Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Sparkling One by Susan Mallery


The Sparkling One is first in The Marcelli Sisters of Pleasure Road Series.

The Marcellis are an Italian family that own their own vineyard and make their own Wine. Lorenzo and Tessa Marcelli live with their son, Marco, his wife, Colleen, and their 4 children. Colleen's mother, Mary Margaret O'shea also lives with them.

Marco and Colleen have 4 daughters. 28 year-old Katie is the oldest and she owns a party planning company. She was almost married once, but she and her fiance broke up right before their wedding. Then come 27 year old twins Franchesca and Brenna. Brenna and her husband are currently going through a divorce after Brenna finds out he was cheating on her. Brenna has returned home to work at the winery, something she has always had an interest in. Francesca is currently working on her doctorate, where she has to study peoples' reactions to different appearances, which lead to some pretty interested costumes, getups. Mia, the youngest is 18 years old, and is engaged to David Striker. This really is the main theme of this book. David's father, Zach feels they are too young to get married and tries to come up with a scheme to break up their wedding. His is successful family Attorney, and when his firm needs to plan a charity event, he hires Katie, with an alterior motive to get her on his side. Instead of getting her on his side, they end up falling in love and at the end of the book, when Mia and David decide to call off the wedding, Katie and Zach announce they have fallen in love and decide to get married.

There is a section in here that mentions the sinificance of the titles of a few of the other books in this series. When they were younger, Katie, Brenna, and Francesca had made their own bottles:

Katie~~~ The Sparkling One: Katie Marcelli is a carbonated combination of wit and charm. She dazzles, she sparkles, she shines. Like the champagne she embodies, she is only ever special, iridescent, and valued.

Francesca~~~The Sassy One: Francesca Marcelli tosses her long hair in a gesture that marks her as not just the pretty one, but also the Sassy One. Bold, inventive, with just a hint of irreverence, she is the essence of blossoming illucution.

Brenna~~ The Seductive One: Brenna Marcelli's sultriness proves that she is the Seductive One. Dark, sweet, and slightly mysterios, she is a gleaming testament to all young women on the verge of lush ripeness.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this story and loved reading the characteristics of an Italian Family, since I'm 1/4 Italian. Though I thought Lorenzo was sometimes a little too hard headed. I also thought it was kinda pathetic how Francesca tried to get Brenna's ex to come on to her. My favorite characters in this series (so far) have been Katie, and the two grandmothers. I can't wait to read the rest of this series, and after reading this book, I really don't know what took me so long to start. This sort of reminds me of the family in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, except this family seems a little larger.
I finished this on 2/18/2009.

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