The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany

I loved this delightful book! The Star-Crossed Sisters of Tuscany is a drama about family, dysfunction, love and deceit. Oooo, right? It is an engaging book from its first page and Lori Nelson Spielman's descriptions of Italy, the scenery, culture and food - particularly Venice, Florence and the Amalfi Coast - took me back to my own amazing Italian trip 14 years ago. 

The story is told in two time frames. The main story is from Emilia's perspective in current day, interspersed with bits of her almost 80-year-old Great Aunt Poppy's story - 60 years earlier. The premise is set around a family curse that affects the second-born daughters in the Fontana family, but the story soon morphs into bigger issues of insecurities, self-doubt, manipulation and heartbreak set within a cast of believably flawed characters. Nelson Spielman handles these hefty issues with poignancy, well-drawn characters, and a sweet romance. Ahhh, questo è amore! 

There are characters you'll love to hate and others you'll wish you knew. Touches of humour lighten things a bit (it was hard to read how horribly Emilia is treated by her own family) and the story moves along at a great pace while giving readers much to think about and discuss.

This is a well-written, heartwarming journey of self-discovery filled with complicated family dynamics, regrets over chances not taken, forgiveness and includes a twist that was totally satisfying. The lush depictions of Italian culture made this this an enjoyable escapist read, but it was the bonds between Emilia, Lucy and Poppy (and one other character) that were the highlights of this compelling story for me. May we all have a Poppy in our lives. 

My dog Scout wouldn't get out of
the shot so he became part of it.

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Lori Nelson Spielman

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Family Drama

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Pages: 400

Publisher: Berkley

First Published: November 17, 2020

Opening Line: Seventy-two cannoli shells cool on a baking 

rack in front of me.

Book Description from GoodReads: A trio of second-born daughters set out to break the family curse that says they’ll never find love on a whirlwind journey through the lush Italian countryside by New York Times bestseller Lori Nelson Spielman, author of The Life List.

Since the day Filomena Fontana cast a curse upon her sister more than two hundred years ago, not one second-born Fontana daughter has found lasting love. Some, like second-born Emilia, the happily-single baker at her grandfather’s Brooklyn deli, claim it’s an odd coincidence. Others, like her sexy, desperate-for-love cousin Lucy, insist it’s a true hex. But both are bewildered when their great-aunt calls with an astounding proposition: If they accompany her to her homeland of Italy, Aunt Poppy vows she’ll meet the love of her life on the steps of the Ravello Cathedral on her eightieth birthday, and break the Fontana Second-Daughter Curse once and for all.

Against the backdrop of wandering Venetian canals, rolling Tuscan fields, and enchanting Amalfi Coast villages, romance blooms, destinies are found, and family secrets are unearthed—secrets that could threaten the family far more than a centuries-old curse.