Being Unique Being Me Eve: Italy

Showing posts with label Italy. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 June 2019

One Summer In Italy by Sue Moorcroft

After her father, Aldo passes away, Sofia keeps the promise she made to him to go back to their homeland of Italy he'd abandoned years ago in order to marry his wife Dawn until she was taken when Sofia was five in a car accident. He'd left his parents and brother Gianni behind fleeing his old life.

Working at Casa Felice, Sofia meets and sticks up for Amy a young waitress when trouble starts with the boss's son and nearly gets her fired. It's also then that she meets Levi for the first time.

Amy's story of how she wound up in Italy is due to learning about her true father and as she crosses paths with Levi, Sofia keeps an eye on her worried about his intentions towards the young girl until she uncovers a huge secret he holds.

As their lives cross paths during the novel and spiralling events from being fired to re hired and Sofia finally meeting her remaining family members living in Italy to Amy taking charge of discovering her father herself and flying to England on a whim of fronting out why he didn't want to see her, many shocks occur and the drama is constant!

This was a thrilling read! I truly loved and was hooked on the story as so much happened as well as taking it all in I felt transported to Italy myself! I loved how Sofia was a motherly figure there for Amy and despite being vulnerable, Amy was very strong willed and brave in her actions. Levi was in a situation with a stalker too and so I felt sorry for him as he had so much happening he needed to take care of. You won't be disappointed in this book if you're a fan of Trisha Ashley or Heidi Swain especially.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

Wednesday, 23 May 2018

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

With her mum dying from cancer, Lina is left to go stay with Howard whom she believes is actually her father in Italy where he lives in a World War two cemetery of which when Lina goes on her morning run, meets Ren whom is also Italian American and will be attending school together.

When she gets her hands on her mums old journal she realises a lot of secrets where between them and it leaves her to trace down her real father and uncover what happened to her mum before Lina was born. Her friend from home Addie keeps in touch after Lina decides to stay despite her first nerves and Addie enjoys the drama but obviously helps Lina in any way she can as well as with Ten and his friends she meets.

It was such a great read and so different with being a mystery built into a loss story about the years before Lina would never know about along with her mum enjoying Italy as much as she is now she's settled in and soaking up the culture, places and hobbies.

Saturday, 17 March 2018

One Summer In Rome by Samantha Tonge

When Mary invests in a one way ticket to Rome, much encouraged by her elder motherly best friend and colleague Jill, she could never dream of what's to come. After heartbreak her whole life, playing the foster care system all her young life, finding Jake and falling in love until he chose moving for his work over her, Rome is a spur of the moment dream trip.

Working in Pizzeria Dolce Vita as a waitress, Mary encounters Dante the brother of Natale whom she befriends the best of the family whom run the business she's now working for. Though they get off to a tentative acquaintance at first, soon Dante and Mary grow closer despite any awkwardness at the beginning and discovering the mystery behind Dante's sight loss after enough trust has been created between the pair.

During the novel, the team all pull together including Maria's ideas for the restaurant in how they can stay within the top ten of pizzerias on the Lombardi list as they face their competition in ratings and with Maria's help hopefully they'll swim and not sink beneath the weight of their competitor's. Yet Rocco becomes threatening towards Maria and unsure why he is acting so, Maria finds herself feeling out of place once again.

From trusting in crystals over people and having fun dancing plus of course being up for a change and facing up to the challenges thrown her way, Mary is a weak seeming character but with hidden strength which is admirable and makes her even more likable for how well she stands on her own two feet never giving up whatever she faces. The plot is a slow developer over the course of the novel and is unrushed flowing just nicely and naturally. Each character has deep secrets which you won't expect and make the characters all the more real. This is a book you won't regret picking up if you love Jenny Colgan or Cathy Bramley's books!

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

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Goodreads Quotes

Eve beinguniquebeingme’s quotes

"You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."— Rosemarie Urquico

Goodreads Quotes

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