To Tuscany With Love (Mencini) - Book Reviews

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