Beautiful setting, but a slow moving story. Two couples reveal secrets and relationships are not what they seem.
Ms. Ephron has done better.

Advertised as a psychological thriller, but it didn't deliver. It was short read that went quickly with unlikeable characters. The whole thing had my eyes rolling.

Really enjoyable read. Good characters and a Good story. Well worth a read. Think others will enjoy.

Kind of weird book about two couples traveling on an island off the coast of Europe and the odd personalities that seem to clash at times. A tragedy occurs.

Unfortunately, the download for this did not work. I've tried several times and it hasn't shown up in my library to read and review. My apologies. This system will not let me post the issue without leaving a rating.

Finished this late last night. I really enjoyed it, so don't let the 3-star rating fool you -- it was interesting and well-written and generally, well, enjoyable.

At the same time, I don't think I'll carry much of this with me, having finished it. Five star reads are the ones that stick with me, that I find myself thinking about and wanting to talk to people about. Four star reads are the ones where something pretty great stands out clearly to me, such that it's earned at least a temporary place in my memory. Siracusa, for whatever reason, fell short of that bar.

The book revolves around two couples, one of which brings along their preteen daughter, on a joint vacation to Italy. It's never quite clear to me why these two couples would choose to vacation together, as they don't seem to have a ton of shared history as couples (the husband of one couple and the wife of the other used to date, and it's hard for me to buy that both of the other partners are OK hanging out with their spouse's ex nonstop) or even like each other all that much.

I also found myself constantly struggling to remember which man was which. One of them was a restaurateur struggling with a cigarette addiction, and one of them was a semi-famous writer whose latest book is stalled, who's cheating on his wife with an astoundingly dumb young blond. But which one is named Finn and which one is named Michael? Which one is married to Lizzie and which one to the neurotic one in weird clothes, whose name I can't remember even though I finished reading this book literally 12 hours ago? Which one is the father of kid (whose name, sadly, is Snow)? How old is the kid again, that she can be holding hands with a man not her dad, but it's apparently not sketchy in the least? Seriously, one minute I think she must be 5 years old, the next she must be at least 15. (Turns out I should have split the difference.)

There's a twist that was actually a surprise to me, and reasonably satisfying, though in retrospect it seemed obvious and I am slightly ashamed that I missed the obvious cues.

All in all, the characters just didn't come alive for me, and while bits of the inevitable relationship drama certainly rang true, I guess I didn't care enough about the characters for that drama to be worthwhile.

That said, if this were made into a movie, I would watch it. Not quite Gone Girl, but enough of the sortof romantic comedy turned dark to be interesting, and quite a lot of the book was very visually appealing.

I DNF this book. The characters weren't grabbing and the plot was unfulfilling. I heard the author speak and perhaps that gave me much higher expectations for this novel.

What a gem of a book. Five flawed characters. Snappy, biting dialogue. A trip to Italy that culminates into the flawed destination, Siracusa. Ephraim brings the places in Italy to life as well as her characters. Transporting the reader so you experience the place and the personalities. LeBron delights.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

This novel is so different from anything else I've read. Told from four points of view, each propelling the story forward while retelling certain events from a different angle, it is the story of marriage, deception, and foul play.

First Line - I have a snapshot of me standing on Finn's shoulders when I was twenty-nine, a trick we'd perfected.

Summary - New Yorkers Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, a journalist, travel to Italy with their friends from Maine--Finn; his wife, Taylor; and their daughter, Snow. "From the beginning," says Taylor, "it was a conspiracy for Lizzie and Finn to be together." Told Rashomon-style in alternating points of view, the characters expose and stumble upon lies and infidelities past and present. Snow, ten years old and precociously drawn into a far more adult drama, becomes the catalyst for catastrophe as the novel explores collusion and betrayal in marriage.

Highlights - I listened to the audio version and I think it was the best way to enjoy this book. I loved that all four main characters have their own narrators, and two of them are Roger and Mona from Madmen!!! It's a great story with relatable characters, but it has enough suspense you won't want to put down.

