Review: Rome in Love by Anita Hughes

From the author of LAKE COMO comes the story of a young actress who lands the lead in a film that is shooting in Rome, bringing about difficult life choices, new friendships, and a chance at love.

When Amelia Tate is cast to play the Audrey Hepburn role in a remake of Roman Holiday, she feels as if all her dreams have come true. She has a handsome boyfriend, is portraying her idol in a major motion picture, and gets to live in beautiful Rome for the next two months.

Once there, she befriends a young woman named Sophie with whom she begins to explore the city. Together, they discover all the amazing riches that Rome has to offer. But when Amelia’s boyfriend breaks up with her over her acting career, her perfect world begins to crumble.

While moping in her hotel suite, Amelia discovers a stack of letters written by Audrey Hepburn that start to put her own life into perspective. Then, she meets Philip, a handsome journalist who is under the impression that she is a hotel maid, and it appears as if things are finally looking up. The problem is she can never find the right time to tell Philip her true identity. Not to mention that Philip has a few secrets of his own. Can Amelia finally have both the career and love that she’s always wanted, or will she be forced to choose again?

With her sensory descriptions of the beautiful sites, decadent food, and high fashion of Rome, Hughes draws readers into this fast-paced and superbly written novel. Rome in Love will capture the hearts of readers everywhere.

Paperback, 320 pages

Published August 4th 2015 by St. Martin's Griffin 

Genre: Romance/Contemporary

Kristine's Thoughts:

** I received a copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.**

The main attraction to this book for me was that it took place in Rome. I will be there in less than a month and thought that it might set the scene a little bit for me while fulfilling my want for a nice summer read.

This book definitely had some moments that I enjoyed and they were mostly in the Audrey Hepburn letters. On top of that there were a couple of romances to be found within the pages.

But...

I thought the story was too busy with three different stories going on. There were the letters, Amelia's story and Sophie's story. It made for a bit of chaos with the flow of the story. Adding to flow issue, the author described every restaurant and thing every character ate as well as every outfit they wore at all times. It disrupted the story and made it read like a travel magazine. Although I found the over abundance of food that was mentioned interesting with my upcoming visit, it really didn't do anything for the cohesiveness of the story. I was also beginning to think that I could never survive Rome without a pair of silver sandals. Every outfit was paired with them and it may seem minor but when they are mentioned so many times you begin to take notice. Towards the end of the book you do read about other coloured sandals. On the repetitive side I do have to mention that every time Amelia had a knock on her door she crossed the marble floor (every time), and every time she saw Philip it was the same thing. She saw a man across the room, insert what he was wearing, and he turned around and it was Philip.

In short, as someone who will be travelling to Rome I found the setting interesting but what I found interesting is also what made the story a little below average.

About the Author

Anita Hughes was born in Sydney, Australia. She attended UC Berkeley's Masters in Creative Writing program. She is the author of MONARCH BEACH, MARKET STREET, LAKE COMO, and the forthcoming FRENCH COAST and ROME IN LOVE, published by St. Martin's Press.  

Connect with Anita

Wesite/Twitter/Goodreads