The blurb:
One morning in early summer, a man and woman wait to board a flight to Italy.
Allie has lived a careful, focused existence. But now she has unexpectedly taken leave from her job as an academic research scientist to fly to a place she only recently heard about in a letter. Her father, Joe, doesn’t know the reason for her trip, and Allie can’t bring herself to tell him that she’s flying to Italy to unpick the truth about what her mother did all those years ago.
Beside her is her best friend since schooldays, Ed. He has just shocked everyone with a sudden separation from his wife, Julia. Allie hopes that a break will help him open up.
But the secrets that emerge as the sun beats down on Lake Garda and Liguria don’t merely concern her family’s tangled past. And the two friends are forced to confront questions about their own life-long relationship that are impossible to resolve.
My Opinion:
*Book provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
I can't even describe how excited I was for this book. Ever since Catherine Isaac published You Me Everything last year, I wanted more. And she topped it with this!!!
We follow Allie in this story, who is an academic research scientist and has always been careful and organized in her life.
Well, she finds a letter in grandmother's things, talking about a possible boyfriend her mother had, when she was young, namely 9 months before Allie was born. She can't ask her mother, because she died when she was six years old. Her grandmother didn't want to talk about the topic, so Allie decides to go to Italy and find out herself.
Always by her side is her best friend Ed. They have been best friends since childhood. Ed is married to Julia, but things aren't easy. Him going away with Allie doesn't help.
Well, their path leads them and us readers on a journey through Italy. The way of finding Stefano isn't easy, they are not successful everywhere. Of course, they spend a lot of time together and one thing kind of leads to another.
When they eventually find Stefano, things also turn out to be a bit different than expected.
The great thing about this story: we can read it from different perspectives: Allie, Ed and also the grandmother, which means we learn a lot about her past as well as Allie's mum's past.
I loved seeing Italy through their eyes and I think Catherine Isaac captured all their feelings beautifully, it was very touching and emotional. A roller-coaster ride with ups and downs and the ending, omg, quite something.
