Three older Southern women meet at a sales pitch for a senior residential complex and quickly become fast friends. Each is on the brink, with marriage behind her and an unknown future ahead, so it is not altogether surprising when they reject the notion of senior housing and decide instead to spend some time in Italy together. In the charming villa they rent they become neighbors to a younger American woman, a poet, who becomes their guide and close friend. In the year that ensues, each of the women undergoes major shifts and self-awareness. At the same time, they--and readers--become enchanted with their Italian community and culture. Descriptions of the food scene, beautiful landscape, rich culture, and social interactions are enough to give anyone wanderlust. At times the point of view seems a bit muddled, as the narrative shifts from the first person of the fictional author to third person of the other characters, but this does not detract from the pleasure of getting to know the four interesting women and their friends and relatives.

Is there a genre for starting life over in gorgeous European locations? If there is I am a fan. This is a fine example which is not surprising, Frances Mayes delivers quality work. I especially liked the that the hopes and dreams,both for reinvention and romance, of the characters of retirement age were not given any less focus than those of the others. There is life and fresh starts after 60 and it is worth reading and writing about.
Thank you!

I just could not get into this book. I’m sad because I really wanted to read about Italy. I think it was just the ages of the main characters. I couldn’t relate. It was me & not the book.

I was frustrated by this book. I was pulled in by the likable women who met up at a retirement center sales pitch and opted instead for a Italian countryside retirement. Their unlikely financial independence aside, I wanted them to buck the odds. I just couldn’t tell whose story this was with Kit Raines as narrator and her tortured history with the infamous Margaret. The descriptive language makes me wanting to visit Italy but it wasn’t enough to make me love this book. I expected more.

Three older women meet at an open house at Cornwallis Meadows, a 55+ development near Chapel Hill, NC. Two of the women, Camille and Susan, are recent widows. Julia, the third woman, has seen her marriage disintegrate and then discovers that her husband has a younger girlfriend. So Julia moves out and starts divorce proceedings.

The women become fast friends and bond over a 3 day weekend at Susan’s oceanfront vacation home on a Carolina barrier island. Then they decide than instead of buying a place at Cornwallis Meadows, they will find a place to rent in Italy. Susan, a realtor, is able to find a villa in San Rocco for rent online.

The villa that they rent has been owned for generations by one family but the surviving daughter does not want to continue living there and is considering selling it eventually.

When the 3 women arrive in San Rocco, they discover Kit. an American poet and her boyfriend, Colin who are their new neighbors. The older women become friends with Kit and Colin who help them get settled into the area.

Over the course of the story, each of the 3 older women discovers what they want to do for the next stage of their lives. Kit has been putting off a biography of Margaret, an eccentric author who had bequeathed her house to Kit after her death. Colin, an architect, commutes between his firms’ offices in London and Kit’s home.

The author’s most famous work, Under the Tuscan Sun, was a bestseller for several years and also turned into a movie. This book also celebrates the Tuscan countryside as well as cities like Florence, Capri and Venice. The descriptions of the scenery and the regional food makes the reader want to rent a place in Tuscany ASAP.

Four stars - I guess. Some aspects of this new Mayes offering are such a strong four, and others drift dangerously close to three territory. I'm basing the four stars on the way I felt when I "closed" the book - as though I wanted to gather two favorite friends, and go live as a Tuscan ex-pat for a while.

There's an aspect of the book that's both charming and frustrating - it ambles. This is not a quick, compelling read. I personally want a year to amble in the exact same way, but at times, the whole nature of the book left me feeling drifty. The changing POVs, especially when you realize that some of the POVs are imagined, can be confusing if you aren't sitting down and reading large chunks at a time.

My appreciation for women characters "of a certain age" is immense.

My overall feeling is one of contentment, now that I'm done, and that's worthwhile. By the way, the cover actually does make sense - at about the 98% mark.

I like some of Frances Mayes work, others, not so much. Women in Sunlight was a nice escape from the crazy February weather. Three random women meet at a senior living housing presentation, become unlikely friends & move to Italy. Kit & Colin are already living there, also from the States.

The book jumps around depending on how the story is being told, which was a bit distracting at times. Kit is the main "speaker", but we also read about the women & learn some of their stories. The story flows at times, & lags at times. Kit is writing a book (attempting) on her deceased friend Margaret. Margaret could have been left out of the story completely & nothing would be missing, in my opinion. However, as a work of fiction, just go with it.

Not as engaging to me as Under the Tuscan Sun (which I loved, the book, not the movie), but she does a great job with the description of the countryside & food. If you enjoy her stories, give it a try.

This book WAS lovely. The writing is elegant, poetic, and extravagant; however, at times the writing is so wordy and descriptive, that it distracts from the actual story. I found myself constantly having to re-read pages because I would let my mind drift from the story. There's no question that Mayes can write. She is incredibly gifted. But I'm not sure this style of writing was for me. I'm giving this three stars because I do believe that it's a good novel, and I enjoyed the characters and the plot pretty well. I just felt stressed picking this up sometimes, knowing I'd have to work so hard to pay attention.

