I love a good romance book and this did not disappoint. Well developed, characters, witty banter, what more can you ask for?

With summer upon us (and a travel itch making its annual appearance), we couldn’t resist picking up Nancy Barone’s One Summer in Sicily. Set amidst summer, sand, and sea in the picturesque Sicilian island of Lipari, OSIS revolves around 40-year-old housewife, Gillian Dobson, who is met with a rude shock when she arrives in Lipari to surprise her husband in an attempt to rekindle the spark in their 20-year-old marriage.

OSIS’s premise and the promise of a light summery read drew us to the book, and we found the plot quite reminiscent of Eat, Pray, Love. Unfortunately, that’s where the similarity ended. Instead, OSIS comprised a potential eating disorder, not a lot of praying, and a serious lack of self-love.

Gillian Dobson initially came off as the quintessential homemaker, married to her childhood sweetheart turned husband, who had lost herself over the years trying to fulfil her many roles. But it quickly became obvious that that was the least of her problems. She was stuck in a toxic, loveless marriage with a cheating spouse who repeatedly ridiculed her, leading to immense insecurity and low self-esteem.

And while this was a great foundation for a wholesome journey of self-discovery, OSIS went down another path. Now we must admit, we love a flawed main character with the capacity to make and take a joke upon herself, but Gillian’s insecurities ran deeper. The constant self-deprecating comments and the almost caricaturesque depiction of her eating habits grew quickly from negative to almost toxic and became incredibly frustrating to read. Her character showed absolutely no growth, and the only time she seemed to remotely accept herself was when she had inadvertently lost weight and finally accepted her relationship with a gorgeous Italian man- which only made the monologue at the end about self-love and growth feel outright hypocritical.

Although Mattia was an interesting character, the chemistry between him and Gillian felt forced and cringey, and the constant reference to their age difference (with him being 4 years younger) was plain irritating. Moreover, the final twist in the tale was so absurdly melodramatic, it reminded us of a bad soap opera. Other side characters, especially Maria, Martha, and Brends, felt comparatively genuine, each with their own backstories; however, they were barely featured in OSIS and couldn’t do enough to salvage the tale.

Despite the amazing setting and eloquent insight into island life in Italy, this book was overall quite disappointing and just not our cup of tea.

We’d like to thank Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book.

L&L Rating: 1.5 Stars

TL;DR: Not for us; Gillian would’ve benefited from a summer in therapy instead of a summer in Sicily.

Everybody needs therapy, and now I need therapy after reading this book.

Looking a lot like a first draft, One Summer in Sicily follows a woman who finds love on an island where she discovers her husband cheating on her.

Summary: Gillian Morana (or Dobson, her husband's surname) discovers that her husband has cheated on her. She agrees to a divorce, then has the hots for a guy by the name of Mattia Spadaro, who likes her back.

Tropes/Genres:
• LOTS of miscommunication
• LOTS of trust issues
• divorce
• slow burn
• travel (Lipari, Sicily)
• romance, i guess

Review: My brain is thoroughly fried. I don't understand. Beautiful cover. I was fooled. This story isn't beautiful at all. It doesn't make sense. I don't like the characters. I think Mattia is too good for Gillian – she's pathetic, by the way. She's part of the problem.

The writing style is so annoying. It's as if Gillian is just vomiting out whatever comes to her mind. It's the kind of mistake that authors who write in the present tense often make, except this book is written in the past tense.

There are many things about this story that don't make sense. Gillian keeps stressing about the age gap between Mattia and her. Woman, he's 36 and you're 40. There's only a 4-year age difference. That's not an age gap. That's an insult to the trope.

Unfortunately, I'm not an insecure menopausal woman with a midlife crisis, so I don't relate to Gillian one bit. I find her an awful person, as she condones her friends, namely Brends and Sandra, chasing after married men, when her own marriage ended that way. I find it disgusting. That's why I say she's part of the problem. Because of course, it doesn't matter unless it happens to her. It makes sense that it wouldn't make a difference because the husband doesn't love the wife anymore anyway (as was her experience), but it doesn't make it right to chase after married men.

Anyway, I think that Mattia deserves so much better. He's a man who reflects on his mistakes and tries to be a good man. Gillian has pinned this prejudice on him, an assumption that he's a playboy just because he's hot. That's crappy. And she just makes the worse assumptions about him. She's a walking red flag, and it's honestly dumb how he just keeps trying for her. Dude, she isn't sure about your relationship. Stop wasting your time.

Maybe it would've worked out if the writing was better. There are ways to make conventionally unlikeable characters likeable, you know? The author failed to pull it off.

I don't recommend this book unless you're a fan of crappy characters that don't make sense and writing styles that sound like they severely lack editing. I think this book had potential, but everything just felt so underdeveloped.

