Stella is escaping a failed long-term relationship and retrenchment from her beloved job as an art educator at a Melbourne museum. Thanks to her Italian heritage she heads for Rome and gives herself a deadline to find a job and create a new life.
She meets her new flatmate, Vincent, and falls under his spell. When Stella sets up a stall at the market to sell her paintings, a customer, Marco, visits her and buys one of her paintings. Destiny intervenes when she happens to visit the bar Luna on her way home, and discovers Marco is the co-owner. He commissions her to create a wall mural.
This book is charming, full of pasta, art, fountains and piazzas. There is a lot of Italian which will either endear or annoy
the reader. This is the second novel by Jenna Lo Bianco after her debut, The Italian Marriage. She has a unique perspective on Italian culture and travel through her teaching and as a passionate ‘Italianist’. In this book, she again pulls at your heartstrings, seamlessly blending her story with humour and well-drawn, larger-than-life characters.
Love & Rome is gently paced and well written for romance fans. It might inspire you to take a chance on things that might in the end lead you to true happiness. If you are unable to travel to Italy, then grab a copy of Love & Rome and you can live vicariously through Stella and a wonderful cast of characters.
Reviewed by Nicola Skinstad
Read. a book review of Love & Rome by Jenn Lo Bianco
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenna Lo Bianco is ‘The Italian Teacher’, a passionate ‘Italianist’, and also a writer, educator, PhD Candidate and advocate for Italian language education in Australia. With nearly sixty publications to her name, Jenna is trusted nationally and internationally to write about all things ‘Italian’.
She is a Fellow of the International Specialised Skills Institute and Italian Australian Foundation, regular contributor to Segmento magazine and has written and consulted in educational publishing for more than a decade. Jenna may appear to live in Melbourne, but her heart and soul are Rome’s most permanent residents.
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