A bumpy love story with a gorgeous setting and vivid architectural details.
An American woman moves to Italy to restore a villa and meets a handsome architect in this contemporary romance.
Natalie Malone has just purchased a fixer-upper villa on the Amalfi Coast with money from a mysterious benefactor. In the villa’s “former life, it had been known as Pensione Benone, which translated to ‘very good inn.’ She had yet to decide what she would name it, but she liked the idea of quality.” The villa is part of an economic development plan for the hamlet of Zavona, but the program has been struggling. Architect Pietro Indelicato is determined to help the plan succeed, but his father and some cronies on the Economic Development Council are standing in the way. Pietro meets Natalie when she shows up at city hall to get a construction permit. Even though he is unhelpful, Natalie is attracted to him. They meet again when Natalie seeks his professional expertise. They start flirting as they work together and Pietro assists her with tasks at her villa. But the development plan is in trouble. Because of a clause in the contracts, people renovating houses in the community can’t own the dwellings unless satisfactory restoration work is done within six months. With unscrupulous contractors making shoddy repairs, it is becoming increasingly common for investors to suffer huge losses. When part of a house owned by friends of Natalie’s collapses, she finally realizes the serious difficulties she’s facing. Meanwhile, she tries to track down her generous benefactor, and Pietro fights with his father over Zavona’s future. Blades’ tale deftly portrays the beautiful Amalfi Coast, but the romance takes a while to get going. Most of the novel’s first half focuses on Natalie’s seemingly doomed attempt to renovate her villa. The romance feels like a slow burn until it isn’t, with friendly conversations suddenly escalating into making love in a lemon grove and Natalie meeting Pietro’s family. This series of events results in uneven pacing. The only conflict between the lovers is a manufactured misunderstanding, so the romance feels a bit bland compared with the rest of the tale. Still, there’s a great deal of intriguing home renovation information that will appeal to HGTV fans as the author skillfully describes the villa’s design and repairs.
A bumpy love story with a gorgeous setting and vivid architectural details.Pub Date: May 24, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64937-208-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.
An earnest grad student and a faculty member with a bit of a jerkish reputation concoct a fake dating scheme in this nerdy, STEM-filled contemporary romance.
Olive Smith and professor Adam Carlsen first met in the bathroom of Adam's lab. Olive wore expired contact lenses, reducing her eyes to temporary tears, while Adam just needed to dispose of a solution. It's a memory that only one of them has held onto. Now, nearly three years later, Olive is fully committed to her research in pancreatic cancer at Stanford University's biology department. As a faculty member, Adam's reputation precedes him, since he's made many students cry or drop their programs entirely with his bluntness. When Olive needs her best friend, Anh, to think she's dating someone so Anh will feel more comfortable getting involved with Olive's barely-an-ex, Jeremy, she impulsively kisses Adam, who happens to be standing there when Anh walks by. But rumors start to spread, and the one-time kiss morphs into a fake relationship, especially as Adam sees there's a benefit for him. The university is withholding funds for Adam's research out of fear that he'll leave for a better position elsewhere. If he puts down more roots by getting involved with someone, his research funds could be released at the next budgeting meeting in about a month's time. After setting a few ground rules, Adam and Olive agree that come the end of September, they'll part ways, having gotten what they need from their arrangement. Hazelwood has a keen understanding of romance tropes and puts them to good use—in addition to fake dating, Olive and Adam are an opposites-attract pairing with their sunny and grumpy personalities—but there are a couple of weaknesses in this debut novel. Hazelwood manages to sidestep a lot of the complicated power dynamics of a student-faculty romance by putting Olive and Adam in different departments, but the impetus for their fake relationship has much higher stakes for Adam. Olive does reap the benefits of dating a faculty member, but in the end, she's still the one seemingly punished or taunted by her colleagues; readers may have been hoping for a more subversive twist. For a first novel, there's plenty of shine here, with clear signs that Hazelwood feels completely comfortable with happily-ever-afters.
Fresh and upbeat, though not without flaws.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-33682-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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