The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti

I am really not sure why I picked up The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti by Jennifer Probst after I didn't really love the first book of hers that I'd read, Our Italian Summer. I guess it's because I truly am a sucker for books that are set in Italy.

I did enjoy The Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti a little bit more than Our Italian Summer probably because my expectations were a little bit lower. It's also quite possibly because The Secret Love Letters... did a much better job of evoking Italy than Our Italian Summer did. There were a few inaccuracies in this one such as referring to Tuscany a few times. The book was set in the Amalfi coast, not in Tuscany. The other was something about spaghetti and meatballs which is a decidedly American dish and you will never find that in an restaurant in Italy. I made a note about Coca Cola, too. But can't decipher that now.

Otherwise, as romance goes, not a bad story. And as I said, this gave me much more a feel for Italian than One Italian Summer did.

You might like this one. It's not bad. But I can't truly recommend.

 

Our Italian Summer

 

I've been reading some pretty heavy stuff lately and was excited to read Jennifer Probst Our Italian Summer as a bit of a break. I'm also still mourning the loss of my one month in Italy that was planned for this past autumn. After readings some great reviews on goodreads.com, my expectations were pretty high. Then I was disappointed.

I never really got a good feel for Italy while reading. Since I'm not so much into chick lit at this point, that's what I was really hoping to get. The novel did help bring back some memories of a previous trip to Italy, though, since as I was reading, I'd flip through some of my photos from that trip mostly to compare notes. Example: Yes! We did eat pizza at the same place in Naples. But I never really "felt" Italy on the pages of this book. I wanted to feel as if I was in Italy with them.

I wish there would have been more descriptions of the places they visited. Or something that would bring up the scent of the lemons of Capri. Or just how  overwhelming being at Pompeii feels. And why weren't there better food descriptions? I mean, two of the characters were so into food. The food seemed kind of flat. Plus I was a bit confused as to why they were eating cannolis in Rome when there are other Roman desserts that are better there. (Save your cannoli eating for southern Italy.) Which reminds me, why weren't they drinking limoncello when on Capri? I needed more.

I'm  sure the fact that I didn't like the characters didn't help me like the book any better. Then again, to me the characters were pretty flat and not particularly well developed. The most well-developed characters were Enzo and Ian, and they were probably the only two characters that I liked. I understood the characters' motivations for many of their actions but that was as far as it went. I wanted more.

I had never heard for Jennifer Probst, but apparently she has a huge following. For those folks, I'd recommend this novel. For everyone else, I'm not really sure about that.