Unfortunately, I had a difficult time getting into the story. For me, it was a easy book to put down, and not pick up again. I skimmed ahead to find out the ending.

While the characters were likeable, they weren't compelling. And the original conflict --hero not wanting accept the heroine as a substitute for the original passenger dissipated almost immediately.

In addition,, the pairing of this couple seemed unlikely in real life. Readers who love a wallflower/ Cinderella type story, and enjoy a road romance will find this book more appealing than I did.

A book of second chances and rediscovering life. To me, this book was discovering a new author, Sharon Struth.
5 years ago Mamie lost her husband and her daughter in a car accident and has been swimming in grief since then. A colleague offers her a travel to Italy with a tour group of slightly older people who were at Woodstock together. Mamie finds an unexpected attraction to tour guide Julian. And the story takes off. Their love for each other starts with the journey through Italy and it was wonderful to see two broken souls coming together and healing.
Mamie and Julian make a lovely couple. They are both hurt and heart broken with a mysterious past.
The author Sharon Struth has made their connection as beautiful as the locales of Italy.
The depth in the story, the romance of Italy, the beauty of finding love, the second chances that life offers makes this book one of the great reads of 2017

This was a sweet book. Mamie is joining a group of people that went to Woodstock on a trip to Tuscany. She lost her husband and daughter 5 years previously and has pretty much given up on living.

This trip is giving her a chance to start living again. On the trip she meets handsome tour director, Julian who has his own issues.

This is wonderful story of second chances at life and at love with some secrets tossed in for good measure.

Both Mamie and Julian have had some pretty horrific things happen to them in their recent past, and for Julian even back to his youth.

They both need to start living again in different ways and they need to come to terms with the past. For Mamie, it is embracing new challenging things, that are sometimes a bit dangerous. Julian is the exact opposite. He's had enough danger. He wants to put his past behind him

Mamie is taking the trip to Tuscany in place of her uncle. Therein starts the drama, as the tour group wasn't informed of the switch.

This is where Julian starts his change too. By allowing Mamie on the tour, he is starting to take risks again, just as Mamie is by simply being there. It also begins a rather unlikely and sweet romance.

Sharon doesn't make the romance the be all and end all of the story, though it is definitely an important part of what's happening between the two characters. Its the backdrop of Italy and group of aging hippies that all went to Woodstock that are taking the tour that really bring this story to life.

There is one scene where the tour bus stops for the group to take photos of a field of sunflowers. It is something that you can visualize perfectly and when you do, you desperately want to be there.

Sharon makes both Mamie and Julian characters that need something the other has to offer and when they start to come together you see that they really complete each other and you know they have to find a way to be together.

This is a simply beautiful story.

A lovely, picturesque journey through Tuscany that brings together two lost souls in need of a change in life who find out that some of the best, most life filled adventures could be those that does not challenge you physically yet still scares you immensely.
When this book was first introduced to me, the blurb that accompanied the invitation reminded me of a movie 'Under the Tuscan Sun'. That movie touched my heart and was an inspirational experience to me, so I was eager to read this book to see if it could be as riveting and thought-provoking, even life-changing as the movie was to me.
The pleasant flow of the story with expressive writing makes it enjoyable to read the sweet story that is appropriate for all ages. The scenery from the tour in Italy opened up in my mind's eyes, and the beautiful, colorful landscapes were vividly clear in my mind. To visit Italy again, even via the story, was such a pleasure. The views, the attractions, the people, the lifestyle, the food, the smells, the chaos of traffic, and the joie de vivre of the locals filled my senses making me smile.
The cast of characters on this journey were jovial, genuine, and true individuals. They seemed to have left their worries behind, and were just enjoying the moment, the company and everything the trip would offer them.
Mamie Weber was escaping her past, the grief of losing her family and trying to learn to embrace life again, to challenge herself both physically and mentally, to be out there, be vulnerable, to be brave, and to learn to trust again, not only others but herself as well.
Julian is in mourning as well. His regrets from his past, adventure-filled life are hunting his sleep and mind. He leans on his new job's rules and regulations to have control in his life, a control that Mamie challenges with her own attempts to live fully again.
The journey is a sweet, delightful ride, filled with emotions from bliss and glee to angst and tears. The biggest challenge both Mamie and Julian have to face is their past and the fears that spring from the memories. After such an enjoyable expedition with the unique characters, the abrupt ending felt odd, leaving me wanting more in a sense of conclusion.
A pilgrimage to find your true self again, to learn to trust and embrace life fully, while enjoying the gorgeous scenery of Tuscany. An entertaining and charming tale with a smooth, easygoing flow
~ Four Spoons

The Sweet Life is a lovely, sweet story about love, and loss, and letting go. And discovering that the life that’s left after the grief has lost its sharpness can still be very, very sweet – if you’re willing to reach out and grab that sweetness with both hands and seize both it and the day.

