Journal Entry 1 by BethanieKay from Fort Worth, Texas USA on Sunday, December 27, 2009

My awesome sister Kristal (Moody-Blue) got me nearly every book on my Amazon wish-list for Christmas, and this was one of them!

I saw this book in a library many years ago, and for some reason it caught my eye enough to make me put it on my wishlist. Now that I look at it again and read the synopsis, I realize that it will probably be even more meaningful to me now, considering some of my life events in the past couple years. Really looking forward to reading this one.

From Publishers Weekly:

A soft clash of civilizations disrupts romance in this rapturous but socially acute fable of cross-class love. Sojourning in Europe, 18-year-old Beth, raised by her hippie father on a Pennsylvania commune, finds her polar opposite in Cesare, handsome scion of a 500-year-old Italian banking dynasty. For the motherless Beth, Cesare represents the allure of rootedness and gracious traditions. For Cesare, straitjacketed by family, class expectations and a prospective banking career he dreads, Beth represents America's wide-open possibilities, headquartered at her father's egalitarian but entrepreneurial commune, a refuge for dreamers of all stripes seeking to reinvent themselves. Besotted as they are with each other, Beth and Cesare find themselves drawn apart—Cesare back to the comforting confines of his hometown, Beth to New York, where her idea of home is a succession of illegal sublets and where she commercializes her love of Italy by writing cookbooks and starting restaurants.

McPhee's lush, erotically charged prose evokes their erotic obsession—and the glamorous Old World locales where it blossoms—but, as in her well-received family sagas Bright Angel Time and Gorgeous Lies, McPhee's real subject is the larger forces that shape individual lives and passions.  

Journal Entry 2 by BethanieKay from Fort Worth, Texas USA on Thursday, February 11, 2010

What a crap book.

I thought this would be so good - a love story about an American girl who meets an Italian boy while both are on holiday in Greece. What could go wrong?

Everything. This author did a terrible job of telling the story. The point of view changes constantly, there are random and frequent changes in continuity, way too many boring storylines, and not enough about the main characters. Why couldn't she just tell a linear story about Beth and Cesare, and how they fell in love, what their obstacles were, and how they were resolved? It would have been so much better.

Listing as AVL until I decide what to do with this hunk of junk. 

Journal Entry 3 by BethanieKay from Fort Worth, Texas USA on Saturday, April 24, 2010

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Taking this book with me on my upcoming trip to Australia. Even though I didn't enjoy the book, maybe someone who finds it Down Under will! I'm not sure where I'll release it (either in Queensland, S. Australia, or Victoria) but will try to get to the internet as soon as I can after I release the book to make release notes. I hope someone catches it!

>^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^<

To the finder of this book:

Hello and congratulations!

You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large.

I hope that you will write a journal entry letting me know that the book has been found, and that you'll stick around a bit and get to know Bookcrossing. Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single release!!

Happy Reading! 

Journal Entry 4 by BethanieKay at Rundle Mall in Adelaide, South Australia Australia on Monday, May 10, 2010

Released 2 yrs ago (5/9/2010 UTC) at Rundle Mall in Adelaide, South Australia Australia

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left the book on a bench on Rundle Street in front of Harris Scarfe.

Happy travels, little book!