Welcome back everyone, I hope you enjoyed the summery feel of The Italian Retreat on the Italian Lake. This week’s review isn’t quite so summery, but it does involve two countries again, and a holiday fling.
Writing Style
I quite enjoyed the way this one was written. There was a magical feel to it that made me wish I had the guts to up and move to London, like I wanted to for a while there.
As Emmy came across new locations she would marvel at the simplest of things. This really made me connect with her because I do this as well when I travel. The simplest of things grabs me attention and I just want to know more because it’s somewhere different and I want to know how it differs to what I’m used to.
Also, a holiday fling that actually wants to stay in contact just has a magical quality to it. The touches of that magic scattered throughout the story really kept me engaged throughout the whole book.
Initial Thoughts
Right at the very start of the story I thought we might have been in some ancient Viking town or city during a festival. That just shows how recently I’d read the blurb doesn’t it? Coz it was, in actual fact, set in Edinburgh in like 2010 NYE.
One of the magical qualities of this book was the way Emmy and William hit it off as he helped her after receiving a punch in the face. They just seemed to have instant chemistry and it seemed a given they’d get together. Until they parted ways and didn’t exchange numbers or emails or anything.
When they kept running into each other I started to think maybe it would work out. But then it all seemed to fall apart. I felt really bad for Emmy at this point. I’ve lost a good friend when they stopped responding so I can empathise with how she would’ve been feeling. And it made me connect to her even more.
Final Thoughts
I really liked that the issues that pop up in real relationships was what made these ones difficult. Lack of communication, a feeling of getting left behind, not wanting to look like you can’t hack it. And even the desire to prevent someone else from ruining the relationship so not talking about that person.
If I hadn’t have read a tinsy bit of the acknowledgement (I normally skip these) I wouldn’t have realised that this is actually one in a series. So, I will likely try and ferret out those books and add them to my every growing (it was already ridiculous) TBR pile.
Seriously, if someone could just pay me a decent salary to not work and just get through my TBR pile then maybe I will get them all read along with the rest of the series for those that I liked.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be reviewing The Consequence of Loyalty by Trey Stone.
Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.
Author Bio
Belinda Missen is an award-winning and best-selling author, screenwriter, and freelance writer from Geelong, Australia. She lives with her car-obsessed, but wonderful husband, two loopy cats, and more books than she cares to count.
In late 2017, Belinda signed a six-book contract with HQDigitalUK (HarperCollins). A Recipe for Disaster was released in August 2018. An Impossible Thing Called Love appeared by magic in November 2018.
