Take me to Lake Como!!

There isn't a single Adriana Trigiani book that has let me down, and this one is no exception!! Full of incredible description, relatable and lovable characters, and a beautiful story (that I can personally relate to because I don't live terribly far from the real Lake Como, New Jersey), this book was GORGEOUS and I felt like I was right by Jess' side and rooting for her from beginning to end!

3.5⭐️

This book is outside my usual genres, but I decided to give it a try after seeing such stellar reviews. The story is told from the point of view of Jess in the present day as well as through flashbacks from significant moments in her childhood and adulthood. It is a character-driven novel with complex and well-written characters who are flawed but still loveable in their own ways. While I found Jess frustrating at times, I couldn't help but root for her, and I wanted her to find happiness. There is an abundance of family drama in this book, and it definitely kept me interested. The setting of this story is perfect, and the author's vivid descriptions transported me to Lake Como. The story moves slowly, but it is so full of heart and humor that I wanted to keep reading. Overall, it was an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Group Dutton for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a good and enjoyable read, even though the book dragged through some sections. The story focuses on Jess who after experiencing a family loss has decided it's time for her to start living her life for herself and not her whole family. She goes to Italy to find herself and discover what it is that she really wants out of her life.

A beautiful meditation on beauty, creativity, and slowing down to truly live. Books based on travel and self discovery are always refreshing.

I really, really wanted to love this one. I had high hopes for the overall storyline, but felt that there were multiple moments when the writer focused on storylines that slowed everything down. The death of Uncle Louie was one of those moments. The before, during, and after took too high a percentage at the beginning of the story; I would have preferred to focus on Jess, her life, and her marriage rather than her uncle's life. There were many moments like this. I also don't think we needed the online therapy portion and the accompanying written notes. I felt myself skimming over this section more than once. Thank you, NetGalley.

Read this for an upcoming author visit---of course our local library will be supporting this book and author since the setting is our local Lake Como, NJ (and I just visited Lake Como, Italy, last month!). Admittedly, it's fun to read a book where the main character literally lives on your street, and I enjoyed hearing Adriana Trigiani speak in our neighborhood, especially as she described her writing process, why she focuses on Italian-Americans, and the genesis of the plot.

"blue-collar Lake Como, New Jersey, family comes first. Recently divorced from Bobby, “the perfect husband," Jess moves into her parents’ basement to hide and heal. Jess is the overlooked daughter, ... takes care of her parents, cooks Sunday dinner, and puts herself last. ... Jess is also a talented draftswoman in the marble business run by her dapper uncle Louie..."

The story moves between Lake Como, New Jersey and Lake Como, Italy. Moving between past and present we see Jess as she really is, a very talented woman who is taken for granted by the rest of her family. Uncle Louie and his wife have no children and Louie truly believes in Jess's talents and he sets out to assure her success (if only she would get a new wardrobe and get out of those black clothes she wears all the time!). We meet a lot of people - many of whom are related to Jess.

If you want an armchair vacation in Italy, this may be the book for you. Descriptions of breathtaking landscapes, food, friends, the marble mines in Italy. Trigiani brings it all together in a satisfying conclusion leaving the reader wanting a sequel to this wonderful story.

Jess lives in Lake Como, NJ and is surrounded by her big Italian family. Everyone is in her business, especially now that she’s moved back home after her divorce. She works as a designer for a marble business owned by her uncle but when a family tragedy hits, she is left with debt and a lot of questions. Determined to get away from secrets and lies, Jess buys a one-way ticket to Lake Como, Italy where she hopes to find herself. I loved Jess and really felt for her and her struggles. Always pushed aside by her family, she longed to have a place of her own where she could realize her dreams. While in Italy, she learns a lot about herself as well as the importance of family.

This was an emotional and immersive story into the lives of a festive family complete with drama and so much good food! This was an amazing audiobook that swept me away to Tuscany!

Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton books for the privilege of reading this arc in exchange for an honest review. Adiriana Trigiani does it again!!! I loved these characters including the Lake Como of New Jersey and Italy!
This novel is filled with such humor, culture, heart and flavor that has the reader tasting the food throughout the story! The story is rich with Italian roots both in New Jersey and Italy and follows Jess, the youngest in her huge and boisterous family. After the death of a relative Jess is forced to confront life on her own for the first time.
This story is definitely a love letter to Trigiani's Italian roots told in a warm and humorous and I wager to guess accurate depiction of growing up in this loving and authentic family. A must read for everyone!!!

