Der Tag war schön und ich dachte an dich: Roman | Zwei Sommer in Italien, zwei Sommer, die alles verändern

by Sofia Montrone, Eva Bonné (Translator)

Zwei glutheiße Sommer in der Leo verbringt die Tage damit, im etwas in die Jahre gekommenen Hotel ihrer Nonna auszuhelfen und die kuriosen Hinterlassenschaften der Gäste einzusammeln – einen Perlenohrring, eine Haarlocke. Sie badet mit ihrem Bruder Max im Pool und denkt sich Geschichten aus, inspiriert von der antiken Mythologie. Doch die Idylle hat Risse. Leos italienische Mutter verbringt die Tage im Bett, ihr amerikanischer Vater trinkt zu viel. Als ein Unfall geschieht, für den Leo sich verantwortlich fühlt, ist ihre Kindheit schlagartig vorbei.

Jahre später ist Leo wieder in Italien, doch nichts ist mehr, wie es war. In die enge Beziehung zu ihrem Bruder hat sich Fremdheit geschlichen, Leos Nonna ist alt geworden. Leo flirtet halbherzig mit einem Jungen aus dem Dorf, spielt mit den Männern in der Bar vor Ort Karten. Als eines Tages Dolores, eine junge amerikanische Geigenbauerin, in der Tür steht, verliebt sich Leo stürmisch in sie.

Genres: Queer, Fiction, Romance, LGBT, Literary Fiction, Summer, Lesbian

261 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 9, 2026

About the author

Sofia Montrone is a writer based in New York. Her debut novel Nymph is forthcoming from Avid Reader Press (US) and Canongate (UK). She teaches at Columbia University, where she earned her MFA.

Reviews

[emma]

i may not be traveling to italy this summer, but i have a library card

[Liana Gold · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-3.5! FULL REVIEW TO FOLLOW

Atmospheric yearning of Call Me By You Name which highlights the highs and lows of girlhood and coming-of-age primary focused on Leo at 10 and then 18 years of age.

This book is featured on BOTM!



Many thanks to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press and the author, Sofia Montrone for an early copy!

Publication date: June 9, 2026

[maria ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I judge books by their covers. It's why they're there. This is probably the biggest mismatch between a book’s container and contents that I've ever read.

I was expecting a soft sapphic bildungsroman adorned with a backdrop of Italian summer. I was given extensive descriptions of hygiene protocols, of depressed divorcees, of gross trinkets of bodily remains. It took ages for any suggestion of a plot to take shape, and when it did, it was often liquid, intangible. Characters were very little fleshed out, quite vague, and most of them spoke the same way, and it happened more than once when I could not make out who was who in a dialogue. I would go back and re-read it, thinking I was then distracted, but no: it was just constructed weird. Lacking.

The sapphic part was alright, but I've seen it, and probably so have you, if you've read more than three sapphic stories. The trauma part—I think you have to relate to it to feel it, perhaps, because I was unmoved by all the drama. Probably because I can't relate to it? Maybe I don't really get family dramas? Or maybe it was just a bit dull.

I understood the meaning of bouncing back to Odysseus, but it was often so randomly placed, it totally broke the flow of whatever else was going on. Its episodic nature was frequently messy and hard to keep up with its time and space.

I did not find it “atmospheric” or “nostalgic” or “whimsical”, which are all words I've seen describing this book in reviews: I found it dull, numb, unrelatable and quite unrealistic in its depictions of people and relationships. Actually, I don't even know if “unrealistic” is the word; it felt forced, like everyone was trying to sound smart all the time. All this emphasis on wit is tiring.

Anywayyyyyyyy. I'm gonna read something else now! Wish me luck ˖ 🦢ᡣ𐭩 ⊹ ࣪☁️ ౨ৎ˚₊

[Liralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hotel has been in the family for a century and, in one way or another, has always been a place for people to pass through. (loc. 58*)

At ten, Leo's world is secure—summers in Italy helping her grandmother at the family's agriturismo, a brother to share in her games, a father who has the answer to any question she might ask. If her mother struggles to get out of bed and her father's exuberance sometimes tips into something darker, she can write those off.

