The Ice Cream Parlour by Isabella May; Indie Published
Page Count (e-book) – 259
The Blurb:
Giovanna Tonioli is a successful stockbroker with a famous sports star boyfriend, but things aren’t as sweet as they seem. When life in the city of Bath goes from Vanilla to Rocky Road, she takes herself off to Italy for an ‘Eat Pray Love’ style tour of all things gelateria. What she doesn’t expect to find on her travels is one smooth, hot dollop of temptation that she just can’t shake.
How will her spiteful twin sister react when Giovanna returns to open a rival ice cream parlour? Will Natalia get her just desserts? Or will things become even stickier? All’s fair in love, war and ice cream. Isn’t it?
*Marian Keyes meets Paulo Coelho meets Nigella*
The Ice Cream Parlour is a mouthwatering tale of fate, family, love and jealousy – with a delectable drizzle of alchemy besides.
My Review:
This book has to be, without question, the most delectable, mouth-watering treat of a book I have ever had the pleasure to feast my eyes upon. The delicious looking cover is a visual aperitif, stimulating you for the main course within. From the very first sentence, this book pulls you in and wraps itself around you like a soft marshmallow oyster wafer.
The story of Giovanna is one many will identify with; where one sibling just always seem to get the sweeter deal in the family food chain. The favoured sibling who seems to be able to do no wrong even when, in reality, that is all they ever do and it is this unbalance in the scales of love which creates the setting for the tale.
The pace of the book is perfectly measured and the descriptions of the myriad flavours of gelato left this reader drooling like Homer Simpson facing a mountain of doughnuts alongside an ocean of Duff beer. The icy morsels, however, had some stiff competition from the quite astounding portrayal of the Italian locations visited by Giovanna. Oh my… The scent of the sea, the buzz of the city and the soothing ambiance of small towns and villages simply oozed off the pages. Very little imagination was required to picture the chocolate box vistas on Giovanna’s tour,
This is the fourth tasty morsel from Isabella May and her talent for creating mouth-watering tales continues to grow. Each book is – and I don’t know how she does it – better than the last. When it comes to writing foodie fables, Isabella May should flash her Michelin stars with pride.
Now, if you will excuse me, my self-restraint has all but evaporated and I’m off to dive head first into a large tub of something cold, sweet and truly scrumptious.
All books by Isabella May are available in e-book & paperback on Amazon.