Title: Beautiful Ruins

Author: Jess Walter

Publisher: Harper Perennial 2013

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 337

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; Modern Mrs. Darcy - Cover; Historical Fiction

The acclaimed, award-winning author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets returns with his funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet. Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, Beautiful Ruins is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962...and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later. 

This was our book club selection for June. I had heard great things about this one and put it on our suggestions list. Unfortunately it just didn’t land with me. I was pretty bored with the storyline. Not a huge fan of the jumping back and forth and every which way in time. I don’t mind books that alternate, but I think there were too many time periods in this one. I couldn’t ground myself in one time period. And I wasn’t a huge fan of the characters. Pasquale was a good character, but I couldn’t stand Claire or Shane or even really Dee. Lots of people doing not-so-nice things to others. Even Alvis was not a likable character. I just didn’t really enjoy this one at all.

Next up on the TBR pile: