I found The White Palazzo less enjoyable than Cooney's newer A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies -- the book feels like a poorly conceived chick flick -- everyone was A Character. Quirkiness abounds, but not in a fun way. In a rather aggravating, no-one-could-really-live-like-this sort of way.

Tara is young, pretty, preternaturally lucky, and let's not forget, quirky! For a series of ridiculous and random reasons, Tara leaves her male fiancee and disappears. Local, older psychic Signora Guida is hired to find her. In the end, Guida finds Tara (in more than one way) and in the quirky manner of quirky people, they fall wildly in love and move in together. This was a quick read--started and finished before noon on a Saturday. ( )