Sunflower Publishing Book Reviews

  Love at First Sight By Jessica Gilmore SUMMARY She's in love. Just with the wrong man . . . Nora is done with dating, but still dreams of finding the one. So when a handsome stranger comes to her rescue one night and vanishes leaving only a business card, it's like a scene out of a romcom . . . It doesn't take long for the two to 'bump' into each other again, and Nora falls for the perfect-on-paper Gabe. Only a few weeks later, he invites her to Sicily, and she cannot believe her luck! Until Gabe is forced away for work, leaving her alone with his big and warm family in gorgeous Sicily who welcome her with open arms. Everyone but Luca, his older and distrustful brother, who is always around. Soon Nora finds herself on the holiday of a lifetime . . . just with the WRONG brother.   MY REVIEW: When I first started reading the book, Love at First Sight, I thought it would be a typical ‘rom-com or ‘beach read’  - a book you can take on holiday, w...

    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 R...

    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 cap...

     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 ...