One Summer in Italy by Sue Moorcraft (Romance, Contemporary fiction, 10/10E)

A good summer-y cover!

May 2018, Avon, 368 pages, Ebook, Review copy

Summary from HarperCollins

When Sofia Bianchi’s father Aldo dies, it makes her stop and look at things afresh. Having been his carer for so many years, she knows it’s time for her to live her own life and to fulfil some promises she made to Aldo in his final days.

So there’s nothing for it but to escape to Italy’s Umbrian mountains where, tucked away in a sleepy Italian village, lie plenty of family secrets waiting to be discovered. There, Sofia also finds Amy who is desperately trying to find her way in life after discovering her dad isn’t her biological father.

Sofia sets about helping Amy through this difficult time, but it’s the handsome Levi who proves to be the biggest distraction for Sofia, as her new life starts to take off

Nayu's thoughts 

This book belongs to the category of light reads that have a fair amount of humour and fun things despite tackling big life issues which almost always have a happy ending. I've never been to Italy, so it was fun to discover it from Sofia's point of view. It has a lot of character, although less so than the characters in this novel. I felt sorry for Sofia because she was grieving with a huge hole in her heart, one that initially nothing can ease. I though she was brave to head off to Italy, and admired her overall spirit. 

I wish I could say I was surprised at the treatment Sofia received at the pizzeria, but I have heard of similar things happening in real life, so while disconcerting I was relieved that it did have a happy end eventually. Sofia suffered greatly, but she wasn't the only one and managed to turn the situation around, with a little help from new friends.

Unlike most readers, while the relationship with Levi and Sofia was intriguing (more so when his complex secret gets revealed), my favourite character partnering (of sorts) was the young waitress Sofia meets, Amy. Sofia does her best to help Amy who hasn't had all that much life experience. Amy tries hard to be a friend slash sister, protecting Amy from harm as much as she can, having a laugh with her once the initial incident which throws them together was sorted, basically being there for her when she was all alone. 

There were times when I wanted to tell Amy off for being so stupid, but that was reckless behaviour that in general happens to younger people as part of the growing up process. Amy develops a heroine worship for Sofia because she helped her in a huge way that I can't say without spoiling the story; this bonds the two together meaning that Amy actually is able to face her life curve balls eventually, after initially wanting to ignore/run away from them. The dynamic between Amy and Sofia is one I really enjoyed, and I'm eager to reread the story because of that.

Find out more on Sue's website. 

Suggested Read

If you protagonists interacting with younger characters as a key plot point then check out Summer At The Dog and Duck by Jill Steeples (Romance, Contemporary, 10/10E, short 'n' sweet review)