What a delightful fun read this book is ! I love this authors writing and this book was equal to the task. She begins with two flawed individuals , each very different who fall in love. She is a art restorer and he is a Italian chef . The lifestyles are center to the story and very realistic. Soon the couple travel to his home in Italy where the author truly shines with descriptions of food, land and architecture. . I love the challenges they face with his family and teaching her a new way of life the Italian way. She stumbles and begins anew as a changed woman.
Katherine Reay guides her characters beautifully throughout their challenges and life changes. If you are a fan of Frances Mayes writing you will love this wonderful book.

Opening line:

"Piccolo."

That is the opening line. We are introduced to a lovely Italian restaurant, two gorgeous brothers and art, books and restoration. It's a lovely story, too.

Emily Price is a restorer and she's good at it. She's got the talent to fix things that are broken or damaged, from art to murals to people. But people aren't as easily fixed as art pieces. And this is evidenced when she somehow ends up in the middle of an Italian family in the middle of Atlanta and Italy.

Emily's work as a restorer takes her to Atlanta where she was asked to fix a mural hurt in a house fire. Her work space is rented from the first handsome Italian man, Joseph. We soon meet his brother, Ben and an aunt and uncle. With Emily's compulsion to fix things, she ends up helping Ben fix up the Piccolo restaurant, helping Joseph with little side projects and trying to help her sister stay in a job. Not to mention, Emily loves to paint and read. (This is one of the things that struck me as a little unrealistic and maybe jealous; there are only so many hours in a day!).

I enjoyed the descriptions of art, food, Italians, restorations and reading between the lines at the deeper meanings and symbols in this book. Ms. Reay does an excellent job of describing people and settings as well. I slowed my reading to catch all her colorful words and phrases. And the love story is just right!

Then, Emily rushes into marriage and off to Italy. Here we meet a whole new family with problems and secrets. Ben's mom and dad are a piece of work in their right. The extended family and friends are fleshed out and help with the story. Among strangers, Emily seems to find herself. And she learns that which is broken doesn't always need fixed.

While I have no education in art or restoration or even Italy (I really, really want to try Ben's pizza!) I came away with a new appreciation of many things in the book and will never be able to look at an art piece or mural the same again. But that's a great compliment to the author I think! She taught me from her words and I came away from reading her book a better person in a small way. Hopefully, I can look at the world a little better, take the time to be still and enjoy the sunflowers.

I give it 4 stars only because I felt like I was missing something but I'm not sure what. Emily has parents but they are only mentioned a couple of times. Maybe I wanted more connection with the sister? If family is important, why isn't hers? But those are minor details I guess.

This is a great book! No swearing, no sex (kissing) no violence. A character driven story.

Thanks to netgalley for the early read!

Katherine Reay's works intrigue me. This is the second book I've ready by her and found almost too hard to put down. This is the second book I've read by Katherine that has a lot of food references in it too. The only problem I have with this style of book is that Katherine doesn't share recipes. I really want recipes.

Emily Price is an art restorer for an insurance company in Chicago. She's been sent to Atlanta to restore some art pieces that were damaged in a fire. Her company has set up a place for her in an art restorer's lab and paid for her to have a suite in a long-stay hotel. Along the way, she accidentally finds out her job has been phased out and she's on her own for finding her next job.

The day she arrives in Atlanta, Joseph, the owner of the lab, takes her to his aunt and uncle's Italian restaurant for dinner. There she meets Joseph's brother, Ben. She sees Ben almost every night of her stay in Atlanta and begins to get involved in Ben's refurbishing of the restaurant. She works all day with her insurance restoration, and then works many hours a night on the restaurant refurbish. Of course, during this time with Ben, she begins to fall in love--and the day before Ben leaves to go back to Italy, they get married, after having known each other two weeks.

The rest of the book is dedicated to Emily trying to fit in with Ben's family. His father is an easy nut to crack, but his mother is a different story altogether.

One of Ben's quests in the book is to develop the perfect pizza crust (a quest I understand well, as I am working on that myself). The pasta and sauces Katherine describes seem heavenly. I want recipes, Katherine. I want recipes!

This is beyond a five star book, but that's all they allow me. Sigh. Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and the Perfect Pizza Crust.

My thanks to Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and review this book.

Family ties bind. They also gag. In a Portrait of Emily Price, the big question seems to be how all the different relationships will support or sabotage Emily's chance at an exciting new life.

