Genre: Romantic Fiction

Stars: 4

Links: Amazon UK and Amazon.com

The Blurb:

You can buy almost anything online these days. For Ruthie Collins, it was an Italian farmhouse.

Yet as she battles with a territorial goat and torrential rain just to get through the door of her new Italian home, the words of Ed, her ex, are ringing in her ears. She is daft, impetuous and irresponsible.

But Ruthie is determined to turn things around and live the dream.

First, though, she must win over her fiery neighbour, Marco Bellanouvo, and his tempestuous family…and then there’s the small matter of running an olive farm. As the seasons change and new roots are put down, olives and romance might just flourish in the warmth of the Mediterranean sun.

My Review:

A heart-warming tale of how challenges can bring people together in the most unexpected of ways, and how a little misunderstanding isn’t always a bad thing.

Ruthie Collins, impulsive and smarting from a breakup she instigated, buys an Italian farmhouse on eBay. Soon she finds herself in torrential rain, battling a guard goat and both branches of the Bellanuovo clan (whose land surrounds hers). Marco, one of the aforementioned Puglian family, decides to help her… for a price. Can she prove her ex, her mother, and Marco wrong, and take on the farmhouse all by herself?

Weaving a beautiful tapestry of romance and contemporary fiction, infusing it with the sights and aromas of the Mediterranean earth, and dusting it with humour, this is beautifully written and gentle escapism. Whatever the time of year.

*I won a copy of the book in a Goodreads giveaway.