Can you really reject a surprise last-minute, all-expense paid trip to Italy from your sister? For Diana, a sensible CPA in Atlanta, you most certainly can.
But within the last week, Diana turned forty-five, got engaged, purchased a wedding cake and agreed to join her fiancé in another state where his current work project has been extended for several months.
Diana’s younger sister, Harper, uses these uncharacteristic life changes as proof that Diana definitely can meet her in Italy. Besides, Harper’s already cleared the trip with Diana’s boss and fiancé. So begrudgingly, Diana agrees to go.
Little did she know that her whole world would be turned upside down the second she stepped foot on Italian soil.
As Diana falls deeper into Italy’s culture, countryside and cuisine, she reconnects with the ghosts of her past and reignites passions she thought had long been extinguished – proving that life and love are full of phases.
Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10
Originality: 9 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 9 out of 10
Overall: 8.50 out of 10
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: La Bella Luna is a lovely story that, while it is stalled by a slow beginning, picks up speed as Diana leaves behind a humdrum existence and lackluster fiancee to explore the splendors of Italy and find herself in the process.
Prose: The prose style is smooth, upbeat, and approachable. The author's approach to showing the primary characters through others' perspectives, is both novel and effective.
Originality: While pulling from beloved tropes, La Bella Luna also offers a fresh take on how a life diversion can lead to finding a happiness one never knew was lacking.
Character/Execution: The author convincingly portrays Anthony as a boring cheapskate and shows that Diana is perfectly complacent about his mediocrity. Perhaps too effectively, Diana initially comes across as dull and uninteresting. But readers who invest in her story will be rewarded as her experiences abroad breathe fresh life into her character.
Date Submitted: April 13, 2024
