Tag: Italy

REVIEW: Rome Reframed by Amy Bearce

REVIEW: Rome Reframed by Amy Bearce

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received a free electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Jolly  Fish Press in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. ]

Summary

Lucas Duran is 3 days away from getting his wish and going HOME. He and his family have been traveling around Europe for months while his college professor parents do research for a new book. Lucas has missed a chunk of his 8th grade year, including his last season of middle school soccer, and he’s just ready to be done.

Lucas was assigned a travel journal project for three of his teachers to get credit for 8th grade. But in a family of brainiacs, it’s hard for him to feel motivated when he knows his little brothers could probably do better work.

On Lucas’s last few days in Rome, though, he finds out his poor work has left him in danger of failing 8th grade and being held back. If he doesn’t want to be any more behind his friends when he gets back, he has to ace his final journal entries.

When a strange old palm reader gives Lucas an unusual coin and special tickets to the Colosseum, Lucas finds it weird. But he can’t pass up the chance to fix his grade and save his future. He’s in for a surprise, though, when the coin heats up and transports him back in time to experience history first hand.

Review

This was outstanding! It has such a great voice, and the writing caught my attention right away. I knew from the early pages that I was in for a treat. I didn’t realize there was already a book in this Wish and Wander series – Paris on Repeat. There’s a teaser at the end of this book for a third installment, too. I’m excited to check those out.

It would be hard to beat the cast of this book! (It looks like each book in the series stands alone.) I loved Lucas and his family and his Italian friend, Vivi. At the beginning, I thought Lucas was a stereotypical underachiever. But there’s a richness to his story – the identities he’s layered on like sweaters that lead him to quit before he even starts something. I loved watching Lucas grow into his self-awareness and start to shed the false identities and ideas about himself. His boldness grows over the course of the book, and I loved it.

The time travel episodes are a means to an end – Lucas’s growth – rather than the focus of the book, which I enjoyed. I was captivated by the personal growth emphasis. The target audience for the book is 10 to 14 year olds, which I believe is an under-served group in publishing. I’m so happy to add this to my list of titles to recommend to readers in this age group. There’s a bit of romance to the book – feelings, hand holding – and a depth to Lucas’s journey that are a great fit for older middle grade readers.

Don’t miss this one!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥♥ = Outstanding!

BONUS REVIEW: The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman

BONUS REVIEW: The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Berkley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Over 200 years ago, when Filomena’s boyfriend stole a kiss from her younger sister, Maria, an enraged and jealous Filomena cursed Maria and every second-born daughter the family would ever have to never find love.

Emilia is the second-born daughter in her family. She lives and works around her family – her widowed father, her married older sister, her perpetually disapproving grandmother, her beloved great-uncle, and tons of cousins.

Out of the blue, Emilia receives a note from her great-aunt Poppy, the second-born daughter of her generation. Poppy is the one family member Emilia is forbidden to contact. Poppy is headed to Italy for her 80th birthday, and she wants Emilia to go with her. But Nonna Rosa would never allow it, even though Emilia is an adult of almost 30.

But Poppy is a force to be reckoned with, too. She insists if Emilia – and her cousin, Lucy, who is also a second daughter – come with her to Italy, they will throw off the family curse once and for all.

Review

Wow, this was good! I loved the personal growth for Emilia and Lucy. And Poppy’s story, told through periodic flashback chapters, was captivating! I wanted more, in all the best ways – more chapters, more time in Italy, more time with these characters. And I can’t stop thinking about the twists and turns and the way things turned out for these women.

Emilia’s family is infuriating. I was incensed, grumbling and cursing on her behalf any time her sister or grandmother was on the page. The writing here is so good I wanted to defend Emilia right from the beginning, before I really even knew her. The evolution of the family stories and curse pieces was excellent. While everything didn’t work out perfectly, the resolution was supremely satisfying.

I loved that Lucy was part of this journey. While she isn’t a point-of-view character, I enjoyed her development over the trip to Italy. She has a different reaction to the curse from Emilia. That contrast was fascinating!

I assumed from the curse that this would be a romance. There are elements of that, but really this is a journey with these three women. It’s about their self-concepts and identities as well as their family relationships. And every bit of it was fantastic! Do not miss this one! (Language, references to sex, LGBTQ+)

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥*

*♥♥♥♥♥ = Outstanding!

BONUS REVIEW: Al Dente's Inferno by Stephanie Cole

BONUS REVIEW: Al Dente’s Inferno by Stephanie Cole

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Berkley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Nell Valenti has arrived in Italy for the opportunity of a lifetime. She’s there to work with the legendary Chef, Claudio Orlandini, her culinary hero.

Nell has been hired to take Villa Orlandini and turn it into a culinary school where tourists could come and learn from the famous chef. She would make any structural and equipment changes necessary, design a course of study, and promote the school. But the villa is not exactly in tip top shape. And neither is Chef Orlandini.

The Chef might be the big name draw, but he seems to play bocce more than he cooks these days. Parts of the villa look run down with old, worn, and mismatched furniture. There’s even a porcupine living in one of the rooms. Nell has a much larger job ahead of her than she had been led to believe.

Before she can really wrap her mind around all the work that needs to be done to transform the space into a cooking school, the occupants of the villa inform her they are throwing a dinner party to help with the launch of the school. But when someone is killed and Chef disappears, Nell has to wonder if the school even has a chance.

Review

I struggled with this one. I didn’t click with the characters or the story in a way that propelled me forward. It was too easy to set this down and pick up other books instead. I didn’t get a good sense of the cooking school pieces or Nell’s expertise to pull that off. The author tried to set up some interesting dynamics with Nell’s family, but it was more tell than show until the last part of the book. It didn’t have a chance to grow into all it could have been. And while it’s obvious that a story in Italy is going to have Italian-speaking characters and translation issues, this was often a distraction or interruption to the flow of the story for me.

There’s potential here. Nell seems to have an interesting background. I liked the potential love interest and the way he and Nell interacted. The setting – the villa, the cooking school angle – could be developed nicely. Personally, though, this didn’t click. I didn’t get a great sense of the victim, the suspects, or the larger group at the villa. Characters are a huge part of books and reading for me, and these didn’t draw me in.

The mystery is solid, and I enjoyed some of the latter scenes in the book where Nell works through some clues. I might try a second book in this series to see how the characters develop, especially if Nell’s parents are going to be part of the story. That dynamic is fascinating to me.

Rating: ♥♥♥