Roman Crazy (Broads Abroad #1) by Alice Clayton & Nina Bocci

Blurb:

Avery Bardot steps off the plane in Rome, looking for a fresh start. She’s left behind a soon-to-be ex-husband in Boston and plans to spend the summer with her best friend Daisy, licking her wounds—and perhaps a gelato or two. But when her American-expat friend throws her a welcome party on her first night, Avery’s thrown for a loop when she sees a man she never thought she’d see again: Italian architect Marcello Bianchi.

Marcello was the man—the one who got away. And now her past is colliding with her present, a present where she should be mourning the loss of her marriage and—hey, that fettuccine is delicious! And so is Marcello…

Slipping easily into the good life of summertime in Rome, Avery spends her days exploring a city that makes art historians swoon, and her nights swooning over her unexpected what was old is new again romance. It’s heady, it’s fevered, it’s wanton, and it’s crazy. But could this really be her new life? Or is it just a temporary reprieve before returning to the land of twin-set cardigans and crustless sandwiches?


A celebration of great friendship, passionate romance, and wonderful food, Roman Crazy is a lighthearted story of second chances and living life to the fullest.

Purchase Links:

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2cW8kj5

Amazon PB: http://amzn.to/2cSMHlh

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2co8WMv

Amazon AU: http://amzn.to/2cbNWJc

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/1m1OfIr

iBooks: http://bit.ly/2ckCglb

Kristine's Review:
Reviewed: September 2016.

Alice Clayton has always been a must read author for me, her stories always captivate me with the perfect blend of swoon worthy romance, laugh out loud humor and sizzingly sexiness, falling somewhere between contemporary romance and chick lit, Clayton's prose eloquently invite the reader on a journey of sight, sound and smell, effortlessly evoking the senses in a whirlwind love affair with not only her characters but the world at large. Roman Crazy, not only cements Clayton's place amongst the best of the best but marks Nina Bocci's debut into authordom.

"Time apparently doesn't heal all wounds when it comes to proud Italian men."

Avery Bardot was once a wide eyed girl jet setting across the globe to study her passion, in those months in Barcelona she experienced the sights and sounds of young adulthood, of new love, of the kind of chemistry and attraction authors wax lyrical about in romance books, she lived a life many of us would envy with a carefree spirit synonymous with the young, and
then she returned home, changed forever, full of wide eyed optimism, but as is common for many of us, life happened. Granted not a horrible life, Avery's existence was filled with privilege, she wanted for nothing financially, and as a whole she convinced herself that she was content, happy even. It took walking in on her husband schtooping his administrative assistant to realise how much she had been fooling herself.

" My Marcello who could make me laugh and cry and gasp and sigh and feel all of the feelings that remind me I am part of this planet and experiencing good wonderful things as I was meant to? But, as quickly as I remembered all of the good things, I remembered everything else."

Setting her sights on Rome, supported by her best friend Daisy, Avery is ready to put herself first for the first time in almost a decade, what ensues is an adventure that delighted my foodie sensibilities, an adventure that set my heart racing as Avery crossed continents, and rediscovered who she is, and more importantly what she wants out of life. In a new country Avery is able to connect with the her surroundings in a way she hadn't been able to before, free of country club meetings and twin sets Avery discovers that the adage about the world being a small place is absolutely true, locking eyes with Marcello, the man that stole her heart all those years ago she's finally ready to revisit the choices she made once upon a time and the life those choices led to, and more importantly what the future holds for Avery now.

"You didn't end it. An ending has a finale. Come si dice, a resolution... You disappeared."

Roman Crazy was everything I expected and more, it was uproariously funny, it was scintillating and sexy, it was a feast for the senses that ensured I felt as though I was acquiring new stamps on my passport with Avery. It was every bit a European holiday, filled with excitement and exhilaration, a story about life and love and second chances, what's so special about Avery's journey is that there's that nugget of truth in her realisation for most of us, at one point or another we have found ourselves questioning whether the choices we've made were the right ones years later, hindsight is 20/20 and all that, having a second chance at life and love allows us to live vicariously through Avery's journey. Impossible to put down Roman Crazy left me with a sense of wanderlust only another dose of Clayton/Bocci magic can cure.

 

About the Authors:

Alice Clayton:

ALICE CLAYTON worked in the cosmetics industry for over a decade before picking up a pen (read laptop).

She enjoys gardening but not weeding, baking but not cleaning up, and finally convinced her long-time boyfriend to marry her.

Now, about that Bernese Mountain dog.

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Nina Bocci:

Nina Bocci is a novelist, publicist, eternal optimist, unabashed lipgloss enthusiast, constant apologist, and a hopeless romanticist. She has too many college degrees that she’s not using, and a Lego addiction that she blames on her son.

Connect with Nina on Facebook