“Italy is the great healer.” 💚🤍❤️

This book perfectly and effortlessly portrays the Italian heritage and the amazing country of Italy. The prioritization of family, the love of food, the importance of a great cup of espresso, and the honor of hard work are all themes touched upon in the story.

I am Italian and my husband is ITALIAN Italian. I have visited Italy numerous times as he still has family there and reading this book was like visiting all over again. I even knew the basic Italian words used in the story since my husband speaks the language (and it is THE most romantic one, in my humble opinion). 100/10

“When you chip away at anything, whether it’s a vein of marble, a slab of wood, or a person’s self-esteem, bit by bit, day by day, and year after year, eventually it will cease to exist no matter what the experts say.”

Thanks for the free audiobook @PRHAudio! It is narrated by Mira Sorvino and is *chefs kiss*. Oh my. Fabulous! Fantastic! So so so good. Ottimo lavoro @adrianatrigiani‼️🇮🇹 🤩
And grazie to Dutton Books, Netgalley, and MBC Books for the gifted copy.

“The View From Lake Como,” by Adriana Trigiani, Dutton, 416 pages, July 8, 2025.

Jess Capodimonte Baratta makes her living by drawing marble installations to scale. She is a draftswoman for her uncle Louie’s marble business, Capodimonte Marble and Stone.

Jess is recently divorced from Bobby Bilancia and now lives in her parents’ basement in Lake Como, New Jersey. She has had panic attacks since kindergarten. She is the overlooked daughter, who dutifully takes care of her parents, cooks Sunday dinner, and puts herself last. Her brother and sister have children, but she doesn’t.

Uncle Louie invites Jess on a trip to Italy because he plans on leaving her his business and wants her to understand the marble mining in their ancestral home, Carrara, Italy. But Uncle Louie dies before they can go. After the reveal of long-held family secrets, Jess decides to go to Italy.

She meets Conor Kerrigan, who was Uncle Louie’s Italian contact, and Angelo Strazza, who is a gilder. Jess is then hired to design a series of marble floors.

Jess’s interactions with her family, especially her parents, are emotional as Jess takes control of her own life. There is a shocking family reveal. And the descriptions of marble work in Italy are fascinating. This is a really good, light summer read.

I rate it five out of five stars.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

🌰 My bags are packed— take me to Italy! Thank you for this gorgeous #gifted book @duttonbooks — ‘The View From Lake Como’ by @adrianatrigiani is out today!

🌰 If you’re looking for an atmospheric novel to sweep you away this summer, look no farther. This is your ticket to Italy. Based around a woman looking to build her own life after following her family’s plan up until now— this novel immerses you in the discovery of a new country, as the main character discovers herself.

🌰 I adored this from the first paragraph, and flew through all 400 pages in a blink. This is a fantastic summer read and I can’t recommend it enough. You’ll be rooting for Jess the whole way through, and by the end, we will all be begging for an invite to Sunday dinner!

After loving Trigiani’s The Good Left Undone, I was eager to read more from this author. I could relate very well to the main character, who realizes she can no longer live her life simply to fulfill the expectations of her complicated Italian family and needs to pursue her deferred dreams.

The story follows Jess, raised in an Italian family in Lake Como New Jersey, as she ventures to Lake Como Italy to discover her Italian past and her own future.

I loved the narrative structure of the book that mixes Jess’s present with her reflective diary entries (prompted by online therapy) of key moments in her and her family’s past. Vivid family scenes capture the messy and enmeshed dynamics between Jess and her very imperfect parents. Without excusing their wrongs, Trigiani weaves a story of healing, self discovery and hope in the midst of complicated human families.

🎧 I did an immersive read with the audiobook and print text. The audiobook is read by Academy Award winning actress Mira Sorvino. Sorvino’s performance is incredible, capturing the multiple voices in the many dialogue driven family scenes to perfection. I felt as though I was walking into the wonderful chaos of a large family gathering, while never losing the connection to Jess’s perspective. This enhanced my experience of the novel greatly.

The View From Lake Como features a boisterous, large Italian-American family who live in Lake Como, New Jersey. The main female character is Jess (Giuseppina), who we meet as a young divorcee living in her parents’ basement and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. She loves the job she has with her uncle Louie, working with the family business, Capodimonte Marble. Her ex is still in her life because they both grew up in the same small town. When a tragedy happens and some secrets about the family business come to light, Jess eagerly leaves for her dream trip to Italy, specifically to the town of Carrara where the world-famous marble is quarried. Contrary to the title of the book, only a small portion of the story takes place in the “other” Lake Como, the one in Italy. Most of the action there centers around Carrara.

