Afer reading the reviews, if you would like to purchase, The Second Date, please click on the picture of the novel in the sidebar. If you would like an autographed copy, click on "4 new from $7.95" on the Amazon book page. I sell my books under Quail Creek Publishing.
Review by Dianne Salerni for POD Review of Books
Talk to any person in my generation with an Italian-American heritage, and you will find certain common characteristics. When they were growing up, they almost certainly had a room in their house where no one dared enter – the formal living room where the carpets bore no trace of footprints and the only visitor important enough to use it was the priest. Their mothers probably used wooden spoons as weapons. Dating a non-Italian was bad, a non-Catholic worse, and bringing home a Jewish date who didn’t even believe in Christ was a crisis of soap-opera proportions. Funerals were like Greek tragedies, and let’s not get started on Thanksgiving dinner.The Second Date is, in part, a comedy romance revolving around the dating adventures of Sonia Amundsen (very Italian, in spite of her half-Norwegian heritage), but it is also an endearing web of family stories that traces several generations of an Italian-American family. As Sonia nears her thirtieth birthday, helpful friends and relatives set her up on a series of blind dates, which Sonia views as excellent fodder for the novels she writes, but not a likely source of romance for herself. In fact, Sonia has never gone on a second date with any of her blind dates and now views The Second Date almost superstitiously as the hallmark of Mr. Right. Mary Simonsen’s narrative wends its way through Sonia’s family history, diverting occasionally into the stories of neighbors and friends. You’ll meet Aunt Gina and Aunt Angie, rival sisters always striving to outdo each other in histrionics. You’ll meet Sonia’s father, Lars Amundsen, an “adopted” Italian ... whose calm and thoughtful nature has made him the neighborhood sage. The cast is rounded out with brothers, sisters-in-law, old boyfriends, blind dates, and a charming man who’d like to break Sonia’s no-second date curse... The Second Date is a slim book, just over 160 pages. Like a good antipasto, it’s colorful, flavorful, and full of tantalizing little nuggets that aren’t too filling – an excellent summer read, in fact, for fans of light romance, or anyone who grew up Italian-American in the 80’s. For complete review visit the Amazon book page or http://podbram.blogspot.com/2009/07/second-date.html
Review by Joseph's Reviews
Do you ever think that your perfect guy might walk into your life, and you won’t even know it because you never gave him a chance?” This is a very important question posed in Mary Lydon Simonsen’s novel The Second Date. The story is about Sonia Amundsen, a Norwegian-Italian-American beauty who goes out on many blind dates – first dates – but never a second. That’s because the 30-year-old has a very precise checklist in her head that will help her determine if and when she meets the perfect man (AKA Mr. Right). When we meet Sonia her biological clock is, of course, madly ticking.
It takes a chance of fate – a scheduled blind date reconciles with an ex-girlfriend and sends a friend in his place – for Sonia to meet someone who makes her act “a little bit nuts.” Once she meets Nick Santangelo it’s pretty clear that Sonia will not be going out on more blind dates. But will things work out?
This is the set-up for this very entertaining and well worth reading story by Simonsen... Despite a couple of minor issues, this is a fine novel by a promising writer. “…what’s worse than losing someone you love? Not loving. That’s worse.” You can find the full review here: http://tiny.cc/Sj3k1
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