From the author of "Hideous Kinky" comes a charming, surprising, and utterly irresistible tale of adolescent love and self-discovery.
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reviews
Jul 23, 2010
Michael
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I have followed Esther Freud's writing career almost from the very beginning, mainly because we're the same age and I was curious what a novelist of my generation might have to say. When I first "discovered" her, Freud had only published two novels, Hideous Kinky (1991) and Peerless Flats (1994), of which I read the latter - the former was soon after turned into the eponymous film featuring Kate Winslet, at which point Freud's writing career seemed assured. Of her subsequent novels I g
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Jul 10, 2009
Patty
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This novel was different from any other book I have read. I do not usually grab books that look cool on the cover, bc nine times our of ten they arent that great, but i got this book at a half price book store, and I really liked it. I would have brought it with me to the beach or something, its a great summer read. The main character is Lara and she is not very close to her father and she starts to understand him better, while at the same time meeting new people. I dont want to go any further,
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Feb 23, 2009
April
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I read this book shortly after a trip to Italy where I visited Sienna and Florence, both settings in this novel. I liked the all the characters and the underlying mysteries about the main character's father's past and the boy she falls in love with. The title seemed to be a play on words since a major scene takes place at Love Falls and throughout the book people seem to be falling in and out of love. At first glance, the urgent romance between the main character and the young man seems to be th
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Jul 26, 2011
Daphneg64
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I think that Esther needs to get a life and stop writting. This story first of all was one long chapter. Seriously you can not make chapters or what? I was disappointed in the ending, the middle, the beginning... I read and kept thinking OK this is going to get better sooner or later. Well yes it got better when I closed the book. How can there be so many charactors and we still know nothing about them? Why was Lambert in such a dire rush to get home? What does Lara see in Kip who seems tobe suc
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Nov 13, 2009
Becca
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"Oh, la la la, Italy is so lovely, what a nice boy I've met, although his cohorts are a bit dodgy, uh-oh, I'm raped! Well, I guess it wasn't that bad...uh-oh, my summer fling might be my half-brother! But it doesn't matter, because we're in looove! Goodie, he's not! The end!"
Not as terrible as all that, but the voice of the narrator is distractingly vapid, and has very strange reactions to pretty awful events. Add to that the fact that Esther Freud is, yes, one of the Oedip More...
Not as terrible as all that, but the voice of the narrator is distractingly vapid, and has very strange reactions to pretty awful events. Add to that the fact that Esther Freud is, yes, one of the Oedip More...
Apr 24, 2011
Kit
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Really great, super-fast read.I haven't read Freud's other books (although I'm familiar with Hideous Kinky) but after this I'll definitely check out the rest of her catalog (she's the painter Lucien Freud's daughter, and Sigmund Freud's grand-daughter). Her material seems to be thinly veiled auto-biography;stories of her inattentive, workaholic father and her idealistic hippy mother. Love Falls takes place on the rolling hillsides outside Siena, peeking into the lives of the idly rich titled Bri
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Apr 22, 2010
Amy
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Sep 15, 2011
Christie
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Esther Freud (Sigmund’s great-granddaughter) has written a compelling, if slightly unsatisfying, coming-of-age tale with her novel, Love Falls. When 17 year old Lara heads to Tuscany with her father (a man who is practically a stranger to her) for a summer holiday, she isn’t quite sure of what to expect. Her father, a slightly distant intellectual historian called Lambert, has been invited to visit an old friend and wants Lara to accompany him. Lara is well-traveled: she and her bohemian mother
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Mar 03, 2011
Mara
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La trama ricorda alcuni aspetti della sceneggiatura del film “io ballo da sola”: giovane ragazza inglese in vacanza nelle colline senesi, in una bella villa con vicini aristocratici e anticonformisti. Il suo soggiorno diventa una specie di passaggio di maturazione: si chiarisce il suo rapporto con un padre amato ma distante, si incontra/scontra con le ambiguità e le bassezze del mondo adulto e si innamora. Il tutto avviene nell’estate del 1981 e sullo sfondo c’e’ il matrimonio fra Carlo e Diana
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Apr 21, 2011
Emma
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From what you gather in the blurb, you expect this to be a light-hearted summer read, with perhaps a little smut and drama, but what it really was... Well... It was an awkward book that had little plot structure. The relationship between Lara and her father was extremely well done and the only aspect of the book that had any real development, but other than that, it just seemed to be random events thrown together with no purpose and no real conclusion.