The author does not disappoint with her lovely writing and the descriptions of places, people and food. Although it was nice to see older women featured, my problem was that they seemed to have money beyond belief. I think most of us would like to have their experiences to change our lives, but theirs seemed to be fantasy come true. I know this is fiction but I just couldn't relate. I would like to be in the author's Tuscany, however.

Frances Mayes new novel follows the lives (and demise) of a handful of women as they knit themselves into the fabric of life in a small Tuscan village. Women in Sunlight reads like a memoir. Part stream of consciousness, part exquisite dream, all genuinely lovely. A terrific example that the deepest truths are often expressed in fiction.

This book did not work for me. I would have liked this book much more if someone else was the narrator as there was too much description throughout. Thank you for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

2.5/3 stars

What I liked:
The focus on older characters (Camille is 69, Julia is 59, and Susan is 64), the way the three start fresh in Italy, one part of Kit's storyline (this may be a spoiler but it happens somewhat early on: <spoiler>she gets unexpectedly pregnant for the first time at age 44</spoiler>.)

Where I struggled:
The structure was really confusing. This is written in first person and third person present tense. But it's also on the meta side in that Kit, a writer, abandons her current project and writes about the women instead. So we're reading her manuscript, but it's more memoir/biography than fiction. At least, that's what I think was happening and therein lies the rub. When the women move next door to Kit, she's a part of the story but there's so much that she simply could not know that's depicted in her account of Camille, Julia, and Susan.

I really liked the three women and their friendship and how, instead of moving to the retirement community where they met, they decide to move to Italy for a year. The clear message is that life doesn't end by a certain age and these women have so much more living to do. The way this is explored is so rich. This could have been the novel and I would have liked it so much better. It was hard to go from reading about the women and then get yanked over to Kit. I also felt like I knew the least about Susan- her storyline was minuscule in comparison.

Alternatively, Kit's story could have been the novel too, or at least part of it. I really didn't care about her friend Margaret or why she felt the need to write a book about her. Anything Margaret-related distracted me from Kit's storyline. I loved her relationship with Colin and wanted more of it because while there relationship clearly works, he travels so much for work and I wanted to know more about that particular dynamic. Also the spoiler I hid above- this was one of my favorite parts of the novel and I wanted to know more about how she felt about it as the months passed. We got a good amount of processing at the beginning and at the end but not much in between.

So I liked parts of this story but the combination was confusing and took me out of what I was reading. Parts of it dragged. There was an aspect of Julia's story that had an overly neat ending. But I really want to see more stories centering around older characters so I hope more authors will recognize their stories are worth telling too.

This is a story of finding friends in the most unlikely place and them becoming your family as you create the life you want. Susan, Camille and Julia meet at a tour for a retirement community in North Carolina. Susan and Camille have lost their husband's and Julia is fleeing a messy family situation but none of them really want to move to retirement community. Over the course of several months they forge a friendship and decide to rent a villa in Tuscany. In Tuscany they discover things about themselves that they weren't aware of and begin to create the rest of their lives. Surrounded by beautiful vistas, a community, led by expat writer neighbor Kit, that embraces them, art, gardens, good food and wine they grow and explore and embrace a life that is definitely not in the retirement community. I want to live the this life!!

As a fan of Mayes' other works, I wanted to love WOMEN IN SUNLIGHT. I came away from the novel impressed but not 100% blown away. The descriptions are lovely and, particularly in the Tuscany scenes (but in the NC scenes as well) I felt as though I'd been transported. Mayes handles mood with a deft hand--especially Kit's nostalgia and the other women's initial hesitation and confusion about the next phase of their lives. Readers who enjoy descriptions of meals will rejoice at how beautifully the food and wine are rendered. The primary aspect that detracted from my full-scale adoration of the novel is that the three older Americans--Camille, Susan, and Julia--felt slightly artificial. Although they're well-developed, I still had a bit of trouble keeping them apart, which meant I didn't care as much about them as I should have. Perhaps the fault lies with me and a busy, distracting work week. Regardless, WOMEN IN SUNLIGHT offered a pleasant escape.

While I loved “Under the Tuscan Sun,” I just could not get into this one. I was doing okay with the opening narrative but when the scene shifted abruptly from Italy to the US, I lost interest entirely. Was wishing the author could have kept the whole story in Italy and given shorter background info on the 3 American women.

I admire Frances Mayes. She's a talented writer. I just felt I was a bit too young of a reader for this one...

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital ARC of this book. This book is true to its title description. The reader won't be disappointed when reading this book.

Another beautifully written book by Frances Mayes. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, as I knew I would, and highly recommend!

I discovered Frances Mayes' work with "Under the Tuscan Sun." I remember while reading it thinking how poetic her writing was - not knowing she is, in fact, a poet. "Women in Sunlight" brings me right back to the Frances Mayes I fell in love with way back then. It's a lovely, lovely story written so beautifully you'll want to pause and savor certain words, phrases, and scenes. Highly recommended!