Book Review: Cleis Press’ A Not So Lonely Planet: Italy by Karina Kennedy

A wacky and sexy romp around Italy--- this ain’t Under The Tuscan Sun!

A Not So Lonely Planet: Italy by Karina Kennedy is a debut erotic romance novel written in the form of a travel diary. I didn’t know how to feel at first because I have a love-hate thing with “chick lit” as a genre. I find it largely reductive, hackneyed, and really just can’t stop rolling my eyes when characters get into these insane obsessions with asshole dudes who are just not worth their effort. I am glad to report that I found Kennedy’s protagonist Marina Taylor far less irritating than Bridget fuckin’ Jones, the Sex And The City girls, and that ilk. Marina is a writer who lives in Key West with her mother and is sick of watching other people have travel adventures so she decides to travel to Italy to do research for her book on influential Italian women, There’s plenty of sexy hookups and madcap antics and she meets so many fun characters along the way in different Italian cities. Sure, she meets and fucks a lot of guys, but she also meets lots of girls who become friends. Marina is out there to live and experience and just roll with the punches, Murphy’s law not withstanding.

I won’t spoil the ending, but due to how the title is phrased with Italy as the subtitle, I wonder where Marina’s adventures will take her and by extension us, next. This is pretty much the perfect book to tuck in your beach or pool bag this summer. It’s by turns breezy, steamy, funny, and has a wonderful setting for your pandemic-induced escapist fantasies.

You can buy this book at Cleis Press, your friendly independent bookstore, or at Amazon.