the romance between Kip and Lara More...
the romance between Kip and Lara More...
Nov 25, 2007
Betsy
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I picked this book up because it was by the author of Hideous Kinky, which was made into a movie starring Kate Winslet and because it was a coming of age story set in Italy. The main character in this book is Lara, a 17-yr-old on holiday with the father she barely knows, staying with a friend of his in a villa outside of Sienna. Lara gets swept along with a set of bored, rich people in their teens and twenties, to whom she is the latest plaything, falling "in love" with young Kip, and
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Aug 02, 2011
Katie
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This book follows the story of Lara who decides to go on a long holiday with her father, a man whom she does not really know to well due to her parents separation. This is basically a holiday romance story which I initially I found quite interesting, however once halfway through it became clear that there was not going to be much of a story. The romance is lukewarm there is a rather random event that takes place in the middle of the story which is almost brushed aside and the ending is rushed. P
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Jul 28, 2011
The premise of the whole story sounded interesting enough and the build-up of the story was quite good. However, there seemed to be many gaps that were left unplugged and many questions that were left unanswered - making for a very anti-climactic ending. Was expecting a lot more from the book as I heard much about Freud's writing. Ending was definitely too abrupt and seemed as if, Freud, herself had run out of time (a deadline to meet, perhaps?)....sad....
Mar 20, 2009
Megan
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I thought that maybe I would enjoy a book about a girl who gets to spend a romantic summer in Italy and witnesses the Pallio. I loved the descriptions of the locations and villas. I was not crazy about the supporting cast of characters and the weak plot. They were kind of hippy meets bohemian with money. There was one character that bordered on a pedophile. Maybe the title should have been a hint to me. Read at your own risk.
Jan 29, 2010
Sarah
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This adult novel started with such promise, but I was a little disappointed by the end, probably because I don't like the main character. She's a wuss.[return][return]Lara is seventeen and is invited by her mostly absentee father to Italy for the summer. She accepts because she wants to get to know her dad better. But she doesn't really like what she sees. Her dad isn't the marrying kind, but he's really good at sleeping with married women. And he doesn't seem to think that his daughter should c
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Mar 19, 2009
Kelly
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Mar 15, 2009
Andrea
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This book is like a summer holiday in my memory - a literary interlude of heat, away from the mundanity of everyday life. The characters are vivid and the setting is brought to life. Many scenes remind me of a modern Austen novel with the focus on the landscape representing the character's feelings or predicament. I previously loved 'Hideous Kinky' and this novel lived up to it.
Feb 07, 2012
Ruth
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Right. So I don't know if I just didn't get this one or what. I thought I was in for a treat when it started; teenage girl takes a trip to Italy with her distant father where the possibilities for young love and summer adventure ensue. Nice reading for a chilly February evening. But the transition between scenes seemed jumpy and situations which could have built up to a crescendo just fell flat.
Dec 06, 2011
Josie
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This book made me long to be seventeen again. To be full of confusion and hope and experiencing first love under the Italian sun. The description was glorious, and somehow Esther Freud managed to create a dreamy exotic-holiday feel without sacrificing any of the emotional impact of being a teenager and feeling things so deeply.
