One Night in Italy - Lucy Diamond

One Night in Italy is Lucy Diamond's latest novel and it goes on sale in the UK today. It is a heart-warming story about friendship, family coming of age and getting over adversity.

Anna Morley is a journalist working on a local paper. She has a loser for a boyfriend and her job is going nowhere, fast. On a visit to the local elder care home where her grandma now lives, she suddenly gets information about her father which her mother has been reluctant to give her in the past. When she tries to get more details from her gran the cloud of confusion returns to her and there is nothing more to be said.

Catherine Evans life of servitude and emotional abuse is about to come to a crashing halt. After dropping off her twins to their respective universities, she realises her life has been dedicated to them and now wonders what on earth she will do without them at home. Arriving back home earlier than planned she finds her husband in their bed with another woman. Can it be true? Have the last twenty years been a lie? She is about to find out.

Sophie Frost lives in beautiful Sorrento. She has been travelling the world for the past eight years and has been to some amazing places. Italy is currently her love and for the last two years she has lived in the country she now thinks of as home. That is until the day she receives a phone call from her cousin to tell her of her father's heart attack. Of course, she must go home and face those things she has been running away from since she left all those years ago.

These three women and several other characters find themselves thrown together when they attend an Italian Class for beginners at the local college. They each have their own reason for being there and over the weeks of the course they grow close and begin to support each other in ways they could not have imagined before the course began.

It is a lovely story and I scarfed it up in only two sittings. As well as likeable characters the story contains lovely references to Italy, Italian food and of course a basic lesson in the language. Lucy Diamond is a great favourite of mine and One Night in Italy is arguably her best novel so far.

9.8/10

At Least You're in Tuscany - Jennifer Criswell

At Least You're in Tuscany is an autobiographical story about Jennifer Criswell, who leaves her settled life in the New York City to live in Montepulciano, Tuscany. We follow her through her first year there as she deals with finding work, Italian bureaucracy and making friends.

Hers is an interesting journey filled with disasters and triumphs, often amusing, sometimes frustrating but never dull. It is a very frank memoir and an enjoyable read. She makes some good friends, gets the gossip mill running, makes some dubious decisions and ultimately finds some peace in the place she loves. The Italian countryside makes a wonderful backdrop to this true story of self discovery.

9.6/10