Had a lot of fun reading this, very clever and funny. Beautiful messaging about love in the face of death, and how to love is to live really. All the characters and the setting of Italy made it feel sort of soap opera-y but definitely with way more philosophy and Italian art lol. My main gripe i guess is that I wish I had felt more of an attachment to Lucy’s character. At the beginning it was sort of implied that she was very passionate and independent but it was buried within her and other people in her life were stifling her. But to be honest I never really felt like she actually reached a high level of self actualization by the end of the book. I really didn’t like the second to last chapter where mr emerson basically just tells her what she’s feeling and then she’s just like omg you’re totally right like ??? It was super unsatisfying, that was something she should’ve discovered for herself. It just felt like a continuation of her just being defined by other people throughout the novel. And all the stuff with George just sort of kissing her multiple times just like his passion took hold of him and he couldn’t resist ??…. like okay I guess