Book Review
Vacation in Naples by Eva Fejos
Publisher: Erawan Publishing
Publication Date: November 19, 2014
Format: eBook - 563 pages
Kindle - 1861 KB
Nook - 2 MB
ISBN: 978-6155469183
ASIN: B00PVWHEWO
Genre: Romance
BUY THE BOOK: Vacation in Naples
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours.
Book Description:
Niki Ladányi, the young investigative journalist has a cold-blooded criminal to thank for the biggest story of her life. She might have managed to put him behind bars, but Verbovszky hasn’t forgotten her: after he escapes from jail, he heads out to get his revenge. Meanwhile, Niki is hot on a new trail, investigating a story in Naples about dogs smuggled out of Hungary, for possibly something other than their pedigree. Niki takes along her mother, who reunites with an old flame from her youth, Alessandro. The unfinished business between Niki’s mother and the former tailor – who has since become a successful name of Italian Haute Couture – sparks more than just a yearning for the past. Alessandro’s son, Giacomo, also feels increasingly attached to Niki, but the criminal on her trail and Niki’s complicated love affair with Andras, a detective back in Budapest, combined with the intricacies of her grandmother’s dangerous new job, all come together, causing a twist in Niki’s vacation in Naples… perhaps changing the lives of two families forever.
Is it possible to rekindle a relationship after thirty years? Can love be passed down from mother to daughter? Can a son make a decision for his father when a business and a family are at stake? Can a detective still insist on doing the right thing if his actions endanger himself and the people he loves?
Love and career, revenge and forgiveness, tradition and renewal; three generations, two families, a decision for life: all this in Eva Fejos’s best novel yet. Come along on her Vacation in Naples.
Book Excerpt:
Two investigators finally showed up and called the visit a simple routine check, but it was hard for them to convince the three women that this was indeed the case. They gave no information, scanned the neighborhood and the house itself, then departed at the same moment András arrived. Gran was in her element and kept repeating that she knew all this would come to no good end, and that someone needed to take proper charge of the case already.
“No good end? What are you talking about, Gran?” Niki asked at last.
“I’m talking about the crazed murderers you keep getting mixed up with.”
“He’s not a murderer.”
“Not yet! But all in good time!” she said, rolling her eyes.
“This argument is completely pointless,” Niki’s mother interjected. “Let’s just hope that it was indeed just a routine inspection.”
“Oh yeah? Well, I’ve read about criminals who were in hiding for years. And you are deeply mistaken if you think that a man who is capable of holding hostages can’t become a killer from one moment to the next. I know, because I read a book by that FBI agent, where he analyzed the personalities of serial killers. Once someone starts, the world of violence and crime sucks them in, and from then on, there’s no turning back,” Gran explained pugnaciously.
András caught the tail end of her rant and responded with a short, but reassuring statement.
“It is unlikely that Verbovszky will be on Niki’s trail. He knows that Niki and her environment will be the first place we’d look for him,” he said, rationalizing the situation. “My colleagues really only came to conduct a routine inspection, but we’ll all have to take a few more safety precautions.”
“I’ve got a gun,” Gran blurted out, and suddenly all eyes were fixed on her. Everyone was stunned.
“A gun?” Niki repeated.
“Yes. Your father bought it a long time ago. For your mother,” Gran explained turning towards her granddaughter. “I put it away for safe-keeping. I never thought I’d ever have to use it. Actually, I take that back. When your father moved out, I considered plugging him in the ass on his way out.”
Ma, please,” Niki’s mother said, shaking her head.
“I don’t know what sort of gun you’re talking about, but I don’t suggest that you use it. May I have a look at it?” András asked calmly, and Gran reached into her dress pocket and took out a small but heavy, dark blue cardboard box. She opened it, revealing a palm-sized gun. Niki’s eyes widened, and her mother mumbled something.
“It’s an alarm pistol,” András ascertained. “6mm, not loaded. You can keep it at home, but you need a permit to carry it around.”
“Do you have a permit, Gran?” Niki asked.
“Where would I get a permit?”
