Gently, Jolene

I mainly read this to get a feel for the Cinque Terre where I will be visiting later this month. The book was so so at best, rather annoying that the main character was completely clueless most of the time even though she was supposedly an educated independent 38 year old woman! Arghh!! ! I did howe......more

I read this for the Popsugar 2020 Summer Reading Challenge in the category of "a book set at a resort or hotel". The descriptions of Cinque Terre, both the people and the scenery, made me want to visit there. The main characters did not thrill me so much. As others have noted, Jolene was clueless wi......more

This was a tough book to rate. The author did a great job of setting an atmosphere in Cinque Terre , so well that I felt I was there. The scenes were vivid , the food , the coffee drinking ( I’m a coffee fanatic ) This is the reason I kept reading because it certainly was not the story. I found the......more

Having been to Cinque Terre, I loved the descriptions of the place, its people, landscape and food. It took me back and gave me a peek into the way the place exists for the locals. That said, I both enjoyed the book and was frustrated by it. Jolene, the protagonist was extremely gullible to the poin......more

4.5* It's strange that this book proclaims itself a 'love story', it's not, or at least it doesn't read like one and doesn't abide by the usual tropes. I would say this is a book about loss, healing, forgiveness, and strained family dynamics, which is perhaps why I liked it (not a fan of the romance......more