This first part of a two-part novel, M.L. Kilian’s Piazza Navona is an emotional yet witty story about Elise, who seems able to accept her life as a mother to moody young adult daughters, Lauren and Audrey. Her husband, Mark, is a typical husband who is content to let Elise deal with the family matters at home. Everything changes when Mark reveals that he has been having an affair with Elise’s own cousin, Jenny, for four years. Determined to heal her broken heart, Elise leaves her life in San Francisco and goes to Rome. There she lives out her life in ways she would never have imagined before – most important of all, she is able to ascertain her own sense of worth and reason to live.

It is about ordinary people, with ordinary life’s ups and downs, but Piazza Navona is a fascinating read that rivals any action-packed, sci-fi or horror novels that have grander plots. Swiftly in the beginning, readers learn about Lauren’s wedding – Elise and Mark’s oldest daughter – and the way they handle her high-end demands of the ceremony, including her panicky, unpleasant attitude before her engagement party. Readers will be able to connect with this couple immediately, especially those who are older parents themselves and have faced similar situations before. Unfortunately, Elise has to deal with a problem that has broken marriages everywhere. Rome becomes her liberation, and there are definitely some pearls of wisdom to learn in this poignant modern tale. Simply put, M.L. Kilian’s novel is utterly engaging and readers will not want to miss the second part of the story.

M.L. Kilian has painted an emotional and accurate picture of an American woman dealing with the sudden realization that the safe, secure, comfortable marriage that is the center of her life is over. At the beginning of Piazza Navona, we find Elise Bowman safely ensconced in her safe, middle class world, preparing to host her daughter's engagement party. We quickly get a glimpse of what her life is like as we watch her interaction with her husband and two daughters. This glimpse shows us a secure, safe, but vaguely unsatisfying picture of an American family. I say vaguely unsatisfying, but many may think this is as good as it gets. Whichever view you hold about the family and this life is irrelevant because the safety, security, and happiness are an illusion. Elise discovers her husband Mark is having an affair with her cousin Jenny and, even worse, he loves Jenny and has no interest in repairing his relationship with Elise. The marriage is over and in an attempt to get away from her life for a while and regroup, Elise goes to Italy. Thus the novel's title Piazza Navona.

Piazza Navona is well written and paints a very realistic portrait of one version of the modern American family. The portrait of life in the San Francisco Bay Area is accurate, as are the glimpses into Elise's relationships with her husband, mother, father, and two daughters. M.L. Kilian has crafted a poignant and very satisfying story here.