The novel focuses on Rosie and her interactions with the people around her - the family that she lives with as the nanny and others she meets through that experience. Rosie'c character develops throughout the novel. Rosie leaves Paris and heads to the south of France. It is here that it appears as if Rosie will be able to come to terms with her past.

The novel is well written and it is a quick read! Well worth your time. I will definitely read another novel by Lily King!

Ms. King has captured the essence of being an American in a foreign land in ways that are admirable and haunting. The plot of this book is somewhat predictable but it is the language and the art of Ms. King's prose that redeems what could be a mediocre effort. The characters are, with a minor exception or two, fully drawn and believeable.

This is, at its essence, a woman's book but one that any man who enjoys literary fiction will also find satisfying.

Prior has written a love story set in Sicily, a land of intense passions, in which she celebrates all of life's pleasures. The novel is full of eccentric characters who create situations bursting with emotion.

Rosa Fiore grows up in a rural Sicilian house where the kitchen (la cucina) is the center of life, its heart and soul. Rosa is the only daughter in a large family where cooking is a labor of love. She is an accomplished and legendary cook by the time she is a teenager.

Rosa leads a self-imposed, solitary life as a librarian in Palermo after fleeing her country home when her lover is murdered. Twenty-five years later, a mysterious Englishman enters her life, captivates her, and together they have a summer of intense physical and culinary passion.

This is a rollicking story of love and life as feasts to be enjoyed to the fullest.

Fern Michaels, I quote, "likes to write about strong women". The "Lily" of the title is a woman of small stature(from her description) but large on determination. I don't know about strength. The end of the story doesn't make her out to be such a strong woman. his is the one and only book I will read by Michaels just because of her quote because I don't agree with her at all that Lily was a strong woman. She was a kind hearted, and broken hearted woman who buckles under loves strap.

Lily is stood up at the altar by the male romantic lead in the story, Matt Starr(a perfect male romantic lead name), she vows never to get involved again and moves on. Her and Sadie, her best friend since childhood, both embark on careers as Survival Camp Counselors. Matt is among one of the group Lily is leading in the beginning of the story, and it's been a few years since he blew her off at the altar.
The get involved again, and chaos ensues. Matt is kidnapped by three brothers who sound like something out of a gangster movie. He is saved after days of real "survival" by Lily, Sadie, and Matt's best friend, Dennis. Eventually it all ends tragically happy, like most romance novels. A charm called a "wish keeper" is worn around Lily's neck throughout most of the story, and she has the "seizures" that make her see the future and see things that are happening. That is how they all find Matt Starr. The secondary story aside from ooey gooey love kept me interested enough to keep reading.
Every character in the story gets what they eventually deserve depending on their circumstances throughout the story. It's a perfect book for people who like a nicely wrapped up ending, those that want closure are far below their reading level here. But at least you get form of closure.
The love story of this is very predictable, but like I said, it was light reading for summer vacation that was easy to get through in five days.

Recommended for vacation read!

Eileen Famiglietti

When Matt did not show up for the wedding, Lily was left standing at the alter for the second time by the same man! She was deeply hurt until foul play became obvious. A necklace given to her (called a "Wish Keeper") was sending her short visions of Matt. The necklace and Matt's dog, Gracie, was the only hope Lily and her friends had of locating him.

Awesome story! Just a touch of the super natural (in the necklace) and combined with modern day computer geniuses...makes an excellent story for everyone! I could not bring myself to stop reading, so I finished it in less than a day! Be warned, don't start this one until you have plenty of reading time ahead of you! Highly recommended!

The novel is a personalised epic, both fleeting historical overview and an intricately spun web of human belonging and disillusionment. It begins with Clarence Wilmot's apostasy. His belief shattered by scientific rationalism, he finds succour from workaday drudgery via the movies; the flickering monochrome deity lifting "his soul out of him on curious wings". After his death, his son Teddy steadfastly carves out his own heaven-on-earth in the warm-hearted mediocrity of small-town Delaware; delivering mail, marrying lame Emily, and fathering Essie. This protean creature in turn changes her name to Alma DeMott and briefly becomes a Hollywood star. Only with Alma's offspring, Clark, does Updike's narrative complete its arc and achieve a tragic symmetry. Losing his faith in LA's celluloid Mammon, Clark goes in search of the genuine article ending his days as a religious cult proselyte defending a false prophet in a Wacoesque siege. For Updike, God is in the details. Each character is rigorously drawn and each fragment has its own exquisitely individuated prose style, be it Clarence's intellectual opalescence, Teddy's tenderly evoked ordinariness, or Essie's evolution from baby-speak to collagen-lipped sass.

