Sophia Bertoni discovers her boyfriend in bed with another woman, and realises her life is going nowhere. Leaving her high-pressure job, she travels to Italy to stay with her grandmother while she figures out her next move.
When Sophia – quite literally – bumps into devastatingly handsome Joe Lancaster her plans are turned upside down. As the two realise they’re both spending the summer in the same town, a love affair seems on the cards.
But Sophia and Joe are both burdened by family secrets. Despite their attraction, will the sun set on Sophia and Joe’s romance – or will they find love at the Italian lake?
So this totally was not the book to read early April, with the UK’s gloomy, misty skies, the non-stop pouring rain and the coldness bitterly freezing our hands to death – because it made me seriously jealous of Sophia and in need of a long-time coming holiday away to the most exotic place I could think of!
Sophia is a business woman purely focused around work in the bustling city of London. Her boyfriend moved in one day without her permission and stayed for three excruciatingly long years, rent free and no intentions to help Sophia do anything related to housework. Sophia knew the love was no longer there between them, if there was ever love there in the first place, however she let him stay anyway as she has a heart of gold and would never want to see him without. That is, until she walks in to her bedroom – her safe place – and see’s him in her bed with a blonde covered in whipped cream. Her life takes a 360 turn when she finally see’s him for the man he is, the man she allowed to live in her home all these years and with this final push, she now had a reason to end the relationship once and for all.
Sophia sells her apartment to a work colleague and jet’s off to the sunny skies and crystal clear blue seas of Italy, on a mission to explore new life choices, her family’s past and possibly a new romance?
Sophia is knocked off of her feet – literally – when the handsome Joe Lancaster runs in to her at the airport, leaving her with a bust lip and a lump on her head that you could see from a mile away. From this instant, Sophia can never stop thinking about the man who caused her multiple injuries on their first meeting and quite frankly, with the way Darcie describes Joe, I would be thinking about him on a daily basis as well.
Before Sophia can develop any feelings for this new handsome stranger, she finds a letter in a photo box at her grandmother’s place, that could possibly ruin her families dynamics and her mother/nonna’s relationship.
Join Sophia and Joe on their journey to love, with some laugh-out-loud moments and many more awkward bump-in’s along the way. Darcie takes us on a journey of exploring the town, visiting the castle and the opera, alongside meeting many wonderful characters. Darcie’s description of everything – from the places Sophia visits, the people Sophia meets to the events occurring throughout the book, she describes it all so vividly that I genuinely could use my imagination so clearly and feel like I was in this story with Sophia.
Sophia and Joe were such fascinating characters to follow, however with each of them dealing with different and difficult family situations, their journey to love isn’t an easy ride and you can’t help but scream in your head for them to just lay all of their secrets out on the table so they no longer had to find reasons to not be together. If you are a romantic person, this book will definitely have you swooning and more ready than ever to pursue your very own holiday romance, as passionate as this one.
‘Love at the Italian Lake’ was such a pleasure to read and I will definitely be purchasing more of Darcie’s stories!
Purchase ‘Love at the Italian Lake’ now for just £1.99.
Do this book sound like your cup of tea? Let me know in the comments below if you have read or plan on reading ‘Love at the Italian Lake’ or tweet us over at @Fuzzable.