Author: whatcathyreadnext

WWW Wednesdays – 23rd May ‘18

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

The Last DayThe Last Day by Claire Dyer (paperback, review copy courtesy of The Dome Press)

They say three’s a crowd but when Boyd moves back into the family home with his now amicably estranged wife, Vita, accompanied by his impossibly beautiful twenty-seven-year-old girlfriend, Honey, it seems the perfect solution: Boyd can get his finances back on track while he deals with his difficult, ailing mother; Honey can keep herself safe from her secret, troubled past; and Vita can carry on painting portraits of the pets she dislikes and telling herself she no longer minds her marriage is over.

But the house in Albert Terrace is small and full of memories, and living together is unsettling.  For Vita, Boyd and Honey love proves to be a surprising, dangerous thing and, one year on, their lives are changed forever.

War Girl UrsulaWar Girl Ursula (War Girl #1) by Marion Kummerow (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Berlin 1943: Compassion is a crime.

A prisoner escapes. A guard looks the other way. Why does Ursula Hermann risk her life and brave the Gestapo to save a man she barely knows?

Ursula has always lived the law, never broken the rules in her life. That is until the day she finds escapee British airman Tom Westlake and all the right she’s worked so hard to maintain goes wrong… He runs. And she does nothing to stop him.

Torn with guilt about what she did, Ursula battles with her decision when suddenly Tom returns, injured and pleading for her help.   This is her opportunity to make things right. But shadows from the past tug at her heart, convincing her to risk everything, including her life, in order to protect a man from the nation her country is fighting.

As they brave the perils and dangers of the ever-present Gestapo, will Ursula find a way to keep Tom safe? Or will being on the opposite sides of the war ultimately cost both of them their lives?

Recently finished (click on title for review)

The Cliff HouseThe Cliff House by Amanda Jennings (eARC, NetGalley)

Cornwall, summer of 1986.   The Davenports, with their fast cars and glamorous clothes, living the dream in a breathtaking house overlooking the sea.

If only… thinks sixteen-year-old Tamsyn, her binoculars trained on the perfect family in their perfect home.  If only her life was as perfect as theirs.  If only Edie Davenport would be her friend.  If only she lived at The Cliff House…

Amanda Jennings weaves a haunting tale of obsession, loss and longing, set against the brooding North Cornish coastline, destined to stay with readers long after the final page is turned.

The Biographies of Ordinary People, Vol.2The Biographies of Ordinary People, Vol. 2 by Nicole Dieker (eARC courtesy of the author)

Millennial-era Little Women that follows three sisters from 1989 to the present.

The Biographies of Ordinary People is the story of the Gruber family: Rosemary and Jack, and their daughters Meredith, Natalie, and Jackie. The two-volume series begins in July 1989, on Rosemary’s thirty-fifth birthday; it ends in November 2016, on Meredith’s thirty-fifth birthday.

The second volume follows the three Gruber sisters as they each leave their rural Midwestern hometown and try to make their way in the larger world. Meredith is determined to pursue a career in the theater. Natalie begins sorting and filing for an insurance company. Jackie… well, Jackie still wants to sing, and if the classical music world isn’t interested in what she can do, she’ll figure out how to do it on her own.

Set against the Great Recession, Presidents Obama and Trump, and a growing sense of national unrest, this final volume explores Meredith’s question: is it possible for ordinary people to make art? It also takes us into the close emotional connections between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends, and the people we choose to love as adults.

I Will Find YouI Will Find You (Seal Island #2) by Daniela Sacerdoti  (eARC courtesy of Headline)

After her mother dies, grief-stricken Cora discovers she has been left a cottage, a crumbling shelter on a mysterious Scottish island. The moment Cora arrives on the windswept isle of Seal, she falls under its spell and is drawn to brooding Innes, back on the island to confront his past.

As Cora begins to trace her mother’s roots, she learns Gealach Cottage has a dark, turbulent history. Another young woman has sought refuge here, fleeing terrible danger, and waiting for her lover to return. What became of her? Only by unravelling a forgotten story of passion and courage can Cora understand what has pulled her to Seal…and led her to a man of many secrets.

That Summer in PugliaThat Summer in Puglia by Valeria Vescina (paperback, review copy courtesy of Eyewear Publishing and Bookollective)

Tommaso has escaped discovery for thirty years but a young private investigator, Will, has tracked him down. Tommaso asks him to pretend never to have found him. To persuade Will, Tommaso recounts the story of his life and his great love. In the process, he comes to recognise his true role in the events which unfolded, and the legacy of unresolved grief. Now he’s being presented with a second chance – but is he ready to pay the price it exacts?

What Cathy (will) Read Next

A Lost Lady of Old YearsA Lost Lady of Old Years by John Buchan (ebook)

Set in Scotland in 1745, during the Jacobite Rebellion, this dark story of loyalty and betrayal on the road to Culloden Moor recounts the adventures of Francis Birkenshaw. The Jacobite cause means nothing to him until a chance meeting with the beautiful Margaret Murray presents an opportunity for profit and adventure. The fateful encounter marks the beginning of Francis’s involvement with John Murray of Broughton, an infamous traitor and turncoat.

