Book Review: Flirting in Italian

Flirting in Italian

by Lauren Henderson
Series: Flirting in Italian #1
Release date: 12th June, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Pages: 336 (eARC thanks to NetGalley in exchange of an honest review)

Summary from Goodreads:

Four girls. One magical, and possibly dangerous Italian summer. Family mysteries, ancient castles, long hot nights of dancing under the stars . . . and, of course, plenty of gorgeous Italian boys!

Review By Alaiel Kreuz:

Violet finds herself looking - even gawking- to a picture of a girl that could be her if not for the fact that the portrait is a few hundred years old. But the resemblance is uncanny and honestly, kind of disturbing.

For the first time in her life she truly considered being adopted... who wouldn't?! And how come she never noticed it? I mean, she is nothing like her Scandinavian mom or Irish dad. Perhaps she could ask but after the divorce she doesn't really talks to her dad that much and her mom is one of the mot needy persons in the whole world which means Violet tries to keep a healthy distance between them. She does love her mom, but she also loves to breathe.

So she decides to take action: after looking for information about the painting she links it to an Italian family that lives in a castle, Castello di Vesperi, to be more accurate. All she has to do after that is book an Italian summer course next to the castello and begin her journey.

Convincing her mom wasn't easy but she managed to do it and now she finds herself sharing her life with 3 girls: Kelly (Irish); Paige and Kendra (American); Catia, the owner of the house and her two kids, Elisa (who besides being beautiful turns out to be a major b*tch) and Leonardo.
But Luca, the son of the principessa that lives in the castello turns out to be her major problem not only for his good looks but also for his amazing ability to be charming one second and a total jerk the other.

Personal opinion:
There's always a first time or at least that's what people say. And I'm afraid they are right. For the first time in my blog I'm afraid I have to say "Not my kind of cheese". At all.

I really tried to like this book, the first thing that caught my eye was the cover, very summer-like, you know? And I thought: "Hey, the perfect summer read!". And maybe it is a good summer read but nor for me.

The main plot of the book which is the mysterious painting became somehow the background plot, something the author would write about eventually... And that was a huge disappointment. The idea had so much potential that I think it was a waste of time. Instead the whole book became an "oh-how-much-I-hate-Luca-but-I-like-him-a-lot-too" thing. Sorry, but the fact that Violet tries to convince herself that she is different from other girls and doesn't like jerks is so annoying that I couldn't connect with her at all.

And Luca? Besides being handsome I can't say I remember something else about him. I understand that we like a bit of attitude in our male-crushes, right? The fact that they can be teasing and lure us with their sexy smirks is fun, it's what makes them worthy bad-boy-crushes. But Luca failed to do it.

As for the other girls of the house I can say that yes, I liked them. Their different personalities was entertaining and their dialogues, fights and relax moments were fun.

Overall I think that with a little more of action and interaction the book would have been a whole lot better.

Am I going to read the sequel? I'm not completely sure.

Alaiel's Rating:

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