Sunflower Publishing Book Reviews

    My Modena - By Andrea Gelfuso SUMMARY: My Modena , by Andrea Susan Valentine Gelfuso Goetz (aka Andrea Gelfuso), is  a hilarious memoir  of the year she and her family spent in Modena Italy an Italian city that frustrated her every attempt to do the simplest things. Buying a stamp shouldn't be this complicated. Living in an apartment that was like camping, with tile and nowhere to sit. Modena is a town full of ancient churches and beautiful Italians. Here you will meet her friend Melanie, a fashionista who can make ATMs bend to her will from across the country. You will also meet her landlady Giovanna and her husband Raimondo who watched as six firefighters tried to get Andrea and her family back into their 7th-floor apartment, using a ladder truck. You'll also meet Piero the artist, Luca who sold boots, and let us not forget Danilo, Fabio (of the soon-to-be-famous Fabio's balcony), and Marcello, heart-stoppingly gorgeous Italians all.   MY REVIEW: I t

    A Perfect Crime    By Larry Maness SUMMARY Before 11 priceless pieces of art were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a respected Italian violin maker visited the museum to inspect a rare musical instrument requiring restoration. He took measurements and photographs and reported his findings to the museum’s director. Then, he disappeared. Was the innocent invitation to the violin maker the first step in a complex plot to rob the Gardner? The museum director thinks so and hires Theo R. Perdoux, an expert in worldwide art theft, to investigate. Inspired by the actual unsolved robbery of Boston’s Gardner Museum, Maness spins a plausible web that races ahead like a shot. The brisk pace and clever twists offer an intriguing explanation why masterpieces worth millions have never been found.   MY REVIEW: After the success of The Last Perdoux, Larry Maness is back with a second Theo R. Perdoux mystery/crime which promises to be a captivating blend of real-l

     Invitation to Italy By Victoria Springfield One-time teenage swimming sensation, Loretta, has run the Hotel Paradiso since leaving Capri broken-hearted. When childhood friend Salvo comes to stay, Loretta is forced to confront her past and the fears that have kept her away from the water for forty years. But just as she finds the courage to open her heart, she discovers all is not as it seems with Salvo... It's a summer of new beginnings for Abi and Loretta - and one they will never forget.     SUMMARY Abi is distraught when her ex-husband Alex takes their twelve-year-old daughter, Chloe to spend the summer with his glamorous fiancée Marisa and her parents at their home on the beautiful Italian island of Procida. Persuaded by her best friend to book a holiday at the island's Hotel Paradiso, Abi finally meets the woman she's been avoiding for so long. Will the two women's strained relationship survive the summer?   MY REVIEW: An invitation to Italy? Yes

   The Maiden of Florence by Katherine Mezzacappa SUMMARY: 'My defloration was talked about in all the courts of Europe. The Prince boasted of his prowess, even as preparations were being made for his wedding, as boldly as if he had ridden across that causeway with bloodstained sheet tied to his lance.' 1584, Italy: Twenty-year-old Giulia expects she will live and die incarcerated as a silk weaver within the walls of her Florentine orphanage, where she has never so much as glimpsed her own face. This all changes with the visit of the Medici family's most trusted advisor, promising her a generous dowry and a husband if she agrees to a small sacrifice that will bring honour and glory to her native city. Vincenzo Gonzaga, libertine heir to the dukedom of Mantua, wants to marry the Grand-Duke of Tuscany's eldest daughter, but the rumours around his unconsummated first marriage must be silenced first. Eager for a dynastic alliance that will be a bulwark agains