Enmeshed in a lovely heartwarming story about self-discovery are pearls of wisdom interwoven in her characters’ dialog. Pretty ingenious and soul-searchingly wondrous. Exactly what we’ve come to expect from Jennifer Probst. Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Outcomes are somewhat random and not necessarily what one expects. All these are lessons the extraordinary characters in TO SICILY WITH LOVE will hopefully learn.

Irony. Aurora has made a career for herself as a life coach. Seemingly strange, might be thought of as a useless means to earn a living. Surely folks need to hear more than platitudes and quotes to design their own life. Problems begin to emerge with the sudden death of her mother. Aurora’s family was her father, who passed several years ago, and her mother. No siblings. No other family at all. Her therapist had suggested that she needed to take a better look at her life and goals to see if they were well suited to her. At first, this talk made Aurora rather angry. Her current boyfriend exerted a lot of time and energy guiding her path. To him, it seemed disingenuous putting their joint goals in jeopardy while she recovered from her recent loss.

Yes sounds like a jerk. But it was going to take a risky departure from her usual life to see that.

A DNA test discovered quite a bit of family. Family that had never been discussed and denied her whole life. And that is how and why Aurora winds up in Sicily and her life takes on a new direction.

Jennifer Probst once again flexes her creative muscles with some of the best moments in a relationship-based tale. Not just a guy meeting a girl. We’re talking about generations of a family along with their friends. Characters that come to life as we are treated to an adventure in a small Italian community. Food seems central to their lives, which is true in many cultures. In fact, food is an important character in TO SICILY WITH LOVE. Family life seems to revolve around taking meals together and as the grandmother notes meal planning shows love in the most basic fashion.