Accused by Mark Toscano

In Accused, the reader meets the Corsaro brothers, Fabrizio and Roberto. The brothers alternate the telling of the crime story in a first person narration. Fabrizio, a self-indulgent, superficial, sadistic man is one character I did not enjoy reading from the first-person, but his family-man, mature, loving brother helped keep me reading the tale.

The novel is divided into three acts entitled Crime, Punishment, Truth. A short Epilog wraps up the end. We get to see how a crime comes to light, how punishment is applied, and how the truth becomes known.

Fabrizio is accused of the crime and his punishment begins even without a conviction. Lawyer Roberto works to clear his brother by investigating and unveiling the truth. As is often the case in real life, no one really comes out a winner at the end, and all are transformed to some extent by their experiences.

The strong character depictions and the realistic portrayal of how prison changes people were the parts that I enjoyed the most in the book.

The time I had to spend inside Fabrizio's head was the part of the novel that I enjoyed the least.

The story takes place in modern-day Sicily and is rich with popular culture references, just as our daily lives are rich with them. The author has created a story that might remind readers of Martin Cruz Smith's novels. FYI there are some vulgarities.

From the book's description:

Onofrio Palillo receives compensation many years after the fact for wrongful imprisonment on a charge of murder.

After a series of unfortunate coincidences, journalist Fabrizio Corsaro turns up to find Palillo dead at his home. Police investigations, however, reveal incriminating evidence which leads detectives to suspect Fabrizio himself of the murder. He is arrested, and his brother Roberto, a criminal lawyer, is faced with the task of saving him from this nightmare into which his life has suddenly been plunged. With the help of deputy police prefect Domenico Fisichella, Roberto delves into Palillo's mysterious past.

They discover an old secret which puts them on the trail of the most powerful man in Sicily, Giorgio Moncada.

Here is a link to the book at Amazon.com:

A Year In Tuscany by Annie Ayre

Fans of English soap-operas should enjoy this dramady (drama-comedy) novel set in Italy's beautiful Tuscany region.  Rich, poor, criminals, priest... all the usual suspects for soaps are present.

The story is set in 1987 when Italy was dealing with kidnappings and homegrown terrorists.  The protagonists in this multi-strand tale deal with all sorts of odd happenings, with love stories at the center of most of it.  The author keeps all events, not matter how serious, light, with superficial emotions attached to them.

Very English tongue-in-cheek humor dots the story throughout.  One rich family in possession of a large estate acts as a hub around which all the other characters and events circle out.

We get to know the thinking of lots of locals and ex-patriots through the drama, gossip, and farcical situations.  The ending brings all the people and story threads together with a semblance of a happy-ending.

This is a beach read, or something to enjoy when relaxing poolside, preferably with a view of Tuscany, and a cool drink in hand.

From the book's description:

A comic novel set in the scenic Tuscan hills.

When the Duke of Grambörg announces over breakfast that he will sell the old family villa in the Tuscan hills to move to New York, his family is in uproar.

Where on earth will his beautiful daughters, the contessas Claudia and Hanna, live – now they no longer have the family seat?

And that, as it turns out, is just the beginning of the escapades that ensue after the old Danish duca makes his life-changing decision.

Will local poor boy-turned rich man, Osvaldo Cipollina, find a way to buy the villa?

Hopelessly in love with Hanna, will he ever manage to persuade her to see past his humble beginnings, not to mention his dubiously acquired wealth, and return his feelings?

Will the haughty Claudia ever be reconciled with her aristocratic husband: Lord Eastcliffe?

With a cast of characters as rich as a medieval tapestry, there is just no knowing what will happen next in this finely tuned comic novel.

From Lo Strapazzato – “The Scrambled One” – who is a little too fond of arson, to the international diamond smuggler with a taste for fine wines, to the mysterious American cousin of Osvaldo’s who arrives wearing a veil – everyone in this corner of Italy, it seems, has a secret.

That’s not to mention a sultry belle from the American deep south, an Australian crooner, and, at the heart of it all, the perfect sunshine of the Tuscan countryside.

