11 Dec 2016

ONE NIGHT IN ITALY.

ONE NIGHT IN ITALY by LUCY DIAMOND.

INNER FRONT COVER BLURB: Is Italian really the language of love? A new class of students hopes to find out.

Anna's recently been told the father she's never met is Italian. Now she's baking focaccia, whipping up tiramisu and swotting up on her vocabulary, determined to make it to Italy so she can find him in person.

Catherine's husband has walked out on her, and she's trying to pick up the pieces of her life. But she'll need courage as well as friends when she discovers his deception runs even deeper than infidelity.

Sophie's the teacher of the class, who'd much rather be back in sunny Sorrento. She can't wait to escape the tensions at home and go travelling again. But sometimes life - and love - can surprise you when you least expect it.

As the evening class gets underway, friendships form and secrets from Italy begin to emerge. With love affairs blossoming in the most unlikely places, and hard decisions to face, it's going to be a year that Anna, Catherine and Sophie will never forget.

FIRST SENTENCE {PROLOGUE: Io ricordo - I remember}: For years afterwards, whenever she thought about that summer in Italy, she remembered the scent first: the fragrant pink bougainvilleas around Luca's poolside bar mingling intoxicatingly with the tang of coconut sun oil and cigarette smoke.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 141}: The turkey bounced off the radiator and down to the carpet where it landed inelegantly, feet sticking up in the air. Chipolatas rained like meaty bullets against the wallpaper, leaving oily blotches in their wake.

MY THOUGHTS: Just goes to show you should never judge a book by its cover (or try to read a synopsis when you have forgotten your reading glasses for that matter) for, alas, not so much set in Italy as I had thought as in .... Sheffield of all places.

Not that there's anything wrong with Sheffield ... or the book. In fact I quite enjoyed the book.

One of those novels that oozes familiarity. Anna, Catherine and Sophia like three of your oldest friends with whom you enjoy a good gossip, only to one day somehow converge in the same place at the same time ... in this case Italian language classes.

OK, so in the beginning, their stories told alternatively, the various threads could be a tad difficult to follow but come 150/60 pages or so in One Night In Italy becomes that much easier to follow as the three women, their stories entwining, become close friends.

Whilst there are some fairly heavy issues - infidelity, life threatening illness, work place corruption etc - they are dealt with in such a way as that, whilst not too heavy, at the same time nor are they dealt with too lightly either.

Yes, predictable at times but I enjoyed the humour, appreciated the touch of Italy that prevailed throughout and even enjoyed the foodie element - something that at times merely feels like a nod towards the current literary trend towards all things culinary.



6 comments:

brandileigh2003 said...

Good to hear that it was a good balance of humor and they dealt with the heavier issues well.

Melliane said...

It's nice to have humor but too bad it's predictable at times

Brian Joseph said...

It is interesting the way that you have described complex stories intertwining. That sounds a lot like life :)

Kelly said...

Books like this can be hit or miss for me, so I'm glad that you enjoyed it. In many ways, it reminds me of something Maeve Binchy would write and I always loved her novels.

Suko said...

Lovely review, as usual, Tracy! I like that this novel "oozes familiarity". I'll keep it in mind for the future.

Gina said...

Sounds interesting, though I was afraid once you started mentioning the "don't judge a book by its cover" bit. Thanks for the share!