That Month in Tuscany
Inglath Cooper, 2018
Fence Free Entertainment
340 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780692084694
Summary
Ren Sawyer and Lizzy Harper live completely different lives. He’s a rock star with a secret he can no longer live with. She’s a regular person whose husband stood her up for a long planned anniversary trip.
On a flight across the Atlantic headed for Italy, a drunken pity party and untimely turbulence literally drop Lizzy into Ren’s lap. It is the last thing she can imagine ever happening to someone like her.
But despite their surface differences, they discover an undeniable pull between them. A pull that leads them both to remember who they had once been before letting themselves be changed by a life they had each chosen.
Exploring the streets of Florence and the hills of Tuscany together—two people with seemingly nothing in common—changes them both forever. And what they find in each other is something that might just heal them both. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1962-63
• Raised—Callaway, Virginia, USA
• Education—B.A., Virginia Tech
• Awards—RITA Award
• Currently—lives in Franklin County, Virginia
Inglath Cooper is the author of more than 20 romance novels. She grew up in the small community of Callaway, Virginia, where she fell in love with reading as a child. As a teen she began dreaming of becoming a writer.
It was while she was a college student in the 1980s that Cooper began writing although it took six manuscripts before she sold her first book, Truths and Roses, in 1994. A community college course in creative writing in the 1990s helped boost her confidence.
Having published under the Harlequin label for years, in 2011 Cooper decided to start her own imprint, Fence Free Entertainment. Doing so, she says, allows her to maintain a closer connection to her readers.
Cooper married her high school sweetheart, Mac Cooper, settling in Franklin County, Virginia, near Smith Mountain Lake. In addition to their four daughters, Cooper shares the family home with a succession of rescue animals. She is actively involved with the Franklin County Humane Society, serving on the board of directors, fundraising, and photographing dozens of dogs and cats up for adoption. (Adapted from online sources, including The Roanoke Times .)
Book Reviews
…if this sounds like an ordinary, stereotypical romance, trust me, it is not. Why? The characters are nicely drawn, subtle and complete. The scenery is gorgeous. And there are enough plot twists to keep the reader turning pages, not to mention rooting for Lizzy and Ren.
Barbara Delinsky.com
I loved this book. All of the characters felt very real to me.… Parts of the novel read like a travel journal, and I mean that in a really good way. I loved the sights, sounds, and tastes of Tuscany. But the best part of this book was the emotion. It oozed.
kristystories.blogspot.com
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for THAT MONTH IN TUSCANY … then take off on your own:
1. How would you describe Lizzy Harper? What does the following observation suggest about how she views her life: "a day is normally sectioned off by appointments… and meetings… all of those things that manage to steal most of the best parts of our waking hours." (By the way, does that have complaint have a familiar ring to you and your own life?)
2. If someone bowed out of a trip that you had planned together, would you have the temerity to take off on your own as Lizzy does? (Perhaps that's actually happened to you.)
3. How does Ty, Lizzy's husband come across, both in his own chapters and in what Lizzy has to say about him? Why does Lizzy stay in the marriage? Also, Ty's chapters use the unusual 2nd person point-of-view. Why might the author have made that choice?
4. Talk about Ren Sawyer and the impact his brother's death has had on him. Why does he seem to struggle with his fame?
5. What draws Ren and Lizzy together? What do they see in one another? What are each seeking? Ultimately, what do the two learn from (or through) one another—how does their relationship change their lives?
6. What is Lizzy's relationship with her daughter? Why is Kylie so surprised when Lizzy takes off to Tuscany on her own? How does Kylie's understanding of her mother—and her father—change by the end of the novel?
7. Do you feel the subplot involving Kylie's kidnapping is well-integrated into the storyline, adding a good dose of suspense to the novel? Or do you feel it's a distraction from the main story? Perhaps, it's merely an awkward plot device used to get Lizzy to return home? Any thoughts?
8. Kylie's story is told in the 3rd person: does the narrator have an identity? If not, why might the author have chosen this perspective for Lizzy's daughter?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)