This was a slow starter for me, it seemed to include lots of extraneous details about the characters' daily activities that baffled me a bit at first and I had to work a bit to figure out what was going on. I'm kind of a lazy reader so that level of effort almost made me bail a couple of times, but the other reviews raved about this and I didn't want to miss out. I also struggled to get used to the present tense narrative as well, probably because it's not what I'm used to.
I was so relieved I didn't bail on this, it was such a romantic read with all of the feels. Gradually all of the details that I had thought were unnecessary at the beginning fell beautifully into place. I was kind of in awe at how intricately plotted this story was. The clues are 'bread-crumbed' through the narrative so I had quite a few 'oh, right' moments of epiphany as read which I absolutely loved.
At its heart it's a romance featuring two characters with a past. Most of the story is set in Rome and the story makes full use of the history and heat and classical beauty of Italy. Once this started to come together, I struggled to put it down and I feel like I've spent a couple of days somewhere warm and beautiful instead of cold, rainy England.
Romantic and escapist, this is a lovely standalone read. Recommended.
I was so relieved I didn't bail on this, it was such a romantic read with all of the feels. Gradually all of the details that I had thought were unnecessary at the beginning fell beautifully into place. I was kind of in awe at how intricately plotted this story was. The clues are 'bread-crumbed' through the narrative so I had quite a few 'oh, right' moments of epiphany as read which I absolutely loved.
At its heart it's a romance featuring two characters with a past. Most of the story is set in Rome and the story makes full use of the history and heat and classical beauty of Italy. Once this started to come together, I struggled to put it down and I feel like I've spent a couple of days somewhere warm and beautiful instead of cold, rainy England.
Romantic and escapist, this is a lovely standalone read. Recommended.