Sunday 16 April 2017

A Wedding in Italy - Tilly Tennant


About the book… 

Sun, spaghetti and sparkling prosecco. When it comes to finding love, there’s no place like Rome…  

Kate is living the dream with her gorgeous boyfriend Alessandro in his native city, but the reality is sometimes a little less romantic than she’d hoped. Every day in her new home is a fight against leaking pipes, her cantankerous landlord and her less-than-perfect grasp of the Italian lingo.  

All around her there is talk of weddings, but when a secret from her past is thrust out into the open, Kate must fight to prove to Alessandro’s Mamma – and the rest of his formidable family — that she truly is Italian marriage material.  

With the women in Alessandro’s life on a mission to break them apart, the cracks begin to show and Kate starts to question if Alessandro really is the man of her dreams. Can love and the city of romance conquer all, or is that just a fairy-tale? 

Let Rome steal your heart this summer in this gorgeously romantic escapist read. Perfect for fans of Jo Thomas and Abby Clements.

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About the author… 

From a young age, Tilly Tennant was convinced that she was destined for the stage.  Once she realised she wasn’t actually very good at anything that would put her on the stage, she started to write stories instead. There were lots of terrible ones, like The Pet Rescue Gang (aged eight), which definitely should not see the light of day ever again. Thankfully, her debut novel, Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn was not one of those, and since it hit the Amazon best seller lists she hasn’t looked back. Born in Dorset, she currently lives in Staffordshire with her husband, two daughters, three guitars, four ukuleles, two violins and a kazoo.

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My thoughts…

A Wedding in Italy is the second book in this series and sees Kate returning to Rome to take a chance on love with Alessandro the dishy, Italian policeman whom we met in Rome in Where the Heart Is.  A Wedding in Italy has all the dream like qualities we encountered in book one, good food, home, friends and family everything should be perfect.

Kate desperately loves Alessandro and dearly wants to make a new life in the city she fell in love with but things are not as easy or as simple as she'd like. Struggling for work, the language barrier, missing her sisters, Alessandro's tight knit family and their values plus another woman determined to send Kate running for the plane home to England so she can claim Alessandro for herself all throw up obstacles and cause doubts.

This story focuses very much on family. I loved reading about the different values and traditions within an Italian family in comparison to a British one.  Italy is not far from England but the way of life seems more traditional and appears a bit old fashioned, add to that the language barrier too. Kate has left her family behind in England and misses them dearly, she's hoping to get the same closeness with Alessandro's family that she shares with her own but it doesn't happen instantly something which adds to her insecurities.  She didn't anticipate being out of work for so long either and this is another thing that adds to her worries. Without an income she fears she may have to give up on her dreams and return home. 

Tilly Tennant has created strong characters that demand respect - Respect, trust, honesty and loyalty are very strong values and form the very fabric of Italian family life — the Conti family like and love Kate but don't know her well enough to know she will be the right person for their son and brother Alessandro and initially close ranks to protect him.  It was lovely how Tilly developed the relationship of Kate and Alessandro's family, giving her time to shine and grow, allowing their trust to build to such an extent that when the chips really were down for Kate they closed ranks to protect and support her. 

I lost myself totally in this book and the Italian way of life was sold to me completely — so much so I have booked a touring holiday from Venice to Sicily for next summer.  It is a book that inspires hope, living for today and taking a chance on life.  It's good to dream but sometimes it's even better to live those dreams.

I highly recommend this book, but more importantly this author.  Tilly Tennant is a temptress of the highest order — only she would have me looking at flights and surfing the internet for the nooks and crannies she describes so well.  Please tell me the Gelato shop really exists?!  I so want to live inside her books, they provide the perfect amount of escapism — so a huge thank you to her and her publisher Bookouture.

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