Book Review: The Italian Marriage by Jenna Lo Bianco

 The Italian Marriage

by

Jenna Lo Bianco

An inheritance. A fake marriage. Must be amore.

 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Publication date: 27th December 2023

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 368

RRP: $34.99AU (trade paperback)

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

Review: The Italian Marriage 

I loved this book! The perfect beach read, even though I'm nowhere near a beach.

The Italian Marriage is so sweet I think I 'aawed' through the whole book.

The Italian Marriage is a fake marriage trope; he falls first, one bed, sweetly sexy, romance.

Matthew D'Adamo is set to inherit the family estate but first he needs a wife. The estate goes to the youngest 'married' D'Adamo male.

Sarah Browne, a free-spirited event manager, agrees to an air-tight pre-nup and is looking forward to a break from the emotional toll of her endometriosis. The first time the two meet is on the flight to Florence. When they arrive they find another claimant has surfaced and now they must spend a year together restoring a rundown hotel. Whichever couple is most successful after 12 months wins the family estate.

I loved both Sarah and Matthew! They were both so perfect; kind, accommodating and thoughtful. Sarah is fun, spontaneous and confident. The story introduces lovely friends that help them connect with the community and there are also those that are bent on thwarting them so there is loads of drama between all the sweet moments of Sarah and Matthew getting to know each other.

With chapter headings in Italian and lots of Italian interspersed throughout conversations it was very easy to connect with the location.

The Italian Marriage is steeped in the culture of Italy. The language, the food, the architecture is all vividly played out on the page.

If you are after a sweet romance with plenty of drama and a few little twists The Italian Marriage will not disappoint.

The Italian Marriage is destination romance at its best!

My rating 5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

Winners of my Summer 2024 Giveaway announced!!

 

 A huge thank you to everyone who entered my latest giveaway.  The giveaway closed on the 8th January 2024 and all names were entered into a randomized generator using Random org and the winners are:

Pack 1

Janet R

Pack 2

Janelle

 

The winners have been notified and have seven days to provide a mailing address. I hope you enjoy your books.

 

 

Please check under the Giveaway tab for more great giveaways! 

My 2024 Reading Challenges

 

 

 

I enjoyed the three reading challenges I did last year so I am going to continue with the same three challenges for 2024. 

 

I'm signing up again for the Non Fiction Readers Challenge hosted by Shellyrae @ Bookdout. I wouldn't normally pick up a Non Fiction book (unless it's a knitting book) so this is a good challenge to push me to read more Non Fiction.

 

Follow the link to read all about the challenge https://bookdout.wordpress.com/2024-nonfiction-reader-challenge-host/ #readnonficchal

 

 There are 4 levels and I will be joining nonfiction grazer. It's sort of a commitment without a commitment. 🤣 I hope to read 6 Non Fiction in 2024.

Nonfiction Nipper: Read & review 3 books, from any 3 listed categories

Nonfiction Nibbler: Read & review 6 books, from any 6 listed categories

Nonfiction Nosher: Read & review 12 books, one for each category

Nonfiction Grazer: Read & review any nonfiction book. Set your own goal

Categories:

History
Memoir/Biography
True Crime
Science
Health
Food
Culture
Transportation
The Future
Pets
Architecture
Published in 2024

📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕

 

Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted by

My Reader's Block

 

I will again be joining the Mount TBR Challlenge

 There are 8 challenge levels and I will be joining Pikes Peak

Reading books that have been on my shelf since 2021 or earlier

Pike's Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancounver: Read 36 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro*: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s (*aka Cerro El Toro in South America)
Mt. Everest: Read 100 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books from your TBR pile/s

 

📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗📗

 

 

My third challenge is just one for myself. I read 52 books by Australian Female authors in 2023 and only 16 books by Australian Male authors. In 2024 I want to increase my Aussie male author reading to at least 20 books. 

 

📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘📘

 

You can follow along with my challenge progress under the 2024 challenge tab. This can be found in the drop down menu if reading on your phone.

Wrap-up of my 2023 Reading Challenges

 It's that time of year when we look back over our challenge pledges and see how we went. 

First up I joined the Dymocks reading challenge. The 2023 challenge was a little different to previous years. It was divided into seasons with prompt cards available from your local Dymocks or downloaded from their website. Each card had 8 prompts with 3 months to finish them. When the card was returned to Dymocks you were given a badge. I managed to complete the whole year and I found it much easier that the year was split into four challenges.

 

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Next up is the Non Fiction readers challenge hosted by shellyrae@bookdout

I picked the grazer level which meant I could read as much or as little as I like.

I was hoping to read 6 books and I managed to end the year with 10 Non Fiction books read.

 

You can see my full list of books HERE 

 

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Next was the Mount TBR challenge hosted by My Readers Block  

I committed to reading 12 books that had been on my shelves 2020 or earlier.

 

I completed this challenge by reading 21 books. It's a great feeling to get some of those old books off the shelf.

 

You can see my full list of books HERE

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My final challenge was the Male Aussie Author Challenge.