“Then you can’t carry it.”
“It’s in my pocket. That’s not carrying.”
“Do you have it in your pocket all the time?” Niki’s mother looked stupefied.
“Ever since your husband up and left, yes.”
“You’d best not take it out on the street, ma’am. According to regulations, you must keep the cartridges separate,” András said, smiling.
“Wipe that grin off your face, son… You’re telling me that because it’s an alarm pistol, you can’t plug someone in the bee-hind with it?”
“You can’t,” he said, wagging his head. “But the sound will definitely wake everyone from here to Szentendre.”
“Well, now that’s something, isn’t it? But would you please tell me: why keep the cartridges separate?”
“Those are regulations.”
“Silliness. There’s absolutely no point then. Would you help me load it?”
“Good God,” Niki said, shaking her head.
“You keep out of this! You’re the one who unleashed a madman on yourself, and it’s our responsibility to defend you,” her grandmother said, signaling for her to remain silent.
“What now?” Niki’s mother asked. “What can we expect?”
“We don’t know. Verbovszky has escaped, but sooner or later he’ll need medical attention, due to his recent surgery. He still has his stitches in. He took the hospital guard’s weapon and used it to force an ambulance driver to obey him. This means that a police car will come around here every so often. Niki, you need to decide where you want to spend the next couple of nights: here, or perhaps… at my place?”
“It’s so reassuring knowing you’re the one leading the investigation, son,” Gran asserted.
“The thing is, I’m not leading it. I work at the internal inspections division now, but… since I am, er, concerned in the matter, I was still able to take part.”'
“Fine. Then Niki will live here, and I’ll make her read some crime novels to educate herself in self-defense, and you could give me a couple of lessons in shooting,” Niki’s grandmother said, taking charge, causing both Niki and her mother rebel immediately.
“No way!”
“I will not live here, and you will not take any shooting lessons. And anyway, I’m the one writing the crime stories around here… at least in my crime column…”
“Then Niki will stay at my place, and will make her way around by car for a couple of days, instead of her scooter. I will be her chauffer this afternoon.”
“Alright, but before you go, show me how to load this stupid thing.”
“No good end? What are you talking about, Gran?” Niki asked at last.
“I’m talking about the crazed murderers you keep getting mixed up with.”
“He’s not a murderer.”
“Not yet! But all in good time!” she said, rolling her eyes.
“This argument is completely pointless,” Niki’s mother interjected. “Let’s just hope that it was indeed just a routine inspection.”
“Oh yeah? Well, I’ve read about criminals who were in hiding for years. And you are deeply mistaken if you think that a man who is capable of holding hostages can’t become a killer from one moment to the next. I know, because I read a book by that FBI agent, where he analyzed the personalities of serial killers. Once someone starts, the world of violence and crime sucks them in, and from then on, there’s no turning back,” Gran explained pugnaciously.
András caught the tail end of her rant and responded with a short, but reassuring statement.
“It is unlikely that Verbovszky will be on Niki’s trail. He knows that Niki and her environment will be the first place we’d look for him,” he said, rationalizing the situation. “My colleagues really only came to conduct a routine inspection, but we’ll all have to take a few more safety precautions.”
“I’ve got a gun,” Gran blurted out, and suddenly all eyes were fixed on her. Everyone was stunned.
“A gun?” Niki repeated.
“Yes. Your father bought it a long time ago. For your mother,” Gran explained turning towards her granddaughter. “I put it away for safe-keeping. I never thought I’d ever have to use it. Actually, I take that back. When your father moved out, I considered plugging him in the ass on his way out.”
Ma, please,” Niki’s mother said, shaking her head.
“I don’t know what sort of gun you’re talking about, but I don’t suggest that you use it. May I have a look at it?” András asked calmly, and Gran reached into her dress pocket and took out a small but heavy, dark blue cardboard box. She opened it, revealing a palm-sized gun. Niki’s eyes widened, and her mother mumbled something.
“It’s an alarm pistol,” András ascertained. “6mm, not loaded. You can keep it at home, but you need a permit to carry it around.”