A Year In Tuscany is a delightful story that will appeal to lovers of the English comic novel.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

The Painter of Souls by Philip Kazan

This is the first of a series of books that will be issued, each imagining a phase in the life of the early Italian Renaissance painter Fra Filippo Lippi.  We know only about some of his artworks and some basic points about his life.  The author imagines the rest, and presents this biography of the artist's early years in great detail, often from the artist's perspective.

In this book you might be deceived by the simple style into thinking this book is written for teens.  When you encounter the first vulgarities in English and in Italian, you'll realize the book is written for adults.  There is even a sex scene.

Lippi self-portrait
 

Historical novels tend to be told in the present tense these days, to bring the past to life in the reader's mind, and this novel is no exception.  Please don't complain about this in the reviews.  I'm very tired of reading people's complaints because they don't want to read more than a few pages written in present tense.

If you read ten pages plus, you won't even realize it is in present tense any more, and you'll just enjoy the intimate closeness the tense creates with the events and the main character.  Give it a try.  You might actually enjoy it, like so many others, especially younger readers who devour whole popular series in the present tense.

Just because it is unfamiliar to you doesn't make it wrong, or deserving of terrible reviews or terrible ratings.  Okay, enough said...

Fra Lippi was not a very good friar, but this first book only covers his life up to his parting with early Renaissance artist Masaccio, his mentor and surrogate father figure.  All the really scandalous things occur later.

The book's Prologue is deceptive, suggesting that the artist's whole life will be covered in the book.  That is not the case.  Future volumes will cover the later periods. 

Each volume will presumable present the artists and local bigwigs from that era, along with some major artworks, just like this first book does.  How those artworks came to be created is covered in quite a bit of detail.

From the book's description:

An extraordinary story of passion, art, and intrigue, this novel journeys to a time and place in Italy where desire reigns supreme—and salvation is found in the strangest of places.

Beauty can be a gift—or a wicked temptation. So it is for Filippo Lippi, growing up in Renaissance Florence. He has a talent—not only can he see the beauty in everything, he can capture it, paint it. But while beauty can seduce you and art can transport you—it cannot always feed you or protect you.

To survive, Pippo Lippi, orphan, street urchin, budding rogue, must first become Fra Filippo Lippi: Carmelite friar, man of God. His life will take him down two paths at once.

He will become a gambler, a forger, a seducer of nuns; and at the same time he will be the greatest painter of his time, the teacher of Botticelli and the confidante of the Medicis. So who is he really—lover, believer, father, teacher, artist? Is anything true except the paintings?

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's website/blog.

For those who would like to know more about Lippi:

Fra Filippo Lippi at Wikipedia.

Fra Filippo Lippi in Vasari's Lives of Artists (free e-book,and free to read on-line).

Fra Filippo Lippi actually has his own website.

The Secret Scrolls by Sonia Falaschi-Ray

The Secret Scrolls is a good-hearted, well-intentioned spiritual exercise that wonders if modern Catholic dogma might have taken a different turn if a wider range of ancient documents had been considered as the basis of the faith.  Most of the story takes place in Sicily.

The book is not heretical, instead it is infused with a very human and humanistic perspective.  As for genre, it is not in the category of historical conspiracy thriller, but rather a novel of spiritual questions presented as an archeological inspired drama.  The author uses a 3rd person omniscient narrative, that sometimes moves into 3rd person limited style.

We meet good guys and bad guys and some who fall somewhere in between the two.  Some names have a Dickensian feel, like the two main characters,  Verity Hunter and Crispin Goodman, the truth-hunter who works alongside the good Englishman.  They work for a charitable trust:

...to preserve and restore cultural, and particularly religious, buildings.

I won't cover the story, since the book's official description pretty much says it all.  I'll just say that the story is a well-presented, interesting and informed speculation on what might have been in the past, and how it might have affected the present church dogma if it had been considered with an open heart and mind by the early church fathers.