Mamie Weber lost both her husband and her daughter in a devastating car accident five years ago. And she’s let her grief consume her every single day since. But five years is a long time to pull up the drawbridge and retreat into the castle. She’s finally come to realize that her “safety” is also a trap – and a prison of her own making.

A colleague steps in and offers her a way out – just a bit. All that she needs to do is get on an airplane and fly to Italy for a two week vacation as part of a tour group to which she does not belong. But a tour that her employer will pay for if she writes her friend’s “Covert Critic” travel book about the tour.

No one knows who the Covert Critic really is. And Mamie is contractually obligated not to reveal that, for just this one tour, she’s it.

The problem is that the tour is for a group of Woodstock “survivors”. Her friend Felix really was one of the thousands who went to Yasgur’s Farm in 1969, but at 39, Mamie is more than a generation younger. The “Woodstock Wanderers” don’t care. They are all more than happy to adopt her as a temporary replacement for the daughter or niece that none of them see enough of at this point in their busy lives.

But the tour guide, Julian Gregory, has some serious problems with Mamie’s intrusion into the tour. For one thing, it’s against the rules. Very much against the rules. And Julian needs to follow those rules. Not just because he needs the job, but because following the rules is what’s keeping him going – more or less. Being strict about the rules is the way that Julian is pretty much not dealing with the griefs and regrets that have piled up in his own life.

As Mamie tests her own limits, she also tests Julian’s resolve to stay on the straight and narrow at any cost. He starts out thinking that limits make life safer, only to eventually come to the same realization that Mamie has – that limits are just plain limiting.

It’s only when they both step outside, far outside, their comfort zones that they are able to finally reach for happiness – and each other.

Escape Rating B: If Eat, Pray, Love and If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium had a love child, it would probably be this book. The Sweet Life has that element of searching for one’s bliss mixed in with the whirlwind tour aspects (but not quite as much of a whirlwind) as that long-ago comedy movie.

Come to think of it, the Woodstock Wanderers are probably the right age to have seen that movie on dates – it’s the right time and the right kind of movie. And the guy does get the girl in the end, in spite of all the rules against it – as well as his own original intentions.

The travel portions of The Sweet Life are a love letter to the Italian countryside. If you finish this book and don’t want to sign up immediately for a tour of Tuscany, you’re probably not paying attention. It all sounds absolutely yummy, and now I have a yen to travel somewhere I hadn’t been thinking that seriously about. A good book will do that.

But the story is about Mamie and Julian both getting over all the things that are holding them back, and discovering that a grief shared is a grief halved – because they both have plenty. Their relationship has a lot of fits and starts, as they both, for very different reasons, try to resist the attraction they feel, and resist the need to tell each other their whole truth even longer.

A bit too long, of course, as that’s what’s sets up the final conflict of the romance.

While the two-steps-forward one-step-back of their relationship goes on a bit longer than it might, and they both do a bit too much wallowing to make the book a page-turner, this is still a very sweet story that provides a lovely and deserved happy ever after for its likeable protagonists.

And leaves the reader desperately seeking good pasta.

Loved this story~ A very unique storyline with a great romance, a bit of humor, and some exceptional descriptive writing that brought Italy to life. These characters were incredibly fun and made the story unforgettable.

Mamie is dreading going on the tour of Tuscany for her job. Luckily she's there with a group of aging hippies who all attended Woodstock and might be a little stuck in the 60's making the whole thing intriguing with their stories. Add to that Julian, the tour guide, who Mamie finds herself attracted to and the whole tour is better than she imagined it would be.

Definitely a book I recommend to everyone.

Favorite Quotes:

My cab ride from the airport was like the chase scene in The French Connection.

“Jeesh, Prince Charming, is that a sword in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” … “I don’t remember Cinderella being this sarcastic.”

You’ve shown me the most extraordinary pleasures from the most ordinary days. Now let’s try the unexpected together.”

