AN ACCIDENTAL ODYSSEY

A young woman’s impulsivity brings clarity to her life.

Twenty-five-year-old New York journalist Gianna Kostas’ life is at a crossroads. Her internship at NOSH, a food publication, has come to an end without the promise of a new contract. Her engagement to headstrong Anthony Hearst (yes, those Hearsts) is ramping up, but Gia has reservations: “There’s a fine line between supportive and bossy, I think, and then clamp my lips shut on the thought, guiltily.” When Gia finds out that her father, Aristotle Kostas, who just had a stroke, has left the hospital and jetted off to Athens without his medication, Gia decides her only option is to follow him. Thus she sets off on an adventure, armed with just enough Greek to apologize for not speaking Greek. When Gia arrives in Greece she quickly realizes she does not want to return to her normal life but instead decides to follow her professor father on his quest to retrace Odysseus’ route home from Troy. Furthermore, she successfully pitches a series of food articles documenting her Mediterranean sojourn to NOSH. But things become more complicated after Gia, thinking Anthony has ended their relationship, sleeps with a man who turns out to be her father’s colleague. The author's Achilles’ heel is spending too much time on ridiculous plot points (long lost siblings! near-death brushes with squid!) and not enough time developing the relationship between Gia and her father. But if you're willing to suspend disbelief long enough to overlook these twists and turns, the delicious descriptions of Mediterranean food and scenery are enough to keep you hooked.

A mouthwatering voyage.