A fantastic read - a twist that comes out of nowhere and UFF. So many layers to this. The author does a fantastic job in unfolding this story.. so much that you just want a little more from the ending. But that's just me being picky. Can I please just vacation in Siracusa for a little bit? Bring on the crazy, I love it.

Two couples to go Italy together: Taylor and Finn (who bring their daughter, Snow) and Lizzie and Michael. Told from their four perspectives, relationship chaos ensues – a situation that you can foresee from the start. I won’t say more about the events to avoid spoilers, but think entropy. Around the same time I read Siracusa, I also read Jane Smiley’s Commonwealth, which made me think about writing a blog post about wife-swapping novels. The difference between the two books? Ephron’s characters are anxious, dramatic, or both; Smiley’s are (as always) serene and observant. Read them both for an interesting contrast.

Read if: You like your drama high.

Two seemingly perfect couples, one with daughter in tow, go on an idyllic Italian vacation. The story unfolds from four perspectives ( except the one that would have been the most interesting in my opinion), and fissures in all of the relationships start to come to light. 

A pompous, boring, and unlikable cast of characters required a bit of effort to get through. As I've said before, unlikeable characters are not a bad thing, but at least be charismatic and unlikeable. This was a perfect example of rich people, rich problems, and not much else.

At the height of the story there isn't much of a climax, and the more interesting events are all crammed in at the very end. There is very little payoff for the amount of story the reader has to get through. Also, why do reviews talk about a twist? There was no twist. What was hinted at/shown early on, was always there and later manifested itself in the end. Siracusa is a quick well written read, and the depictions of the locations they visited were beautifully done, but, this story ultimately felt somewhat empty.

Two couples and one daughter head to Italy to vacation and maybe they shouldn't have left home. The reader and maybe both couples know that this trip is doomed from the start, yet they go and of course drama ensues.

Before I dive into my thoughts, let me say that I had extremely high hopes for this book. It had been buzzed about for awhile and it was on the list of books that I was over the moon to get a chance to review, so maybe my hopes and expectations were a little above what they should have been and it could have impacted my reading.

Let me start by saying, I love drama and I love my books to have drama, but I also love for things to move along and that is where I felt this book lacked. The drama was a little over the top, but fine, but my goodness I felt like we were dragging from one chapter to the next. The bulk of the plot for me was in the last 50-75 pages, it took way too long to get there and I didn't need that much build up!

I wanted more for this book. There characters were fine, the setting was great, but I wanted more action.

This is my first experience with Delia Ephron, have you read anything by her? Should I try something else?

First Line: I have a snapshot of me standing on Finn’s shoulders when I was twenty-nine, a trick we’d perfected.
Summary: A vacation to Italy sounds like a great idea until you take one with another couple. Lizzie and Michael along with Finn and Taylor plus their daughter, Snow, decide to take a summer vacation. Tensions are high between the couples who each have secrets. As time together puts more and more tension on the group the secrets start to reveal themselves but the biggest shock comes when they start their stay on the small island of Siracusa.
Highlights: The beachy but twisted read makes the book worthwhile. The characters all have issues and you get to see each person’s point of view throughout their trip. It gives more perspective and doesn’t leave you wondering what someone was thinking.
Lowlights: I almost stopped reading this in the first 30 pages. The sentences are very choppy and to the point. There are 4 different character viewpoints. This makes it very hard at the beginning when you are still trying to learn character names and keep them straight. Once you are in the story I was waiting to get to certain characters so that I knew what was happening or how they were feeling.
FYI: A little dark at the end but worth the read.

This title is very old and I know that I tried to read it but it wasn't for me. Thank you for the opportunity. Since I DNF the book I will not be posting a review to any media sites.

Thanks again!

