You lost me from Hello

Book Reviewed: What Happens in Tuscany

Author: T.A. Williams

Recently I was given a gift certificate for doing a Beta reading of the fabulous new book by Lisa Brunette, a friend and author who writes the Dreamslipper books.  It seemed appropriate to use the gift card to further support authors and find a bunch of new things to read from the Amazon eBooks, every expat readers best friend.

Since I love reading books about life, travel, relationships, adventure, etc - but I am not into romance novels - it can be hard to find the right book for me.  What Happens in Tuscany seemed like it might fit the bill and the reviews were decent so I gave it a try.

Although there was nothing egregiously terrible about the book, and I enjoyed many elements of the plot, it failed to hit home.  I couldn't connect with the characters.  Just when I thought there was common ground, they would do something that just seemed, well, out of character.  There was a dissonance that made me feel like I was lost.  Throughout the entire book I just kept thinking, something is wrong.  The two lead female characters didn't act or think like any women I had ever met.  It was like they where copies of a copy.

Having read thousands of books in my life and never having had this experience before, I thought.  What kind of woman writes a book like this?  Who is like, "Hey I was ruffled, nearly sexually assaulted, and photographed nude by a stranger - but that's not a big deal."  Honestly, you don't just toss in an incident like that and treat it like is was a crazy Saturday at the pool. Who thinks like this?  So I google the author.  It was not written by a woman.  It was written by a man.