Books like stravaganza

Stravaganza is a series of novels written by children's author Mary Hoffman. The books are set alternatively between Islington, an area of London, England, and various cities in Talia, an alternate version of Renaissance Italy.

The series originally consisted of a trilogy of books: City of Masks, City of Stars, and City of Flowers. The popularity of the trilogy allowed the series to be extended for three more books: City of Secrets, City of Ships, and City of Swords.

Mary Hoffman was originally inspired to write the Stravaganza series after a family trip to Venice and an incident involving a gondola ride. The subsequent books developed from the original idea. The country of Talia reflects Hoffman's own imagining of what Italy is like. Further inspiration of the settings for each of the books came from Hoffman's regular trips to Italy.