Happy Ending

by Francesca Duranti

[Lianne]

I was approved of an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/03/10/review-happy-ending/

Happy Ending is essentially a quiet family drama and how a stranger redirects the lives of a number of characters from a state of unhappiness and (hopefully) on a road to happiness. While the presence of Marco at the villa pretty much upsets everyone's lives, his effect occurs in leaps and bounds; I didn't quite believe that these characters suddenly had a change of heart or that the change in one's relationship really happened.

While the prose and reflection can be beautiful at times but the dialogue sometimes can come off as stilted and odd. Granted, almost all of these characters are from the aristocratic classes so there’s something a little archaic in the way they talk about matters close to them, but it did come off as very awkward to read. I also thought it might be a translation thing going on there, that there’s just no other way to translate certain feelings into English.

While the characters were not wholly likeable, they weren’t downright annoying or unlikeable either. Nonetheless the book as a whole was an interesting read.