From the book's description (which pretty much says it all):

They gazed at a bronze-bound wooden chest supported by bossed feet in the shape of lion paws. It was covered in a film of limestone dust. There were handles at each end and it was similar in size to a case of wine. Both knew that they should wait for archaeologists to examine the chest in situ but the temptation was too great...

To her amazement, historian Verity Hunter discovers a chest full of letters, hidden for two thousand years in a Sicilian catacomb. She and her classicist colleague, Crispin Goodman, have been investigating the apparent disappearance of restoration funds. They race to translate and return the scrolls before anyone knows they exist. Once their astonishing content is revealed, there is a battle for possession. The Vatican wants them for ‘safe storage’ due to their doctrinally incendiary nature; the catacombs’ director wants them as a tourist attraction; scholars want them for their historical value, the restoration contractor recognises their financial value; and who is the Russian private collector of religious relics with Mafia connections?

The Secret Scrolls is a fast-paced mystery novel, and can be compared to Susan Howatch’s ‘Starbridge’ series and even reflects Dan Brown’s themes. The book is set in the present, but the situations of the modern protagonists and the ancient writers reflect and inform each other. It encompasses a historical background, the differing significance of religious relics to different interest groups, the power of the numinous and the enduring longing for love and acceptance experienced by all.

The Secret Scrolls will appeal to those who enjoy historical novels, mystery quests, spirituality, romance and a good story.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's Facebook page.

You can also visit the on-line archive of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Purple Room by Mauro Casiraghi

Sergio recounts first-person his mid-life crisis that is brought on by a near death experience.  We follow the man as he searches for the truth behind a haunting memory.  The journey brings Sergio face to face with his life to date, including his fault behind his failed marriage, his fault behind the distant relationship with his teenaged daughter, and his disconnect with the world around him.

This is a psychological novel about happiness, memory, character, and modern life.  Memories are key to the story, and Sergio is convinced, like his mother, that cataloging one's life will keep the memories alive, along with the feelings associated with them.  But in the end, the feelings are the only things that remain accurate, with memories being fleeting and often distorted by those same feelings.  Sergio discovers that:

Memories that I thought were sacrosanct and untouchable turned out to be as fragile as skin and bones.

Sergio's elderly mother is a rock for him, but he's not an ideal son, perhaps because he is much like her, both obsessive-compulsive personalities.

My mom.  At seventy-two, she's still the one who keeps my feet on the ground.  When I notice that I'm losing touch with the real world, I go have lunch with her, and by the end of the afternoon I feel sane again.

I'm not so sure his mother feels the same way about the visits!

My mom is in the kitchen breading chicken breasts.  Every time I see her, she seems smaller, like a T-shirt that shrinks every time you wash it.  But her flashing eyes are still the same as in pictures from her youth.

Through the course of the book Sergio improves some aspects of his life, and comes to terms with other aspects, but he remains who he is.  This is very realistic, since realizations about one's self rarely lead to great changes.  Acceptance and minor adjustments are more the norm.  I applaud the author for writing realistically about modern people living modern lives.

In the case of this story, the people are all Italian, and living their lives in modern Italy, mostly around Rome.  In this excellent translation of an award-winning Italian book, daily life is depicted, including the horrible traffic, the forced sociability of trendy clubs and restaurants, the responsibilities of children for elderly parents, and even the early sexual experiences of teenagers in a highly sexualized Italian culture.

The character of Sergio is a difficult one to like, mainly because he is very life-like.  His near death experience creates some sympathy for his state of confusion, depression and memory loss.  But he is a neurotic, passive, introverted, insecure man who lacks moral fiber, which causes suffering for those around him.  Add to that his often awkward social skills, lack of understanding of others' feelings, and his near total self-absorption, and you get a very realist human being.

He's warned by an old friend against too much introspection and reflection on the past.  The friend advocates moments of starting over in life, making a clean slate, and creating a clean break from the pain in the past.

"Sometimes all it takes is memories to keep you tied down.  Chained.  What's in your head is enough to trap you"  It can keep you "clinging to what you have lost".

