Hello Bookish Friends :)
I hope you're all doing well, and I want to thank for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.
A couple of years ago, I had a very bad book buying problem, especially when it came to Book Outlet and my local used bookstore. I wasn't very selective when it came to buying books, and basically if it was reasonably priced and interested me even slightly, I bought it. It wasn't uncommon for me to be buying upwards of thirty or forty books some months, and this led to huge piles of unread books in my home library.
One of my 2019 reading goals was to get to more of these books, and so when I first started converting one of our spare bedrooms into a home library, I went through and got rid of all the books I knew I would never be reading, especially any raunchier romance books that were included in my swag bags at book conventions. I then decided to try and get to reading more of the ones I kept in 2019.
One of those such books was Ciao Bella, and today I want to share with all of you what I thought about it.
Ciao Bella by Gina Buonaguro and Janice Kirk:
Source: Bought For Myself
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Publication Date: October 13th, 2009
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis:
For Graziella, the quiet, cultured life she lived in Venice with her musician husband, Ugo, was everything she could have hoped for. But when Italy allied itself with Nazi Germany in 1940, her world changed forever. Ugo, trading in his violin for a gun, joined the Resistance, while Graziella was forced to seek refuge at his family’s farm in the nearby Euganean Hills. “Just until the war is over,” Ugo had promised, but it has been months now since the Nazis retreated, and no one has seen him since.
With Ugo gone, it seems as if she will be trapped forever on this remote farm with her lost husband’s difficult family. So when an American soldier named Frank is stranded on the mountain, Graziella embraces this unexpected chance at being happy again. But as tempting as it is to leave behind this war-torn country and her painful memories for a new life in America, can she go without learning her husband’s fate?
With quiet grace and humor, Ciao Bella explores the possibilities of love and redemption in the wake of war, showing that some of the hardest decisions come only after the fighting has stopped.
(summary from goodreads).
My Review:
I didn't really know too much about this one going into it. I basically knew it was about Italy during war times, and that it had a beautiful cover, but it had been sitting on my shelf for awhile and I wanted to try and finally give it a go. Unfortunately, it took me a really long time to get through this book, and that's sad considering it's only 256 pages. I just found the pacing was so slow, that it made my reading of it not enjoyable, and I kept putting it down to pick up a different book instead.
Aside from the pacing, I had way too hard of a time keeping all of Ugo's numerous family members straight. Maybe this wouldn't have been a problem for other readers, but I finally gave up on trying to remember who was who, as I felt I would have needed a detailed spreadsheet to be able to do so.
I did enjoy the historical components to the novel, and learning about how Italy and other parts of Europe were affected during these times. I also particularly enjoyed Grace's affinity for plants, and the numerous ways she used them as treatment for her many family members and friends.
A large portion of this novel is Grace looking back on her relationship with Ugo, while starting to build a new one with the stranded American soldier Frank, and to be perfectly honesty, I didn't really find either romance that interesting. I liked both the men as characters, but I felt that Grace truly wasn't happy during either relationship, and it more felt like she was using it as a means of escaping her current circumstances.
Overall, this one really failed to hold my interest, I didn't really enjoy the romance aspect, and I found the various characters to be too confusing for me to really even know what was happening to who. On top of all of that, I had guessed at the main plot twist very early into the story, and everything played out pretty much exactly as I'd expected it to.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐
I enjoyed the historical components, I applaud the authors on being able to blend their voices so seamlessly in the writing of Ciao Bella, but I wasn't personally a fan, and it won't be a reread for me in the future.
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
I hope you're all doing well, and I want to thank for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.
A couple of years ago, I had a very bad book buying problem, especially when it came to Book Outlet and my local used bookstore. I wasn't very selective when it came to buying books, and basically if it was reasonably priced and interested me even slightly, I bought it. It wasn't uncommon for me to be buying upwards of thirty or forty books some months, and this led to huge piles of unread books in my home library.
One of my 2019 reading goals was to get to more of these books, and so when I first started converting one of our spare bedrooms into a home library, I went through and got rid of all the books I knew I would never be reading, especially any raunchier romance books that were included in my swag bags at book conventions. I then decided to try and get to reading more of the ones I kept in 2019.
One of those such books was Ciao Bella, and today I want to share with all of you what I thought about it.
Ciao Bella by Gina Buonaguro and Janice Kirk:
Source: Bought For Myself
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Publication Date: October 13th, 2009
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis:
For Graziella, the quiet, cultured life she lived in Venice with her musician husband, Ugo, was everything she could have hoped for. But when Italy allied itself with Nazi Germany in 1940, her world changed forever. Ugo, trading in his violin for a gun, joined the Resistance, while Graziella was forced to seek refuge at his family’s farm in the nearby Euganean Hills. “Just until the war is over,” Ugo had promised, but it has been months now since the Nazis retreated, and no one has seen him since.
With Ugo gone, it seems as if she will be trapped forever on this remote farm with her lost husband’s difficult family. So when an American soldier named Frank is stranded on the mountain, Graziella embraces this unexpected chance at being happy again. But as tempting as it is to leave behind this war-torn country and her painful memories for a new life in America, can she go without learning her husband’s fate?
With quiet grace and humor, Ciao Bella explores the possibilities of love and redemption in the wake of war, showing that some of the hardest decisions come only after the fighting has stopped.
(summary from goodreads).
My Review:
I didn't really know too much about this one going into it. I basically knew it was about Italy during war times, and that it had a beautiful cover, but it had been sitting on my shelf for awhile and I wanted to try and finally give it a go. Unfortunately, it took me a really long time to get through this book, and that's sad considering it's only 256 pages. I just found the pacing was so slow, that it made my reading of it not enjoyable, and I kept putting it down to pick up a different book instead.
Aside from the pacing, I had way too hard of a time keeping all of Ugo's numerous family members straight. Maybe this wouldn't have been a problem for other readers, but I finally gave up on trying to remember who was who, as I felt I would have needed a detailed spreadsheet to be able to do so.
I did enjoy the historical components to the novel, and learning about how Italy and other parts of Europe were affected during these times. I also particularly enjoyed Grace's affinity for plants, and the numerous ways she used them as treatment for her many family members and friends.
A large portion of this novel is Grace looking back on her relationship with Ugo, while starting to build a new one with the stranded American soldier Frank, and to be perfectly honesty, I didn't really find either romance that interesting. I liked both the men as characters, but I felt that Grace truly wasn't happy during either relationship, and it more felt like she was using it as a means of escaping her current circumstances.
Overall, this one really failed to hold my interest, I didn't really enjoy the romance aspect, and I found the various characters to be too confusing for me to really even know what was happening to who. On top of all of that, I had guessed at the main plot twist very early into the story, and everything played out pretty much exactly as I'd expected it to.
Final Rating: ⭐⭐
I enjoyed the historical components, I applaud the authors on being able to blend their voices so seamlessly in the writing of Ciao Bella, but I wasn't personally a fan, and it won't be a reread for me in the future.
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
Comments
Post a Comment