I was honored to take part in the blog tour for Laura Fabiani's new novel, Daughter of Mine, where you will "get swept away to Italy in an adventure of life lessons . . ."Summary: Tiziana Manoretti is a successful 27-year-old engineer, who suddenly finds her whole world turned upside down when her mother becomes ill and her parents inform her that she was adopted as an infant in Italy. She decides to travel to Italy in an attempt to locate her birth parents. Meanwhile, she is also questioning whether she and her best friend Christopher could possibly be more than friends.
My Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this first novel from new author, Laura Fabiani. It was an interesting premise in that Tiziana did not find out she was adopted until much later in life than adopted children normally do and so had more issues to deal with than someone who is given this information as a child. She runs into so many roadblocks and secrets in trying to get information about her birth that I was genuinely curious about what all these people were hiding from her and couldn't wait to get to the end to find the answers. On top of all this, she is also trying to figure out if there's something more to her relationship with Christopher than just friendship. There were such vivid descriptions of the sites in Italy that I would love to visit the Villa Tiziana stayed in while searching for the truth. I may have to just Google it to see if it really exists!!! My father's side of the family is Italian so I could really relate to a lot of this and found it really interesting too! I definitely look forward to reading more work from Laura in the future.
Rating: 4/5
Be sure to stop back on April 26th when Laura will be stopping by for an interview!
Wow..great review steph.i've heard so many good review on this book too. wish i will read it soon because i love the italy.i never visit there but maybe when i have enough fund to travel.*LOL*
ReplyDeletehappy Sunday!
Good point made in Tiziana's finding out she was adopted in her late twenties. In fact, were it not for her adoptive mother falling ill, she may have gone through life never knowing of her adoption. Note that there is resistance on the adoptive father's side even after his wife is taken to the hospital.
ReplyDeleteThe importance of 'setting' in a novel is clearly demonstrated in "Daughter of Mine". I know that the city of Gaeta is both real and of historical substance. As for the Villa, I can only surmise that the author, having visited the city, must have based it on an existing structure.
It is an essential lesson that we learn from this novel that, in establishing the setting(s), the realism will be strengthened from choosing places you are familiar with or have thoroughly researched. I would want to have visited rather then researched the setting as only then can one capture, not only the five senses that a place radiates, but also that sixth sense of 'character-setting interaction' critical to establishing mood in a novel. To this extent, the setting in this novel has come to life in words without eclipsing the plot.
This sounds really good. I'll check it out for sure!
ReplyDeleteWOW^^ to his comment.
ReplyDeleteGreat review. This is a book that I know someone I love would really like. I am going to have to pick it up for her.
Thanks all for the comments! It is always fun to read about other places like this!
ReplyDeleteVasilios - thank you so much for sharing your insight. I do believe a wonderful setting can make a story come to life.
This is the 2nd review I have read today. Its always nice getting an author to stop by.
ReplyDeleteItaly is just beautiful so I would want to read because of that and the story of searching for her parents.
Great review. I love the cover. It makes me want to vacation there.
ReplyDeleteSteph, thanks for the lovely review! I truly appreciate it. Yes, the Villa Irlanda does exist. Although I have been to Gaeta, I have not personally stayed at the hotel. If you Google it, the photos are stunning. Glad you enjoyed the book.
ReplyDeleteWarmly,
Laura
I just read another review of this book and I think it's truly beautiful! I have to read this one! Great review!
ReplyDeleteYou had me on "swept away to Italy!" :-)
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