The Star Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman
(Format used for this read: Print–hardback)
I am not quite sure why I picked this as one of my Book Of The Month suggestion… I’m a very fickle romantic novel type of person.
Most of the time they are NOT my thing… but every now and then one will hit me just right. LOL
This book isn’t EXCLUSIVELY a romantic one though so maybe that’s what originally pulled me in?
Or maybe I was just having a weird day?
Who the eff knows…
Here is the official summary and you’ll see what I mean:
“Since the day Filomena Fontana cast a curse upon her sister more than 200 years ago, not one second-born Fontana daughter has found lasting love. Some, like second-born Emilia, the happily single baker at her grandfather’s Brooklyn deli, claim it’s an odd coincidence. Others, like her sexy, desperate-for-love cousin Lucy, insist it’s a true hex. But both are bewildered when their great-aunt calls with an astounding proposition: If they accompany her to her homeland of Italy, Aunt Poppy vows she’ll meet the love of her life on the steps of the Ravello Cathedral on her 80th birthday and break the Fontana Second-Daughter Curse once and for all.
Against the backdrop of wandering Venetian canals, rolling Tuscan fields, and enchanting Amalfi Coast villages, romance blooms, destinies are found, and family secrets are unearthed – secrets that could threaten the family far more than a centuries-old curse.”
My first impressions from the beginning chapters was that this story was cutesey and predictable.
As the characters unfold and the plot is laid out for future chapters to unfold, the author used a fairly common literary formula that I’ve seen a bunch before…just presented in different ways.
Which I guess is part of the intrigue of “romancey” books? The predictability? The commonality? You know what you’re going to get going in so why mess with what works I guess. It’s like Lifetime movies 🤣
The author also annoyingly established her Italian characters with SOOOO many cultural stereotypes. The old school grandma…family deli in Brooklyn…
This would have taken on an entirely different feel IF she herself was of Italian ancestry and had first hand lived experience to speak into….which of course I Googled…… and she INDEED IS NOT.
So THAT was definitely cringey.
My face was pretty much like this 🙄 and like this 😑 for the ENTIRE first half of the story.
But then…
The setting changes from Brooklyn to Italy and my intrigue level began to slowly rise.
The gorgeous descriptions of places like Venice and Florence had me filled with wanderlust something FIERCE.
Italy has ALWAYS been one of the places I DESPERATELY want to visit one day and I relish reading details about it! She said in her Acknowledgement section of the book that a friend sent her pictures and her own first hand descriptions of each place that is mentioned and described in the book…so I appreciated that authenticity and attention to detail. It felt very thorough and realistic to read about.
That was a supremely DELIGHTFUL part of the book for me.
BUT….
The story was STILL pretty predictable AND a little cheesy which again is par for the course with these types of books.
Romance mixed with coming of age mixed with family drama and secrets…sounds intriguing but I could absolutely foresee MOST of what was coming chapter after chapter.
Although… the second half I did enjoy more than the first half FOR SURE.
I even confess that by the end my heart strings were pulled quite strongly AND I shed a few tears in a couple spots (although I am a HUGE crier and it does NOT take much 🤣 Lawd help me because it is the holiday season and THE COMMERCIALS, YALL….)
There is a letter at the end of the book from the author, explaining the real life inspiration for the German character of Rico in the book. That REALLY warmed my heart and had me appreciating the author a little more than I did.
This book isn’t exactly my favorite kind of book, but I think it was pretty good for what it was.
Cheesy and predictable? Yes.
But if you go in with those expectations already in place (and maybe those are things you really love anyway!), you will find this to be an enjoyable and quick read.
Oddly enough, the next book in my TBR pile is a romance book 🤦♀️
BUT this next one is to read and discuss with a group (PLUS we get to do a Q&A with the author on Zoom!) AND I hear that there are some steamy sex scenes included too (this book was QUITE tame in that aspect)….. so I’m thinking maybe that one will be a teensy more my speed than this 🤣