If you are an amateur psychologist, you'll enjoy this book even more than the average reader!  The author has a keen eye for human nature in all its absurdity, contradictions, goodness and cruelty.  There is some swearing, and there are some sexual scenes.  This is a quality book for Italophiles who don't romanticize Italy or Italians, who are open to the reality of modern Italy and modern Italians.

From the book's description:

A woman stands silhouetted against a window in a purple room. It’s the only memory Sergio has of the week leading up to the accident that almost killed him when he was scuba diving off the Tuscan coast. He remembers nothing else about that woman, but the love he feels for her drives him to delve into the mystery surrounding those days that are missing from his memory.

Hoping to find out who she is, Sergio gives up the lonely life he has lived ever since his painful divorce. It’s the beginning of an adventure that will take him from the streets of Rome to the Tuscan countryside. Along the way, Sergio explores his relationship with his sixteen-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and his friends, some of whom understand him better than others, but none of whom can truly help him on his quest to find the woman he loves. To do that, he must dive deep into his past, all the way down to the edge where the meaning of his entire life is as precarious as a bubble of air in the bloodstream.

"The Purple Room" is a magnetic and gripping psychological drama, filled with those moments of bittersweet comedy, misunderstanding and heartbreak that all too often punctuate every search for a partner. A journey of self-discovery, in which a deep and uncompromising self-awareness goes hand in hand with the universal desire to find someone to love.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Blood Curse (Commissario Ricciardi Series) by Maurizio di Giovanni

Literature, horror, police procedural, classic mystery:  that's what you get in the Commissario Ricciardi Series.  Blood Curse is book two.  Two aspects of Italian culture are featured in Blood Curse:  motherhood, and an over emphasis on physical beauty.  People suffer terribly in the book for both aspects.

The book begins by introducing the characters, using skilled third-person narration in both the classic omniscient style and sometimes in the limited style, with a darkly ironic narrative voice.  There are many poetical touches in the text, especially when Naples is described.

Book One

To be honest, one-third of a way into the book, I returned to the start and skimmed through to make sure I had everyone and everything thing straight, before continuing reading through to the end.  It was worth the effort.

I love challenging books that have big rewards, and this is one of those books.  There is much for an Italophile to enjoy in this series that is written in Italian and wonderfully translated into English.  The translator smoothly inserts explanations of the Italian elements, keeping a strong local flavor while making it intelligible for non-Italian readers.

 Book Three

Horror is not my favorite genre, and I avoid horror films like a plague, but I can just bear it in a book.  The horrific descriptions of the recently deceased in Blood Curse, and the other books in the series, have a purpose. 

Police Commissario Luigi Alfredo Ricciardi di Malomonte has a special ability that gives him a decided edge when solving homicide cases:  he can see the ghosts of the recently deceased, and hear their last thoughts and words.

With that ability (reminiscent of the film Sixth Sense and the TV show Ghost Whisperer) Ricciardi is:

...the sole spectator of the rotten theatre of human evil.

Book Four

 

The era is the early years of Italy's Fascist regime, the 1930s, so the reader gets a glimpse at what life under the Fascists was like (a police state is not pleasant, but many needed modernizations were made to Italy's infrastructure).

The setting is southern Italy's iconic city, Naples.  There is a real feel for the city and her people.  The differences between today's Naples and the Naples of then are pointed out, too.  If you know Naples, then you'll find that extra interest in the books.

The city reminded Ricciardi more all the time of one of those houses with a nice parlor for entertaining guests while the rest of the rooms were falling apart.

Book Five

 

Commissario Ricciardi is a tragic figure, suffering since childhood with his visions.  He isolates himself so as to not taint others with his burden, but that just adds to his sadness.  He was given a privileged upbringing, one that we glimpse in flashbacks now and then.

He has few close friends, but they are fiercely loyal:  his nanny from childhood, his police Brigadier, and the medical examiner who calls Ricciardi the "Prince of Darkness" because of his spectral appearance that strikes all who see him.

