LOST IN TUSCANY

Love under the Tuscan sun comes to an unlucky-in-love American in Sinclair’s romance novel.

Summer Andrews is 36 years old and tired of dating. After one disastrous date too many, she accidentally gets drunk at home and wakes up the next morning to find out that she has, inspired by her favorite film, Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), booked a cycling tour of Tuscany. When it becomes clear that she can’t cancel the trip, she decides to embrace the opportunity, leaving behind her life in San Francisco for new adventures while allowing her unreliable and estranged mother, Barbara, to live in her town house. Unfortunately, a bike accident leaves Summer and her new friend Harrison stuck in the Tuscan village of Tuttoscano to recover. Desperate not to return to America quite yet, Summer finds herself working and staying on the Rossi olive farm, under the watchful eye of the formidable Nonna Rossi and her very handsome grandson Lorenzo. Sparks begin to fly after a fiery start. Sinclair has created a sweeping romance that firmly places readers in the middle of a heady, hot Italian summer. The plot is not exactly revolutionary, and the book has many romantic cliches throughout. Nevertheless, Summer is an endearing and complex heroine who is torn between a life in “gorgeous, breezy, lazy afternoons sipping wine, Italia” and repairing the relationship with her mother back in California. There’s a complexity to her character, and her frustration with the lack of connection in modern dating is sure to resonate with readers. Though the scenario might sound a bit too familiar, Sinclair doesn’t make the love story play out too easily. Above all, the novel beautifully transports readers to the olive groves of the Italian countryside, which will surely end in many booked vacations and numerous repeat views of Summer’s favorite movie in the interim.

For readers who love holiday romances, a brilliantly charming novel about living your best life.