Review: An (Italian) Affair to Remember
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 10, 2013
Annie Seaton's AFFAIR stories really are "Affairs to Remember".  First there was Holiday Affair  which told the story of Nick and Lissy and introduced Nick's exuberant Aussie Italian family. Now it's brother Tomas's turn. From Australia's New South Wales coast, we head to Europe and the glories of the Amalfi Coast.Stuffy, stitched-up, list-making Tom has finally decided to make some changes in his life, the first being to fly to Lipari Island in the Tyrrehenian Sea off the Amalfi Coast. His purchase of his aunt's marina is just the financial and physical challenge he's looking for. But his aunt also feels qualified to set him up with a receptionist/wife. Fortunately Brianna, disorganised fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants Scottish sex therapist whom he met on the flight over, offers salvation from his matchmaker aunt.Tom makes a list--things he wants to do in this `new' life he's chosen, but marriage to Bri within a week of arriving on Lipari Island wasn't one of the items. However, Bri's birth mother's will required her to have  husband in order to inherit and the fun builds as Tom and Bri share her newly inherited cottage. Tom gradually ticks off items on his list--many of them highly entertaining. I also enjoyed how the list plays a role at the end of the story in a lovely symmetry within Tom and Bri's relationship. It is both symbolic and useful and representative of Tom's need to impose order on his world.I love the layers in both these characters and the wonderfully real families who support them. Much of the story revolves around Bri's family but Tom's Aussie Italian family also features, albeit in a scene that had me crying because the loss they'd suffered was so real. I'm sure this loss will lead to the third brother's `affair' story; at least, I hope it does.Annie Seaton's writing is lyrical and emotive and her characters real and warm. I'm loving this series. I just wish her writing could keep up with my reading!