Despite the book's shortcomings, three stars are merited because I really admired Mary Call's determination and spirit and the way she never gave up. She was not afraid to stand up for herself or for her family. If I had read this book two years ago, I think I would have liked it much more.

For girls, it teaches "can-do" through Mary Call's example of strength against adversity. May also have appeal to people interested in "wildcrafting" (herbs, roots).

Lily Tuck's "Siam" tells the story of a young, twenty-five year old woman named Claire, who impulsively marries an American, who helps build airfields for the army and is living in Thailand on the eve of the Vietnam War.

Claire joins her husband in Thailand, and the novel describes her experiences living in a country which is exotic and strangely beautiful on the surface, but also extremely "ugly" and even "sinister" beneath the country's seemingly beautiful facade.

Despite this short novel's well depicted, exotic locale (realistic and well done), the book isn't really about much of anything. Claire's marriage is shown to be falling apart:no reasons or motivations given, other than the fact that James doesn't seem to be in love with her (if, in fact he ever was) and seems to enjoy being away, working. Claire and James are sketchily described at best and never rise above being shown as more than just "types"--rather than interesting "individuals" in their own right.

What small amount of plot there is, concerns itself with the mysterious disappearance of a Silk enprenneur, named Jim Thompson, and Claire's obsessive attempt to find out the reason for his disappearance while he was flying somewhere else in Thairland supposedly while vacationing.

Claire's interest in Bill Thompson, (an actual, historical figure who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, is never plausibly spelled out for the reader, other than just to be told that the object of her search was an exceedingly polite and well bred man, who had exquisite artistic tastes)and seemed altogether different from her husband, whom Claire is obviously no longer in love with anymore than her husband is with her.

Lily Tuck's unwillingness to describe any of her characters in any depth made it impossible for this reader to care in any way what happens to them---which isn't much of anything, except that Claire never finds out what happened to Jim Thompson and an unexpected act of violence occurs in the swimming pool of the house where she is living, at the close of the novel.

Besides the dearth of an interesting plot and the lack of interesting characterization, there is a seemingly endless attempt on the part of the author to explain the intricacies of the Thai language as Claire struggles to familiarize herself with with Thailand's customs and traditions.

Page after page is filled with ITALICIZED Thai words and expressions--as though Lily Tuck is trying to compensate for her lack of plotting and poor attempts at characterization, by illustrating how much she knows about the Thai language.

Perhaps other readers will find virtues in the book which I have somehow missed seeing. But as far as I'm concerned--except for the lush descriptions of Thailand's fauna and plant life--there is little reason to read "Siam."

Don't waste your time!

This is a story of a rather naive young American woman, Claire, who marries impulsively to a military contractor working out of Thailand during the Vietnam war. She must cope with a new culture, servants she distrusts and a husband that she becomes suspicious of. Yet, there is a tone of mystery, a friend they met at a dinner party disappears. Based on a real event, Jim Thompson, an American silk buisnessman disappears during a vacation. Claire becomes obsessed with his absence, along with other issues of her life that begin to unravel.

At first, her arrival prompted her to take Thai language lessons, research Thai history and culture in the local library and join a military wives weekly tour group. The plunge into Thai culture begins to take it's toll on Claire. She mistrusts the servants, and later finds items missing that she treasures. Worst, she doubts her debonair husband and fears he is having affairs with friend's wives. She takes to examining his dirty laundry for evidence of infidelity. She can't sleep and begins to drink more. She misses her home and her family. She finds the Thai food disgusting and the outside town filthy. There is a palpable tension that the author alludes to, a crisis in the making and a constant referral to the violence of the Thai past intersecting with this woman's life.

I guarantee all your questions will not be answered. The ending is allusive and disturbing. While accepting the novel as it is would be my advice, I would relish the opportunity to review this book in a book club setting. I am sure the interpretations would be various and vast. Don't let the originality put you off to an incredible unique novel.