An American Girl in Italy by Aubrie Dionne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a great read for me. I tend to inhale anything based in Italy, more so when the author does a great job with imagery. Aubrie Dionne gave a good view of Italy. Carly is a gifted musician who plays with an orchestra traveling in Italy. She plays an instrument that I have little experience with so it was great to read the descriptions of her playing and the solo that she was trying to achieve with the opera singer, diva. They worked really hard from venue to venue and it was amazing to read the descriptions of how music is affected by our moods and interpretations. The author did a wonderful job describing their attempts at the song, so much so that, I literally cringed for them when the song did not go the way they intended. Reading about some of the other orchestra members also went a long way for me with liking this story.

Michaelangelo was a wonderful man who we learn about slowly as the story goes along. But, the reader is not sorry they get to know him because not only was he a great tour guide, despite his lack of experience, as well as showing himself to be a great man. Unfortunately, I did not realize there was a book before this one so I have not read it yet so I did not know the history of Carly and Melody's friendship though that did not distract from the story. It did make me want to get to know the characters better and spend more time reading other work by this author.