Book Six

 

Ricciardi's attempts, sometimes just imaginary, to have normal human contact, are very touching.  It is Ricciardi's, and his close friends', strong decency at the heart of the story that made the death and suffering bearable for this reader.  There is also some humor to lighten the tale.

If you are looking for Italian crime novels with a difference, this could be your go-to series.  Like all Italian fiction, it is rich with human psychology, both the good and the bad.  It is also at times literary, poetical, touching, funny, ghostly, macabre, fascinating and even educational about the historical era. 

   

Book Seven

 

Here are the books to-date in the Commissario Ricciardi Series:

1. I Will Have Vengeance (Winter - Novella)
2. Blood Curse (Spring)
3. Everyone in their Place (Summer)
4. The Day of the Dead (Autumn)
5. By My Hand (Winter)
6. Viper (Spring)
7. The Bottom of Your Heart (Summer)

Here is a direct link to the series page at Amazon.com.  Here is a direct link to Blood Curse at Amazon.com. 

Please visit the author's page at his English language publisher's site.

Messina by Liz Galvano

Messina is a historical romance novel with a very unique setting:  the aftermath of the destruction of the Sicilian city of Messina in 1908 from natural disasters.  The author makes her protagonist doctors, Lucy and Giovanni, part of the relief effort.  We are put on the ground with them to be eyewitnesses to the tragedy.  This story is rich with Italian culture, romance, medicine, faith and some very moving melodramatic touches.

In many ways Messina is an old-fashioned novel with the monumental setting, characters writ large, the force of history ever present, belief in God central to the characters' story, and a pure romance between a saintly man and a virginal woman.  The author makes the most of these elements to create a ripping good yarn, to use old-fashioned language.

Just so you know...

The Messina (and Reggio) earthquake hit on December 18, 1908, at 5:20 a.m. and was quickly followed by multiple tsunamis.  Fire then hit the ravaged city.  Ninety percent of all buildings in Messina were destroyed.  Because of the timing of the disaster, most of the city's 200,000 inhabitants were in bed when the quake hit, so they were buried in the ruble.

The unprecedented disaster prompted an impressive international rescue and relief effort.  Mass emigration of survivors occurred to other cities in Italy and abroad.  New Messina was built over the ruble of the old city, making it several feet higher than the old city.  The few buildings to survive the disaster are clear to see, sitting several feet lower than their surrounding buildings.

Many of Messina's survivors refused to return to the reconstructed city.  They did not want to live over the unmarked tombs of their compatriots who were never dug out.

Dr. Lucille James is a young American surgeon who has a severe case of daddy-worship along with a chip on her shoulder and a dent in her self-esteem.  Her relationship with Dr. Giovanni Castello, a driven, ascetic surgeon who is damaged from traumatic loss, is the central emotional story in Messina.  However, the ravaged city's story is told too, with heartrending details that can make the reader feel like they were there on the ground.

The total devastation surrounding our heroes creates a war-zone feeling, and their tented hospital quickly takes on a M.A.S.H. feeling with emotionally and physically exhausted personnel struggling to maintain their humanity and sanity.  Giovanni quickly forms a tight bond with Lucy so he can protect her from a place where she insists on being.  Their relationship grows into friendship and beyond.

To have someone befriend and accept her made even the ragged mess tent seem a beautiful place.

The narrative style is 3rd person limited, letting us in only one character's mind.  But the point-of-view of the narration alternates generally between Lucy and Giovanni, but we also get to see into the minds of a few of the supporting cast.  The characters grow though the events related, each blossoming into a better person by the end.

There are some medical scenes that may be a bit much for the squeamish, but they are quick and the author does not revel in gore.  By the mid-point of the novel, the medical story and the disaster of Messina takes a back seat to the growing love story.  The romance language flows then.

Every time he held her, she felt the same way, as though she had always been a part of him.

Lucy and Giovanni are an attractive couple, each becoming a better person through their love for each other.  Theirs is a chaste courtship, however, in this clean romance novel, since both of them embrace their religious convictions and the proscription of intimacy before marriage.  Their faith is integral to the story, just as peoples' faith was generally much more integral to their lives in those days.

