*Release Day* Santorini Sunsets by Anita Hughes

Posted August 2, 2016 by RobbieLea in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

*Release Day* Santorini Sunsets by Anita HughesSantorini Sunsets by Anita Hughes
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on August 2nd 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
ISBN: 1250094127
ASIN: B01AGHENYK
Goodreads
three-stars

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The seventh intoxicating love story by Anita Hughes, set in beautiful Santorini, Greece. When a Hollywood superstar and a NYC society girl fall in love, sparks fly and secrets are revealed.
Brigit Palmer is thrilled to be on the Greek Island of Santorini. She's here for her wedding to Hollywood heart-throb Blake Crawford, one of America's most eligible bachelors. Brigit's parents have rented a villa, and soon guests will arrive from all over the world for the intimate ceremony.
Brigit is a New York socialite, and she's just given up her position at a Manhattan law firm to run her father's philanthropic foundation. Things are finally falling into place. Love, career, family. Everything is going so well...until she steps into the garden and sees her ex-husband Nathaniel hiding in the rose bushes.
Nathaniel, a failed novelist, announces that Blake sold the rights to the wedding to HELLO! Magazine for two million dollars (donated to charity), and he is the reporter assigned to write the story. Everyone expects Brigit to have her happily ever after, including her mother who taught her how to lead the perfect lifestyle, her younger sister Daisy who impatiently wishes for her own love story, and of course, her fiancé. Things are supposed to work out for them. But when Brigit discovers an unsettling secret about Blake, she questions everything she's ever believed about love, and wonders if she's better off alone.
Told in Anita Hughes' spectacularly descriptive prose, SANTORINI SUNSETS is a story about family bonds, first loves, and the question of when to let go and when to hang on as tight as you can.

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#BeachRead #ContemporaryRomance #SantoriniGreece @hughesanita @StMartinsPress

Robbie-300x50

Santorini Sunsets by Anita Hughes is my first experience with this author who, I understand, is known for her descriptive language and her ability to paint fascinating word portraits of her characters and her settings. In that respect, the book certainly met my expectations. The author’s descriptions are comprehensive and will captivate all your senses. Her depictions of the setting for her story read like a travelogue. I would love to visit Santorini! The book is also very detailed about food and clothing and will be completely satisfying to readers who like to have a clear mental image of where the characters are, what they are wearing including the brand names, and what they are eating. I have to admit I thought the inclusion of so many celebrity names, designer names, and even frou-frou food names was a bit overdone making the dialogue, at times, sound stilted, as in “real people don’t talk like that” stilted.

I found the characters to be neither likable nor unlikable. They just aren’t like anybody most of us know. I’m reminded of that phrase “the rich are different”; it is certainly true in this book. The problem is . . . I’ve read many books about people who are either of a higher or lower socio-economic level than I am and I still found the characters completely relatable. That isn’t the case with this book. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters and they don’t seem to connect with each other except superficially – which may explain their relationship problems.  I think the most memorable thing about any form of art is how it makes you feel. Sadly, I didn’t feel anything except a really strong desire to visit Santorini!

Santorini Sunsets is a book that won’t tax you mentally or emotionally and will be the perfect beach or poolside read. The plot is easy to follow, and there is a bit of conflict without too much angst. For those of you who like a storyline that is relatively predictable, this is definitely the book for you. I knew how it would end as soon as Brigit Palmer found her ex-husband Nathaniel hiding in the rose bushes in the first chapter!

three-stars

About Anita Hughes

Anita Hughes is the author of Island in the Sea, Rome in Love, French Coast, Lake Como, Market Street, and Monarch Beach. She attended UC Berkeley’s Masters in Creative Writing Program. Hughes lives in Dana Point, California, where she is at work on her next novel. For more information about Anita and her books, visit anitahughesbooks.com.

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