Do You like book Italian Fever (2000)?
I'm not one for ghost stories, especially when living alone, but this one was more or less worth it. I wouldn't even really describe it as a ghost story, since it's just as much about the narrator's self-discovery, but the ghost factor is pretty major so if you're very easily spooked, I wouldn't recommend it. To make a long story short, a woman is unexpectedly called to Italy--Tuscany of course, because that's the only province in Italy--to deal with her employer's accidental death. There she gets sick and is cared for by her handsome, married translator, discovers a mystery involving (of course) an old villa and aristocratic family, follows ghosts around, and (I can relate) tries to tour with an injured ankle. As a result, she returns home with a much more realistic view of her own character. The author apparently couldn't decide if it was to be about a ghost or about an American's misadventures in Italy, so there's something in it for both of those camps. An enjoyable diversion, especially for a quick reader or someone with a little too much time on his hands.
—Martha
The hints of conspiracy and supernatural get the reader's hopes up for an exciting plot. Reader's hopes are then crushed as the whole "plot" is revealed to nothing more then the protagonist's mid-life crisis.
—Zoey
Terrible doesn't even begin to describe this book. Sleep-inducing, maybe. After a promising few pages, I kept reading until I got to the point that I felt I had to finish it even though I was hating it. I suppose I just kept waiting for it to improve and sadly, it did not. The last 30 or so pages were skimmed just to try and make sense of the plot.The characters were unlikeable and the plot was thin. I was hoping that at least the description of the book's Italian setting would make this a worthwhile read, but the country gets shortchanged as well.I read something that compared this book to the work of E.M. Forster. This novel in no way resembles anything close to Forster, other than the geographic location and the fact that the main character is a woman abroad.
—Lesley
