Mischief in Italy

Beate
Boeker
Genre: 
Contemporary

ROMANTIC COMEDY:  There is life for “older” single adults, or so Henry’s son, Josh, tells him. Trying to get Josh to settle down backfires on Henry, and he ends up on the receiving end of a lecture himself.  Carla responds to a tongue-in-cheek ad in the paper, and worries her daughter Tina, when she flies off to Italy with no plans at all - just plane tickets. The adventure for the four of them is just beginning!

The thought that your parent might behave totally out of character, and the lack of control a child has over that is the basis for this amusing story. Each character is unique, with quirks that anyone can relate to; empty nester or not. The pieces are there for an amazing tale, but it falls short. Each character (even ones not needed for the plot) is written from a first person point of view, but that makes the story jump all over the place.  The reader has to pick up the pieces of "who did what" and "who’s speaking now", because everything is "I".  Unfortunately, "I" doesn’t mean one person, it means many.  Third person limited would have made things much clearer, and not lost an ounce of those distinctive characteristics. Everyone in the story speaks perfect, fluent English, even though the settings are Italy and Germany. There are enormous formatting issues, so jarring that the reading fully stops. All these issues are distressing because the story itself, and how it all plays out, with parents being different from what’s expected, and children finally growing up, is a fun trip through love and growth.

Julie York