One of the supporting cast is Lucy's father, Henry James.  Yes, I know, it is an unfortunate choice to name him after the famous author.  It distracted me throughout the tale, to be honest.  Dr. Henry James is a bigot and a father who created a much too intimate relationship with his daughter. 

 

The author includes much about Italy in the story, and many Italian words and phases.  To help the reader, she provides an Index with translations of the Italian used in the book.  The peasants in Sicily at the time are shown, as well as the landed aristocracy, of which Giovanni is a member.  The customs and traditions of the aristocracy, which are closely linked to Catholicism, are touched on in interesting detail.

Messina is an old-fashioned romantic drama in the style of The Painted Veil.  

From the book's description:

Ominous words from the stone-faced physician at the temporary hospital greet her: “Welcome to hell, Miss James.” No description could be more accurate. Earthquake, tsunami, and fire have razed Messina, Sicily. In a single night in 1909, one hundred thousand people never wake up.

Physician Lucille James is determined to help despite horrendous conditions, almost non-existent medical supplies, and the opposition of the medical community she worked so hard to join.

Giovanni Castello, the man facing her now, stands as her biggest opponent. Surrounded by blood and death and pushed to the edge of exhaustion, Lucille relies on God as her only option. When God gives a gift, after all, a person must use it.

Will she have the strength, courage, and faith to do so?

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen

This novel has elements of family drama, bloody horror, mystery and history.  Half of the novel is set in the past, during WWII in Venice, Italy.  What starts the story off is the purchase of a piece of hand-written sheet music for a waltz, in a store in Rome, Italy, by the musician protagonist, Julia, in the present day.  Her present day life becomes altered, and she is certain the sheet music is to blame.

We then switch to the past, and meet the man who will ultimately compose the musical piece.  Lorenzo lives in Venice, Italy, and he is Jewish.  The reader sees the progressive exclusion of Italy's Jews through ever more horrible laws.  Boiling a frog comes to mind, with the local residents adapting to each progressive step, without seeing that it would lead to the Holocaust for Italy's Jews.

This is a novel written with a specific purpose in mind, to document the fate of almost every last members of Venice's Jewish community during World War Two, death.  The author provides an Afterword that explains her intentions, and that she wished to recall the suffering of people at the hands of really evil people, and to honor the good people too.  Another reason was to show the power of music to inspire and to change lives.

The novel alternates the narrative between the point of view of Julia in the present, and Lorenzo in the past, using the present tense for the modern day events, and the past tense for the historical events.  Present tense use is very popular these days since it gives an immediacy to a story.  I feel I must give a warning about a scene when a cat is killed in a horrific way, just off scene.

As Julia's horrors progress in the present, Lorenzo's horrors progress in the past.  If you dislike horrors, this is not the book for you!  I found the book creepy, sad, very depressing, and the plot a bit too thin.  The plot felt more like a construction made solely for the purpose of writing a Holocaust novel. 

Personally, I prefer to read non-fiction about that time, since the truth of that era is more twisted and horrible than any fiction writer can ever possibly imagine.  But if you enjoy Holocaust fiction, and Tess Gerritsen's writing style and penchant for horror, then you should enjoy this book.  If you happen to be a musician, too, you will enjoy it even more.

From the book's description:

Tess Gerritsen, the New York Times bestselling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series, now gives us a gripping stand-alone thriller.

In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music—the Incendio waltz—and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. The mournful minor key and complex feverish arpeggios appear to dance with a strange life of their own.

Back in Boston, when Julia plays the notes for the first time, the music has a terrifying and unexplainable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed.

Determined to track down the music score's origins, Julia travels to Venice—and uncovers a dark secret that not only dates back to the Second World War, but also directly involves a dangerously powerful family who will stop at nothing to keep Julia from bringing the truth to light.

Here is a direct link to the book's Amazon.com page.  Beware of different covers for this same book, so you don't accidentally order the book twice!

Please visit the author's website.

