Ashley Brown

With all 4 encounters, each man seems to be obsessed with Claudia. There is something about her that is special. She also only gives the time of day to three men ever in her life, as far as what we can tell by what we are given. I love the way the title coincides with the story. Quite literally taking “the long way home” set the trajectory for Claudia’s entire life. If she had never stopped to save the life of a very traumatized, deeply abused and neglected, albeit racist young man (age 12), her entire life would have been very different. She never would have moved to her aunts at age 13 and learned three other languages. She might have still traveled with her aunt, but more than likely not. Or at least not as soon as she graduated high school. She certainly would have never got the position at the bank in Italy after she moved to New York. The decision to take the long way home follows her throughout her entire life. This one horrible villain (could be considered an antihero maybe? You do feel sorry for him at times) haunts her until she decides to abandon her country of birth. She then makes Italy her home. Even becoming an Italian citizen, marrying an Italian man, and having an Italian family. Her children, wanting to connect with their roots, end up back in the states. So Claudia ends up returning “home” after all. Although the US isn’t home to her anymore. She is out of place in her own country all those decades later. The story is absolutely beautiful. The writing left some to be desired. There were several typo errors that were annoying. There were far too many sex scenes for this kind of book in my opinion. The chapters didn’t quite flow as well as I would have liked. All things considered though, I would give this book a high 3.8/5. I would give it a four if it weren’t for all the things I previously listed. For anyone who likes historical fiction and doesn’t mind several uncomfortably written sex scenes, this book is DEFINITELY worth a read!