Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

Two years ago I read the first book in The Guncle series, and I absolutely loved it. I gave it 5 stars and wrote about it here. Last night I finished reading on my Kindle book 2 in the series, Guncle Abroad (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, May 2024) and while I loved revisiting Patrick, brother Greg, his children Maisie and Grant, Patrick’s sister Clara, and his agent Cassie, as often happens in series (in my opinion) book 2 just wasn’t as sharp or clever as book 1. Did I enjoy it? Yes, and in the end, I did give it 4 stars.

I loved the European travel theme of this book. Patrick flies his beloved niece and nephew into London where he is shooting a movie with – Jude Law – and even finagles a scene in which the kids “star” as extras.

From London, they travel through the Chunnel to Paris, where they immediately sample the extraordinary hot chocolate at Angelina’s.

Side note: just days after telling my husband about Angelina’s and the hot chocolate there, I read an article about Angelina’s famous dessert, the Mont Blanc, which supposedly Coco Chanel enjoyed EVERY DAY.

Not sure I believe that as she was thin as a rail, but okay, this really really makes me want to go to Paris and have both the hot chocolate AND the Mont Blanc.

From Paris they head to Austria to reenact the scene from The Sound of Music where Maria teaches the von Trapp children the music scales.

Eventually they arrive in Italy, stopping in Venice on their way to Lake Como where the children’s father is scheduled to marry Livia, a woman with generational wealth, a noble title, and the chops to shop at Prada’s flagship store in Milan AT NIGHT when it is closed to the public!

For me, the part of the book where they arrive in Lake Como is where I felt it started to lose steam. There is a whole subplot of how Patrick feels about Livia’s sister, Palmina, even before he even meets her. I felt this part of the book was a bit over the top, even for Patrick, who is 100% hambone.

Patrick spends a lot of the book bemoaning his approaching 50th birthday, the effects of aging on his movie star looks, and his lost loves, one out of his control and one most definitely within his control. In book 1, the grief Patrick, Maisie, and Grant were experiencing was counterbalanced wonderfully by the sharp and clever dialogue. I didn’t feel that in book 2.

Overall, it was a pleasant read, light enough to pick up and put down while traveling out of state for my nephew’s wedding, which unlike Greg and Livia’s planned nuptials, went off without a single hitch!

If you read and enjoyed The Guncle, give this a try, BUT, if you haven’t read The Guncle, definitely read it before you read this one!