Look, I'm not going to hold back. I had such high hopes for this book. It looked so promising, but it fell so flat. I tried thinking positively – "The writing isn't really my style, but maybe I'll like the plot and the characters." – Spoiler: I did not.

I had high hopes for this book, but was a little let down. The main character went to find her husband on a work trip and she finds something out, one where she should have turned her life around. She mostly did, but there was a lot of self esteem issues, even after her being “chased” by an Italian man. She had plenty of opportunity but was fairly down on herself. It was a cute story and had a happy ending, but took a bit to get there.

Thank you, Aria and NetGalley, for the advanced copy of One Summer in Sicily.

I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. It's a fun, light read. No spice. The protagonist is quite a bit self-deprecating, but I have to say that I understood how she felt being a mom who is not exactly the same size as she was on her wedding day many, many moons ago. That part didn't bother me too much, but I can see where it would bother others. I just wanted more out of this one.

Gillian is going to spice up her marriage. Her daughter just moved to a different country, and now her and her husband's lives can begin. Unfortunately for Gillian when she goes to surprise her husband while he's away at a conference, she discovers that he has already started a new life without her. Not wanting to go home and dismantle her life, Gillian decides to stay in Italy and build a new life. With the friends and very handsome men she meets along the way, Gillian quickly carves her own path to happiness in a place that she learns to call home.

Firstly thank you Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.
I really wanted to love this book, it had all the promise of a great summer read but unfortunately I just couldn't connect with the main character.
Gillan comes across as self loathing and judgemental which honestly just made me dislike her.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. I really enjoyed this feel good read, the storyline was great as was the characters and obviously the location sounds beautilfu.

I really loved this book especially with how the Sicilian setting is stunning in the mind as you read and I sat and read in one go as I couldn’t put it down! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for early access to this book.

I wanted to love this book. The cover, the premise, everything was so promising.
Unfortunately, it fell flat for me. I am so honored that Nancy Barone shared her art with the world and that I was chosen to read it, however, I feel like another round or two of edits would have been beneficial for the plot, characters, and overall feeling of the book. The main character wasn't very likable, and her self-loathing and judgmental mindset bothered me. Sometimes the book moved so quickly that I became confused about what was happening. The character growth was limited throughout the book and the age-gap trope was hardly an age gap (and hardly a problem to keep dwelling on).
Overall, the main character felt very superficial. As a millennial reading this story, it felt like there were societal jabs and prejudices shared by the MC that were stereotypical and outdated. I loved that the MC was plus-sized, I just wish she had truly loved herself and embraced it at the end of her ARC. Instead, she only loved herself when her dresses became too big and she had a "hot hot hot Mattia."

Thank you to Netgalley and Aria & Aries for gifting me an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

This book has a great overall story about a life changing summer in Sicily. The grand story I liked but there was too much back and forth between the main character and the love interest. Instead of a late 4th quarter breakup there were always issues and every chapter had a misunderstanding that led to an fight and they weren’t talking for weeks between. It took too much away from what could be a great and inspiring story of overcoming life’s obstacles and making one’s life better and independence. Rated a 3/5.

I wanted to like this, but it just didn’t hit the mark for me.
Gillian is nearly forty, married for nearly 20 years, and has given the last 20 years of her life to her husband and daughter. She decides to add a bit of spice back by flying (a huge fear of hers) to the Italian island of Lipari to surprise her husband who is there on a business trip. Unfortunately, Gillian is the one who ends up surprised, and in a very disappointing way. She decides to pick up the pieces and start her life anew on Lipari. She makes new friends, attracts new guys (unsure of how she does given the fact that she is curvy in all the wrong places and drowns her sorrows in Nutella and pastries routinely- her words, not mine), and starts her own business. She comes to realize forty isn’t too young to begin to live.
This book started out with lots of laugh out loud laughter, but as it went on the laughter turned to yawns. The writing style seems like it was written by someone who hasn’t really written before with lots of fourth wall breaks and clarifications in parentheses so I was surprised to see the author has quite a few novels under her belt.
Honestly, this is about 50 pages too long. All of the back and forth between Gillian and Mattia was just too much and it got to the point where I was rolling my eyes and sighing every time another of those scenes took place- nothing spicier than standard black pepper.
I fully understood the insecurities Gillian had of her body and I would have liked to see a little more positivity from Mattia- while it was made clear through his actions that he found Gillian attractive, it wasn’t actually spoken, and I think that would have made a better use of the pages written.
I really feel the bones of this book were good but the substance felt rushed and that ruined the book for me. I thank NetGalley and Aria for an advanced copy. This hits the shelves June 8th.

In an attempt to revive their stale marriage, Gillian flys to Sicily to surprise her husband Tony. Tony was attending a physicians conference and what better way to rekindle their romance than in Italy.

Rather than surprising Tony, Gillian is shocked to discover Tony with another woman. A much younger one at that. Gillian’s twenty-year marriage just went up in flames.