Jun 11, 2011
Eloïse
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Very well written novel of a girls discovery of adulthood in the rolling Italian hills of Tuscany. On the cover of the book Marie Claire said that it was 'Deliciously unsettling' however the unsettling rape scene did not really seem to effect the rest of the novel, and I found it was more about Lara's relationship with Kip, which did not seem very believable. Criticisms aside a very enjoyable read, which made me long to travel to Italy.
Oct 18, 2010
just started this one...so far liking it, it is about a 17 yr old who is spending time in Italy with her father, who she doesn't really know.......I didn't finish this one.....dunno...just couldn't get into it for some reason..although it is not a bad book...maybe I will give it another go when I finish the one I am on now.
Feb 23, 2009
Alora
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This book is easily my favorite book ever; it took me by surprise how different it was from anything I'd read before, yet how believable and realistic it was. There's not much more I can say about this novel without completely swooning over it.
Apr 27, 2008
Melissa
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This book was frustrating because of the point-of-view of the narration. Although it was told in the third person, we only see and know what the heroine observes. It created a feeling of this stupid girl with big eyes who rarely speaks and is staring at everything and everyone rather than engaging in the activities described. I got the feeling that the author was trying to make the story "deep and complex." I just found it irritating. But perhaps that was the point - to witness the mot
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Jan 23, 2008
Michelle
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This is the first book I've read by Esther Freud. She is the great granddaughter of Sigmund Freud! She is also the author of Hideous Kinky, which was made into a movie in the 90's starring Kate Winslet. The story is about a 17 year old girl's coming of age. She is invited to travel to Italy with her aging and emotionally distant father, Lambert. The lush descriptions of the Italian countryside and mouth watering sumptious foods allows the reader to experience a taste of Italy. Ms. Freud crafts a
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Oct 03, 2011
Stephanie
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it was a good story but not sure how i liked her writting. i felt sucked in but other times i wanted to hurry up and finish to get to the next book on my list. Bought this book for a $1 and dont think i would have paid any more for it.
Nov 02, 2008
Kersten
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A coming of age story of 17-year old English girl (Lara) who travels to Italy with her relatively unknown father. She meets the life in the fast lane , well-to-do Wiloboughy clan and the story goes from there. This is fairly quick read. I thought Esther did a beautiful job describing Sienna with wonderful sights, sounds and smells. However, some of the story line seems unsaid. This didn't bother me too much, but I can see where it could be annoying to others. In addition, there are a lot of
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Apr 20, 2011
Rema
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Nederlandse vertaling gelezen: Liefdesval.
Een 17 jarig meisje leert tijdens een vakantie haar vader beter kennen en wordt zich bewust van haar identiteit.
Een 17 jarig meisje leert tijdens een vakantie haar vader beter kennen en wordt zich bewust van haar identiteit.
Dec 16, 2009
Abby
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I discovered this extremely diverting novel in an English-language bookstore in Paris, and thank God I did: how wonderful to disappear into the imagination of a tan, gorgeous teenage girl vacationing with her mysterious father and assorted British aristocrats in a Tuscan villa. Food, sex, swimming, and horse-racing all lusciously rendered here. Esther Freud, whose books do not appear on the shelves of my Brooklyn bookstore, is probably best known on this side of the Atlantic for her first novel
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May 03, 2010
Rhonda
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"You, me and Piers, Lulu, Roland, Kip. That's six. Tabsy, will you come along?'
Tabsy?
I was constantly asking myself as I read this novel why I would care about any of these obnoxious toffs and their obnoxious world. I guess I kept reading because EF does know how to construct a plot. On the other hand, i found the writing itself pretty flat and uninteresting. there were also pages and pages about the palio, almost as if she was trying to write a travelogue - perhaps More...
Tabsy?
I was constantly asking myself as I read this novel why I would care about any of these obnoxious toffs and their obnoxious world. I guess I kept reading because EF does know how to construct a plot. On the other hand, i found the writing itself pretty flat and uninteresting. there were also pages and pages about the palio, almost as if she was trying to write a travelogue - perhaps More...
