Love Falls: A Novel
By Esther Freud
3/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
The highly praised author of Hideous Kinky, returns with a searing and sensuous tale young love set amid the heat and beauty of a Tuscan summer
The Independent calls Esther Freud “the best writer on childhood we have.” In Love Falls this brilliant novelist proves her power once again with an utterly charming and irresistible tale of adolescent love and self-discovery set in a foreign land.
When 17-year-old Lara accepts her father’s invitation to accompany him to Tuscany for the summer, she’s excited and trepidatious. But, her fears prove groundless, for the villa’s closest neighbors are the contagiously adventurous Willoughbys, the teenaged brood of a wealthy British lord. Caught up in their torrential good humor—and snared particularly by Kip Willoughby’s dark, flirtatious eyes—Lara sets off on a summer adventure full of danger, first love, and untold consequences that will change her life.
Esther Freud
Esther Freud is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and the daughter of the painter Lucian Freud. She trained as an actress before writing her first novel. Her books have been translated into thirteen languages. She lives in London.
Read more from Esther Freud
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Reviews for Love Falls
63 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love Falls by Esther Freud; (4*)This little novel by Sigmund Freud's great granddaughter is set in Italy where our teen age heroine has traveled with her father. I appreciated all of the characters, even the ones I disliked. The underlying mysteries about the main character's father's past and the boy she falls in love with made for very interesting reading. And the title seems to be a play on words since a major scene takes place at Love Falls. Throughout the book people seem to be falling in and out of love. At first glance, the urgent romance between the main character and the young man seems to be the centerpiece of this novel, but in the end, it is a tale about loyalties and connections that endure. I really enjoyed this read and will seek out more of Esther Freud's writings.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I don't know how to read this bitch what the hell
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Initially, this book sucked me in. I was very interested in young Lara's first trip to Italy with the father she barely knew, and I was hoping to learn more as their relationship grew. Unfortunately, it didn't. About 60 pages in, it becomes the story of a rather wimpy, emotionally self-indulgent teenager who is obsessed with a beautiful rich boy . . . I felt like I was back in Twilight, reading Bella's cheesey descriptions of Edward. (Her decriptions of Lulu are almost as bad!) Her idolization of the idle--and generally mean and stupid--rich soon got to be a bore, and I couldn't wait to finish this one and turn it over to some poor sucker who wishlisted it on a swap site. The only plus I can give it is that, as someone below mentioned, Freud does a fine job of creating the feel of an Italian summer and of describing the surroundings in which Lara finds herself.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book made me long for summer; I could feel the sun on my skin as the characters did. The story kept my interest, the characters were interesting and likeable when they should have been and I found the ending satisfying. I recommend it for an intelligent but not difficult read. - Fiona
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5If style were the only judgement on this book it would achieve five stars. It is written with such careful observation and subtlety that it is impossible not to admire the author and the beautiful, engaging, perfectly measured opening pages.Yet the novel soon begins to flounder. This is primarily because of its characters. The main character, Lara, falls under the spell (and is intimidated by) a party of idle rich who are universally obnoxious. Yet she remains passive, a doormat, so when more serious events occur it begins to feel difficult to care. Meanwhile the plot is achingly slow, giving just enough time to feel that Lara might have been better off making a rite of passage by taking a molotov cocktail to her unpleasant neighbours rather than indulging in the introspection and self-doubt which become her characteristics.If you read it, do so for the style, not the substance.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I liked the main female character, as she is the same age that I was in 1981. None of us used protection in the sun then. I fell asleep in the garden on the day of the royal wedding and burned my eyelids.However, could not be bothered with the cliched aristos strand. Not that they were portrayed as likeable anyway, but...it felt a bit hackneyed and same old, same old.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5No matter how well-written an individual title, and this one is lovely, I'm losing patience with stories of an introverted youngster traveling abroad and coming under the spell of the careless wealthy. Is this a rite of passage that deserves to be a canonical literary motif?