Rating: 4⭐️
“My little dog—a heartbeat at my feet. —Edith Wharton”
A two perspective story where one is a Jack Russell terrier called Cicero wasn’t exactly what I expected from the book and truthfully, I’m not sure that I thought it was as cohesive as I thought it could have been, given the format.
Probably because of his ghostly former confused owner hanging around. Definitely that.
There’s an abundance of storylines here, among them Cicero’s, the Jack Russell, whose owner has a heart attack at the beginning of the story. It leaves the little dog devastated, adrift from the only home he’s known and in trouble on the streets in Italy.
The other is Josie Ballard, a middle aged woman who has been planning a trip with her husband to Italy for some time. Their only son’s in college and she’s given notice of her assistant librarian job already. Then she finds out that her husband is cheating on her and wants a divorce.
Distraught and angry, Josie takes, on her father’s advice, the trip she’s been anticipating and planning for. Alone.
Of course, the paths of our two narrators collide, their worlds and similar emotional states meshing in a tour of Sorrento and all that it offers.
I really enjoyed the relationship between Cicero and Josie, their worlds woman she started to become in Italy away from the all sacrificing, doormat she was at home.
The best part of the story is exploring the countryside and communal life of the towns in Italy through Josie and Cicero’s varying perspectives. When either new voices, like the ghost of Cicero’s owner who is intermittently interjecting himself into the narrative to wonder why he’s not moving on, or more importantly, his son, Hugo, who starts to make a impact on Josie’s vacation and Cicero’s future.
For a story about a woman fleeing a shattering revelation about a long time solid marriage and relationship to a journey of self discovery, this quickly transitions to a romance between Josie and Hugo. Albeit with the nonstop conversation and perspective of Cicero , Hugo’s father’s constant companion , now Josie’s as well.
I miss the stage where Josie becomes an independent woman, with her own goals and abilities to reach her dreams on her own. She literally has never lived in her own place by herself. Even at the end, the time by herself is so fleeting, it’s to see the end of her lease and then it’s over.
So the trajectory is stateside all sacrificing daughter/mother/wife (whatever order you choose) to going abroad to find yourself. Immediately, it’s meeting up with another man with a problematic romantic history, then instant love. And when called, returning immediately back to your sacrificial status.
Leaving it only because dad and son say it’s ok.
Hmm. That’s just not the right mentality or message I’d want in a story. The thing I do like is that Cicero is waiting for her when she returns.
But this? The entire thing? Obviously I’m not the best reader for this story or characters or content.
Liked Cicero. Liked the Italian content.
It’s well written for what it is. Just not for me. I read it because of the dog.
Cover design by Emily Mahon
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Blurb
Fate has a sense of humor in this witty, heartfelt tale of love and second chances told in two perspectives—a woman in midlife desperate for something new, and a lost dog seeking his purpose.
After years of dreams deferred, Josie Ballard’s life is about to change. She and her husband are off to Sorrento for a summer adventure, but on the eve of their departure, Josie discovers his infidelity. Devastated, she leaves her faithless husband, heading for the sun-drenched Italian coast. Alone, future unknown.
Five thousand miles away, Cicero, a rather snobbish terrier of indeterminate breeding, is likewise living an upturned life after his beloved human’s passing. Heartbroken, he wanders the wilds of Pompeii. When a flustered tourist with a kind smile appears in the ruins, clutching her tote bag and map, Cicero and Josie collide like the two lost souls they are.
In a series of turns as twisty as Sorrento’s streets, Cicero leads Josie to her second act: Hugo, a charming and somewhat contrary local bookseller. Against a backdrop of quaint villages, sun-dappled olive orchards, and the shimmering Mediterranean Sea, Hugo and Josie embark on a friendship that just might tiptoe into romance, with little Cicero to help them along the way—for dogs, he reasons, are nothing if not experts when it comes to love.
Publication date
August 1, 2026
Accessibility
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Language
English
File size
5.3 MB
Screen Reader
Supported
Enhanced typesetting
Enabled
X-Ray
Enabled
Word Wise
Enabled
Print length
277 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 