They share everything in the manner of siblings who have not yet distinguished themselves with time. (loc. 71)

As a teenager, poised to start university, Leo's world feels less certain. She's still scavenging forgotten items from hotel rooms, still swimming in the pool and still (or, well, now) playing cards with the town's contingent of old men. But things have changed, for better and for worse, and when an American drifts into town her perception of the world changes again.

The body is a long series of betrayals. (loc. 151)

I read this, I think, for the sensation of a slow, sticky Italian summer. It's a relatively quiet story: a climax in the middle, yes, and some big shifts in Leo's understanding of her Italian life (maybe less of her American life) and her family and her place in it all. But mostly it is two summers in a girl's life, summers that would unfold exactly as she expects were it not for the unpredictabilities of life. Think litfic with a high readability factor; think coming of age; think hot weather and dry seasons and complicated characters and bows left intentionally untied. Satisfying.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

a sun-soaked sapphic romance set over the course of two sweltering Italian summers. Leo has spent her childhood summers at her family’s hotel, cleaning rooms after checkouts and collecting treasures left behind by guests. whilst her mother is unwell, spending many days at a time in bed, she looks up to her often distant and confusing father, revelling in his attentions and hanging on his every word as he lavishes her with epic tales of Greek heroes.

fast forward nearly a decade, Leo is still tending to the hotel rooms, whilst her beloved Nonna becomes older and more frail, and the hotel shows its own signs of age. enter: Dolores, an American girl with a shaved head who has come to set Leo alight, in more ways than one.

this book oozes summer and sticky heat and sweat - it moves at a languid, almost sleepy pace, allowing us time and space to fall in love with Leo, Dolores and sun-drenched Italian summers. Montrone perfectly captures the awkward parts of girlhood; growing up and noticing changes happening in every part of you.

thank you, Canongate, for the early copy of this gorgeous debut.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘They try to find the places where their lives rhyme. Birthday parties attended at bowling alleys, the thrilling sweetness of powdered orange juice, honeysuckle on the night air, the unbearable fragility of a butterfly in their hands.’

There are some books that tell a story, and then there are books that wrap themselves around you like a hot summer afternoon. Nymph falls firmly into the second category.

Set against the backdrop of an Italian hotel and endless sun drenched summers, this is a coming of age story filled with longing, grief, desire, and all the messy emotions that come with figuring out who you are. It follows Leo from childhood into young adulthood, and while the plot itself is relatively quiet, the emotional journey is anything but.

The writing is absolutely gorgeous. Sofia Monrone has a way of capturing feelings that are difficult to put into words, the ache of wanting, the confusion of growing up. This is very much a book to savour rather than race through.

The Italian setting felt vivid and immersive, and I loved how the hotel itself seemed to hold memories and secrets within its walls. Leo’s journey felt authentic, tender, and often heartbreaking.

This is one of those books that leaves you with a feeling more than a memory of specific events. Heat soaked, wistful, and quietly devastating, Nymph lingers long after the final page.

Perfect for readers who enjoy literary fiction, coming of age stories, and books that are overflowing with yearning.

I Highly Recommend.

Thank you Text Publishing for my advanced readers copy.

Available Now!

4.5

[Ashley Tovar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetically written, emotional & beautiful coming of age story. Leo pulled at my heart, she was just such an easy character to love. The pacing dragged at times but overall a memorable story that absolutely pulled at my heartstrings.

Big thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for allowing me to enjoy this.

[lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cue *whimsy girl* summer

Wow! What a stellar book for a debut. I’m blown away by Sofia Montrone’s writing. She writes exquisite prose that is elegant and immersive; her writing was evocative for the senses. Every element of this book had a feel or a smell (it very much matched the vibe of the book cover if that at all made sense).

I thought Nymph itself was so interesting. It was truly a book in exploration of the transition into adulthood and mental illness/addiction. I’m definitely going to need to sit with this book for a bit to gather my thoughts as I process and unfold the meanings in Nymph (I’ll come back to edit my review!) but truly the best books are the ones that leave you processing. I was not expecting to have so much of The Odyssey woven into the story but that was a unique element. Part of my processing will be to look up more about it, as it’s been decades since I have read it! I know that it’s consistent throughout the story has deeper meaner that I’m still unpacking.

