{Review} One Hot Italian Summer by Karina Halle

One Hot Italian Summer by Karina Halle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
GENRE: Contemporary Romance

THEME: Chance in Meeting

One Hot Italian Summer

by Karina Halle

4.23 · 767 Ratings 

BLURB:

After the death of her best friend and writing partner, Grace Harper is struggling both with grief, and with her next novel, the first one she’ll have to write alone. Fortunately, her new powerhouse agent, the formidable Jana Lee, has a solution for her. She can stay at her villa in Tuscany for a month, soak in the sunshine, relax, and find her confidence again. After all, Jana has a lot riding on Grace’s next book, and the last thing she wants is for her reputation as a “super-agent” to be tarnished. At first the villa is a dream come true for Grace – that is until Claudio Romano shows up one day with his ten-year old son, Vanni, in tow. Turns out, this is Claudio’s house, and Claudio happens to be her agent’s ex-husband from long ago. Thanks to their annual father and son bonding trip being cancelled, Claudio and Vanni are here to stay. So is Grace. With the three of them sharing the same house, Grace’s writing plans are thrown out the window. But even if she’s not pounding the keyboard, she’s still finding beauty and inspiration... in none other than Claudio. He's unlike any man Grace has met before. He’s smart, charming, and wickedly sexy, plus a great father to Vanni. He’d be the perfect summer fling – if only he wasn’t completely off-limits. But as the hot Italian summer wears on, Grace and Claudio are destined to succumb to the heat, no matter how hard they try to resist each other. One steamy encounter with Claudio could affect Grace’s chances of starting her career over. Or he could be exactly what she needs.

REVIEW:

Halle is one of my top go to authors, she has a way with romance stories that just keeps me hooked and her characters are always flawed by flawless when it comes to being able to connect to them. She does is again with One Hot Italian Summer, not only did I love the romance and characters, but I fell in love with Italy a place I've never been too. This was a wonderful story that started with loss and following a woman's journey in finding herself again.

One Hot Italian Summer follows Grace, a mystery writer who has always dug deep into her writing with her "partner in crime" Robin, her bestie. But after Robins sudden death, Grace cant feel the draw to write as her muse was her bestie. Grace is contracted to write a women's fiction book but needs a change of scenery, which her agent provides in sending her to Italy in her "vacation home." But Grace discovers her agent has sent her to her ex husbands home whom she meets in a slightly embarrassing way along with his very intelligent son. Thus begins Grace's adventure into writing a book she never thought she'd write, romance.

I loved this story, the way Grace is put into not only a new environment but into a families life that she becomes attached too. She was lonely, she's a shy quiet type and Claudio and his son bring out the real Grace as she stays in italy to write her book. The readers get to watch her bloom into this strong, independent and open minded woman.

Claudio is a man I doubt any woman could resist, he's an artist with a beautiful mind and has a son who is not only smart but super funny. I adored the differences between father and son which challenged them both but their father son bond was so strong. Adding in Grace to their family dynamic and causing some fun moments that all three of them needed was heartwarming.

In the end the romance is fantastic, steamy and passionate. The characters are bold, emotionally and so real. I loved this story, the ups and downs of finding yourself and finding what was missing. 

 

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