A Taste of Italy

Reviewed by Annie Haws © 2007

Wild Child Publishing.com © 2007

Title: A Taste of Italy
Author: Lucie Simone
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Short Story
Release Date: 2006
Author's Website: www.luciesimone.com

A Taste of Italy gives a lighthearted but erotic window into an American career woman's careening venture across Europe looking for romance, and yes, sensuality! Carly is about to turn thirty-six, and following a decade of climbing the corporate peaks, realises life is not about to come looking for, so she's going to have to hunt it herself. A vacation to Europe isn't turning out quite like she planned, though; France didn't offer her anything special, and the overnight trip to Florence left her wrung out and strung out.

Opera doesn't help, the crowds of tourists in romantic entanglements makes her feel even more alone, and being groped in a nightclub is just disturbing. Even walking miles in a downpour to see a Shakespeare play is ineffective, because she is the only spectator, so the play is cancelled. But sometimes life takes us on very unexpected journeys to reach our desired destination.

Lucie Simone has written a lovely short story full of tenderness and hope in the midst of life's inevitable and recurrent drudgeries, boredom, dull routine, and mistakes. For the romanticist reader who believes in Happily Ever After, and the optimist who knows that somewhere, sometime, we all find our one true love, this is the story to read-and reread. The intimacy is explicit but well-done and never overdone. Carly and David, the main characters, are as true-to-life as the reader's own friends. Both are realistic and easy to empathise with. The reader will immediately find herself cheering them on. A Taste of Italy is a winner on all counts.

Rating: 5 Cats

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To find out more about how to obtain A Taste of Italy, visit www.luciesimone.com.