This is a beautiful novel. I’m so happy I was given the chance to read and review it!

[✨ vanessa | effiereads ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

wowow what a debut!!! 4.5 ⭐️

“when the time comes, will she care for this place? having crossed the ocean, could she return to the mountains, their enclosed horizon, behind which so much light is hidden? it takes many years, a lifetime, to leave the place that you are from. every possibility has, at its centre, a single choice. to tell or conceal. to stay or to go.”

nymph is a story about a young girl whose summers are filled with working at her family’s italian agriturismo — changing bedsheets, baking bread, serving tourists always there for a break from ‘real life’. but when an unexpected tragedy befalls the family and an american girl comes to stay, leo must be ready to step out of the past and into a new life where she is forever changed.

✨

what a captivating debut; a prose so sensual and so immersive you can’t help but fall into it fully. this novel is meant to be read with the sun warm on your face and a cold drink in hand. as leo glides from room to room, pocketing treasures from long-gone guests, you feel her yearning to connect with people. but where the guests are off-limits and with a mother too ill to get out of bed, she and her brother latch onto their elusive father who speaks to them mostly with games and the epic tales of odysseus. was leo doomed to repeat the yearning and disconnection of telemachus?

each detail of leo’s life as we follow her from age 8 to 18, is eked out like juice from a peach, spilling down your arm and leaving a residue that lingers and sticks. this story felt very personal to me, bits of leo’s life so tangible that exact words from my family were echoed in montrone’s pages as if plucked directly from my memories.

and then when leo meets dolores during one sun-drenched summer, we fall into the utterly human, occasionally awkward, experience of falling in love for the first time. i love stories of desire, of wanting connection but not knowing how to get it.

a very heartfelt thank you to simon & schuster canada for sending me a copy, I am forever grateful. this one will stick with me.

[mandie ੈ♡˳ · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all, this book was gorgeous and the writing was lovely. It felt soft, dreamy, and drenched in summer vibes. But I just didn't love the book as a whole.

I did enjoy the atmosphere and Leo's story overall. The themes of first love, grief, friendship, and growing up were handled beautifully, and there were so many passages I wanted to highlight. The relationship between Leo and Dolores could have been more exciting, but I wasn't entirely disappointed with how it all turned out.

That said though, I think I admired this book more than I actually enjoyed reading it. The pacing was very slow, and because it's so focused on emotions and excessively describing every minute detail, I found myself drifting at times. I kept waiting for something bigger to happen, and when something significant did happen, I was already so tuned out that I couldn't fully appreciate it. I wanted a little more payoff by the end.

[Tanya S · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book as an advance reader copy, and unfortunately, I only made it to page 49 before giving up.

While I genuinely loved the setting—a hotel in Italy—the book itself felt like an absolute mess. Because this was an uncorrected edition, I didn’t hold the lack of grammatical polish or the absence of clear chapter structure against it. That said, the storytelling issues went far beyond that. The narrative constantly bounced between Max and Leo’s dad’s storytelling, Leo’s inner thoughts, and the day-to-day happenings at the hotel. Instead of feeling layered or intentional, it came across as chaotic and disconnected, making it really difficult to stay invested in either the plot or the characters.

On top of that, some of Leo’s behavior was just…off-putting. Scenes involving things like examining used tampons or sucking on someone else’s shed hair found in a hotel bathroom felt unnecessarily gross and added nothing of value to the story. It pushed me further out of the reading experience rather than pulling me in.

Another major disconnect for me was the title. Going in, I expected something involving a nymph—something magical or at least leaning into fantasy elements. But the story didn’t deliver on that at all, making the title feel misleading and out of place.

Overall, this one just didn’t work for me. Between the disjointed structure, unappealing character moments, and mismatched expectations, I’d recommend passing on it. I’m very glad I didn’t spend money on this one.

[Taylor Penn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have complicated feelings about Nymph by Sofia Montrone.

On paper, Nymph should have been a perfect fit for me: an Italian summer, a sapphic coming-of-age story, Greek mythology, family drama all tied together with a poetic literary prose. And to be fair, Sofia Montrone delivers on *most* of that. The writing is soft, lyrical, and full of a hazy, memory-like quality that makes everything feel sun-bleached around the edges. The Italian setting is vivid and I loved seeing Leo at multiple stages in her life, watching how grief and growing up reshape the way she understands the world.

