The Unquiet Mind (Greek Village Book 8)

As always I find myself unable to put this book down. I wanted to let this one last and read it over a longer period of time but I could not stop for too long. I feel like this is a place I can go to and go around meeting all these people there who seem like my friends. Sara brings this place and these people to life as if it is a place you have been and want to go back and shop and eat there and visit with friends. I did feel like this one was a "cliffhanger" as one reviewer said. I don't know if Sara just wants us to imagine the rest or she is hopefully going to continue with the rest in her next book. I can imagine what happened but have many questions.I don't know if it is because I don't have an actual book to hold knowing I am almost to the end or if reading it on a kindle makes the ending seem abrupt. However I don't usually read every word in a book because I am dyslectic but found myself reading every word to the end in The Unquiet Mind. I loved it all. Cant wait for the next book in this delightful series.

Another wonderful story from Sara. She makes the people in the series seem like part of your own community and you root for their well being and finding themselves. I think I love the series so much because she has a way of writing that puts you smack in the middle of the book. Her method of attending to the details such as when someone eats at a cafe she will mention the bird picking up the crumbs, the child dropping a toy, the sadness on a customer's face, the polka dot dress on the young girl, the sun gleaming off the water, the boat rocking. You can imagine yourself at that table and are taken away. "Through a metal arched gate covered with wild climbing roses, the tires change their sound, crunching on gravel and they scrunch to a stop." --One can visualize and hear the scene as if in a movie. Even though one may argue that the ending was too pat, the journey there was filled with questioning and growing and coping with the roller coaster of life similar to all her books. I like how she ended the story to let our imaginations fill in the courtship.Can't wait for the next book.

"The Unquiet Mind (The Greek Village Collection Book 8)" by Sara Alexi was not as good as her previous books I have read. The novel was strong until the end, which I felt left me hanging. I can anticipate who is on the other side of that door, but I'm not sure and would have appreciated that closure. The book still took me, mentally, to Greece. It was relaxing, in that I could visualize it's beauty. Hopefully, Book 9 will bring some resolution, but as a rule from her previous novels, each book is a story unto itself. Also, for whatever reason, Book 8 did not have the e-book feature of xray, so I had forgotten the background of some characters previously identified. Still, all things considered, it is a novel worth reading.

I have all of these books, and like another reviewer, when I begin reading one, I feel as if I am going back to a beloved place, meeting long time friends again.I have never been to Greece, never imagined myself there, but with these eight books, I find myself transported to another time and place.I grew up in an impoverished place, a beautiful place..with a family moving through each day, dealing with the difficulties of the times and the place. Though it was a long way from Greece, I could feel the humanity and joy of life in Sara's Greece just as I did ..back then, in my world and time.We didn't always get what we wanted, but as the song says, 'sometimes we get what we need.'

Again Sara Alexis has entertained us with another great Greek Village story. We encountered Yanni, Stella, Mitsos, Juliet, and, even for a very, very brief moment, Sarah from Book 7. But just like with the ending of Book 7, the author again abruptly ends the story, leaving the readers to phantasize on their own how the story's ending should have been told, including a romantic reunion between Yanni and Sophia. It would be really nice, if once Sara Alexis decides to let the Greek Village Books run out, she makes one more effort with a final book or Novella, which ties all the loose ends together. Her books are such a great read, that there should not be any cliffhangers that make the reader hope the next book will pick up where the last ended, and then it does not.

Another gem from Sara Alexi with the gentle pace of the Greek places clearly demonstrated in lines such as: "Sunbeams slice through the slats... outside the incessant call of the cicadas rasps the air with their continuous song." Alexi's talent lies in the sense of place and immediacy she creates: we feel and smell and know where we are. And as always, a good helping of philosophy and questions such as "Why do people not work for the good of the whole?" are worth pondering well after the novel is read. Read the series in any order you like; you'll become a fan.

This was beautiful . . . like the poetry of music which takes the secrets of the human soul and makes it shine. I love the chain of events in this book, exposed in two parts. . . the way people find themselves and then each other. Mostly, though, I love the characters and the small, thoughtful descriptions of things . . . such as the elements of a room, or the movements of a cat . . or the eating of a dessert . . . It puts the reader in the middle of the story and breathes life and vision into the tale. I have read all the books in this collection and anxiously waiting for the next one.

