treatment of women and the role of the Church. The Medici family is well-known in Italian history and family politics are seamlessly woven into the tale. Bianca was certainly ahead of her time and as such, suffered greatly for her dogged pursuit of a cure for malaria.

For fans of women's history, Italian history, romance and scientific breakthroughs. Fascinating.

Bianca’s Cure by Gigi Berardi is an unorthodox romance that lingers in the mind. It’s not your typical love story—this one questions the price of progress and what it means to remain true to yourself in a changing world.

Berardi writes with heart and quiet ferocity. Bianca’s journey is tangled and deeply human, her resilience a steady flame of women’s empowerment that burns through every obstacle. Some pacing felt uneven, but the emotional payoff and originality more than made up for it.

A thoughtful and unconventional story about courage, love, and the healing that comes from becoming one’s own cure. Solid four stars.

This book's a historical standalone novel about Bianca Capello, a real historical figure whose life was mixed with things made up by the author. The protagonist's a scientist and wants to cure Malaria with her herbal studies. To do so, the Venetian noblewoman runs away from her city and father to Florence. Here, her life intertwines with Francesco Medici's.

This woman is fierce, bold, clever, hardworking. She stands for her ideas and uses all the weapon she has to be able to study, practice and observe. She wants to find a remedy, a cure for that disease, and she doesn't let anyone or anything stop her. I loved her character, with her determined personality and fascinating behaviour. But exactly because she's that type of person (one that puts her studies first, above everything else), she can come across bitter, manipulative, self-centered. Sometimes, a little bit too harsh and cold.

Francesco, on the contrary, is eccentric, bubbly, naive, sometimes a little bit too childish. But he's crazy for Bianca and, even when he doesn't fully understand her studies and choices, he still fully support her and protect her in every way he can. He's not perfect, this has to be clear, and often he's so focused on himself that that he neither understands nor sees what surrounds him.

The plot takes place over many years, so there are occasional time jumps, sometimes quite significant. However, it never becomes confusing: there's always some phrase or term that lets the reader know how much time has passed.

In a time when men dominated life, Bianca Capello forged her own way. Never satisfied with the idea of becoming merely a wife and mother, Bianca's goal was to be a scientist and cure malaria. As a young girl, she observed her mother working with herbal remedies. When her mother became ill with malaria, Bianca believed she could concoct a cure using her mother's herbal remedies. After her mother's death, she became obsessed with finding a cure. The cure for malaria became her sole goal in life. Bianca did marry and have children, but these events were merely a means to an end. If she kept the men in her life content, they would indulge her scientific goals. These goals had a stranglehold on her and kept her from enjoying the simple aspects of life. No one seemed to understand how deeply she was committed. Her brother-in-law, Cardinal Medici, could not understand her unfailing focus. He believed her to be a witch or insane. Misunderstanding Bianca's zeal leads to tragedy.

Bianca did create a cure. She did help people ill with malaria. Sadly, she never achieved the recognition and acclaim that she yearned for.

Bianca's commitment to science in a time when women lacked the education made her an unusual woman. Although she was never recognized for developing a cure for malaria, her work is unusual and demonstrates a dedication rarely encountered. Imagine what she would be able to do in a modern lab! History focuses on Bianca's affair and subsequent marriage to Francesco Medici, ignoring her scientific contributions. Fortunately, author Gigi Berardi lifts the curtain on the life of Bianca Capello, more than a Medici mistress, a Medici scientist.

I very much enjoyed Beradi's take on the life and goals of Bianca Capello. It's very challenging to take on this type of personal/era history and do it well. Beradi does an excellent job of placing Bianca in her time period, one rife with male chauvinism at all levels of society, and one in which science, never mind practiced by a women, is frequently looked upon as witchcraft. I did find Bianca aggravating at many turns in the story due to her arrogance that she will be the only person who can cure malaria and that recognition of this will finally accord her the value as a person she so desperately seeks. It is this arrogance that I felt doomed her quest to find the cure. Perhaps, though, it took this arrogance to overcome the many prejudices she faced both as a woman and as a scientist. I felt the book could be trimmed down a bit given the repetitiveness of her failures and of the way in which she was treated by those around her. Her ambivalence to the idea of marriage as something that was simply a necessity to enable her to take the next steps in her search for a cure, and her guarded love of Francesco Medici also seemed to hinder her without her even realizing it. Though Beradi does a good job of highlighting that the prejudices she faced from the Medici Cardinal and so many others was an inescapable fact of life in her times. Bottom line is I thought Beradi did an excellent job of evoking the era in Florence which made this read excellent historical fiction. Just wish it the prose could have been tightened up a bit.

An enchanting story of a young woman trying to break through the barriers of sex and tradition to help people with real cures and science instead of relying on old methods.

Bianca is completely obsessed with finding a cure for malaria. It appears to be the only goal in her life, as she uses people to attain it. She ignores her children, her family life, her husband. Although she wants to save Florence, she equally wants it known that a woman healer/scientist is the person who accomplishes it. This woman's hubris overrides her mission of mercy. I imagine that is why I never really warmed up to Bianca, despite her commitment.

"For fans of Lessons in Chemistry, a based-in-fact novel imagining young Renaissance noblewoman Bianca Capello's experiences as she pursues a cure for malaria in the Medicis' Florence.

Florence, 1563. Forbidden from practicing her herbal cures in Venice, the young noblewoman Bianca Capello flees to Florence, where the ruling Medici family practices alchemy. There, she wins herself an invitation to their palace, and, as it turns out, a path to the duke regent Francesco's bed.

The impassioned bond between Francesco de Medici and Bianca is at the core of this fact-driven dive into medicine, politics, love, and ultimately death in Renaissance Florence. Malaria killed many of the Medicis, but traces of the poison arsenic were recently found in Francesco's remains. Even more sinister: Bianca's remains have never been found. To this day, what happened to Bianca and Francesco remains one of the greatest mysteries surrounding Renaissance Italy's legendary Medicis.

Bianca's Cure probes what might have been as Bianca's quest for a malaria cure - in palaces, gardens, sick rooms, and whorehouses - collides with Francesco's intensifying illness. Her main tool is the herb artemisia - medicine still used today. A woman who dared to practice science well ahead of her time, Bianca fights off self-doubt until she believes herself invincible. But is she? When only she stands between Francesco and death, her skill may save him or doom them both."

Yes, just like Lessons in Chemistry, except real, not about food, and, you know, almost four hundred years early. So exactly. Sheesh.