Oceans Between Us (A Cinderella Romance) (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
This was an utterly charming, beautifully descriptive book. And I wanted to give it five stars... but I couldn't quite do it.Maria is the heroine. Which was my first problem. The book is about a British girl and an Italian man... but with the name Maria, the illusion was warped. Maria being an Italian name. It screwed things up the ENTIRE book. Marie? Yes. Mary? Even better. Maria, cara, is Italian... NOT British.Anyhow, Maria is a homebody. Her family runs 'The Crow's Nest', an inn in Cornwall, and she loves to care for the guests, to cook from scratch, to look out over the water, to be a part of their little fishing village. She wants to marry and have her babies there, to raise them in the inn, put her delicious food in their little bellies. The problem is finding a husband. Her long-time boyfriend thru and after college doesn't want to hole up in a little English village - he wants to see the world, go to cities, have adventures. Maria doesn't need or want that.Every fall her parents go on a cruise (after the inn closes for the season), and one day while she's there alone, a man comes to the door. He's a sopping mess, anguish on his face. Against her better judgment, she lets him in, cooks for him, cares for his things, and becomes his friend. What she doesn't know is that the man turns out to be a very handsome Italian - and not just that, he's a world-famous operatic tenor. His whole LIFE is traveling the world, singing on stages in every major city. But he seems so content to keep her quiet company, to walk the village and down the coast... she never would've expected it. And honestly, did she really think a few weeks together would go anywhere?There are two other reasons I didn't five-star this (and it really was VERY close - I highly recommend it, and would read it again and again). Those things are niggly, though. First, the author couldn't just let it ride that she wasn't of the bent to travel. No... there had to be an assault from the last time she tried to go abroad with her ex-boyfriend. It felt like the author was purposely crippling her emotionally, when there was no need for that. And the other thing was Maria's lack of accent. Seriously, half the book I thought she had to be an adopted American living with Brits, because while her BIL and sister sounded British, Maria's dialogue/speech was so bland. Toss that in with the Italian name, and it really marred the gorgeous work of art this book wants to be. Oceans Between Us is a great quick read. It's light and engages you quickly. I finished it in a day. I found myself rooting for Maria and Dino, despite the unlikely possibility of them really meeting and falling in love. Spoiler: I had a bit of a problem with the ending. I found it impossible to like Maria's selfish parents. I would have preferred that Dino and Maria decide to settle on the Italian coast with a small inn and the support of Dino's parents. Or maybe, her sister and husband could have had a job transfer to Italy as well. Anyway, didn't like to see Maria's parents as the grandparents to their children back in Cornwall.
What do You think about Oceans Between Us (A Cinderella Romance) (2000)?
