Rating: 
Summary: What a great book!
Review: "Enchanted April" is one of my favorite books. It is such a warm, witty, wonderful story, full of hope and romance. I hear it is going to be a Broadway show this April! (fittingly) I cannot wait... I know I'm going to be the first one on line for tickets, that's for sure. All you other "Enchanted April" lovers out there, I urge you to come see this show! I'm sure this will be one of the finest shows on Broadway in a long time!Yay "Enchanted April!"
Rating: 
Summary: Enchanting Read
Review: For the start of this book I was a bit worried I wouldn't finish it, as it felt in the beginning like a terribly earnest 'ladies' book; but I soon found out what a lovely book it is - I would call it charming if that wasn't so twee. Four women - all strangers - spend a month sharing a house in Italy. Slowly but surely they slough off their old, grey skins and discover happiness. Much of this happiness comes simply from a change in their perceptions. Lotty, slightly fey, is the first to fall for the house's charms, and soon begins to act like the person she really is, rather than the quiet mousy woman her life has made her. When her husband comes to visit he realises what a wonder his wife is, and though his motives for visiting were less than pure, he falls back in love with the woman he first married. Rose, who constantly battles to square any enjoyment in life with her conscious, has the same effect when her husband accidentally arrives near the end of her holiday - he realises that his wife is still the woman he first married. The other two women also have their epiphanies - old Mrs Fisher realises that living in the past, her only enjoyment being memories of the good and the great she met in her youth, is not as enjoyable as she thought; she lightens up and moves on to let happiness in to her life. And beautiful Scrap - Lady Caroline - realises how empty her life is. Slowly through the book we see her formulate a future life, and though she hasn't reached it by the novel's end, you feel she will. This is a clever book - it makes you question how your perceptions flavour your life, and it also makes you question your perceptions of others. If only we all had a house in Italy to spend time reflecting on these issues.....
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Summary: A mental plug-in for creating lush images.
Review: I can't remember what compelled me to buy this book, but it painted the most peaceful, beautiful and pleasant images and feelings as I read it. I'm a guy, and it's a chick-book, but I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get away from life and be lost in paradise. PS... The movie does it NO justice, although the movie is fun. The strength of this story is in Von Arnim's ability to literally supercharge what your mind can paint. It's funny too.
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Summary: The Restorative Power of Beauty
Review: Much like the film this book by Elizabeth Von Arnim inspired, there is something peaceful here on these pages. This is a gentle novel about the gradual internal changes brought about by the beauty of our surroundings. It is a book that reads itself as much as it is read, the author writing with the flow of the characters thoughts and feelings as their hearts are changed by the suprise of beauty. An ad to rent a castle in San Salvatore on the Italian Riviera will prompt two British women, Rose and Lottie, with only a passing acquaintance, to inexplically leave their husbands behind for a summer that will change their lives and their marriages forever. Joining Rose and Lottie for this holiday is Mrs. Fisher, an older woman living in the past, and Lady Caroline Dester, a grey-eyed society beauty tired of being gawked at like a majestic statue, not allowed to be human. Diverse in nature and temperment, not to mention background, they interact uneasily together until the flowers and the sea bring about a change in their souls. Surrounded by fig and olive trees, plum blossoms and Tamarisk daphnes, and the scents of fortune's yellow rose and blooming acacia, the women slowly find their roles at this castle by the sea, and in doing so find themselves as well. New insights will prompt Rose and Lottie to send for their husbands. Lady Caroline, or 'Scrap' as she is known, will find love in spite of her wish to be alone and her great beauty. Mrs. Fisher will form a friendship with Lottie and her husband, and discover a renewed zest for creativity in this heaven by the sea. This is a novel about life and love, told gently through the emotions of these women, as the the suprise of beauty and the warmth of being suddenly admired and seen as beautiful, when they had not been before, changes their simple lives, which were not so simple at all. You will definitely enjoy this novel if you enjoyed the film. It is about love restored, and love discovered, along the wistaria covered steps leading down to the sea.
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Summary: Enchanted Liguria
Review: The four ladies have not traveled from London to Tuscany (Italy is not only Tuscany!) as told here by another reader, but to beautiful Liguria, the unique and extraordinary Italian Riviera. The castle of San Salvatore, where the ladies enjoy their "enchanted" April, is Villa Brown in Portofino. Elizabeth Von Arnim herself lived there for a quite long time and a nice movie inspired by the book was shot in the same place by BBC. If you have the chance, visit Liguria, a land of colourful fishermen villages, where the sea is deeply blue, where the coast is rich of great villas, medieval castles and magnificent renaissance and baroque palaces. ...and take this amazing book with you!
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Summary: A castle in Italy
Review: The lure of Italy, particularly during a dismal, rainy day elsewhere, is hard to resist. For four British women, the attraction brings them to San Salvatore, a Tuscan villa, for an entire month of vacation. The women are very different. Lotty Wilkins, nervous and talkative, is treated like a child by her husband and is starting to chafe from his oppression. Rose Arbuthnot, with a "face like a disappointed madonna," is pious, sweet, and desperately unhappy. Margaret Fisher, stern and demanding, lives in a past peppered with famous literary encounters. And Caroline Dester, striking beautiful and popular, is lonely and bored with her whirlwind social life. The four rent San Salvatore together, and immediately begin to change. Lotty loses her nervous demeanor, and becomes a self confident, mature woman. Rose blossoms when she realizes that she does possess beauty, and wins back the love of her formerly indifferent husband. Margaret thaws out and begins to smile and relax, even conversing with the other tenants, living in the present instead of the dusty past. And Caroline re-opens her heart to love and friendship by recognizing the emptiness of her life before she left for Italy. What is it that changes these women? Sun and rest in a beautiful place? Yes, partly, but mostly it is the friendship of three extraordinary people. I'd love to see this enjoyable novel brought back into print.
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Summary: DELIGHTFUL!!!
Review: The setting, the characters and the writing, all contribute to make this a jewel of a little book, that you read with infinite pleasure. It reminds you of precious gifts from life: the sun, flowers, love and tolerance. Very well writen. It's like a luxurious bubble bath (to keep this review on a superficial level)
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Summary: WISTERIA AND SUNSHINE
Review: This book consists of a little jewel of a plot in the most sumptous of settings--Italy's Riviera dei Fiore. Four women, for very different reasons, attempt to escape for one month to San Salvatore, a medieval castle. Gradualy, each woman begins to reveal more and more about herself until she finally sheds her public persona to reveal the real person underneath. Imbued with lighthearted romance, wisteria and sunshine, this beautiful novel will both captivate and delight you.
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Summary: Flowers, sunshine, and self-awareness...
Review: This is a delightful story...one of my favorite books! Gives you a little faith that even seemingly irreconcileable situations can be restored or transformed, that drastically different people can find common ground and become friends, and that people can change their lives for the better! A sunny read for a dark winter day!
Rating:
Summary: A delightful read
Review: Well, you've already heard about the story. Just wanted to add that the characters were so real, it was as if I were really there with them. A wonderful turn of events at the end. Caught me off guard. Very enjoyable. Beautiful writing. Now I've got to rent the movie.
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