When you need an escape but you find something more

Synopsis

Will one summer in Sicily change her life for ever?

After her marriage falls apart, Ursula Quinn is offered the chance to spend the summer working at a hotel on a beautiful island off the coast of Sicily, Italy. Excited by a new adventure, she sets off at once.

At Residenza dei Tringali, Ursula receives a warm welcome from everyone except Alfio, son of the Tringali family. He gave up his life in Barcelona to help his mother Agata with the ailing business, and is frustrated with Ursula’s interference – and she in turn is less than impressed with his attitude. As they spend more time together, though, they begin to see each other in a different light.

But what with Ursula’s ex-husband on her tail, family secrets surfacing and an unexpected offer that makes Alfio question his whole life, there’s plenty to distract them from one another. Can she face her past and he his future, and together make the most of their Sicilian summer?

My review

Ursula has been through a rough time lately. So when she has the chance to not spend the summer to work at a hotel but also study ceramics on the coast of Sicily, she grabs the opportunity with both hands.
For her that means that she can take her mind of her failed marriage, escaping even her ex – husband and even get away from the other family problems.
She is welcomed by everyone at Residenza dei Tringali, everyone except Alfio Tringali.
Alfio come back from his life in Barcelona, to help out his family with the hotel. His family who is struggling with not only the hotel but also with several health issues.
So the last thing Alfio needs is the interference of a stranger…
But the more time Ursula and Alfio spend together, the more they realize that their first impressions of each other were wrong.
However, even if they are each other’s perfect distraction, what will happen once the summer is over? 

Do I love reading a book written by Sue Moorcroft? Yes!
Do I love reading a book set in anywhere in Italy? Yes!
So, if you combine the two above statements, did I love reading this specific book? Absolutely! 

In this book, we follow Ursula, who we already met in Under The Italian Sun, as Zia’s best friend.
While it isn’t mandatory to read first Zia’s story, I recommend it, to make things make even more sense. And also because it’s another great story! 

With Ursula’s background and history, I was glad to see how she was making plans to get her life back on track. After everything she has been through, I wanted her to find happiness just like Zia did. Not only because it would be a great story but just because Ursula deserved it. 

Now, I have to admit, it took me a while to see Ursula as a good character. Not because of her character, but because that name is imprinted in my mind as an evil character from a specific tale.
But this Ursula for sure deserves all the love I have! (Remember The Little Mermaid?)

Even if there was a incident in the past, I admired Ursula and her determination to show everyone around her that she is in fact okay, that she doesn’t need anyone to hold her hand.
But there is a different being just okay being good… 

And that is the evolution we see Ursula making.
At the start of the book she is indeed doing ‘okay’, but nothing more than that. Yet during her story, we see her grow, mature, even becoming ready to face her demons instead of using her known strategy of running away. 

But we also see that she slowly starts to learn that not all men are the same. And we see her learning to trust men that worthy of her trust, men like Alfio… 

Alfio is just like Ursula, haunted in a way by demons. He feels like he has failed not only his father, but also his family.
And he may have built his own reputation in Barcelona ( in a good way), yet being back home made him initially feel like a stranger amongst his own relatives… 

Yet we can clearly see the love between him and his family. Because not only didn’t he hesitate to come back home when needed, he also wants the best of interest for everyone in his family, and not just what’s best for him.
He wants his mother, sister and niece to be able to take a rest, to not to have to worry about a thing. Even if that would mean to sell the place that has been in his family for a long time. 

While they started on the wrong foot, Ursula and Alfio start to understand each other in a way that perhaps nobody ever did.
They see the pain they both have endured, and also see that behind the pain there is a great person hidden.
Obviously what started as a bickering old couple (figuratively speaking), turned into a summer fling but turned into something deeper. 

There are a few other bumps in the road for both Ursula and Alfio, but reading their development, their growth, and their seeing the things even differently was a real delight to read.
But it was also good to see how Ursula’s family is seeing how strong Ursula in fact is. And that one moment of stupidity doesn’t define our whole character at all. 

Again this was a great gem to read from a very talented author. It shows us not only the strength of people, but also how we can see the strength behind the pain. And how one place can turn to be the place that we need to call home, as it gives us everything we need to be truly happy: love, joy, purpose and passion for newly discovered talents.