Rating: 
Summary: A Renewed Taste for Life
Review: Renato's Luck, from the first word to the last visual, is the perfect read for anyone seeking a renewed taste for life. Jeff Shapiro has taken the Italian culture and woven a tale of hope, faith, and new-found happiness throughout his characters. Renato, in particular, becomes the small town hero of a delightful Tuscan town. Every character that Renato encounters shares a unique tale, simple yet so very Italian. Amazing for an American expat living in Tuscany. The visuals in this book are so precise that anyone who has visited Siena, Montalcino, or anywhere in Tuscany for that matter will no doubt be transported back to the tranquility of the Italian countryside. I loved the Italian phrases throughout the book, including their incredible translations! Bravo, Jeff Shapiro. Bravo, indeed. A must read for all!
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't live up to its potential
Review: The bottom line: An interesting premise, but with flat characters and annoying untranslatable Italian phrases that are immediately translated.I picked up this novel thinking it would be good for a light-weight summer read. The cover and the fact that it was about Tuscany drew me in. In general, the story of Renato and his quest to change his own luck as well as the luck of his town was quite charming. Unfortunately, the story is rather drawn-out, and the ending predictable. The characters seem unreal, bordering on the stereotypical. The only worthwhile character was Duncan, who I took for a reflection of the author, and who had a very honest voice. Another irritating thing about the novel was the way phrases were written in Italian, presumably to show a specific Italian idiom, and then were immediately translated. Some of the translations were obvious, and some were not.m I felt that if the phrases were translatable, they should have just been written in English and left at that. After all, the entire novel is supposedly being spoken and thought in Italian, anyway. The entire culo section could have worked, with just that one word, but the rest of the Italian phrases were just unnecessary.
Rating: 
Summary: A lovely gentle story
Review: This is the delightful tale of Renato and his friends, family and fellow villagers, in a small village in Tuscany that is soon to be flooded to make a new dam. Renato feels that life has lost its flavour, and is pondering his future when a dream makes him realise that he must do something to change this. It is a lovely story and the narrator really makes you feel that you know the colourful characters and can identify with how their lives are changing. It has the expected happy ending and is in all a satisfying read. If I have one small criticism of the book, it is that on occasions you do wonder where the dialogue is all going. And at times I became impatient for Renato to get on and do what he has to do in order to make the change to his and everyone's lives. But this is a small criticism - it really is a very good book, and one I recommend.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely gentle story
Review: This is the delightful tale of Renato and his friends, family and fellow villagers, in a small village in Tuscany that is soon to be flooded to make a new dam. Renato feels that life has lost its flavour, and is pondering his future when a dream makes him realise that he must do something to change this. It is a lovely story and the narrator really makes you feel that you know the colourful characters and can identify with how their lives are changing. It has the expected happy ending and is in all a satisfying read. If I have one small criticism of the book, it is that on occasions you do wonder where the dialogue is all going. And at times I became impatient for Renato to get on and do what he has to do in order to make the change to his and everyone's lives. But this is a small criticism - it really is a very good book, and one I recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: What a wonderful first novel. The characters so enjoyable....so real...I felt as if I lived in Renato's village. The author so young yet so good at developing his characters. I only wonder why I waited so long to read this novel. Rarely does a good book make a good movie.....but I hope a movie is made of this novel so that those of us who do not like to read can experience Renato and the other characters. I feel good inside when I recall various scenes from the story............I think this a good thing.
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