A positive rollercoaster of a story - engaging, romantic, intriguing and sometimes exciting. It covers all aspects of a worthwhile read.
Set in Italy, the story of the relationship between a group of friends over the course of three summers. It’s not all sweetness and light - life throws a few lemons along the way as you would expect in most good books.
I enjoyed this book. It starts a little slowly, but the action begins to hot up as the story progresses and accelerates to a gripping and satisfying finish. The setting is wonderful and the descriptions are very vivid, just by closing my eyes I could very easily imagine myself in stunning Puglia. The characters are well drawn and realistic, some definitely more likeable than others. There are some real ‘badduns’ believe me! The plot line is actually quite a dark one, a little different to Karen Swan’s normal style of writing. It has a slightly foreboding feel and had me on the edge of my seat at times. A positive rollercoaster of a story - engaging, romantic, intriguing and sometimes exciting. It covers all aspects of a worthwhile read.
I always know that when I pick up a Karen Swan novel, due to her thorough research, I’m going to be transported to a fascinating and realistic location.
Characters are well developed and credible. Although originally the story does not move at pace, the use of different characters for each chapter develops the storylines from different points of view, supported by evocative descriptions of life in the Italian village.
Many themes are covered in this book; love, loyalty, friendship & class conflicts all set against an accurate historical background.
Gradually the sunny carefree days of youth become darker and more uncomfortable.The final part of the novel had me racing through wanting to know how events were going to turn out.
This certainly was not the light summer romance suggested by the cover, it has soul and unexpected twists. One to keep you on the edge of your sun lounger!
This book is full of twists and turns, but is a great read.
Three Summers is a story about friendships and love, jealousy, murder, smuggling, kidnapping but most of all secrets.
The first summer lays the foundation to the story of friends living in an Italian seaside village and during the summer they have the rich villa owners arrive each summer. The friendships started when everyone was young and continued every summer. During the 1st summer a lot happens to the main characters, Rafaella, Cosimo, Fede, Romola, Gina, Alfonso and Dante, which leads to a very short 2nd summer.
The following summer Dante and Gina, Alsonso and Rafaella marry. Rafaella becomes a teacher.
The 3rd summer everything comes to a head. A kidnapping happens, someone who was in the Church now decides to come out and be with the love of his life, two murders happen in on night.
Beautifully told but does darken in closing third of the novel.
The novel is set in Puglia, Italy over three summers Set in Puglia, Italy over three summers in the late fifties and early sixties. The story follows the characters of Rafaella Parisi, Fon Gianelli and Cosimo Franchetti and their pursuit of love. Their relationships change from childhood friendships to romantic rivalries.
The pace of the novel is relatively slow, but the descriptions of coastal Italy are sublime. Interesting from historical perspective with its descriptions of a bygone age of a much simpler life, working the olive groves, fishing etc. The characters are generally well drawn out. A gripping story however I am not sure I really enjoyed the final chapters with its dark and sinister edge to it.