HarperCollins, $39.99
Reviewed by Nicky Pellegrino
And so began Dolci Di Love, a story about a secret league of Italian widows dedicated to healing broken hearts and smoothing the path of true love. When American businesswoman Lily Turner arrives in their picturesque hilltop town her heart is well and truly broken. She’s discovered her husband has a secret family in Italy and is there to track him down. Haunted by her childlessness and devastated by failed bids at IVF and adoption, Lily is an emotional wreck. This doesn’t escape the notice of the secret network of widows who are determined to find her a happy ending. Before too long – and with many comic moments - they’ve manipulated her into helping them bake the town’s famous biscotti and are throwing her into the path of a handsome local widower.
Fertility battles and farce (at one point a tiramisu talks!) might not seem a natural match but, as Lynch has proved in previous novels, she has a deft hand when it comes to blending serious issues and comedy. Fans of her bestsellers are not going to be disappointed by Dolci Di Love. I think it’s going to tick all their boxes – it’s entertaining, emotionally truthful, has a beautiful setting, delicious biscotti and a satisfying ending.
At this point I should admit that I’ve known Sarah-Kate Lynch for a couple of decades – in fact she smoothed my own path to true love! It can be tricky reading a friend’s novel because you worry about hearing their voice in your head and not being able to lose yourself fully in the story. That never happened with Dolci Di Love. From the very first page, where Lily finds a laminated photograph of her husband with his mistress and two children hidden under the insole of his left golf shoe, I’d forgotten about Sarah-Kate entirely and was hooked into her bittersweet tale.
Footnote:
Nicky Pellegrino is a succcesful Auckland-based author of popular fiction and her new novel The Villa Girls - Orion - is being published in April this year. She is also the Books Editor of the Herald on Sunday where the above review was first published on 27 February, 2011.
Pellegrino has just set up a website.
The following Booklover piece was also published in that issue of the Herald on Sunday.
Booklover
Counter tenor William Purefoy sings the role of Arsamene in the NBR New Zealand Opera’s production of Xerxes, opening in Auckland on Wednesday 2 March. http://www.nzopera.com/
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