Books Set in Greece
Join me as we journey around the world in our book club. This month we are in Greece!
Our featured read, Taking Her to Mykonos by Julie Sneed Womack, follows four friends as they embark on an emotional journey to fulfill a loved one’s final wish, rediscovering themselves along the way. Our companion book, The Illegal Gardener by Sara Alexi, explores themes of resilience, immigration, and unexpected friendships.
Book Club Pick – Greece
Taking Her to Mykonos by Julie Sneed Womack
What is Taking Her to Mykonos about?
When Anna dies way too young, her final wish is to have her ashes scattered on a sun-kissed beach on the Greek island of Mykonos. It was the place she loved most when she and her friends backpacked through Europe after college, and Katherine, Lorelei, Ashley, and Rishika agree to take her there.
Twenty years after their original, epic trip, they intend to do everything the same… and fail. Midlife crises and dealing with Anna’s death in their own ways will test their emotions–-and their friendship–-as they gallivant through some of Europe’s must-see destinations.
Katherine, a workaholic, wonders if she chose the wrong path twenty years ago. Lorelei, an overwhelmed working mom of six, is desperate to chase her dream of being an artist. Ashley, a stay-at-home mom and devoted wife, has lost herself in her marriage, and now her life plan has crashed and burned. And, Hollywood exec Rishika has no idea how to actually live her seemingly perfect life without her best friend, Anna.
Surrounded by backpackers in their twenties, dreamers with their entire lives ahead of them, Katherine, Lorelei, Ashley, and Rishika realize just how much they’ve changed in two decades. Is there anything left to dream about? Will they have the strength to carry out Anna’s final wish? And will this trip break their friendship or make it stronger?
Julie Sneed Womack on Literary Escapes Podcast
Want to know more about Julie and her books? I will be interviewing her soon. Listen to the conversation on the Literary Escapes Podcast!
Author Interview with Julie Sneed Womack
Companion Book
Each month we choose two books to read from our destination. Here’s the second book!
The Illegal Gardener by Sara Alexi
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Driven by a need for some control in her life, Juliet sells up on impulse and buys a run down farmhouse in a tiny Greek village, leaving her English life behind. Her boys have grown and she has finally divorced her bullying husband. This is her time now.
Whilst making her new home habitable, Juliet discovers she needs a sturdy helping hand with the unruly and neglected garden. Unwilling to share her newfound independence with anyone, but unable to do all the work by herself, she reluctantly enlists casual labour.
Aaman has travelled to Greece from Pakistan illegally. Desperate to find a way out of poverty, his challenge is to find work and raise money for the harvester his village urgently need to survive.
What he imagined would be a heroic journey in reality is fraught with danger and corruption. Aaman finds himself in Greece, and with each passing day loses a little more of himself as he survives his new life as an immigrant worker; illegal, displaced, unwanted and with no value. Hungry and stranded, how will he ever make it back home to Pakistan?
In what begins as an uncomfortable exchange, Juliet hires Aaman to be her gardener, but resents the intrusion even though she needs the help. Aaman needs the work and money but resents the humiliation.
In spite of themselves, as the summer progresses, they get to know one another and discover they have something in common. Pieces of their lives they have kept hidden even from themselves are exposed, with each helping the other to face their painful past.
Will Juliet and Amaan finally let each other in? And what will be the outcome of this improbable conjoining of two lost souls?
More Books Set in Greece
Beyond the two books we chose for the book club, we found several additional books, from heartwarming romances to historical fiction and mysteries.
Which book will you choose for a literary escape to Greece?
Summer at the Santorini Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin
Genre: Sweet Romance
After losing her job as a book scout, hopeless romantic Evie needs a fresh start. So when she hears that her eccentric grandmother has just taken on a small bookshop in Santorini, Evie jumps at the chance to visit her.
But life on the island is not as idyllic as it first seems. Gran has a tempestuous relationship with her landlord and he’s threatening to take the bookshop away from her. So when Gran asks Evie to fake date her landlord’s Greek God of a grandson, Georgios, to keep the family on side, she reluctantly agrees.
As the sun sets on Evie’s Greek holiday, can she save the bookshop – and fake date her way to love?
The Amulet by Effrosyni Moschoudi
Genre: Sweet Romance
When Katie loses her office job, a gypsy woman hands her an amulet for good luck. Next, she gets hired as hotel receptionist on the Greek island of Sifnos. There, Aggelos, a handsome yet peculiar guest at the hotel, keeps coming to the rescue, whenever she needs help.
Katie is intrigued by him and his quirky friends, unaware that he is a guardian angel that came with the amulet. As she falls in love, the unanswered questions pile up, driving her crazy…
Will Katie get her happily-ever-after? It may take a miracle; but on an island as magical as Sifnos, anything is possible!
The Island by Victoria Hislop
Genre: Historical Fiction
On the brink of a life-changing decision, Alexis Fielding plans a trip to her mother’s childhood home in Plaka, Greece hoping to unravel Sofia’s hidden past. Given a letter to take to Sofia’s old friend, Fotini, Alexis is promised that through Fotini, she will learn more.
Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone’s throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga—Greece’s former leper colony. Fotini at last reveals the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters, and a family rent by tragedy, war, and passion. Alexis discovers how intimately her family is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip.
My Map of You by Isabelle Broom
Genre: Romance
Holly Wright has had a difficult few years. After her mother’s death, she’s become expert at keeping people at a distance – including her boyfriend, Rupert. But when Holly receives an unexpected letter explaining that an aunt she never met has left her a house on the Greek island of Zakynthos, the walls she has built begin to crumble.
Arriving on the island, Holly meets the handsome Aidan and slowly begins to uncover the truth about the secret which tore her family apart. But is the island where Holly really belongs? Or will her real life catch up with her first?
This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart
Genre – Mystery
Lucy Waring, a young, out-of-work actress from London, leaps at the chance to visit her sister for a summer on the island paradise of Corfu, and what’s more, a famous but reclusive actor is staying in a villa nearby.
But Lucy’s hopes for rest and romance are shattered when a body washes up on the beach and she finds herself swept up in a chilling chain of events…
Even More Books Set in Greece
Check out this list of even more books set in Greece!
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