Summer School

I've enjoyed reading Elly Griffiths' crime books and discovered somewhere along the way that this was a pseudonym of Domenica De Rosa. De Rosa's books looked rather girly and chick lit like and not really my kind of thing. When I spotted one in the library though I picked it up to have a look and ended up absorbed by it.

The 'Summer School' of the title is a fortnight long writing workshop taking place in a renovated castle in Tuscany. The characters seemed a bit stereotypical to start with but most of them broke enough boundaries that they seemed like real enough people. It is all a little predictable and I guessed where several of the storylines were going but that didn't really matter. There were a few things that didn't seem quite right, for example, a character who only seemed to be remembered once every 100 pages. I think there is something a bit odd about reading about a writers workshop - it made me want to rewrite parts of this book! That's not something I usually think about!

On the whole though, a decent piece of light entertainment and I'll quite possibly read more at some point in the future. ( )

This is a very easy and light read, but still has depth to each characterisation. I loved the idea of the writing summer school and the beautiful Tuscan setting, but most of all I loved the characters of Mary, the 74 year old spinster who gets more than she bargained for at the castle, and Aldo, the chef who makes mouthwatering food for the guests, and who also finds something unexpected during the summer.

I'm definitely going to read more from this author. This is an excellent summer read. ( )