Resigned not to go begging Tony for a second chance, Gillian instead vows to become her own person. As Gillian navigates single hood in a foreign country, she befriends a surprising amount of people — including hot and handsome architect Mattia.

One Summer in Sicily is an excellent beach read exuding hot summers, gentle sea breezes, refreshing cocktails, and quaint shops, all located on the island of Lipari off the northern coast of Sicily.

Like all of Barone’s novels, the characters are well developed. I enjoyed all of the characters in this novel. Except I just wished that her main character (Gillian) would be comfortable in her own skin rather than being so self deprecating. But I guess that’s where the humor comes into play.

The story unfolds in a linnear timeline, beginning with the shocking infidelity and culminating in a nicely packaged finale. There were some unexpected twists that really brought the whole narrative together.

Reminicent of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, One Summer in Sicily is sure to be a fan favorite for those romance aficionados. 4.5 stars rounded up.

I received a digital ARC from Aria & Aries through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

Italy is such a dreamy book setting, isn’t it? I loved the cover of this book and really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, this was not for me and was a DNF around 30%. It just wasn’t my jam and I couldn’t connect with the characters.

Thank you to the publisher and Nancy Barons for the ARC.

Really wanted to like this book loved the setting and found the premise interesting. Just wasn’t the book for me unfortunately was a dnf at 30%. Found myself skimming more then reading and just not invested in the story or where it was going. The main character was somewhat likable but found it very unrealistic the dumbs choices she made especially being a 40ish woman with an adult child. I want to thank NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved the setting of this book as Italy is always lovely to read about.

But, it just didn't win me over. I couldn't connect with Gillian, the main character, and I really felt bad for her or sad for most of the book. I struggled to get through since I couldn't find anything to make me like her.

Thank you to the publishing team and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Great beach read! When Gillian decides to confront her fear of flying so she can surprise her husband in Italy, things don’t go as planned. Hoping to get some magic back in their marriage, gets to his hotel and only has one leg shaved when she hears him come in… but not alone. Her doctor husband has been having an affair with a very young and beautiful Italian woman. Mortified, Gillian runs out into the street and gets hit by a car. Fortunately the injuries are not too serious, and this begins the start of her new life in Sicily.
What I liked about this story:
*Starting over
*new friends
*old friends
*finding meaning with your life
*finding confidence and independence
*friends to lovers romance
*serious and comical situations
*beautiful descriptions of Sicily

Because Gillian had friends in Sicily, her own money, and could understand Italian, she was able to turn the disastrous turn of events around and eventually much good comes from starting over.
There are some key takeaways here:
*never travel anywhere to surprise your spouse
*never travel anywhere you can’t speak the language
*squirrel away a Starting Over fund, it could come in useful🤣

Seriously, although some things were a little easy for Gillian, I thoroughly enjoyed One Summer in Sicily!!

i requested this book because it sounded like a fun and light read. a book set in italy during the summer? sign me up!!

gillian is a 39 years old woman who decides to fly to sicily to surprise her husband on his work trip. the only problem? she finds out he's cheating with a woman half her age.

i enjoyed this book for the most of it. i loved the small town vibes, however  i had a hard time connecting with the characters, especially gillian. i didn't like how she kept repeating again and again how young mattia is compared to her, when in fact there are only 4 years difference. it was very repetitive and i felt like gillian just couldn't decide what she wanted from life (i know it must not be easy to deal with everything she had to but still).

overall it was very nice and easy read but i couldn't give it more than 3 stars. i liked it, and all the descriptions of food and the country it's makes me want to book a flight to italy.

thank you netgalley for the arc!

Reviewed for NetGalley:

The list, idea of letting herself go, and needing a way to fix her life, this hit a little too close to Bridget Jones for me. Didn’t work.

I couldn't get past the 21% mark for this book, which was really disappointing because I was so excited to get whisked away to Sicily with Gillian.
At this point in the book, Gillian has discovered that her husband has been cheating on her and every other page is Gillian wallowing. At around the 19% mark she started disparaging her size 18-20 figure and wondering if that was the reason her husband took up with a much younger, super thin, woman.
While it's realistic that a person would wallow after finding out their spouse was cheating on them, but in a book, it really bogs things down.
Also, within a couple hours of this earth-shattering discovery, there's a new love interest introduced and that just seemed ridiculously rushed. The wallowing was too long, the potential love was too fast. I couldn't continue.
By this point in the story, there was no inkling of a plot point to propel the story forward.
My TBR list is too long to keep going with a book that hasn't totally immersed me in its world by this point.
I had such high hopes for a fun romp through Sicily, but that wasn't at all what I got in this book.

Fun, quick and easy escapist story that kept me turning the pages and wondering what would happen next. Readers will be packing their bags, itchy for a trip to beautiful Sicily.