I really enjoyed watching Jess step into her own, doing things she wanted to do, not what her overbearing family and her ex wanted her to do. They all took her for granted, and she took on the role of “maiden aunt”, cooking and planning for the weekly Sunday family dinners and more. In Italy, she finally had the room to figure out what it was SHE wanted. We get a lot of her backstory from journal entries she writes as part of an online therapy program.

I disliked her parents and their questionable decisions (in the past) about what to do for their three children (an older brother and an older sister, along with Jess). I really felt for Jess when her dream of going to Rutgers University and living in a dorm was pulled out from under her at the last minute.

Speaking of that, here’s one thing that made no sense to me, as a New Jerseyan. Jess wound up commuting to Montclair State University, which is way further from Lake Como than Rutgers is. Why couldn’t she get her education at Rutgers and commute there instead of schlepping all the way to Montclair? It’s not explained and if you didn’t know NJ geography, you’d never question it.

I was lucky enough to get a hardcover sent to me as well as an e-galley and I bounced between the print version and the audio from PRH Audio. Mira Sorvino did a great job with all the accents on the audio. Her New Jersey accents are perfection. (I should know, I have one myself, I’ve been told!)

Thank you to Dutton, Megan Beattie PR and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book and to PRH Audio for the opportunity to listen to an advance copy of this audiobook. I buddy read this one with my husband, who grabbed the hardcover, while I read the e-galley and listened to the audio. All opinions are my own.

Masterful, brilliant, utterly divine. There’s nothing like Adriana’s writing, and as someone with the privilege of knowing her, I can confirm that she is as delightful as her writing. An autobuy author if there ever was one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Dutton Books for the ARC for review. All opinions are my own.

This was an interesting and enjoyable read. Jess (short for Giuseppina) is a newly-divorced 34 year-old Italian-American woman living with her parents in Lake Como, New Jersey. She works with her Uncle Luigi at the family business, Capodimonte Marble and Stone. Jess is a people pleaser and feels unseen and suffocated by everyone in her family except for Uncle Luigi. Her dream is to travel but she has never gone much further than her home state.

When Uncle Luigi makes plans for the two of them to visit Italy so Jess can see the mining quarries in Carrara, she is thrilled. When he is not able to go with her she is crushed - she doesn’t want to go alone. But she knows she must in order to find out who she is away from her family and home. In doing so she learns about life and love and the power of the present moment.

I liked learning about Italian culture and families and food (!), and also about the marble mining process (I had no idea it was cut from a mountain!). The descriptions about Italy - Carrara, Lake Como, Tuscany, the beautiful sunrises and slow pace and beauty, made me yearn to visit.

I thought the method Trigiani used to show us events in Jess’s past was clever - by having Jess journal about them.
However, I felt she was trying to do too much with the story, like she crammed in every last idea she had, and I felt like it was all over the place. I felt for Jess’s plight as a people pleaser with her family but her motives for divorcing Bobby seemed a bit vague and unclear. I would have liked for Trigiani to have focused more on Jess’s relationships with a handful of key people and really develop them instead of introducing a plethora of people we never really get to know.

I also would have liked for her to focus more on Jess’s talents in her occupation, which we saw very little of. I would imagine those to have been key to Jess’s confidence as she stepped out of her people-pleasing role and learned how to live and survive on her own.

3.5 stars

This be was a did not finish for me. I kept trying to push through but just could not. Jumped a shark about a third in and I quit.

DNF at 30%. I felt like the first portion got a bit labored and too long, so I was holding out to start the second section. Unfortunately, the beginning of that section felt almost nonsensical. I also don’t think the FBI is just like, sure, we believe you didn’t know about any of this, you can definitely get a two year work visa overseas even though the company with your name on it is under active investigation for fraud.

The View From Lake Como is about Jess Baratta who is not living the life of her dreams and is on a quest to build her own life. This goes between the past and present and takes place in Lake Como in the United States and also Italy. The author wrote this well and all of the characters in this one were great. This author was new to me and I look forward to reading other books from the author. Overall; this was about life, second chances and so much more. I highly enjoyed this read and would recommend to any reader who like contemporary or romance reads. Thank you to MBC Books for this read in exchange of my honest review of The View From Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani.

Another wonderful book by Adriana Trigiani. Her storytelling makes it so easy to get sucked into the story, especially if you have been raised in an Italian family. I found myself laughing out loud often.