In my view, this book has been written by an artist of languages. Sergey Ilyn is, in fact, a Russian author who lives in the United States along with his wife. He is, hence, a bilingual or even a trilingual novelist, because the book is written in English with brilliant sentences in Italian, also.
The tale, indeed, embraces an international scenery including America, Russia and Italy.
The work is not so conventional, as you could think on the basis of the title. My Sweet and Kind You: A story of love – is based on a true story, according to the author’s statement you’ll find in the early pages.
The plot is vibrant and surrounded by gripping twists which enrich this romance book with the nuances of a spy story.
As you read, you encounter all the features of a contemporary novel, such as international intrigues and mysteries, investigations with FBI officers and Italian Carabinieri, but, above all, you meet the main characters, Alex and Eve, namely Alessandro Sabani and Eve Thorons.
He is a skilled hi-tech genius, a freelancer and a free soul, she is the beautiful and wealthy owner of a big company inherited by her father.
Both of them met for the first time in New York, at L’Incanto, an Italian nightclub, and there, the spell of love takes place. But that is only the beginning of a contemporary tale which unravels the lights and shadows of our controversial modern world.
Alex and Eve, in turn, share some features of this world: Alex comes from an Italian family in Campania, tied to fearsome mafia and camorra bosses, Eve is the daughter of a Russian oligarch who moved to the United States after fighting against dictatorship and getting poisoned for that.
Aside from the conceptual essence of a love story (a neat and polite love with no explicit eroticism – I don’t read erotic books), the book faces the issues of our current age, the international connections with financial mobsters and politics, where money appears to be the only value over everything.
In the story, however, you can perceive all the consequences of the power of money, such as the difficulty to trust others, the fear of solitude, the obsession to be an easy target for those who are interested in richness.
Nevertheless, Alex and Eve are the epitomes of those who counteract this bad conception about money; they strive for a more genuine life, made of faith, hope and love, but also made of mutual assistance.
There is a lot of significance in this novel, and it is very easy to note the same background of the author’s life. Love is more important than money and businesses, people are not always as we think they are.
Even in our digital and money addicted world, there is room for the love at first sight, for the gaze which makes you palpitate your heart, for the vicinity of those who still want to feel the touch of a soul in love.
This book is a breath of fresh hair in these dark times marked by war and pandemic, and the fact it has been written in perfect and compelling English, by a Russian author, makes it worthy to be read and reviewed.
Rosalba Mancuso is the journalist, born in Sicily, who founded three online magazines in English. On Advicebooks Book Reviews, Rosalba shows her great passion for books, helping readers and book lovers choose and buy the best books she read and reviewed. She also worked as a contributor to print and online magazines and as a bilingual Italian-English writer. Here, Rosalba also offers room to authors and publishers who want to get their books reviewed through the voice of an avid reader like her. You must also know that this book review magazine lives thanks to your help. Rosalba, in fact, earns a small commission, with no cost for you, when you buy books through the affiliate links you find in her book reviews. This book review magazine is also funded by services of editorial reviews and book press releases.
