To Tuscany with Love
Gail Mencini, 2014
Capriole Group
392 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781938592003
Summary
Can one college semester abroad change the course of your life?
Bella Rossini, a vivacious college junior, lands in jail overnight with acquaintances whom she mistakes for friends. Shipped off to Tuscany by her mother, Bella is suddenly thrust into living with seven strangers during one life-altering summer.
Meet Hope, the sturdy and practical girl, steadfast in her loyalty to her boyfriend; Meghan and Karen, identical twins with an eye for fashion and beauty to match; Stillman, haunted by his hard past, and Phillip, an athlete, both fueled by competition; Lee, by family mandate in pre-med; and Rune, the Hollywood-bound wild child. All add sizzling chemistry and rebellious humor to the mix.
In one whirlwind summer, while uncovering the charms of Italy, they discover both friendship and love. After their summer together, life – and loss – happens. Returning to Tuscany 30 years later, their dreams, anger, secrets and disappointments create an emotional kaleidoscope. Their reunion sends them on a startling collision course that none of them could have predicted.
Set against the allure of Tuscany, with an irresistible fusion of heartbreak and humor, this debut novel, To Tuscany with Love, explores the fear of letting the past determine the future and the power of friendship. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—state of Nebraska, USA
• Education—B.A., Wartburg College; L.L.M, University
of Denver, College of Law
• Currently—lives in Denver, Colorado
Gail Mencini makes her literary debut with To Tuscany with Love (January 7, 2014, Capriole Group) an adult coming-of-age novel set in central Italy.
Born in rural Nebraska, Mencini graduated with honors in 1976 from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where she majored in accounting, economics and business administration. She holds a Master of Laws of Taxation degree from the University of Denver College of Law.
Mencini co-owned an accounting firm and practiced for 15 years in public accounting, specializing in tax law related to mergers and acquisitions and real estate. She also spent time in the higher education field, working as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado and Metro State College, as well as the University of Denver College of Law. She was a repeat speaker at national continuing education seminars and a featured presenter in a real estate conference in the Caribbean.
In 1990 when she married her husband, Mencini became an “instant mother” of three boys plus another son two years later, which opened the doors to becoming a full-time mother and igniting her long-time passion for creative arts, gourmet cooking and traveling.
She went on to become a contributing editor and photojournalist for Buzz in the ‘Burbs, writing monthly cooking columns featuring dinner themes, recipes and complementary wine suggestions. She also served as interim director of marketing for Wine Master Cellars as the company transitioned to new leadership. She has been a member of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers for nearly 20 years as well as the Pikes Peak Writers for over 10. She most recently joined Author U based in Aurora, Colo.
She writes and cooks in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and family who are always ready to critique her abundance of story ideas and recipes. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Gail Mencini’s debut novel adds the volatility of young love to an enchanting landscape. Bella Rossini’s love triangle, supplemented by the stories of her friends, is a passionate entanglement that complicates the course of her life. … Rewarding elements include the theme of travel as a restorative force; Italy emerges not as a touristic, escapist destination, but as a place with deep significance in the characters’ search for forgiveness and a new sense of direction. … A clear-eyed look at the many ways plans can derail, and at the resilience of those who get back on track. …[An] entertaining account of the realization that old friendships can restart to provide support amid hardship.
ForeWord Reviews
A powerful debut novel that transports readers to the lush Italian countryside and into the lives of these college students on summer holiday in Tuscany. The lies & lust experienced by the characters left me enraptured and flipping pages quickly. The Big Chill -feel type reunion at the end bring it all together and the truth that comes out left me absolutely gob smacked. Highly recommend that you read this with a large glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Mandy Brooks - Book People in Austin, TX and Erica Bates - Tattered Cover in Denver, CO
For anyone who loves anything Italian, Gail Mencini's charming "coming of age" debut To Tuscany with Love is an entertaining novel of a small group of college students spending a life-changing summer together discovering love and friendship against the beautiful Italian landscape. The group is reunited in Tuscany thirty years later resulting in an unpredictable set of circumstances. Author Gail Mencini's familiarity with Tuscany is refreshing. Her debut novel leaves the reader considering the importance of friends in one's life as well as the "marks" they've left on one's life during varying ages and stages. Great reading group pick too.
Cynthia Callander - The Vero Beach Book Center, Vero Beach, FL
A fun, poignant story about eight college students' shared experience in Italy and how their youthful idealism and indiscretions affect their adulthoods. Mencini’s debut novel starts in the present day with the middle-aged Bella Rossini receiving an invitation to reunite with people from her past.... An intriguing tale about how people can affect one another long after they part ways.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Discuss the goals of each of the characters as they return for their reunion: redemption, forgiveness, retribution, escape, inspiration, opportunity for a new direction, and reuniting with a lost love are all possibilities to contemplate.
2. How do the events during and immediately following their college semester abroad shape Bella’s future?
3. Discuss the reasons why people might stay in relationships that are destructive or unfulfilling.
4. Consider the good and bad life choices the characters make and how that impacts not only them, but also others.
5. Karen and Lee each acted in an inappropriate or "wrong" manner. Discuss how their actions might have helped one or more of their friends in the long run.
6. How do the characters each grow as a person during the course of the novel?
7. For each character, discuss whether the group’s friendship impacted the characters’ individual growth during their semester abroad, later during their reunion, or during both periods of time.
8. Stillman’s childhood molded his future in more than one way. Discuss how his future was shaped by his past, whether you would have made similar choices or not, and why.
9. Consider the varying reactions of the characters to stresses and disappointments in their lives.
10. What specific event or element of each character’s past do they fear will guide their future? (This could be an event, the continued search for an unfulfilled goal, or their previous mistakes.)
11. Consider how the individual characters were positively and negatively impacted by the existence of, or their need for, a family.
12. Compare how the characters’ different backgrounds impacted their lives, goals, and personalities.
13. Consider the importance of friends in your life and how they impact you during different ages.
14. Discuss reunions and your own fears and hopes when attending one.
15. Share your favorite or least favorite reunion story with your group.
(Questions issued by publisher.)