Two families at war and Alice finds herself caught in the middle. Can she re-write a story as old as time?
When cutbacks force Alice out of her assistant manager role at a Devonshire stately home, she turns her sights elsewhere: the picturesque hills above the historic city of Parma. An aristocratic Italian family are looking to open their medieval castle to the public, and Alice is just the woman for the job.
Four years ago, a life-changing accident pushed Alice into depression, but the beauty and charm of the Italian countryside works its magic in brightening her days. Especially when she keeps bumping into handsome Luca… But rivalries run deep in the town, and Alice’s work – not to mention her potential love life – are caught in the middle of a long-standing feud between two families.
With her job and future happiness in peril, can Alice save the future of the castle, and bring two warring families together?
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I’m a man. And a pretty old man as well. I did languages at university a long time ago
and then lived and worked in France and Switzerland before going to Italy for seven years as a teacher of English. My Italian wife and I then came back to the UK with our little daughter (now long-since grown up) where I ran a big English language school for many years. We now live in a sleepy little village in Devonshire. I’ve been writing almost all my life but it was only ten years ago that I finally managed to find a publisher who liked my work enough to offer me my first contract.
The fact that I am now writing escapist romance is something I still find hard to explain. My early books were thrillers and historical novels and I now also write cozy crime, but my first love has always been romance. Maybe it’s because there are so many horrible things happening in the world today that I feel I need to do my best to provide something to cheer my readers up. My books provide escapism to some gorgeous locations and descriptions of food to make you drool.
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My thoughts: another marvellous escape to beautiful Italy from one of my favourite writers of fabulous romances. Alice has taken a job at a medieval castle in need of new income streams. The family are broke and the castle needs a lot to restore it and keep it theirs. Alice has lots of ideas of ways to bring new life to the town and the castle.
There’s also a handsome architect with a lovely Labrador (always a bonus) who catches her eye. He’s the estranged son of the town mayor, locked in a never-ending feud with the Baron’s family dating back centuries.
Luckily Alice is made of tough stuff, and while her relationship with the lovely Luca and his dog Frank, is going well, the castle is a bit tricky. Thankfully the family, even the initially unsure baron, are happy with all her ideas – alpacas, clearing some of the trees and selling the wood, a museum.
I really enjoyed this book, I liked Alice, despite her accident and the injury she now lives with, she’s good at her job, and makes new friends easily. It was just a really lovely, fun story and left me with a nice warm feeling.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 