WaltScott_Sugar MoneySugar Money by Jane Harris (hardcover)

Martinique, 1765, and brothers Emile and Lucien are charged by their French master, Father Cleophas, with a mission. They must return to Grenada, the island they once called home, and smuggle back the 42 slaves claimed by English invaders at the hospital plantation in Fort Royal. While Lucien, barely in his teens, sees the trip as a great adventure, the older and worldlier Emile has no illusions about the dangers they will face. But with no choice other than to obey Cleophas – and sensing the possibility, however remote, of finding his first love Celeste – he sets out with his brother on this ‘reckless venture’.

Blog Tour/Book Review: That Summer in Puglia by Valeria Vescina

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That Summer in Puglia Blog Tour

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for That Summer in Puglia by Valeria Vescina and sharing my review of this intense and powerful love story.

Thank you to Aimee at Bookollective for inviting me to join the tour.

That Summer in PugliaAbout the Book

Tommaso has escaped discovery for thirty years but a young private investigator, Will, has tracked him down.

Tommaso asks him to pretend never to have found him. To persuade Will, Tommaso recounts the story of his life and his great love. In the process, he comes to recognise his true role in the events which unfolded, and the legacy of unresolved grief.

Now he’s being presented with a second chance – but is he ready to pay the price it exacts?

Format: Paperback (303 pp.)    Publisher: Eyewear Publishing
Published: 1st March 2018        Genre: Fiction, Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find That Summer in Puglia on Goodreads

My Review

That Summer in Puglia tells the story of a love affair between two young people – Tommaso and Anna – that is as intense as the heat of an Italian summer.  Tommaso is clever, introspective and solitary with just a small circle of friends.  He’s never had a girlfriend because he’s never come across anyone with whom he feels a real connection.  That all changes when he meets Anna, the result of a chance encounter – or perhaps it’s fate? ‘Extraordinary, how the course of lives can depend on trivia.’

I loved the way Tommaso and Anna bond over a shared love of books and thoughtful, earnest conversation.  One of the great strengths of the book is the way it conveys the plethora of feelings associated with first love – and not just desire or wanting to be with the other person all the time.  Tommaso finds his outlook on the world has suddenly changed since meeting Anna.  ‘Places, people and objects outside school took on new meaning whenever – and it was often – they confirmed something she had said and which had never occurred to me… Everyday actions triggered musings as to what Anna might say or do: whether she took the same pleasure as me in the blossoming almond trees at this time of year…whether she ate her focaccia alla cipolla – oozing from every side with its succulent filling of sautéed onions, capers, tiny black olives and fresh tomato chunks – with fork and knife like my mother, or with bare hands like most of us.’   

As Tommaso and Anna roam the maze of narrow streets that make up the Old Town of Ostuni, taking delight in small things and shared places, there are beautiful descriptions of the ancient town, full of light and shade. ‘We turned into the narrower stretch of the street.  Over the centuries, carts had carved smooth grooves into the white flagstones.  The further we climbed, the more closely huddled together the houses became.  Arched alleyways opened up alongside us and snaked their way towards partially-seen buildings and hidden corners… The orange-tinted street lights bounced off the whiteness of walls and flagstones, adding to the labyrinth’s air of mystery and magic.’  I also have to include at this point another example of the simply luscious description of Italian food that had my stomach rumbling, in this case tajedda, an ‘amalgam of fresh mussels, potatoes, perini tomatoes, rice and olive oil, all baked together to perfection.’

Tommaso’s relationship with his father is also wonderfully rendered – heartfelt and touching.  In contrast, Tommaso’s relationship with his mother is a picture of complexity.  Both seem unable to express their true feelings and this inability will prove to have unimagined consequences as the story unfolds.

That Summer in Puglia provides a devastating portrait of how love can, in a moment, turn to hate if fuelled by insecurity, jealousy and an inability to trust.  And how what often follows just as quickly is regret, guilt, despair and hopelessness.   It also shows how a single action, even if done for what is thought are the right reasons, can have unintended and long-lasting consequences.   But that sometimes there may be the opportunity to make reparation.

I’ll confess I wasn’t completely convinced by the device of the private investigator as the recipient of Tommaso’s memories or that Tommaso could have remained undiscovered and undocumented for so many years.  However, the emotional power of Tommaso’s story and the effortless, flowing writing of Valeria Vescina is what will stay with me about That Summer in Puglia.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Eyewear Publishing, and Aimee at Bookollective in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Intense, emotional, intimate

Try something similar… Flesh and Bone and Water by Luiza Sauma (click here for my review)

Valeria VescinaAbout the Author

Valeria Vescina is from Puglia, was educated in Switzerland and the UK, and has lived for years in London with her family. After a successful career in management, she gained an MA in Creative & Life Writing at Goldsmiths (University of London). That Summer In Puglia is her debut novel. Her activity as a critic includes reviews for Seen And Heard International, Talking Humanities and the European Literature Network. She has taught creative writing workshops on the narrative potential of various art forms. Valeria also holds a degree in International Studies (University of Birmingham) and a Sloan Msc. in Management (London Business School).

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