I concur with the reviewers who didn't much like Alba, the heroine. But I kept reading as I was amused or intrigued by most of the other characters (the busybody villagers, the neighbour, the Italian community, and I was curious how it would all turn out. ( )

Wanted to like this. Just couldn't get into it. ( )

What a wonderful enriching novel this is! With a host of wonderful and unique characters and a blend of evocative scenery of old world Italy, this precious treat will be truly enjoyed by anyone who reads it. A deeply emotional and sensitive piece that keeps the reader glued to the pages from start to finish while totally getting wrapped up in the lives of each player. This is about the quest of one young woman who wishes to find her Italian roots and to search for the answers to who her mother was and the truth about her death. Truly this a beautiful book! ( )

Women who have it all (looks, wealth, etc) who still whine about how rough they have it are just plain irritating. I couldn't get past my dislike of the character. ( )

Alba has never fit in with her family. Her Italian mother died when she was a baby and her father brought her home to England, where she has grown up surrounded by dull country-living gentlefolk. She detests her stepmother and is bored by her siblings, preferring life on her London boat, the Valentina, where she sleeps with every attractive man that passes by and charms her way into people's lives with her fiery, exotic loveliness. But there remains one unanswerable void in Alba's life. Who was her mother, the beautiful Valentina? Why does the similarity between Alba and her mother seem to cause her father such pain, and why do they never speak of her?

When she finds a portrait of her mother on board the boat, Alba's mind is made up and she embarks on a life-changing trip to the stunning Incantelleria on the Amalfi coast. In search of her heritage and a deeper knowledge of her mother, she will find too a town still in thrall to Valentina's memory, and a family wracked with secrets and despair. Only in discovering the truth can Alba find herself and her place in life, and, together with those who love her, move on into a happier future.

This is a beautiful novel. It alternates between Alba's present life, in 1971, and that of her father's romance with Valentina, in the wartime of the mid-40s. This works well in creating a more complete emotional attachment to the story, as well as unfolding details that add to the suspense of Alba's search for the truth about her mother. At the same time, the novel is split into three sections, for each of the portraits Alba's father drew of Valentina as they fell in love; in each, the layers are peeled away to reveal another facet of Valentina's complex life and personality. The characters are full of life and beautifully drawn so that they each bring something unique and powerful to the story. Both the vibrant English city life, and the more serene magic of Incantelleria, are vividly depicted, so that the reader can hear the chatter of a London cafe and smell the sea air and lemon groves of the Italian countryside. A delicious book, moving and exciting in its turn, about love, loss, magic and superstition, war, humanity, family, women, self-discovery and, ultimately, letting go of the troubles of the past in order to move into a happier future. ( )