But wow, this book certainly takes its sweet time getting anywhere.

For long stretches, the book felt less like the story I signed up for and more like a collection of observations, memories, conversations, and side characters orbiting around one another. Sometimes, that immersiveness worked for me and other times I found myself confused about what exactly I was supposed to be holding onto. The romance is nice, but it’s a much smaller piece of the novel than I expected. The mythology was also interesting, but some of the references felt dropped into the narrative rather than woven through naturally.

To Montrone’s credit, there is a lot to admire here, and I can see why this book has found its audience. Unfortunately for me, I spent more time reading Nymph than actually being moved by it.

Thank you very much to the publisher for sending an early copy.

[Ashley Fresenius · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume meets Paper Palace. I wanted to love this for its promise of a sun-drenched coming of age Italian summer, but it was incredibly boring - I only finished because it’s short, but somehow felt 400 pages long. This is one of those books where the author loves describing gross things (hair in drains, skin accumulated in pool water, urine-smelling bathrooms, hairy moles in detail, etc.) and does so very often. Also felt more like pretension and feigned depth rather than anything actually profound. For example, there was so much Italian spoken but not at all translated nor intelligible through context, so it lent nothing to the story other than reminding us that the author is also fluent in Italian. Even despite that last detail, I could barely tell this book was set in Italy, which was a part of its initial appeal and promise of “atmosphere.” The constant Iliad/Odysseus inserts also didn’t add to the story or depth, and felt forced and out of place. Overall, quite a disappointment.

[Elena Enns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Simon and Schuster, Avid Reader Press, and the author for the ARC of this novel.

Montrone’s novel reads like a dream, steeped in nostalgia and gorgeous landscapes seen in photographs. This story is the perfect example of how that last summer before university feels: endless but also like an ending. If you love novels that don’t necessarily have a big punchy climax, but soft and sure and feel completely wrapped at the end, this is for you.

Also, when I was reading the last couple pages the song Somewhere Only We Know came on, and it fit the story perfectly.

[Marissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was enthralled by this book. The setting was deeply evocative- I loved the Italian immersion; both the good and the bad. The characters had a complexity to them that was nuanced and well rounded. The story was emotionally compelling and I enjoyed the Iliad insertions as a storytelling device. I found this entire book to be unlike anything I have read recently. I have been constantly thinking about it since I finished and I believe it will continue to stick with me. The way Sofia Montrone portrayed the feelings of youth into young adulthood and the way we view or family through different eyes at different stages was apt and well executed. This was overall an excellent novel and had a very clear and unique perspective that I appreciated. Thank you Avid Reader for this ARC! Always topnotch.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

i didn't just read this book, i LIVED inside of it. montrone's lyrical-prose is beautiful, and she perfectly captured the blind adoration many of us feel towards our father in childhood. this book felt nostalgic, sunkissed, and sticky with heat. i'm gonna spend the rest of the year chasing the high this book left me with.

thank you again to Avid Reader Press for the advanced readers copy!! now i need someone to wipe my memory so i can reread it again just to feel something

[andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend who works for S&S recommended this book to me and to her I am forever grateful.
Nymph is marketed as a sapphic 'Call Me By Your Name' and while I have a deep seated hatred for that book and its author I can understand the parallels being drawn between the two books.

Nymph follows Leo through two distinct summers at her family's mountain-top hotel in Northern Italy. The first when she is young child, and the second being the summer after she turns eighteen. Through these summers we get to see Leo for everything she is; young, inquisitive, loving, weird, a little gross, and often times selfish & insensitive to the plights of others. And this is why I loved her and found her so relatable - she felt so real and tangible. I saw myself in Leo. I saw my friends in Leo.

In her second summer we get to see Leo experience two very different romantic experiences. The first with a boy from the village that ends as awkwardly as you can imagine - with Leo's worst qualities showing the most in their interactions. The second is the main love story of the novel - Dolores, who comes to work at her family's hotel for the summer. Their slow burn fall into attraction and first love is so beautiful to read. It's bittersweet and realistic ending adding to the feelings of teenage angst and love.

