A delightful little book about life abroad, unsolved mysteries and the benefits of friendship.
In Bar-Lev’s (In Tune With Torah, 2012) novel, four retired, expat women living in Tuscany bond over delicious Italian food and family secrets.
Despite the novel’s title, life for Carmela, Cecilia, Janet and Paula Jean isn’t all pasta and poppy fields. In fact, the plucky foursome—sometimes referred to as “The Tuscany Golden Girls”—is forced to come together to take on several deeply challenging problems that unexpectedly pop up. First, there’s Janet—who, after leaving the movies with her friends, spots the familiar face of a man on the street. This startling and nagging recognition forces her to delve into her own painful past to find out more about the death of her sister, who died giving birth, and her nephew who was given up for adoption. Then there’s Ferko, Paula Jean’s mysterious, long-lost teenage lover, who unexpectedly shows up at her door after 50 years, overwhelmingly determined to have her hand in marriage now that they’re in their 60s. Bar-Lev’s novel is filled with surprising twists and turns, and by book’s end, many characters are connected in ways that even they never imagined. There’s nothing groundbreaking in this story, nor anything particularly ingenious about the mysteries that unfold, yet the suspenseful storylines and host of complex, believable relationships will keep readers eager to figure out what’s next. Also, Bar-Lev expertly paints a vivid picture of life in the beautiful Tuscan countryside, and the frequent descriptions of meals are mouth-wateringly colorful.
A delightful little book about life abroad, unsolved mysteries and the benefits of friendship.Pub Date: June 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482695397
Page Count: 184
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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