BOOK REVIEW: One Summer Day In Rome by Mark Lamprell

Title: One Summer Day In Rome
Author: Mark Lamprell
Publication: August 1, 2017
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Pages: 272

 

 


SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

Alice, an art student in New York City, has come to Rome in search of adventure and inspiration before settling down with her steady, safe fiancé. Meg and Alec, busy parents and successful business people from LA, are on a mission to find the holy grail, a certain blue tile that will make their home renovation complete—but soon it becomes clear that their marriage needs a makeover as well. Connie and Lizzie are women of a certain age—“Sometimes I look at my laughter lines and wonder what on earth could have been that funny”—who come from London to scatter the ashes of their beloved husband and brother. Both women are seemingly done with romance, but Rome has other ideas.

Brimming with wit and charm (and gelato), The Lovers’ Guide to Rome is the most delicious novel you will read this summer.

 
REVIEW:

**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

The title, One Summer Day in Rome, was what drew me to the book. Followed by the description. Love in the Eternal City, what could be more romantic? Women’s lit is not normally a huge draw for me but I make an exception when it comes to Rome.

The story revolves around three main groups of people. There are Alec and Meg. They have been married for a while and fight constantly. They have fallen out of love and need to discover it again. They are heading to Rome for ONE day to find a special tile to order for their new home. There are the curmudgeonly British sister-in-laws, Constance and Lizzie. They came to Rome to give Constance’s husband and Lizzie’s brother Henry the send off he requested. Dumping his ashes in the River Tiber. The last person is Alice. She is going to get engaged in Florence to her boyfriend, Daniel, but wanted a few days to herself first. She befriends a group of British students.

Alec and Meg have an adventure when they get in a car accident and Alec needs to go to the hospital for stitches. While there he becomes attracted to the women who put his stitches in. Meg is in a huge hurry to get this special tile. She declines an offer from the attending doctor to give them a ride to their hotel and an offer to buy them dinner. She has a very one track mind. Alec would like to do those things but finds it is easier to just go with the flow. Will they figure out their marriage is doomed before it’s too late?

Constance and Lizzie are old and tired. They came to Rome to give their beloved Henry the send off that he requested in his will. They haul him all over the place in a Harrods bag because Constance is just not ready to let him go. Lizzie allows it since she knows he was the love of Constance’s life. Constance begins to suspect the reason Henty wanted to be dumped off the bridge into the River Tiber was to be close to his old flame that he had an affair with during a rough patch is in marriage to Constance. Will Constance ever find out the truth?

Alice is coming to Rome because she wanted some her time before she became engaged to her boyfriend Daniel. Daniel was a set up from her mother’s office. While the relationship did work out she doesn’t know if she wanted to end up being with him for forever. She made a list, just like Daniel taught her to do when she was unsure of something, and in the end the good outweighed the bad so she decided that she would marry him. When she arrives in Rome she runs into a group of British students. She gives them all names based on their shirt colors. One of them was Pea Green (August or Gus). They give her a ride into town on their Vespa’s and all stay at the same Bed and Breakfast. The next day all the guys are down for the count except one, Pea Green. He offers to take Alice around town and show her the sights. At the end of the day, he drops her off at Termini Station to ride up to Florence to meet Daniel. In the spur of the moment he hops on the train and asks her to stay just one more day and how do you know if he is the one. Will Alice and Pea Green find the love that they have been looking for in each other?

I loved loved loved loved this book. I read it in like two and a half days. I was so bummed when the book ended. I had fallen in love with each and every one of the characters. I wanted more of the story. I loved how the characters are really actually entwined with each other. All of the characters in the book are all connected to the other groups of characters. The other thing about this book is how it is written. It’s written from the view point of love. Love, come to find out, has a bigger plan for these people than what they have planned. I have never read a book written from the view point of a feeling before, and I have read a fair amount of books. The one knock on this book is that it jumps from character group to character group every single chapter. Just as you are settling in with this persons story we start a new chapter and off we go with another part of the story. It wasn’t enough to make me drop my star rating but it was annoying enough for me to mention. I will certainly be on the lookout for more books by this author and I sincerely hope that there is a sequel coming out eventually because I will definitely be in line to read it when it does.

STAR RATING: 5/5

 
You can get your copy of One Summer Day in Rome on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Also make sure to add One Summer Day In Rome to your Goodreads list and leave feedback for the author when you are done. You can check out more novels from author Mark Lamprell on Amazon here.

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