4 Stars
The third tale in the
Layovers series takes us to the Tuscan
countryside. There Élodie Martel’s life keeps getting more and more
complicated when a visit to her aunt lands her in the middle of a contested
estate and an attraction to the hired help, Vico Fierli, who may or may
not be able to help her sort out the problems of the present as well as the betrayals
of the past.
“‘It would only be wrong if the attention is not welcome. And you have seen the proof that I welcome your attentions.’”
This novella packs
more story than I originally expected. It’s not simply the attraction between
El and Vico. There’s intrigue that fuels the plot and kept me turning pages to
find out how all the pieces fit together. In fact, I think it could really be
fleshed out into a full length novel. At
places, I craved a little more development to make it reach its full potential.
For example, I would
have loved some chapters from Vico. (This is told soley by El’s first person
POV.) While he exhibited that sexy but slightly mysterious vibe, I also wanted
to learn more about him. A little more build-up would have been welcome. None
the less, that first pool scene was hot!
Plus, it’s always
refreshing when the heroine is an accomplished, capable women, and El (or
Elodia as Vico calls her) fits that bill. The romance market sorely needs more presentations
of women in highly educated professions like El. Not only that, but points for
the places where the gender roles seem to reverse and for the presentation of
their relationship as teamwork rather than El needing Vico to save the day.
“‘It is you, straniera, who is going down. Onto this bed, right now.’”
All in all, for an afternoon read, this is one to
check out. Be forewarned though, you might want to have an Italian translation
app handy. I’ll freely admit, I was lost on some lines of dialogue.
GOODREADS
*I volunteered to review this ARC. All reviews written by Book-Bosomed Book Blog are honest opinions. In the interest of providing unbiased book reviews and to avoid misleading other readers, it is the blog’s policy not to withhold or delay any reviews no matter the star rating. To the best of my knowledge, this title was presented to the blog without any conditions or stipulations.
*I volunteered to review this ARC. All reviews written by Book-Bosomed Book Blog are honest opinions. In the interest of providing unbiased book reviews and to avoid misleading other readers, it is the blog’s policy not to withhold or delay any reviews no matter the star rating. To the best of my knowledge, this title was presented to the blog without any conditions or stipulations.
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