Back of Book
Chi Chi Donatelli and Saverio Armandonada meet one summer on the Jersey shore before World War II. Chi Chi is a talented and ambitious singer-songwriter working in a local blouse factory looking for her big break, while Saverio, a singer already on the rise, is fronting a touring band and has the good looks and smooth vocals that make success seem assured.

It isn’t long before Saverio becomes Tony Arma, and he and Chi Chi form a duo; together they navigate the glamorous worlds of nightclubs, radio, and television. Soon they’re married and all goes well until it becomes clear that they must make a choice: Which of them will put ambition aside to build a family and which will pursue a career? What compromises will they make to achieve their dreams? And on the road to fame and fortune, how will they cope with the impact these compromises have on their marriage, family, and themselves?

This appealed to my love of historical fiction.

The idea of having two Italian immigrant families in the Big Band Swing Era is wonderful. The colorful and humorus details made the Italian family dynamics seem extremely true to life.

The grand love story itself. The two main characters did not belong together. As much I enjoyed the character Chi Chi, I don't buy it for one minute. It takes awhile for the two of them to get together, so she knew better. Even though the setting is 1930's-1940's, Chi Chi had the beliefs and attitude of a modern woman. I have a difficult time believing Chi Chi would have made the choices she did during that time.

The character Saverio ultimately irritated me. The author started strong with him but failed to develop him all of the way. After marriage, he fizzled out and became pathetic. Honestly, the storyline with his parents baffled me. I still don't get it. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say I don't agree with a few of the last chapters. As a matter of fact, the end of the book pissed me off too.

There's an overwhelming amount of death, literal and symbolic, in this book. Despite the funny interjections, I mainly felt sad.

I'm normally a quick reader and can plow through a book this size in two days. This didn't keep my attention though, so when I finally finished it, I felt a sense of relief that it was over.

The writing is descriptive and accurate.

If you're not a fan of this author, I wouldn't suggest starting off with this book. It's not her best work.

If you're already a fan, beware you may be disappointed.

I don't really know if it would have made a difference if I had been expecting it, but I didn't realize the story would span so many years. There were times I got frustrated and felt the author glossed over important events, or totally ignored them, leaving me to fill in the blanks. Overall, I think this would have been best told in two books.

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Created Sep 18, 2020 at 2:51am • Submit your own review...