12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good read, 24 July 2011
Although I agree with many other reviewers about the lack of development of some characters and some threads of the plot, I found this book, overall, to be enjoyable and a bit of a page turner!
I enjoyed all of the setting description, having never visited Italy, the locations were made very appealing thanks to the detailed descriptions.
THis was a great bargain on the Kindle and well worth reading.
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112 of 122 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hugely enjoyable, 10 July 2011
Penny Feeny's 'That Summer in Ischia' is an absolutely super read.
With characters you really care about and an eloquent writing style, you are propelled through these pages, eager to discover each subtle twist and turn. The warm sands of Ischia create the perfect setting for a book that contains intrigue and tension, romance and regret, sadness and humour. I really did laugh and cry.
Atmosphere comes from England too, with Feeny's vivid descriptions of Liverpool's most majestic landmarks and Crosby's moody shoreline. The book's structure is well considered - with lucid shifts between decades and events. The plot is pacy and entertaining. And how refreshing that (well-written) sex scenes are not reserved for the female protagonists only in their youth!
Hugely enjoyable, beautifully written, highly recommended.
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44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A decent, though not exactly spell-binding read, 25 July 2011
This review is from: That Summer in Ischia (Kindle Edition)
The compelling sounding summary of this novel really spurred me on to buy this book- that and I adore books set in Italy. From the outset I found this novel to be a good, though not overly exciting read. Initially it was quite fast paced but then it seemed to disintegrate a little bit as it jumped twenty-odd years into the future and seemed full of too many loose ends and rather one dimensional characters for my liking.
Feeny's writing is beautiful and eloquent and I have no criticisms of that- her vivid descriptions of the Italian island of Ischia are wonderful and she is able to create believable settings and scenarios to draw the reader into the novel. The plot flows ably enough aswell and though the story flitted back and forth in places it was in no way confusing from that respect.
In terms of the characters themselves though, perhaps that's why I felt this book fell a bit short and was almost flat in places; I had an inherent dislike of the grown-up Liddy, I have to admit, which is possibly why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I'd expected to. She was such an interfering, pathetic busy-body and generally quite an unlikeable person that it made me cringe to read about her. Even from the start of the novel her actions towards Helena's predicament were not those of a "friend-" with friends like her, who needs enemies?! Though I didn't really warm to Helena very much either, at least she had a bit of gumption about her as the book progressed. I found Helena's daughter Allie to be the most well drawn character of all of them and she added a sense of youth and vibrancy to the story.
For me, what got to me most about the book was that there was no real mystery or suspense to anything and the book was actually a bit of an anticlimax- I genuinely expected a bit more than what I got, unfortunately. When Helena and Liddy were reunited there was no recriminations or anger, given events that had happened. Surely you would want to confront someone who had hurt you so badly? It just wasn't believable. Some of the characters also seemed like they didn't really have much of a purpose- like Helena's boyfriend Simon, who could have been missed out of the book entirely.
Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable read, though I would have liked to see certain bits of the plot tied together a little bit more than they were and certain aspects elaborated on a lot more. I think it's worth reading it just for the descriptions of Italy alone, though- but don't expect anything fantastic overall.
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