Moonlight in Tuscany by Kate Fitzroy

Moonlight in Tuscany is a Goldilocks story of a woman who, after three tries, finds the love of her life.  Along the way, she also develops to her emotional, professional and sexual peak.  There are many titillating sex scenes, but the author includes nothing vulgar or explicit.

This is a novel that would appeal most to so-called new adult women, giving them a vicarious experience with three lovers and some idea of what to expect when looking for a mate who will fit well with a modern professional woman's lifestyle.

I'm not a new adult, so my review may be a bit skewed for many potential readers.  As a mature woman, I found that the relationships Lily had during the course of the story brought back too many bittersweet, and sometimes outright painful, memories from my own relationships.  That limited my enjoyment of the book.

Dr. Lily Fairfax, a Cambridge University scholar of medieval Italian history (which brings her to Italy in the course of the book), is the protagonist.  She's a Titian beauty with golden-red hair, and intellectual who hides from her emotions by intellectualizing her experiences.  She finds it a struggle to:

...enter real life, not escape into fiction or history...

The third person limited narration puts us deep into Lily's thoughts.  Sometimes I found that a bit stifling, because I didn't always like Lily's thoughts.  She's quietly confident to outsiders, but inside her head that can seem like arrogance and selfishness.  That style of narration is one that many readers have come to expect these days, especially the target reader of female new adults.

Lily can be a struggle to like at times.  She is almost too perfect, with her only seeming flaws being jealousy and intellectual arrogance.  She is gorgeous, successful, smart, confident, with a loving parent, and she's sexy.

The last trait is one that develops during the course of the book as she becomes more comfortable with her sexual nature.  I suppose if a reader is going to fantasize along with the protagonist, she would like to imagine herself so perfect too, so the protagonist fits well with the book's overall concept of new adult fantasy.

The readers follows Lily as she:

entered a new lightweight world of fun

Lily's lightweight world of fun turns serious when she starts breaking hearts.  That is when a mature female character is brought into the story to dish out this advice:

You're a beautiful woman, bellissima, you are certain to break many hearts before you find the right one.

The woman offers Lily a shoulder to cry on, and someone to confide in, especially when she is suffering the painful feeling of loss that comes with the end of a relationship.  The woman also offers the unrealistic idea that:

Somewhere out there would be a man that would be everything she desired.

That lack of realism that recurs throughout the book gives it a strong fantasy feeling.  Even the author admits it through her characters who reflect that their love story is like a sweet film romance that is too good to be true.  Yes, the final lover is too good to be true, but that is part of the fantasy fun for the reader.

On a serious note, I missed a mention of safe birth control, since the lifestyle the book describes for modern woman is not possible with out it, and because in a book for new adults it is responsible to mention it.

Lily is quite open to flings, and that sort of lifestyle brings with it dangers not just of unintended pregnancy, but of disease and violence from putting oneself in an intimate situation with a stranger.  None of those things are even hinted at in the book, despite Lily feeling:

It's as though I am in the real world at last.

All of that makes me consider the book more of a fantasy story, than a character study or a novel about a woman developing her knowledge of herself.  The Goldilocks three lovers adds to the fantasy feeling, too.

In the back of my mature female mind, however, I had my doubts about Lily's final, perfect partner, but I'll keep them to myself, to leave the younger reader a chance to discover those things on her own.  Not everything a new adult needs to know can be found in a novel! 

 

From the book's description:

Clever Doctor Lily Fairfax is the youngest don at Cambridge... beautiful, too.  But does she understand the meaning of love?  Leaving her sheltered academic life for a long summer in Tuscany, she finds passion... but is this love or lust?  Can it endure?  Can she give up everything she has worked for and achieved for a new and different life?  Intelligent enough to analyse her own psyche, she still struggles to find the reality that her inner soul is searching for... the complete happiness that only true love can give?

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

The author has another new adult romance set in Tuscany, which I've reviewed on this site:  Dreams of Tuscany.  And she has several romances set in Provence, France.  Please visit her Amazon.com author's page.