by Steven Rowley
First sentence: “Patrick O’Hara removed the cloche from his room service breakfast with a flourish it not deserve; he grimaced at what lay beneath.”
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Others in the series: The Guncle
Release date: May 21, 20124
Review copy pilfered off the galley shelves at work.
Content: There is some swearing (maybe f-bombs? They didn’t stand out) and some off-screen sex. It will be in the Adult Fiction section of the bookstore.

Five years after he had his neice and nephew out to Palm Springs to mourn the death of his best friend and their mother, Patrick is doing well. His career, which had stalled, has picked up again, and he’s been in a few movies. And his brother met someone – an Italian marchesa – and is getting remarried. Which means Guncle Patrick is needed again. In the wake of breaking up with his boyfriend, Emory, Patrick takes Maisie and Grant around Europe as he tries to teach them (somewhat hypocritcally) about love.

There’s more to the book than that, or it wouldn’t be as delightful as it is, but it’s also that simple: Patrick, Maisie, and Grant need to learn that moving on, while hard, is also a part of life. And loving more people doesn’t erase the ones they loved that have passed on.

Much like Guncle, it’s not a hilarous book, though it certainly exudes charm. I adored that they stopped in Paris, Salzburg, and Vienna on their way to Lake Como, and the way they interacted then. While I do have an issue with Patrick thinking he’s “old” at age 50 (really? Not. Old.), I didn’t mind his melancholy griping (I might feel old, too, if my partner was 20 years younger than me). This is an incredibly character-driven book, and the characters are absolutely people you want to spend time with.

Highly recommended.