Emily sets out for a new start as an art restorer in Atlanta, but is swept off her feet into an avalanche of a romance. This upends her life and rushes her pell-mell into a different life than she expected. When reality sets in, Emily must decide who she is and where she belongs.

Reay writes in such a style to carry the reader along with almost wild abandon, then dismay, then melancholy and shock. All this is affected as the reader easily empathizes with Emily's predicaments and feels her emotions as his/her own. Reay leads the reader back and forth through the gamut of emotional turmoil, and it took me a while after finishing to return to inner equilibrium.

What I would have liked to have seen in the book would be a stronger emphasis on faith. While faith is mentioned, neither it nor prayer seem to play a major role in characters' decisions.

This was a fun read, and provided to me as a complimentary copy by the publisher and NetGalley. I have freely chosen to leave my own, unbiased opinion.

While this was not my favorite Katherine Reay novel, the story is a good one. I think anytime Reay digs deeper into imperfect characters, we get the stuff that great literature is made of. I gave this book four out of five stars.

What an astonishing book I just read. The story is so emotional, exciting, breathtaking and filled with history I had to read it all the way through to the end. It is not easy yo put down a book that is so expertly written. I learned a lot about Italy through the eyes of the author. She captured the beauty of the land and people with brilliant words that painted a picture of pure beauty. I loved the food that was described and could smell the pasta cooking on the stove. This is one story that will stay with you for years to come. The story has captured the meaning of family in such a way that it has left me emotional but filled with hope.

Emily has a gift that many admire. She can reconstruct things and make them beautiful again. I found her work to be fascinating and the author described her work with great detail. I wanted to watch Emily work and listen to her as she brought something that had been destroyed back to life. As she is working on a family's home she finds out that she is going to be out of a job. Her chance meeting with Ben was mesmerizing and enchanting. Ben has come from Italy to help his family's restaurant out. Ben has everything going for him with his good looks, being a master chef and Italian. Who could resist this man of many talents.

Joseph is Ben's brother and has been doing his best to keep the business going. There is definitely some friction between the brothers but Emily can't figure out what it is. Emily has started to help do some restoration in the restaurant and help Joseph out. I loved how they both shared the same interest in art and their talks were fascinating.

I was a bit surprised when Ben suddenly asks Emily to marry him. They had only known each other for two weeks. She had plans to stay and work with Joseph. Ben's charm was to hard to resist and off she goes to get married. When they reach Italy I'm sure she was overwhelmed with what she had just done? Was she to impulsive? Will Ben's family accept her?


The story is so much more than restoring paintings and old relics. It's a look at a family that has been torn apart by something that happened a long time ago. Emily is not easily accepted by Ben's family , especially his mother. She is cold and distant. I loved Ben's father and found him to be so enduring and lovable. What is the secret that broke the family apart? Why won't Joseph come home to visit his family?


The author shows us through the eyes of Emily, brokenness , anger, unforgiveness and rediscovery. Her art captures each element and opens hearts that have hardened by pain and shunning. There is a part in the story about a painting that has long been covered up. The biblical reference is unmistakably the most powerful part of the story. The painting depicts a time when sin was thrown upon a woman that almost destroyed her. How this story is reflected back to Ben's family is emotional and I loved how the author used it to show how shame and guilt can cause someone to become bitter. What is the significance of this painting to the family? Can it bring healing and hope ? Can Joseph forgive the past and reconcile before it is to late? I kept thinking of "Beauty from ashes." Our lives may seem like they are in ashes and there is no hope, but God sees the beauty and gives us hope, joy and restoration.

I received a copy of this book from The Fiction Guild and Netgalley. . The review is my honest review.

When preparing to read Katherine Reay’s latest novel, A Portrait of Emily Price, it’s tempting to view the book as two parts connected by a single character.

And in some ways, this is true.

The first half focuses on Emily’s restoration work in Atlanta and her whirlwind courtship with Ben as she helps him renovate his aunt and uncle’s restaurant on the side. This is romance and exhilaration and art geekery, as well as the poignancy of Emily’s work restoring a mural damaged in a house fire. The second half of the book takes place in Italy and is richly layered with tension and awkwardness as Emily tries to find her place in Ben’s family and his life.

