Welcome to Litsy!

This book was just okay. It has a cool premise of Hal, a writer who receives an exclusive invitation to go with a movie group to the Cannes Film Fest in the 1950s. There is a second plot, that of the journal that the movie is based on. The journal is actually more interesting, and the love affair between Hal and Stella is rather predictable, and the twist ending is predictable.
#DoubleSpin @TheAromaofBooks #Booked2023 #sunshinenoir

So I almost bailed on this book but for some reason pushed through for an underwhelming ending. Foley is a good writer but this story just fell flat for me & never really kept my interest. Hal, a journalist falls in love with a mysterious woman whom he meets at a party only to lose her & find her again on a writing assignment years later. He slowly unfolds her secrets where the story flips through the past a & present. Overall just a bore for me

Wrapping my August #DoubleSpin with a few days to spare. I enjoyed this, thought it‘s a bit different from my first Lucy Foley read (The Guest List). I enjoyed the story as it unfolded but may have wanted a bit more at the end…3.5 ⭐️

Didn‘t love this one as much as other books by Foley, but really loved the setting - the Italian Riviera and the characters. I thought the ending was too abrupt. Hal is a damaged man from his horrendous experiences in the Navy during WWII. Elsa aka Estrella is a survivor from the same era in Spain. They are invited by a wealthy, charming Contessa along with the cast and crew of a film she has developed. Everyone has a past to deal with

I started this as an audiobook & finished it reading it. I did enjoy it, but think it would have been less disjointed if I hadn‘t taken so long to get through it. I‘m curious what others think, so please share your reactions.

THE INVITATION....an enchanting story about saving each other by saving one self. A beautiful love story to hold in our hearts. A cast of unforgettable characters, and the lavish description of the Italian coast was so powerful I felt like I was on holiday.

Today's #bookhaul from Thriftbooks: two books I purchased mainly because I like the covers 😄 I've read both. I read The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress as an arc from netgalley and I'll be re-reading it in a couple months for book club. The Invitation was ok, but I think the cover is so pretty with the pinks and greens that I really wanted my own copy.

#TBRtemptation post 6! Rome, 1953, Hal, an itinerant journalist, meets the mysterious Stella on a palazzo rooftop. A year later, he gets an invitation to be the reporter on a luxury yacht heading up the Italian coast to the Cannes Film Festival interacting with the world's most famous artists and movie stars. And he sees Stella again, with whom he wants to help overcome her secretive past. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

Has anyone seen problems of book nerds? They are so funny & dead on!

Am such a non-fiction junkie but when I went to the library this week, I just needed a palette cleanser. I'm not a big romance person, and I'm super picky about fiction, but I'm really enjoying this book. I can't put it down. Went to bed to get some sleep, 75 pages later I'm still awake. #oops

Me time 📚📖☕️

Atmospheric historical fiction, set mostly in the 1950s in Italy and the Mediterranean, with some flashbacks to WWII. Two damaged people find that they do have the strength to share their secret burdens with each other. But they must be careful, since one of them is married.

The cast of characters in this novel are eccentric, and I grew fond of them. The descriptions of the locations their group visits in their journey are vivid. Well done!

Atmospheric historical fiction, set mostly in the 1950s in Italy and the Mediterranean, with some flashbacks to WWII. Two damaged people find that they do have the strength to share their secret burdens with each other. But they must be careful, since one of them is married.

The cast of characters in this novel are eccentric, and I grew fond of them. The descriptions of the locations their group visits in their journey are vivid. Well done!

I stayed up pretty late to finish! I just had to know how it ended. Really great reading and reminds me a touch of BEAUTIFUL RUINS. I feel however that the blurbs on back miss the point of this book - it's not a "dazzling romance"?? To me it was about obsession, possession, power over Stella and long kept secrets. Creation of new self, redemption. I do recommend!

Oops! On page 197, (shown above) Stella says she lost the two fingers on her Right hand, but on page 24, it is said she lost two fingers on her Left. 😱 I caught that one only because of reading The Long, Hot Summer and in there being a character missing the same two fingers!

Sitting out in the rain with a glass of Pinot Grigio and The Invitation. I'm getting to the point where I need to keep reading. A bit mysterious!

Wondering why the chapters with Hal are entitled "Hal", but for Stella, they are just "Her"? We know the "Her" is Stella, so interested in seeing if this changes as it moves along, and why it's like that...

This is the second book I've read where the woman is missing two fingers on her hand (the pinky and ring)! The first was from The Long, Hot Summer and now here in The Invitation. What an odd coincidence?!

Perhaps my second to last "summertime" read before cracking open the Fall Goodies? I just love this cover! Reminds me of Tigers in Red Weather which was a book I LOVED! Going to try a read outside until the (blessed and so needed) rain comes!