I have read all the books up to this one and will read the next one too. I really have enjoyed them all with the exception of this one. This book just drags on and on for both Yanni and Sophia. They both miss each other and actually look for each other but they never quite find one another. It's good enough that I didn't give up but it wasn't enjoyable like the others. Towards the end you start to think... maybe it will work out? Picks up a little interest but at the very end it is left for you to imagine that they reunited. It would have been great to have at least a chapter that described in detail their reunion, plans, hopes and dreams. You know, the rest of the story. I hope that in a future book they are revisited and we learn exactly what happened.

This is yet another fascinating story in the Greek Village Series. Once again we meet Yanni the Donkey Man who is struggling to eke out a living on the island particularly as he now only has the one donkey. The tragedy of losing his Donkey, Dolly, was told in The Art of Becoming Homeless. As ever the books take the reader behind the seemingly idyllic, simple lifestyle on a Greek Island and shows us the harsh reality of struggling to survive in an at times hostile environment. The islanders are constrained by tradition and often have no option but to endure whatever is thrown at them. Yanni hankers after an education but had to work as a child so missed out on a lot. He was helped by an old nun Sister Katerina. His story runs in parallel to that of his childhood sweetheart Sophia. At the age of 13 circumstances forced her to be sent to a convent on the mainland. Yanni has to go to the mainland to buy another donkey and to deliver a parcel to the convent. He stays with his cousin Babis and gets involved in a rather nasty scam involving bogus surveyors. However as Yanni is an honest and honourable man he exposes the corruption. We meet other familiar well loved characters like Juliet, Stella and Mitsos again. Juliet helps Sophia when she leaves the convent and discovers she has been left land back on Orino. Events, with the help of Sister Katerina, conspire to bring Yanni and Sophia together – wonderful! I can’t wait to read the next book

This story is about two people. Yanni the reclusive shepherd who lives with his elderly parents. Following the loss of Dolly, his donkey in an earlier book he leaves Orino Island and goes to Saros reluctantly to purchase another donkey and to finally meet his childhood friend and love, Sofia who is now in a Nunnery. While there he indulges in drink, is kidnapped due to mistaken identity and gets involved in local politics all while staying with his unworthy and untrustworthy cousin Babbi. His initial naivete and reclusive nature finally gives way to the man he could one day become. Secondly, Sofia who is cruelly sent off to a Nunnery at a young age, plans her return to the island of her birth.The book is two halves of a story and ends on a hopeful note!I am finding Sara seems to enjoy writing cliffhanger endings more and more leaving it all to our imagination or until the next book. Also in the Greek Village series we see in each progressive book how rampant development, tourism and a growing expat community impacts the villagers and characters from previous books.Wonderful book. Hope to read more about Yanni and Sofia and whether they have their Happy Ending!

Sara, has done it again.. another brilliant GVC book that leaves the reader feeling they are sitting outside Stella's watching island life go by as a member of the ex pat community.If you have never experienced the Greek islanders way of life not even a week in the sun, these are the books to make you want to actually be there. The simplicity of life that meanders at is own pace and has you eagerly awaiting whatever is round the next corner.Having read the previous seven books, and catching 'glimpses' of Yanni and his two donkeys Suzi and Dolly - actually getting to know him in this story has your heart racing for his dream to become reality.Does it ... well read the book and see for yourself.. You wont be disappointed, and I am sure you will retrace you way back through the stories written so far and see yourself watching it all unfold and eagerly awaiting book 9.

Another well crafted story from Sara Alexi. The core theme, about Yanni and Sophia, is an antidote to the current Hollywood driven trend of externally gorgeous young people succeeding quickly in love. These are real life, warts and all people who the reader can be angry with, afraid for, and even despise - but never get bored with.Although each story can stand alone; I particularly enjoy the way Sara weaves her stories so that themes and incidents echo across the series; I can be reading about one set of people and, in the background, there are people acting out aspects of a story I already know. The sense is that characters are not merely moving wallpaper - but have independent lives of their own.I recommend the Greek Village series, especially with a glass of Greek wine, on a beach, in Greece; or even if you want to recreate the feeling of wine, beach and Greece.

There is definitely a "feel good" factor to this series of books. Pure escapism, they take the reader from their busy lives to a much slower, more gentle way of living,The Unquiet Mind (which, by the way, can be read as a standalone story just as easily so it's not necessary to read the whole series) follows Yanni who lives with his parents & his donkey on a little, peaceful island. But he has to leave the island to buy another donkey &, his mother is always reminding him, he needs to find a wife - a frightening prospect on all counts.Whether he achieves either or both of these would be to reveal the plot.Another refreshing book Ms Alexi.