This book was amazing. Simply amazing. To me the beginning was a bit slow but that was mainly because I was awaiting an action novel. In my library this was categorized as romance but that’s not really the main plot. Its just some thing that happens along the way. In this book a dinner party is taken over by terrorists who are hoping to find the Spanish president to overthrow the Spanish government (this story occurs in a house in Spain) but the president missed this party in order to watch his favorite soap opera. The party was Mr. Hosokawa’s birthday party (a Japanese man) and he only had it in Spain so he could here the opera’s famous soprano, Roxane Coss. It starts out as a panicked overtaking and changes over the course of four and a half months. The characters begin to forget the outside world and they develop. There are many characters and none of them stay the same throughout the book. Another twist is that there is no universal language between them but luckily Mr. Hosokawa’s translator is there to help. He speaks all of the languages of the party attendents and the Spanish of the terrorist group. You get to watch all of them (the characters) change and gain unexpected bonds, friendships and relationships. You watch barriers fade and you get sucked into the world of Bel Canto. You desperately need to read this book. This is definitely one of my favorite books. It tops any of the books I’ve posted about. The beginning and the quote on the back of the book I read were deceiving because as I already stated the romance just comes with the other bonds. I give this book five out of five stars for the plot, characters, and the natural flow. It was beautifully written and you gain insight to all of the characters. Please run to the library or book store or amazon and read this book. In the end you won’t be disappointed. But for age I’d say 14 or 15 and up. So you can understand the book and really be able to read in between the words. :)
Stunned,
Rachel
ps. okay, so maybe there is a lot of ‘love’ but its not a trashy novel at all. please read! its not the plot. and if you love opera this is a good book and even if you don’t or you don’t know much about it (me) read it. Its amazing!