But if you mine beneath the surface, you soon discover that A Portrait of Emily Price is a masterpiece of subtle beauty. Everything leading up to Italy is setting the stage for the renovation about to take place in Emily’s heart. And while Emily nearly alienates herself completely from Ben & his family as she inserts herself (uninvited) to their problems, wielding her restoration instincts for the better or the worse, it’s really the transformation in her own life that stands out.

The faith element in A Portrait of Emily Price is part of the setting in some ways, but Reay excels at weaving grace-filled truth gently and subtly throughout the story. The mural in the church and the story behind it, combined with Emily’s realization that Jesus is the only true Restorer of brokenness … these are the marks of truest beauty in this novel.

Bottom Line: The setting of Tuscany comes alive in Katherine Reay’s latest novel, A Portrait of Emily Price. The sights, the smells, the TASTES, the people – each element artfully presented and tangibly described. The romance may be a whirlwind in Atlanta but it’s in Italy where it find roots and ripens most sweetly. Above all, though, this is a novel of family and faith and finding your place in each. Keep your tissues handy, but rest assured you’ll be smiling plenty too!

(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.)

While I originally thought this was going to be one of those romances that tries to make you believe in love at first sight, it quickly turned into a story of the struggles of family obligations, forgiveness, and accepting that sometimes you can't fix everything. If you're a fan of romance novels, Italian food, art, and complicated family dynamics, you'll likely enjoy this book.

I really liked A Portrait of Emily Price! It took me a little bit to get into the story, I had been dealing with health issues and technical difficulties. I'm so glad I didn't give up. The author's vivid descriptions really drew me in. I could see the people, the food, the items Emily was fixing, and the scenery. I could feel the tension in the room when Ben introduced Emily to his mother, and see the look in her eyes! The person I loved most in the book was Lucio, Ben's father. He spent precious time getting to know Emily. He would leave books for her to read so she could learn some needed life lessons the same way he did to his own children.
The ending was so good! I had tears in my eyes as I read the last few pages.

An interesting read! Definitely want to see more from this author soon :)

So.. I enjoyed this book but I didn't love it like most people seemed to.

It was a bit slow for me, tbh. I had to skim through certain parts, but the detail is also what makes Katherine Reay's writing so beautiful. I loved how everything was described, from art pieces to the scenery, it was fantastic. When it comes to long contemporaries, I have to immediately connect with the characters in order to love such a long story.. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for this book though.

All of the characters are interesting, especially Emily. The theme of this story is centered around Emily's need to fix everything in her life and how that affects her life. I did enjoy seeing her transformation, but for some reason, I just couldn't connect with her. But everyone was great, the romance was sweet, and their adventures/drama were enjoyable.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think if some parts were cut or if I was able to connect with at least one character then I know I probably would've enjoyed it a little more.. But alas. If you're a fan of Sophie Kinsella or any chick-lit books then I recommend giving this book a try! I'm sure you will enjoy it more than I did. :)

Emily Price is a restorer of things. She doesn't have a degree in restoration, but her work is just as good. I loved Emily and loved watching her grow and figure out herself in the process of helping and restoring things for others.

It's difficult to go into uncharted territory as Emily did in Italy; even harder with a mother-in-law with issues. I enjoyed the story and the problems she encountered and dealt with throughout the book. This was the first story I've read by Katherine Reay and I look forward to reading her other works.

When art restorer Emily goes to Atlanta, all of her dreams come true. She falls quickly in love with a young and handsome Italian chef called Ben. Her work is praised, and even her sister Amy is able to pull herself together, and doesn't steal Ben's attention. Emily has finally found true happiness with Ben.

However, things are not so easy when the loving couple go to Italy and live with Ben's big and complicated family. Ben's father Lucio is dying and the sadness of this is worsened by the tensions and secrets within the home. Although Lucio takes Emily under his wing, Ben's mother is cold to her, and Ben and Emily have their first fight when Emily tries to help his sister make a match with Alessandro...

This was a sensitive and moving book and a good description of a clash between cultures and a growing romance. It was easy to imagine that one was in a warm Italian household and easy to empathise with Emily's difficulties. I was a bit surprised that there was not much mention of the family's attitude towards Emily's being obviously Protestant and the differences between the denominations, however. Research was a bit lacking by Katherine Reay here. However, this didn't affect my enjoyment of the story. I also especially liked the literary allusions.

I received this free ebook from Net Galley in return for an honest review.