A vivid but uneven tour celebrating the splendors of Italy and its people.
This fictional travelogue presents two modern-day Brooklynites experiencing the wonders of Italy on their honeymoon, along with commentary by an omniscient writer and a deceased relative.
Gregory’s book begins with the first-person narrative of Nina, “long gone from this earthly world.” She is the grandmother of one of the honeymooners (“If I can pull the strings of fate just a little, they will soon be on their way to Italy to see all its beautiful treasures. I will watch over them, and maybe push a little in this or that direction all during their adventure”). Nina has also “asked this writer to help me describe Italy—you know, there is so much beauty, history...so many stories and people who changed the world.” The novel then shifts to Brooklyn, where Bobby, who has a pending job offer, proposes to Lisa, a graduate student studying resilience. She is Nina’s granddaughter. The narrative then jumps six months, with the couple on their honeymoon in Italy. Their itinerary (included as a frontmatter map in the book) encompasses Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, Palermo, and many stops in between. They marvel at Italy’s art, food, and music and interact with strangers as well as a cousin and a couple of friends. By trip’s end, Bobby receives his job offer via text, and Lisa decides to focus her resilience studies on Italians. They return home, vowing to go back for visits and possibly to live full time in Italy someday. Gregory fits an impressive amount of information about Italy into this narrative, which will be an enjoyable way for many readers to access this data versus delving into guidebooks or history texts. In Venice, “Bobby’s heart jumps at the sight of the San Simeone Piccolo across the water, a commanding eighteenth-century church with long steps, a massive green dome, and a templelike entrance supported by Corinthian columns.” But the fictional plot feels a bit thin given the emphasis on the country’s rich, evocative details, with the couple, Nina, and “the writer” largely serving to comment on or exclaim over an admittedly vibrant and captivating array of facts.
A vivid but uneven tour celebrating the splendors of Italy and its people.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2022
ISBN: 9781947431539
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Mentoris Project
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.
A collegiate diver and swimmer secretly pursue kink together, and risk falling in love along the way.
Scarlett Vandermeer is struggling. Despite a successful recovery from the injury that almost ended her Stanford diving career, she hasn’t been able to get her head together, and it’s affecting her performance. Plus, she’s trying to stay focused on getting into medical school. A relationship would be out of the question. By comparison, Lukas Blomqvist is a swimming idol, a record-breaker who wins medals as easily as breathing, and Scarlett has long been convinced he would never look in her direction—until one fateful night when a mutual friend lets slip that they have something unexpected in common: Scarlett likes to be submissive in the bedroom, while Lukas prefers to take a dominant approach. Now, they both know a big secret about each other, and it’s something neither of them can stop thinking about. It’s Lukas who suggests they have a fling—purely physical, just to take the edge off, so Scarlett can get out of her own head and stop overthinking her dives. Initially, their arrangement is easy to stick to, but the more time they spend together, the more Scarlett starts to realize that what she feels for Lukas is more than physical attraction. Complicating the situation is the fact that Scarlett’s friend Penelope Ross used to go out with Lukas, and the longer Scarlett keeps mum about her true feelings for him, the more difficult it is to keep the situation hidden from another person she really cares about. While Scarlett and Lukas’ relationship does begin as a physical one, their deeper psychological connection takes a little too long to emerge amid all the other storylines, resulting in a somewhat rushed resolution. However, Hazelwood’s latest is proof of the depth and maturity that has emerged in her writing over the years, and it highlights her embrace of sexier, more emotional elements than were present in her original STEMinist rom-coms.
A surprisingly sensual sports romance.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641057
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
