Review: Beautiful setting, but...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2014
2.5-2.75 stars. Henry is a 21 year old from England hired for the summer to work with an 18 year old Italian on his advanced English. He’s brought over to Lake Garda, Italy to live in his student’s home with his family. He meets the family including his his student’s 22 year old brother and the summer turns into something Henry could never have expected.I believe the ability to like this story is directly connected to how much a reader enjoys living the in mind of a 21 year old male who spends most of his time with an 18 year old male, his student Alessandro (Sandro) and Sandro’s brother, Michele. These three young men, and Henry and Michele in particular, are much like any other males their age, and they are obsessed with sex. The first night Henry’s in town, he lusts after Sandro and hooks up with a one night stand in town. The second night he’s there he falls more in lust with Michele, who luckily lusts back, and has another one night stand that turns into more than a one nighter but not before Michele grills him endlessly on Henry’s hookup the night before.When Henry’s not having sex, he’s thinking about sex, or talking about sex. And Henry, Michele, and Sandro talk about sex. A lot.Michele is a gifted opera tenor who has graduated and would like to find an opera position but knows there are few. Henry’s mother was a concern pianist and he is gifted at the piano and together Michele and Henry spend time on their music and here you can feel a connection between the two.Henry also works with Sandro who has a good grasp of English but works with Henry to pick up the idiosyncracies of the language. Michele joins in on that and they spend a fair amount of time together. The boys play games with the language and I found myself amused by it.Henry and Michele declare themselves in love on day two. Yes, day two. Both men are highly emotional and an idyllic summer in a beautiful town with someone they can connect with musically certainly must be true love for two men so young.All is moving nicely when Michele and Henry see a boat capsize and rush to help one of the passengers who happens to be Signor Grippi, Director of Opera Vicenza. They talk with him a bit and Michele does an impromptu rendition and Grippi invites him for an official audition. The rehersal is a success though Grippi does not have a position open at the time, but Henry played the accompaniment and gets an offer he can't refuse. So the nice only gets better.Then you get to the controversial part. If you read any of the other reviews, you know there is cheating. Personally, I hate books with cheating but knew it was coming and tried to look at it objectively. I really didn’t have to. By the time Michele’s ex Valentino comes to town, you really get a sense of how sex obsessed these three men are. Sando’s girlfriend has left to the University and sends a letter implying she met someone else. Sandro decides he’s gay and he and Henry have an encounter while back at the house Michele is having the same thing with Valenino. Considering the three of them talked about what it mean if Sandro had sex with Henry, the fact that all parties did it with barely a thought shows the lack of maturity in each and every one of them. None of them care and I’d not have been surprised in the slightest to see all four them hop in bed together. That kind of fidelity is just not important which is why the whole thing is waved off with nary a thought.From this point on, everything comes up roses for them. Everything from their family to their jobs to Sandro and Valentino hooking up is perfect and tied up in the prettiest of bows.I can’t get away from mentioning the background and scenry in the book. The author draws us a beautiful playground for this story. If this doesn’t appeal to you, many of the descriptions are written such you could skim them without missing much of the plot, and if Italy appeals to you, then you are more than set.I can’t say I really liked the book though. I grew tired of the journey in young Henry’s sex saturated mind. I don’t blame him for it, he’s what I’d expect him to be, but I’m not engaged by it. But on the other hand it was better than I thought with the cheating aspect much minor than I expected and the ending perfect and sappy, but still made me feel good at the end.Received a copy of this story from the author at no charge in exchange of an honest review.