If I really stop and think about it, there are some things that I should find wrong with this book. The ending especially left me a little dazed. I had no idea going in that this wouldn't be a stand-alone, so I was a little cranky when the story ended where it did. But still it's so easy to ignore all of those things because this book is just so stinkin' adorable. AND it takes place in Tuscany. So yeah, I'm going to go ahead and say that this is a great summer read.
If I could learn a language just by reading books like this, I think I would be multi-lingual. The real value in this book - the thing that didn't make me feel like I was reading complete fluff - was the language. I think I learned some Italian words - ok, a handful are dirty words - but still. By the end when Violet is having a broken conversation in Italian I found I was trying to figure out what they were saying before I read Violet's translations. And I got so excited when I was right. Plus, that scene where Violet is having her first conversation in Italian was one of my favorites. It's something I can definitely relate to. Because the first time I carried a conversation entirely in Spanish with the woman who owned the pizza shop below my flat was an awesome feeling I'll never forget. Even if it was horribly mangled and slightly embarrasing, there's nothing like thinking you're speaking gibberish and then the other person understands you. Such a cool thing.
Anyways, on to the boys. The Italian boys are a big focus of the book. There's a lot of comparison between cultures. Violet is English, she's hanging out with another English girl and two American girls, so it was fun to read the different way everyone views certain situations. But mostly, they compare the way boys behave. For example - English boys (and I'm going to throw in American ones as well) won't show you they like you so they're stand-offish and they compliment you by saying things like - well you don't look terrible today. And Italian boys will tell you you're beautiful and if they like you, you'll know it. Which obviously seems preferable, and is probably really nice at first, but I was very quick to realize that I so wouldn't trust everyone if they were all really sweet all the time.
Violet is a great character to take us all from England to Italy. She does her own thing, but she's still a great person to be in a group of people. I was annoyed at first that she was constantly comparing the girls she was with and worrying about how she looked when she sat or stood certain ways. But then I realized that I do that too - think if I sit a certain way that my clothes will sit right, and seriously hope that when I walk my thighs don't shake, etc. So I got over that pretty quickly, because that started to make her feel like a real girl.
I will say that some of what happens to Violet through the book seems a little ridiculous, but not enough to take it down in my estimation. I will definitely be reading the companion novel, Following in Love in Italian, because I need to know what happens to Violet.