“Do you have a permit, Gran?” Niki asked.
“Where would I get a permit?”
“Then you can’t carry it.”
“It’s in my pocket. That’s not carrying.”
“Do you have it in your pocket all the time?” Niki’s mother looked stupefied.
“Ever since your husband up and left, yes.”
“You’d best not take it out on the street, ma’am. According to regulations, you must keep the cartridges separate,” András said, smiling.
“Wipe that grin off your face, son… You’re telling me that because it’s an alarm pistol, you can’t plug someone in the bee-hind with it?”
“You can’t,” he said, wagging his head. “But the sound will definitely wake everyone from here to Szentendre.”
“Well, now that’s something, isn’t it? But would you please tell me: why keep the cartridges separate?”
“Those are regulations.”
“Silliness. There’s absolutely no point then. Would you help me load it?”
“Good God,” Niki said, shaking her head.
“You keep out of this! You’re the one who unleashed a madman on yourself, and it’s our responsibility to defend you,” her grandmother said, signaling for her to remain silent.
“What now?” Niki’s mother asked. “What can we expect?”
“We don’t know. Verbovszky has escaped, but sooner or later he’ll need medical attention, due to his recent surgery. He still has his stitches in. He took the hospital guard’s weapon and used it to force an ambulance driver to obey him. This means that a police car will come around here every so often. Niki, you need to decide where you want to spend the next couple of nights: here, or perhaps… at my place?”
“It’s so reassuring knowing you’re the one leading the investigation, son,” Gran asserted.
“The thing is, I’m not leading it. I work at the internal inspections division now, but… since I am, er, concerned in the matter, I was still able to take part.”'
“Fine. Then Niki will live here, and I’ll make her read some crime novels to educate herself in self-defense, and you could give me a couple of lessons in shooting,” Niki’s grandmother said, taking charge, causing both Niki and her mother rebel immediately.
“No way!”
“I will not live here, and you will not take any shooting lessons. And anyway, I’m the one writing the crime stories around here… at least in my crime column…”
“Then Niki will stay at my place, and will make her way around by car for a couple of days, instead of her scooter. I will be her chauffer this afternoon.”
“Alright, but before you go, show me how to load this stupid thing.”
My Book Review:
Will be added this evening.
About The Author
“I believe that each novel has its own destiny and that when the time comes, it will be fulfilled” – Eva Fejos (author of Vacation in Naples)
Eva Fejos, the author of Vacation in Naples
Eva Fejos is a Hungarian writer and journalist.
She:
- has had 18 best-selling novels published in Hungary so far.
- Vacation in Naples is her 15th best-seller, published in 2013.
- has won several awards as a journalist, and thanks to one of her articles, the legislation pertaining to human egg donation was modified, allowing couples in need to acquire donor eggs more easily.
- spends her winters in Bangkok.
- likes novels that have several storylines running parallel.
- visited all the places she’s written about.
- spent a few days at an elephant orphanage in Thailand; and has investigated the process of how Thai children are put up for adoption while visiting several orphanages.
- founded her own publishing company in Hungary in 2013, where she not only publishes her own books, but foreign books too, hand-picked by her.
- Her books published in Hungary thus far are:
Holtodiglan (Till Death Do Us Part)
Bangkok Transit
Hotel Bali
Csajok (Chicks)
Eper reggelire (Strawberries for Breakfast)
A mexikói (The Mexican)
Cuba Libre
Dalma
Helló, London (Hello, London)
Karácsony New Yorkban (Christmas in New York)
Karibi nyár (Caribbean Summer)
Szeretlek, Bangkok (Bangkok, I Love You)
Most kezdődik (Starting Now – the new edition of Till Death Do Us Part)
Nápolyi vakáció (Vacation in Naples – the English version)
Száz éjjel vártam (I Waited One Hundred Nights)
Mert nekünk szeretnünk kell egymást (We Must Love Each Other)
November lánya (November’s Daughter)
AUTHOR WEBSITE
FACEBOOK (ENGLISH)
ERAWAN PUBLISHING
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