This was a TERRIBLE mystery. It was a great travelogue and I really wish it had been kept at that. I read the acknowledgements and then I realized this trip was real, and the author's classmates convinced her to make a mystery out of the whole trip. THAT's why the book felt so half baked. That's why the end is such a god awful disappointment.

BUT, this would have been such an AMAZING literary fiction because this is an age group that is HARDLY written about. Women in their 50s come together and have an amazing life-changing trip. All the women in the group were confident, they had made something of themselves. And yet, there were such small cues that would leave amazing lessons for people. As for me, I'll be turning 31 this year and a few years of back-breaking hard work has really left me burned out. I hadn't considered doing a group trip and having someone else take care of everything, but then after this, I'm honestly considering it.

What is it about vacations that make us feel refreshed? What is it about vacations that allow us to take a break, what is it that sets all the wrongs right? THIS is such an amazing thing. And to just have 40 women who turned up, caught up with each other, and spoke about their lives and had shared experiences, I would DIG that sort of a book. It would be so amazing to get nuggets of wisdom. Because you know at the base of it, as humans, we all have very similar experiences even though it's packaged differently. You get wiser with age and experience and having those lessons passed down through a vacation would be so amazing.

This was a decent travelogue type book, a terrible mystery, and an amazing way to hype Italy because now, I honestly want to go there!

This book just didn't work for me. I don't know if it was me or the story. I'v heard that Sheila is a good author and I probably will try her again one day.