My Review:

The Sweet Life had a unique and interesting premise as it chronicled a Woodstock survivors group – who called themselves The Wanderers - traveling through Tuscany on a tour. In addition to an entertaining story, I was treated to a well-detailed travel log with a taunting accounting of their mouthwatering menus and delectable treats. I had several urges to renew my passport while reading - just to see David again might be worth the horrific flight. The characters were a quirky grouping of senior travelers, a middle-aged woman named Mamie who popped up unexpectedly as a substitute passenger. Mamie had a secret about her substitution, one she was legally prohibited from disclosing, which caused her discomfort. The primary and secondary characters were likable and colorfully detailed. Ms. Struth’s storyline was mild enough for my elderly mother’s book club, easy to follow, and alternated from angsty to sweet with occasional hits of humor.

I'd never read one of Sharon Struth's novels when I agreed to join the tour for The Sweet Life. I'm not a huge romance reader - I enjoy them, but they're not my go-to genre. However, the premise sounded right up my alley - a woman looking for adventure and change in Italy? Yes, please.

So I said I wasn't a big romance reader. Keep that in mind, then, when I tell you The Sweet Life is your pretty standard "roll-your-eyes" romance. By that, I mean that the characters are instantly smitten with each other, and over the next 200 or so pages all you hear is why it won't work or he's just not into me or I'm still raw from love gone wrong or so on and so forth. I have absolutely no problem with this, but it's why you'll never see a romance rated higher than 3 stars for me. The drama that's necessary to create a good romance story gets on my nerves!

Please don't think I'm criticizing. I thoroughly enjoyed The Sweet Life, and for me, that makes a book a winner. I was engaged, I rooted for Mamie, I rooted for Julian, and I rooted for Italy. I loved the cast of characters and they way they bonded. I loved the setting - if anything, I'd have loved more of it - and I loved/hated the food descriptions. (Hated, because now I want nothing but Italian food.) Mamie is a lot of fun, if a little...rash? The contrast between her and Julian is interesting, and it was fun to watch them sort each other out.

Bottom line? Likable characters, a gorgeous setting, and a cheesy-good romance? I'll take it.

What a lovely hopeful book this is! Mamie has had a really tough go of it so a trip to Tuscany was something she thought might make her feel a bit more like herself but she wasn't expecting the crew she would meet-and what a group they are! This isn't a long book but Struth has managed to capture the characters of the Woodstock Wanderers as well as Julian the guide and Beppe the driver. It's nice that this is a romance with more mature people who are leaning into life. I'd not read Struth before so thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm curious what the next book in the series will be. You will like this if you'd like a nice tour of Tuscany (food, wine, just delightful), a little romance, and a happy ending. Perfect relaxation :).

I thought this book was a lot of fun. Will recommend to friends!

For those who love travel, humor, a cute romance, and just a fun exscursion into Italy, this is a great story for you. Mamie is still dealing with the tragic accident that took everything from her ad though she doesn't want to go, the pleadings of her friend makes her take the tickets to Italy and go on a bus tour through the scenic country. There she finds out that friedship, mischief, and a little love might be just what the doctor ordered.

A delightful story that will have you smiling, this romanitic tale is full of hope and enjoyable characters. I recommend this to those looking for just a perfect story to get lost in on a cold winter's day or even a hot summer one by the pool.

I'm not going to go into the romance aspect of the book. Anyone who's read Sharon Struth's novels know that romance is a given, just like in life. It's all there for readers who love that love story, who want to feel all the feels. For me, The Sweet Life was Italy.

The sights, the sounds, the smells and the food. Oh, the food! I had to make spaghetti and meatballs the day I started the book. Sharon Struth puts you right in Tuscany in a way that not only transports you to the crowded streets and vineyards, but surrounds you with them. Masterfully done.

True to author's form, the romance aspect of the story was tempered with a bit more; in this case, the underlying theme of trust that permeates all her books gets another little twist--while normally-sensible Mamie is out to experience life in risky ways, like paragliding and scootering the dangerous streets of Italy, Julian has had enough of that in his life--to dire consequences. When the two start to fall for one another, they learn that risk-taking doesn't have to be physically dangerous to be scary as hell.

Great start to a new series by this author.

Great book. i really enjoyed it. It had lovely characters who fitted in well to the story. great setting which also helps. Highly recommend this book

The Sweet Life is a very well written book with a good plot and likeable characters. I enjoyed the book , the author's writing and the setting. I recommend this book.