It’s a Family Curse, But is it a Bunch of Hooey?
There is a two-hundred-year-old curse on the second-born daughters of the Fontana family. Supposedly, they will never find lasting love. If you look at the family tree, you will see that through the generations none of them have married or had children. Is this a coincidence? A self-fulfilling prophecy? A true curse? Or a bunch of hooey?
Emilia is a second-born daughter. She is closing in on thirty years old and is still single. Beyond that, she is entrenched in her single life. Part of her story includes the fact that her mother passed away when she was two years old. She was raised by her maternal grandmother – Nona Rosa – who is not only unkind and unloving toward her, but who refuses to tell her anything about her deceased mom. Emilia also has a sister, Daria, with whom she used to be inseparable, but something has come between them. And then there is cousin Lucy who is likewise a second-born daughter in the family. But this gal, at 21, is out there looking for a man! Trying to break the spell!
Into this picture Great Aunt Poppy arrives. She is Nona Rosa’s sister who was banished from the family and only allowed to return on holidays. Out of the blue, she offers Emilia and Lucy an all-expense paid trip to Italy. She promises that the trip will break the family curse. Equally important, Poppy promises to tell Emilia all about her mother. And so off they go to Italy!
I will confess that I listened to this story as an audio book. The book is broken into sections told by Emilia and sections told by Poppy, so there are two different narrators used. I did not care for the syrupy voice of the woman reading Emilia’s part (!!!!) and so I threatened to quit the book repeatedly. It was hard to make it to the end!
HOWEVER, I really needed to know about the curse and about Emilia’s mother. I needed to know what happened between Daria and Emilia. And did I mention that scar on Emilia’s lip? How did it get there and what did that have to do with anything? On and on went my list of questions. The author presented her story in such a way that I needed to know! So I continued to listen and greatly enjoyed how all the answers were woven together by the book’s end.
So I say, good book and good author, but I encourage you to read it, not listen to it.
*****
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