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

Me and Mr Jones - Lucy Diamond

This is the story of three brothers and their respective partners. The boys couldn't be more different, Hugh the dependable, David the serious and Charlie the flighty.
Their parents turned the family home into a B&B after the boys left and over the years it has become very busy, especially with regulars who like to visit for their holiday each year. Now, though, Mr and Mrs Jones have come to a point where they feel the business might all be too much for them but they don't want to give up the place that has so many memories for the family.
A family meeting is called to decide what should be done but with each of the boys are at a different point in their lives, the decision of what to do with the business and the family home becomes increasingly difficult. Hugh and Alicia have been married for years but Alicia is beginning to feel restless and yearns for some time to herself or an adventure away from Hugh and the children, just to recharge her batteries and relax.
David and Emma used to be inseparable but having tried so long for a family, they are feeling the strain of that pressure on their relationship.
Charlie meets Izzy who is fairly new in town and their attraction is instant and strong. When he decides to bring her and her daughters to meet his family, it doesn't quite turn out the way he would have liked.
This is a story of family dynamics and the ties that bind, ties between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and wives and girlfriends. The characters are likeable and their situations, plausible. It is an easy and enjoyable read. I do like reading Lucy Diamond books and this one did not let me down
9.5/10

Summer with my Sister – Lucy Diamond

Polly has always been the glamorous sister with the high flying job in the City and an expensive lifestyle to match whilst Claire is a single mum, struggling to make ends meet as she brings up her two children in a ramshackle cottage just around the corner from her parents who are her main support. The two sisters couldn’t be more different, they barely speak to each other any more and these days only get together around Christmas time each year.

Suddenly, Polly’s fortunes change and she finds herself penniless with nowhere else to go other than back to her home town. Her parents have a small place which is just about big enough for the two of them and as soon as Claire realises the sacrifices her parents are making having Polly stay with them, she, reluctantly, offers Polly a room in her home. For the first time in years the two sisters find themselves living together.

With all the close proximity, the children playing up, a petulant ex-husband, the re-appearance of an old flame, the resurfacing of a long hidden family secret and the raised emotions all this evokes, the two sisters find that things are a bit fraught but when the chips are down, is blood thicker than water after all?

This is a lovely story about family dynamics and the ties that bind us. The storyline may sound a bit cliché from the description, however, it is written in such a way that it is anything but cliché. Lucy Diamond does a great job of making her characters believable, flawed, vulnerable and powerful when it matters most. She draws some great caricatures of City-types and village folks and the pace of events is timed perfectly.

Summer with my Sister is only the second Lucy Diamond book I have read (the other one was The Beach Café, which I loved and is also a great summer read) and after reading it I immediately ordered her new book – Me and Mr Jones – because I loved this one so much. It is an entertaining and heart-warming story and I highly recommend it as a summer read.

9.8/10