I also want to quickly shoutout the dynamics between Leo and the different members of her family because they were all so complex and well done. The depiction of mental health struggles and how different it looks on everyone is something Montrone does a great job of through Leo and her family.

When I looked through the reviews I saw so many people talking about how gross this book is & how its all bodily fluids and blah blah blah. And all I have to say if that some of you are weak stomached LOSERS. The way some of these people complained I thought I was about to read some fucked up shit. In reality its descriptions of bodily fluids from the perspective of a weird child who is cleaning them up. The 'grossest' scene involves some tampons and that lasted for like half a page. Books can sometimes shy away from the gross truth of being human and I actually really enjoyed that Nymph lets Leo be weird and gross. Because the truth is that most people have done some weird or gross things at least once in their life, usually as a child too.

[Douglas Scully · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick palate cleanser that I could not put down. I was so immersed in the world and loved all the tactile descriptions and references back to the Odyssey

[♡ kitty *:･ﾟ✧ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“the act of becoming demands such softness”

this book reminded me of a sweltering summers day, it felt sticky at times and had a dreamlike atmosphere.
we follow Leo, at 10 years old and later at 18, as she helps out at her family’s hotel in Italy. we get to see her dynamic with her family and the connections she builds outside of them.
the writing was lyrical and emotional. grief is a major theme throughout the book and i thought it was handled in a unique but realistic way. i also personally really liked the parallels with the odyssey throughout.

i’m not sure what about this i liked so much, i simply just did. it felt both comforting and upsetting ?
overall i thought this was a really fascinating debut and i look forward to what the author does next!

[Emma Maney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm a low 3 stars for this one. I absolutely loved the beginning of the book—I especially loved Leo’s relationship with her dad, and the building of him as a myth almost as much as the tales he told her. I wish this book would’ve stayed as Leo’s childhood perspective.

However, things really fell apart for me when Leo became a teenager. Her relationship with Dolores was awkward and lacked any chemistry, and their dialogue was so unrealistic. I kept thinking to myself throughout the second half that no teenagers would speak to one another the way they did.

I contemplated 2 stars for this book, but it did have beautiful prose and the first half of the book was really excellent, so 3 stars it is!

[Christine]

DNF @ page 125 - I'm aware that it's a character driven novel, but still, things do need to happen. I just wasn't feeling it, despite the summery vibes. And I was also a bit put off by the bodily fluid/hair/etc. things that came up. Like, if someone is sucking on hair they found in a guest's bathroom, that's weird, sorry.

[Amy ☁️ (tinycl0ud) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was a dreamy, sticky sort of novel set in the Italian mountains over two summers, eight years apart. At the start of the story, Leo(nora) is ten and she is helping her grandmother run the family hotel. Her mother spends all day in bed and Leo plays with her brother in the pool between tasks. She worships her father and clings to every word he says. Her father is writing a book about his ancestors, but it does not seem to be going well. He makes up games to entertain his kids and tells Leo stories from 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey,' from which there are subtle parallels. It seems that there are oceans between Leo and her father, although he is physically right there. She can't reach him or understand him. The summer is suffused with a sense of things unravelling at the seams.

Leo is eighteen and college-bound and back at the hotel for the summer, which is slowly but surely crumbling like her grandmother. There is a beautiful passage in here about housekeeping as an attempt to restore the past, something like time travel or a resistance against entropy. She encounters Dolores, an American girl her age with a shaved head and a crafter's hands. It seems like everything Leo did before was just fooling around and killing time until she could meet Dolores. They fall in love for the summer, and it is beautiful, but it is also not enough to make Leo move on from her father's suicide four years prior. The healing, when it comes, is incomplete and slow, but come it does.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC; all opinions are my own.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25*

“Suddenly, it is as if time has collapsed, that the eight years have not passed, that she is still a young girl learning to touch with just the tips of her fingers”

Nymph is a sun-drenched & sweltering sapphic coming of age novel set in the Italian countryside. It follows Leo over the span of two summers, separated by eight years & a family tragedy*.

We first meet Leo at aged ten, where she is spending her summer at her family’s agriturismo - she helps clean the rooms, collecting odds & ends that guests leave behind. As she works, she speculates about guests, who they are, who she will grow up to be. she is awkward, sweating, newly aware of her changing body, on the precipice of childhood & adolescence.

