Terri-Lynne DeFino was born and raised in New Jersey but escaped to the wilds of Connecticut, where she still lives with her husband and her cats. If you knock on her door, she'll invite you in and feed you. That's what Jersey Italian women do, because you can take the girl out of Jersey but you can't take Jersey out of the girl. She is the author of the novel The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (and Their Muses) and the Bitterly Suite romance series. You can find Terri-Lynne online here.
Lively widow Varina Palladino has lived in the same house in Wyldale, New Jersey, her entire life. The town might be slightly stuck in the 1960s, when small businesses thrived and most residents were Italian, but its population is getting younger and the Palladinos are embracing the change. What Varina's not embracing, much to her ninety-two-year-old mother's dismay, is dating. Running Palladino's Italian Specialties grocery, caring for her mother, and keeping her large, loud Jersey Italian family from killing one another takes up all of Varina's energy anyway. Sylvia Spini worries about her daughter Varina being left all alone when she dies. Syliva knows what it is to be old and alone, so when her granddaughter, Donatella, comes to her with an ill-conceived plan to find Varina a man, Sylvia dives in. The three men of the family—Dante, Tommy, and Paulie—are each secretly plotting their own big life changes, which will throw everyone for a loop. Three generations of Palladinos butt heads and break one another's hearts as they wrestle with their own Jersey Italian love stories in this hilarious and life-affirming ode to love and family.
I'm from an Italian family, but reading this book made me wish I knew more about my own family's heritage. DeFino really leans into her own past and experiences, explained in her disclaim and author's note, although I don't think I needed to read either one to truly know this one came from a place of love. We follow four main characters from this family: the matriarch, Varina; Varina's 92-year-old mother, Sylvia; Varina's daughter, Donatella; Donatella's childhood best friend and honorary Palladino, Paulie. Their stories interconnect as they each participate in, avoid, and meddle in the others' lives, all from a place of love. I just love multigenerational stories, and DeFino balances all of these characters with big personalities and the drama of the book itself really well to create an engaging and entertaining read that's grounded in the experience of being Jersey Italian.
For a book about family and heritage, Varina Palladino's Jersey Italian Love Story also does a good job at capturing individuality. It may take readers a second to catch onto all the names and relationships (I know for the first few chapters I was wishing for a family tree!), but despite that, once I got a handle on it, I felt like it was easy to keep track of who was who. This is because DeFino builds an individuality for each of the characters outside of their familial obligations, which in turn leads to more compelling characters. While I was rooting for the family to win at the end of the day, it was also about hoping that each of the characters got out of life what they were looking for. Part of the reason the novel is so satisfying is because both of those things align so perfectly at the end!
All that's left to say is, I love how each chapter begins with a little tid-bit about Jersey Italian slang. The definition includes the Jersey Italian pronunciation, the Italian root or origin of the slang word, and then what it's meaning is. These are super fun, because, once introduced, DeFino uses them in the actual dialogue later in that chapter and throughout the rest of the book. It adds another element of authenticity to the story, of being able to hear the characters as they talk to one another like they're sitting in the room with you. What's even better is that you find out who wrote these little definitions by the very end—or, you could argue that it's implied which character may have had a hand in these definitions, and I'm just going to run with that! It brings the whole heartfelt, messy, lovely novel to a satisfying and fulfilling close.
You can find Terri-Lynne online here.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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