I received this from the publisher to read and review. Though I enjoyed reading this book, I am not quite sure about I feel about it now that I have finished it. One thing I will say is that the book did drag a bit for me, especially in the middle. After reading the book blurb and reviews, I kept waiting for the proverbial she to drop, but it never did. Things wound down nicely, but there were no real surprises. I did not like the main character, Olivia, very much. She seemed preoccupied with her needs and desires and really not caring about the repercussions her actions might have on others. This is the story of her love for Luca, the son she ran off with to the big city on the eve of his marriage to the daughter of a very close friend of his mother. I am not sure either Liv, as she was called, or Luca really understood or cared about what this would do to the family. A huge rift between the family, especially his mother and Luca’s would-be bride, and Luca and Liv developed. This rift was never really closed in the book. Because he was family, the sort of accepted Luca, but never Liv. Things became tenser when Luca dies in an auto accident and Liv moves back to the town where the family lived. To make matters worse, Liv takes up with Luca’s twin brother, Marc, who has married the jilted woman. I was not sure how to take this. Yes, both were bereft by Luca’s death and falling into each other’s arms and bed was easy enough and it did assuage the grief they both had after Luca’s death, but I am not sure this was the best thing to do under the circumstances.

The author writes a wonderful romantic love story in the book. The characters are well developed and likable. However, I am not sure I like the way the plot played out. This is definitely not a conventional or wise way to get on with life after a death of someone close and the grief that follows. Nevertheless, the author handled it all tastefully and in an interesting manner. This is not your usual love story. The basic plot is, but the execution and twists and turns definitely are not. This is a great book for the reader who enjoys a good romance and is looking for something a little bit different. ( )

70

Instead of reading books I've already started, I keep picking random selections from the library shelf. The Love of My Life is chick lit with a slightly darker tone - a widow with a selfish streak a mile wide does the dirty on her late husband's family, twice, in the present and in flashback. Liv Felicone's actions, and her arrogant narration, should make her deeply unlikeable, but her honesty sort of balanced her attitude problem for me. She is who she is, and does what she does, like most people in real life. I never quite believed in her grand romance with Luca - the pair of them sound unbearably smug, 'We were thin and good looking' - but her grief after losing him is very physical and powerful. The whole mess with Marc, Luca's twin, is the hardest part of the story to swallow, especially considering their history, but the three of them - Liv, Luca and Marc - actually deserve each other.

A quick, though not always easy, read, with obnoxious but strangely sympathetic characters. ( )

I have a confession to make. I brought this book just before my 2011 summer holiday, thinking it would be a nice fluffy chick-lit type read for the beach. I didn’t read it on my holiday, and when I was coming to the very end of my 24 read-a-thon last weekend, I started reading it because I thought it would be an ‘easy’ read.

Now I’m a little stuck how to describe it, because it is an easy read in terms of how it is written, but the content is much more complex than it appears.

The Love of My Life sucks you in right from the beginning, and doesn’t let you go. The characters are vibrant and real, and I particularly loved Olivia – her grief is compelling and her situation is heartbreaking – I couldn’t help but sympathise with her. The Felicone’s are as I imagine an Italian family in a small town would be, protective and completely family-orientated.

This is a book about a lot of things – grief, comfort, family, friendships, and most of all, love. The flashbacks to Olivia and Luca’s childhood help to make the story complete, and link their life together with Olivia’s grief in a believable way, and the gradual revealing of the reasons why Olivia does not fit in with the family kept me reading just to find out what happened.

The Love of My Life completely surpassed my expectations – I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves….well I don’t know how to describe it, it’s not my idea of ‘chick-lit’! ……anyone who loves a good, emotional and heartfelt story. ( )

Ik ging dit boek lezen omdat ik dacht dat het in London speelt (flaptekst niet goed gelezen; het speelt zich af in Noord-Engeland). Romantisch verhaal over het verwerken van de dood van een geliefde. Het las lekker weg maar daar is alles wel mee gezegd. Ik heb het in het Engels gelezen. ( )