full review can be found here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/book-review-the-olive-branch-by-jo-thoma...

"The Tuscan oils, they're verdant, peppery, slightly bitter. In Umbria they are often fruitier and softer. Then you have Sicilian oil, a fruity oil, leafy. The flavour varies from east to west, just like wines."

I got The Olive Branch at a book fair many years ago. When I started it, I was worried it would be too similar to Under the Tuscan Sun. While there were some similarities, there were enough differences to ensure all was fine. I ended up really loving this story, from Ruthie following her own path, to the love story between her and Marco, to the focus on creating a new life in a foreign country. I'm also really happy to find out that Jo Thomas has many other location based books and that they all seem to have good reviews.

An uplifting, charming, funny read. And I am looking forward to reading more by this author. ( )

I completely fell in love with this book! The characters are wonderful - impetuous and stronger than she thinks Ruthie, dark and brooding Marco and Daphne the guard-goat, to name but a few. It was written so beautifully that I could feel the sun shining through the pages, warming my heart in the process.

I was reminded of one of my favourite films, French Kiss, when reading this. Especially the moment when Marco teaches Ruthie about olive oil and they are sampling different varieties. I could almost taste them myself and it was reminiscent of the scene in French Kiss where Kevin Kline gets Meg Ryan to smell particular soil samples and herbs before tasting the wine and identifying the flavours.

I'm not a regular viewer but strangely enough I happened to see a recent episode of Gino D'Acampo's Italian Escape where Gino actually visited Alberobello and showed us inside a trullo, which he used to think was a smurf's house when he was a child. This was before I had even heard of this book, so although Jo Thomas describes these unusual conical shaped houses so vividly, I knew exactly what they were and appreciated and applauded the description even more.

The Bellanuovo family feud was a brilliant storyline, bubbling under the surface whenever the two sides of the family came in contact with each other and expecting fireworks at Nonna's birthday celebration. It was at Nonna's birthday that I couldn't understand what had happened to my eyes when reading about Ruthie's mural being unveiled - I was crying!! I had completely absorbed myself in this book and was lost in each and every delicious page.

La dolce vita is brought to life in this book - I laughed, I cried, I loved it!

I received this book from the publisher via Bookbridgr in exchange for an honest review. ( )