Mrs. Plansky is a the perfect protagonist - likable, flawed, eccentric, unreliable. She loves her family and supports them to a fault, so when she receives a call from her grandson asking for money, she immediately complies.

I became frustrated about halfway through when a few too many happy coincidences took place. For that reason, I find it hard to imagine a second book in this series, as the first already required a lot of implausibilities

A meandering story with a bit of suspense. None of the characters was likable and I wasn't excited to solve the mystery. I didn't appreciate the tricks, frequent “well that's what I WISH happened“ asides from the narrator that do nothing but make him lose the reader's trust. I love an unreliable narrator, but this one is unreliable, unlikable, and uninteresting. Some good twists near the end that aren't worth waiting for.

This is a family saga for people who are most interested in literary fiction that examines relationships between characters. Most of the characters are 3-dimensional, with things to like and dislike about them. Each person's perspective is understandable - the author is good at showing all the sides of an argument and how easily misunderstandings happen.

The writing was good. It took itself a bit too seriously.

I enjoyed reading this. The writing is very good. The author's use of second person through much of the book is well done.

The protagonist's closure through explaining to Matteo how he hurt her is confusing. He's so self-centered and oblivious - why would he care how she feels, especially now? Also, she faults him for stringing her along for a decade, but he didn't really. And many of the character flaws he has, she does also.