My favorite travels during my life have always taken me to the Mediterranean, from the three months I spent in Greece when I was a student, to the writing courses I taught several summers in Tuscany. We can’t all jump on a jet plane when we need a dose of Mediterranean sunshine and good food, but I love to be there and enjoy it vicariously through other writers’ books. Here are some of my recent favorites.
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walker
This sweeping and haunting novel starts with a dying movie star arriving at a decrepit hotel on the Italian coast. Then it takes us to a studio back lot today when an elderly Italian man shows up looking for the woman he loved and lost decades earlier. We move seamlessly from the set of Cleopatra and Richard Burton to other places, other people, other times as people cling to impossible dreams.
Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst
Three generations of New York Italian women take a trip through Italy and in the process find love and healing. Great story of family dynamics and women bonding.
This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart
An oldie but goody! One of my favorites when I was growing up and still a good read today. Set on the island of Corfu where I’ve spent a happy vacation myself, it’s a romantic and suspenseful tale that links to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Loads of atmosphere and great sense of place.
Paris Is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay
Yes, I know Paris isn’t the Mediterranean but this light, funny and romantic novel about a woman trying to rekindle the romances of her youth takes the reader from Ireland to Paris and then to Tuscany. The perfect summer escape read.
These Tangled Vines by Julianne Maclean
Who would not like to find they have been left an estate in Tuscany? Fiona finds she has a biological father she never knew and he has left her a share in his vineyard. But she also has two half-siblings who are not thrilled about this new sister. It’s a delicious story of complicated family relationships set amid lush Tuscan countryside.
The House at the Edge of Night by Catherine Banner
Set on a fictitious island off the coast of Sicily, it’s a saga about four generations of a family and a community that gathers at a café called the House at the Edge of Night. The story spans almost a century with tales of love and betrayal, secrets and sacrifices. The most important element is the island itself. Such a fabulous sense of place that you’ll want pasta and limoncello.
The Storyteller of Casablanca by Fiona Valpy
I love books set in different time periods with stories that mysteriously link, and this is a good one. Set in Morocco both in WWII and the present. In the present Zoe finds the diary of a young girl, Josie, and sees the city through Josie’s eyes, helping her to find the comfort she needs.
You’ll notice none of these books is set in France. It was harder to find books set in my favorite part of the world, the French Riviera. But this is where my new novel, Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure, is set. Ellie Endicott has been the perfect wife until her husband demands a divorce. She escapes with two friends to the south of France, where she restores an abandoned villa and finds a new life, new love. A warm story of female bonding and second chances that has already been named one of BookBub’s best books of the summer.