I couldn't get into this. I disliked all the characters - and the formatting in my copy was so weird as to be a major distraction that didn't make me want to go further. A shame, because I love Nora Ephron's stuff and I'd heard good things about this. Just not for me I guess.

I'm no longer interested in reading this book at this time. The e-galley I received is very hard to read with line numbers mixed throughout and random capitalization (all lower case i's). It makes it too distracting to read, but thank you for the opportunity.

A snappy literary thriller about two American couples who take a holiday together to the Sicilian island of Siracusa.

Michael and Lizzie are a writer–journalist couple from New York City; Finn and Taylor live with their ten-year-old daughter, Snow, in Portland, Maine, where Finn (an old flame of Lizzie's) owns a restaurant. After meeting up by chance on a trip to London last year, they decide to go away together for a proper holiday in Italy, to the Sicilian island of Siracusa via Rome. In alternating chapters, the narrative moves fluidly between the perspectives of the four adults, all of whom are reflecting – with the help of hindsight and therapy – on what ended up being a disastrous trip. Although we don't learn until very late on in the book exactly what went wrong, there's a sense that it might be something to do with Snow.

All four voices are distinct and believable. That's not to say they're likable, though; the two men, in particular, are fairly despicable. Both are entertaining the idea of adultery to some extent: Michael has a younger mistress named Kathy, a waitress, and Finn is considering starting an affair with Jessa, a lobsterwoman. Plus there's Lizzie, with whom Finn continues to flirt even though it's been nearly 15 years since they were together. The men often write in a kind of shorthand, like they're too busy to waste time on surplus words. This is especially evident in Michael's sections, as in 'Confess? Knew I shouldn't. Not under any circumstances. Ignore the inclination.'

Though the four main characters get along reasonably well on the surface, deep down they really despise each other. Taylor thinks Lizzie is shallow because she doesn't have children; Michael and Lizzie think Taylor is risibly earnest; Finn and Michael don't trust each other; and Taylor thinks Finn is a useless excuse for a father. And just wait until Lizzie gets wind of Michael's ongoing affair.

But it's Snow who's the most intriguing character here. She is like a blank that the others project their own ideas onto. Is she totally innocent, or a clever manipulator? When she splashes around in the Trevi Fountain, or fakes a faint in front of Caravaggio's painting of Saint Lucia, is she fully aware of what she's doing? Is she, as Michael thinks when Snow starts clinging to him, an unwittingly sexual Lolita-like being?

One recurring, creepy element has Snow whispering something seemingly innocuous but ultimately malicious into one of the adults' ears – a truth that stirs things up between the grown-ups. Crucially, Ephron withholds details of these whispered revelations until later on. Snow struck me as a modern version of the title character in Henry James's What Maisie Knew, a novel that pivots on the dramatic irony between what the child understands and what is actually going on.

This psychological thriller dramatizes the situation of Americans abroad in a manner reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith's (especially in The Talented Mr Ripley) and explores the secrets that haunt many a marriage. Ephron, who has written in many genres and also made a number of films with her late sister, Nora, delivers many cutting one-liners on this theme:

'Betrayal of this magnitude is the exclusive province of married couples.'

'The only power worth having is secret power.'

'It turns out there are all sorts of foundations for marriage. Lying is one of them.'

This is a delicious story, ripe for a cinematic adaptation.

Uuuummmm 🤔 a very strangely absorbing tale with a group of hideous characters none of which you would ever warm to let alone go on a holiday with ! Two very unlikeable couples & a child, Snow, the daughter of the highly strung Taylor and the vain self centred Finn. Right from the beginning you know the child is not just strange or odd but deeply deeply weird.
In fact all in all it's a rather strange and depressing tale, the prose and storytelling are obviously by a very talented writer, but not my personal cup of tea.
The novel is really an American one, the writing is very American & it will probably be a big seller in the US, I don't believe it will be very popular in the U.k
I have visited Rome and Sicily several times and both places are magical and wonderful, the descriptions in this book of two stunning locations falls rather flat.