REVIEW: Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly

In Lizzie & Dante by Mary Bly by Mary Bly, In her early thirties, Lizzie Delford shouldn’t be grappling with her mortality, but a recent, potentially deadly diagnosis changed everything. Her solution? After ending the school term at Fordham, where she teaches Shakespeare, Lizzie, her best friend Grey and his boyfriend Rohan, a world-famous actor, make their way to the gorgeous island of Elba. What could be a better backdrop to ponder her future than a decadent hotel and sandy beaches, right? Maybe a summer romance might do the trick as well.

‘That traitor, hope, had made its way under her skin, and there was nothing she could do about it.’

It’s two Italian natives, a dreamy single dad and his spunky tween daughter, who give Lizzie a reason to fight for her future. Dante might be well known for his cooking prowess but he’s also a caring guy who’s not always been lucky in love. And his daughter, Etta, well…the one thing she’s always dreamed of is to have a mom. Lizzie seems like the perfect fit in their lives. Even her friends Grey, Rohan, and Ruby pull the father-daughter duo into their fold. It’s when things get serious between Dante and Lizzie, with a question mark on their future due to her illness, that everything could come crashing down.

‘Lizzie stared far up into the trees, letting happiness fill her the way pleasure just had. Letting it take over her body as if the other things that had taken over her body didn’t exist.’

Lizzie & Dante could easily have been a dark and heavy book, given the subject matter of a potentially terminal illness. But Mary Bly infused it with enduring friendship, the love of Lizzie’s family of choice, and a romance that was both tender and breathtaking.

‘There are knots that cannot be untied, and love makes them.’

I’ve always enjoyed Eloisa James’s writing style in her Historicals so I was excited to see how it would work in a Contemporary novel–written under her actual name, Mary Bly. And I have to say that I was still charmed by her characters and their quick-witted dialogue. Plus, the setting! The quirky, laid back island of Elba was the perfect place for our heroine Lizzie to come to terms with her illness, decide on her future, and of course, fall in love.

It seems like there’s been a rush of books lately that deal with serious illness, and while most of them have been tearjerkers, Lizzie & Dante wasn’t overall until towards the very end. It was a bittersweet ending that did make me cry profusely, but mostly in a good way. And most of that was thanks to the awesome cast. It took me a little bit to nail down the personalities and figure out the relationships between Lizzie, Grey, Rohan, Dante and Etta. But once I did, they felt like friends. I can’t think of another way to put it. The group was funny, sometimes outrageous, but mostly, was flawed in a completely endearing way.

My only slight setback was working through some of the dialogue. Although I’ve read Shakespeare, it’s been many (many) years since I studied it so the references didn’t always click right away. But aside from that, I had a great time with the back and forth between Lizzie and her offbeat crew.

If you’re looking for a beach read that will whisk you away to a gorgeous tropical locale, give you all the feels, and that has a cast of characters not to be missed, then Lizzie & Dante is the perfect book for you.

QOTD: When an author changes pen-names do you give their new work a try? Or does it depend on if they also switch genres? (Which is a common reason authors use a different name)

Book Info:

Publication: Published June 1, 2021 | Dial Press |

The insightful, audacious, and deeply romantic story of a woman whose life turns upside down after she meets an enigmatic chef on vacation in Italy–perfect for fans of Beautiful Ruins or Under the Tuscan Sun .

On the heels of a difficult break-up and a devastating diagnosis, Shakespearian scholar Lizzie Delford decides to take one last lavish vacation on Elba, the sun-kissed island off the Italian coast, with her best friend and his movie-star boyfriend. Once settled into a luxurious seaside resort, Lizzie has to make big decisions about her future, and she needs the one thing she may be running out of: time.

She leaves the yacht-owners and celebrities behind and sneaks off to the public beach, where she meets a sardonic chef named Dante, his battered dog Lily, and his wry daughter Etta, a twelve-year-old desperate for a mother. While Dante shows Lizzie the island’s secrets, and Etta dazzles with her irreverent humor, Lizzie is confronted with a dilemma. Is it right to fall in love if time is short? Is it better to find a mother briefly, or to have no mother at all? And the most difficult question of all: What if falling in love inevitably leads to broken hearts?

A transporting, all-consuming story about love, courage, and Italian wine, Lizzie & Dante demands to know how far we should travel to find a future worth fighting for.