Hello mersquad coven! I’m back with another blog tour post – I know, right? There’s been a lot and I’m happy about this! – and I hope that you enjoy my thoughts about today’s book. Thank you so much to Harlequin Trade Publishing for having me on this tour and for hosting.
When a little white lie becomes the story of your life, what if the truth comes out?
For three woman, it’s a life-changing trip: one finds the man of her dreams, another discovers inspiration amidst Italian food and culture, while a chance encounter with a handsome local ushers in the ultimate life change for the third. But most importantly, it’s the beginning of a deep and lasting friendship between all three.
Now years later, Kim Weston – entrepreneur and owner of internationally successful Italian food and lifestyle business, The Sweet Life – has bought and restored the tumble-down villa to its former glory — and plans to reopen Villa Dolce Vita as a wellness/cultural retreat – a fitting honor to the root of her business inspiration.
To celebrate the villa’s grand opening, she and her Italian business partners are throwing a huge three-day party; flying a group of family, business and media contacts to the Amalfi Coast to join in the celebrations. And most importantly, the (still) close friends who started the journey with her: Annie and husband Nate, whose love story began at the villa, and single mum Eva, whose son was the result of an ill-advised Italian fling.
But in the run up to the planned weekend in Italy, it becomes clear that not everyone is happy about the party, nor are they on board with such ambitious plans for the location. And, as Villa Dolce Vita’s grand relaunch draws closer, old memories and past secrets come to light, and the three old friends are forced to question if anything that happened on that first fateful trip to the villa is at all what it seemed.
MELISSA HILL lives in south Dublin with her husband and daughter. A USA TODAY and international #1 bestseller, she is the author of 13 novels, including The Gift of a Charm and A Gift From Tiffany’s. The Gift of a Charm was a USA TODAY bestseller. Hailed “the queen of the big plot twist,” she combines all the warmth and humor of contemporary women’s fiction with plots that keep readers guessing from page to page. Melissa also cowrites forensic thrillers with her husband, Kevin, under the pseudonym Casey Hill, featuring crime scene investigator Reilly Steel. For more information, visit www.caseyhillbooks.com.
Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Netgalley and Mira Books for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.
Yet another book that is trying to convince me to travel to Italy as soon as possible! I love that this one dealt with female friendships, something that I feel can be totally underrated sometimes in novels compared to romance. In this novel we get to see the reunion of three women that became friends during their initial stay in the Villa Dolce Vita years ago. They were able to rebuild the magic that this villa once had, and now that they are coming back together in Italy, there seems to be some secrets that may be uncovered.
I absolutely adored that Kim, Colette, and Annie were able to build such a strong friendship when that wasn’t their primary goal the first time they went to Villa Dolce Vita all those years ago. Even though they were there to just relax and escape from their everyday lives, they were able to find such strength in one another that stood the test of time. I love friendships that are able to do that, and they don’t even need to be perfect and happy all the time! They just were strong enough because these women cared about each other so much.
This was just a great feel good kind of book that even though it did not stay that way throughout all of the dramatic parts. I enjoyed it.
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 