Her mother is often ill & spends most days in bed, while Leo’s father spends the days drinking, playing cards, and regaling Leo with tales of odysseus & Greek heroes. She hangs off of his every word, trusting him to know the answers to all her questions

After a life changing accident that summer, Leo is ripped very suddenly from her childhood into harsh reality.

We then meet Leo again at age 18, back for another summer at the agriturismo. She is different,& while she still hoards treasures left behind by guests, she is a much sadder & more contemplative version of the girl we met. Grief & loss have made her grow up quickly.

Leo meets Delores, an American girl her family hires at the hotel. What ensues is a beautiful and sultry romance. It is full of the promise & beauty of first love - sneaking touches & kisses in dark alleys, beneath the wisteria trees. The atmosphere Montrone builds is so lush & evocative, I couldn’t put it down.

The romance between Leo and Dolores was lovely & while I loved seeing their relationship blosson, I was personally a bit more invested in Leo’s family dynamics, and I wish we got a little bit more of that. the love they all had for each other that was so wrapped up in grief, in anger, was so complex & well written, I just wanted so much more of it!

Overall, this is a stunning debut!


Thank you to simon and schuster Canada for an advanced copy of this book!

[Salty Swift · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten year old Leo and her younger brother Max spend their summers working at their grandmother's Italian hotel/villa. Their father is a depressed, alcoholic writer and their mom spends bulk of the days in bed. Idyllic summer is spent at work and play, as both kids know come September, they'll be back at school in the US. Fast-forward eight years and the scene is somewhat different. The kids father has died few years ago, while their mom has picked up the pieces and with the help of anti-depressants is now a semi-functioning adult. At the beginning of the summer, a woman Leo's age named Dolores secures a job at the inn. As time goes by, Leo becomes fascinated with Dolores and her independent streak. No surprise, the two become lovers, which has consequences in the traditional Italian household. A gorgeous debut, one that speaks of challenges of infatuation and first love and is drenched in gorgeous Italian countryside.

[Alecia (aleciareadsitall) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a gorgeous atmospheric summer novel. It’s truly a sensory experience that takes place over the course of a couple of decades following a young girl and her time at her family’s “agriturismo.”

The girl, Leo, spends her days helping out at the family business, playing with her brother, and learning the ways of the world from her family, especially her Nonna Tina. When Leo gets older, we get a front row seat to her love affair with an American girl staying at the property.

This novel is really deep, and like I said above, is very sensory. The story really shines in the places where the descriptions are vivid about the heat and the tastes and the stolen glances and touches that make you think of young love. The prose is beautiful and kept me intrigued, even when the plot felt a little more meandering.

Recommend for those who like slower character driven novels and coming of age stories. There’s a lot to love about Nymph!

[Kasee (litficlady) · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5*
Thank you Avid Reaer Press for gifting me an ARC of this book!

This coming-of-age story follows eldest daughter and 18 year-old Leo as she copes with grief from her childhood while balancing the familial duty of caring for their hotel located in the Italian countryside and discovering her sexual awakening with an American girl hired as a maid for the grounds.

Nymph is the definition of no plot, all vibes. It’s very, very slice of life and is best described as a slow read. Between the atmosphere and the beautiful prose, I felt like I was having a relaxed summer at a hotel in Italy, where days of doing nothing would bleed into each other.

Overall this was a gorgeously written debut and I’m glad I read it!

[Elle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much happened in this book in the way of plot. But the writing and setting was beautiful. I could've done with less mention of The Odyssey and The Iliad. I understand what this was trying to accomplish, but it made me feel like I was reading two separate books. One about the actual story, and another recounting The Odyssey/Iliad.

[Kendall Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was slow in a good way. This would be the perfect vacation book and I’m almost mad I read it while I’m sick at home. The setting was gorgeous and made me want to go back to Italy immediately

[jocelyn • coolgalreading]

struggling w this one for some reason, i may come back to it. ty to the publisher for the gifted copy.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

if i had a nickel for every book i have recently read that had multiple paragraphs on the world cup i would have 2 nickels