The Invitation by Lucy Foley @lucyfoleytweets @HarperCollinsUK @bisscakes

Book Synopsis:

It’s 1951. In Europe’s post-war wreckage, the glittering Italian Riviera draws an eclectic cast of characters; lured by the glamour but seeking an escape.

Amongst them, two outcasts: Hal, an English journalist who’s living on his charm; and Stella, an enigmatic society beauty, bound to a profiteering husband. When Hal receives a mysterious invitation from a wealthy Contessa, he finds himself aboard a yacht headed for Cannes film festival.

Scratch the beautiful surface, and the post-war scars of his new companions are quick to show. Then there’s Stella, whose secrets run deeper than anyone’s ― stretching back into the violence of Franco’s Spain. And as Hal gets drawn closer, a love affair begins that will endanger everyone…

The Invitation is an epic love story that will transport you from the glamour of the Italian Riviera, to the darkness of war-torn Spain. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Victoria Hislop.

My Review:

The Invitation is definitely one of those books that takes you to another time and place.  I really felt like I was travelling through post war Europe with the characters, experiencing all the sights with them.  I now really hope to travel through Europe at some point and visit all the countries they did.

I loved the Countessa! I thought she was such a fantastic character, so full of life (despite her age), welcoming, friendly and a tad mischievous.  Her obvious care towards her guests and her meddling in their lives to increase their happiness, was lovely to read about.  Her antics often had me laughing out loud at times, especially when it wasn’t at first clear what she was up to and her devious schemes were gradually revealed.  All the characters have been affected by the war in different ways which was fascinating to read about, particularly as in their histories is mentioned a part of the war that i didn’t know much about.  All the characters go on a personal journey throughout the book and it was lovely to see how much they had changed towards the end.

The building relationship between Stella and Hal was brilliantly done and seemed very real.  Things seemed to happen at a natural time and pace for them and it wasn’t too over the top.  It would have been easy for the author to write the relationship a lot more like a Hollywood movie and I was very pleased that she resisted this urge and created a much more everyday relationship.  This is not to say that the relationship was boring, far from it! The many twists and turns and oppositions to their relationship kept the story very interesting.  I felt intimately involved, almost like I was a friend of the couple trying to look out for them, and wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next.  The relationship doesn’t dominate the story either, rather it is the group as a whole with their different backgrounds, experience of the war and how they interact with each other (often outside the class rules that were in place at the time) that makes the story a truly interesting one.  I found that I liked all of the characters individually, even Stella’s husband (who i felt sorry for), and I found i was very interested in discovering more about them and their history.

There is a twist towards the end which I didn’t see coming and helped move the book in a completely different direction to the one i was expecting.   I was very pleased with how it ended and thought it was a very appropriate ending for the book.

This is Lucy Foley’s second book, but it is the first I have read and I will definitely be reading more from her.  I believe her third book, Last Letters from Istanbul is available in March and I will very much be looking forward to reading it. If you are a fan of Victoria Hislop of Kate Morton you will very much enjoy this book.

Huge thanks to Ann Bissell and Harper Collins for my copy of this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Author Information:

Lucy Foley studied English Literature at Durham and UCL universities. She then worked for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry – during which time she also wrote The Book of Lost and Found. Lucy now writes full-time, and is busy travelling (for research, naturally!) and working on her next novel.

Visit her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/LucyFoleyAuthor and follow her on Twitter @lucyfoleytweets and Instagram @Lucy_F_Author. Find her on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7770523.Lucy_Foley.