Friday, November 7, 2008

Review: Dating Da Vinci by Malena Lott

Thirty-six year old Ramona Elise has been a widow for two years. Her husband died suddenly and she has been living in a fog of grief ever since. She goes through the motions for the sake of her two young sons, but the joy has gone from her life and she doesn't know how to get it back.

Ramona is a linguist who teaches English to immigrants who come from countries all over the world. One day a handsome young Italian man walks into her classroom with the unusual and famous name of Leonardo da Vinci. He is sweet and funny and he likes Ramona immediately, nicknaming her 'Mona Lisa', a shortened version of her own name. A happy coincidence.

Leonardo is just what Ramona needs, someone able to draw her out of the shell that she has built around herself. Her family and friends have been there for her all along, of course. But now she is just about at the point that she is able to let someone in and feel like it is okay to have fun again.

The result is a charming and funny book that is surprisingly thoughtful, as well. Though it may look like a romance novel, this book is more than that. The issues of grief and loss are respectfully dealt with and the story is richer for it.

Thank you to Danielle from Sourcebooks for sending me this lovely book!

Dating da Vinci is published by Sourcebooks. ISBN 978-1-4022-1393-9

Order Dating da Vinci from Amazon

5 comments:

Anna said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anna said...

I've heard a lot of good things about this book. I enjoyed your review!

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric

Anonymous said...

nice to know that there's a more serious note to this book, too.

Thanks for the informative review.

Anonymous said...

This one's in my TBR pile, so I'm glad to see it's good. Thanks for the review.

tashiana said...

very cool! it's about the mona lisa
haha i hope da vinci is funny in a way that's similar to da vinci in the movie Ever After--I loved him!
i kind of resent that the joy went out of her life because of a man and then came back because of another man rather that her children or ambitions but i'm a bit of a feminist


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New Hampshire, United States
Bibliophile, Anglophile, Traveller... I have been an avid reader all of my life, since I took the Dr. Seuss Dictionary away from my Mom when I was less than a year old because I wanted to read it myself. In college, where I earned my degree in English Literature, I was often asked "What are you going to do with it?" Now I finally have the answer to that question!!! Being employed as a Flight Attendant for twenty years has given me a lot of life experience and, better still, a lot of time to read. I love to travel for fun, too.