I was hoping to increase my books by Aussie males from 14 in 2022 to 20.

I failed this challenge but I didn't do too bad reading 16 books by Male Aussie authors.

 

You can see my full list of books HERE 

 

📕📗📘📙📕📗📘📙📕📗📘📙📕📗📘📙📕📗

 

Well that's a wrap for 2023. I was happy to complete most of my challenges. I think this is the first year I've actually completed a challenge. 🎉

Book Review: The Milliner of Bendigo by Darry Fraser

 The Milliner of Bendigo

by

Darry Fraser

Trouble with the law. A missing sister. Evie Emerson has a dangerous adventure ahead of her ...

 

Publisher: Harlequin Australia

Publication date: 29th November 2023

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 432

RRP: $32.99AU (paperback)

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

Review: The Milliner of Bendigo

Right from the start I was invested in the characters in this story and having characters from a previous book pop into the story gave an added level of connection.

 

Evie is a fabulous character, headstrong and intelligent. She finds herself unduly coerced by her current date who is pushing her to marry him. When Evie says no he sues her for breach of contract and proceeds to sully her reputation.

 

The Milliner of Bendigo is chock full of wonderful characters and one or two not so wonderful. My favourites were; the strong and determined Evie who works for Lucille Downing in her milliner shop, The affable David Kingsley who has his eye on the widow Downing, Fitz the roving reporter who is always after the next big story, and the shy and gallant Raff. 

 

The Milliner of Bendigo is fast paced and rich in mystery and drama. Told through multiple points of view I was totally invested in all the characters' stories and raced through the book.

 

Darry Fraser keenly evokes the atmosphere of the old gold mining towns of country Victoria and her vivid descriptions of the drought conditions left me well imagining the heat and dust. 

 

Set on the verge of federation, themes of water rights, corruption, cover ups and murder make The Milliner of Bendigo a must-read for historical fiction fans.

 

This is my second book by Darry Fraser and I am now keen to read her backlist.

 

my rating 5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

 

Book Review: Christmas by Candlelight by Karen Swan

 Christmas by Candlelight

by

Karen Swan

Snowed in for the holidays ....

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Publication date: 17th October 2023

Genre:Contemporary Fiction

Pages: 416

Source: Own purchase

 

Review: Christmas by Candlelight  

I'm a great fan of Karen Swan and I especially look forward to her Christmas themed book each year.

Christmas by Candlelight is a dual timeline narration, alternating between 2014 and 2023.

 

2014 - features a group of six, 21 year-old, house-share uni students. There is lots of drinking, partying and hooking up. There is unrequited love within the group and a tragic event for one of the girls. The main character Libby is not so much a party girl. She is more into studying and takes her degree seriously.

 

2023 - Libby finally agrees to a Christmas dinner party with the group after avoiding them for the previous nine years and old frictions within the group resurface.

 

I found it very hard to connect with the characters for the first half of the book. They all felt a bit bland and the story was very slow going. By the second half I had more of a feel for the dynamics and the tension ramped up as the group were snowed in, cut off from the outside world, with no power.

 

There were a couple of twists toward the end that I didn't see coming but overall this was just an okay read for me. I found the story was geared toward a younger 'than me' age group with influencers, drunken parties and hook-ups. Even though I was a little disappointed I am still eagerly looking forward to Karen Swan's next Christmas novel.

 

my rating 3 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐ 

 

Other Karen Swan Christmas novels I've reviewed:

The Christmas Party 

The Christmas Lights

The Christmas Postcards 

 

 

Book Review: The Diemen Alexander by Marie Heitz

 The Diemen Alexander

by

Marie Heitz

Publisher: Clan Destine Press

Publication date: 16th October 2023

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 316

RRP: $32.95AU (paperback)

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

Review: The Diemen Alexander

The Diemen Alexander is a science fiction / fantasy genre mash-up.

 

After a fire rips through Kunanyi (Mount Wellington) Luke is gripped with guilt as it was exactly what he had wished for as his final school photography 'ecological nightmare' project.  

Taking a trip up the ravaged mountain Luke finds a small lizard amongst the devastation. Not wanting to leave it there to die he takes it home to feed and water it. The lizard now named Alexander, eats everything Luke offers. He is surprised he can eat so much and seems to be growing just as fast.

After lots of research Luke suspects that Alexander may be a modern-day Tasmaniosaurus Triassicus. Now he must find out more and also protect Alexander from ruthless profiteers.

 

I loved the concept of the story. Alexander was so little and cute it was easy to fall in love with him and I could see why Luke would do anything to protect him. As Alexander grew the story became darker - themes of dominance, anorexia, murder and child abuse emerge.

Heitz raises moral questions about who gets to judge whether people are fit to live and whether humans are protecting animals or dominating them.

 

I read a few reviews that stated they found the book humorous. Maybe it's just my sense of humour but I didn't see any humour. I actually found the story quite dark. I would classify it as a science fiction thriller with moral undertones.

 

Science fiction fans will enjoy!

 

my rating 3.5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐½