Review by Booklist Review
Since her divorce, Giuseppina "Jess" Capodimonte Baratta has lived in her parents' basement in Lake Como, New Jersey, managing Sunday dinner and working for her uncle Louie at Capodimonte Marble & Stone. Louie plans to take her to Italy to see where Carrara marble is cut and to relive his youthful summer there. Then tragedy strikes, and Jess--and the FBI--learns about Louie's creative accounting. But Jess finds the plane ticket Louie bought for her, and soon she's renting a room in Tuscany from the widowed Signora Strazza, whose son, Angelo, is a master craftsman who seems unimpressed by Jess. She doesn't care: she's too busy lapping up the food, people, and art around her, coming alive for the first time. Things get complicated on a trip to Milan and Lake Como (the Italian one), and then even more complicated when she uncovers a family secret near the marble-filled mountains. Trigiani (The Good Left Undone, 2023) writes fondly of her Italian American roots, and this may be her best yet. Jess is a character to root for, a competent calm in the center of her family storm who dreams of something bigger. Readers will be absolutely transported in this immersive, bighearted ode to family, history, and the importance of independence.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Trigiani is a real crowd-pleaser with book groups and individual readers alike, and her latest, with its delightfully relatable heroine and swoony setting, will draw them in in droves.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An Italian American woman throws off the shackles of her constrictive New Jersey family in this sweet outing from Trigiani (The Good Left Undone). Giuseppina Capodimonte works for her savvy uncle Louie, drafting designs for fountains, bathrooms, and floors made from the distinctive Italian marble he imports. She's left her hometown husband, Bobby, and is living in her parents' basement, the dutiful daughter who's with Grandma Cap when she dies, who's always there to help Grammy B make the cavatelli, and whose college fund was used to put her brother Joe through law school. After Giuseppina takes over Cap Marble and Stone, she discovers that her uncle was in over his head with the IRS. The first thing she does is travel to Carrara, where the marble is quarried, and there her awakening begins. She rents a charming apartment overlooking a picture-perfect piazza, drinks superb espresso, acquires a stray kitten, and melts on multiple occasions into the arms of the landlady's gorgeous son. As Giuseppina straightens out her family's business, the Italian sojourn proves predictably life-changing. Trigiani's fans will lap this up. (July)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Italian American Jess Capodimonte Baratta's life has not gone as she planned. Her youthful dream of attending Rutgers University and traveling the world was quashed when her college fund was used to put her brother through school instead. Jess had no choice but to stay in Lake Como, NJ, where she attended a nearby college, married young, and worked in her uncle's marble business. With each passing day, her dissatisfaction grew, culminating in the breakup of her marriage. Then Jess's uncle dies, bequeathing her the company, along with substantial debts and tax liabilities. With her world turned upside down, Jess leaves everything behind, traveling to Carrara, Italy, where she hopes to find answers, not just about the marble business but about herself as well. Along the way, she learns to let go of past hurts and embrace a positive new future. Actor Sorvino narrates this story smoothly, engaging listeners with steady pacing and using different accents and changes in intonation to bring the characters to life. Trigiani narrates her author's note. VERDICT Trigiani's (The Good Left Undone) latest brims with warmth, communicating the joy of finding community and love while coming into one's own.--Misty Schattle
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A good Italian American daughter's 30-something rebellion forces her entire family to reckon with their choices, resulting in a happily-ever-after for all that's like the best affogato: rich, bitter, sweet. Giuseppina "Jess" Capodimonte Baratta lives in her parents' basement, and it's not the finished kind, but more like an old-fashioned cellar with a bed and a dresser. Her family has long struggled with money problems, so many that Jess had to go to community college instead of the four-year institutions her sister and brother attended. At 33, she's landed back at her childhood home in Lake Como, New Jersey (known for its location between a lake and the Atlantic Ocean), because she's left her husband, Bobby Bilancia, heir to Bilancia Meats and blue-eyed local heartthrob. Jess may not know what she wants for her life, but it isn't nightly TV and then several kids with Bobby, whose idea of sophistication runs to capicola-ham rosettes. Then Uncle Louie, the proprietor of Capodimonte Marble and Stone who has mentored Jess as his deputy, dies of a heart attack and leaves the business in her hands. Unfortunately, there's also some funny business that includes a side hustle with an associate known as "Googs" and a quarry's worth of unpaid taxes. Jess chooses to ignore her overbearing mother's advice and fly to Carrara, the home of the world's most beautiful stones--and stonemasons, like Angelo Strazza, whose specialty is applying fragile gold leaf to carved pieces. From brushing up on her Italian to investigating Uncle Louie's somewhat mysterious past, Jess soon discovers she needs less of her family's assistance than she or they ever believed. Trigiani risks gilding the lily here, but by placing Jess' love affair with Angelo alongside her love affair with her own future, she maintains a balance that will leave readers as satisfied as an Italian Sunday dinner would. A fairy tale stuffed with a meaningful moral, this is a funny and heartwarming novel. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
