I'm surprised at all the five star reviews. Not one of the characters seemed at all realistic to me - they were all just too good, too sweet, too perfect. (For the record I only read it for a book club. And I'd read another book by her years ago and felt the same way about those characters, so I should have known better.)

I think part of the problem was she was trying to write the story of her grandparents, so perhaps old family stories where characters were overly perfect / dramatized bled into what should have been a fictional tale. More than once I wanted to throw it across the room. There were occasional descriptive passages that were enjoyable (hence the two stars, which should really be 1 & 1/2 stars), but I will not be fooled into reading another of her books. Thankfully I checked it out of the library, so I didn't waste my money.

Also - what the bloody hell is a moppeen??? Can't just say "dishtowel"? And, for the record, the italian word is "moppine".