Recently dumped and out of work, Alessia travels with her grandmother Ornella from England to Ornella’s birthplace of Ischia, Italy. While Alessia explores living on the island, takes stock of what matters and learns how to slow down, the death of a classic Italian actress opens old wounds and threatens to expose Ornella’s past secrets.

An Italian Island Secret is sweet story, in which you’ll come to care about the characters and want to hop the next plane to Italy. If you can get past unnecessary verbiage that adds nothing to the story, the author’s fantastic imagery puts you right there in town. I’ve never been to Italy and felt like I knew each road and place the characters visited. And the food descriptions! My mouth was watering and I could almost taste the dishes.

I enjoyed getting to know Alessia and Ornella, and was equally interested in the supporting characters. There were some smart subplots that could absolutely make for sequels!

The book has an interesting storyline but unfortunately was scattered and, at times, confusing. Still, I was able to push through and overall enjoyed the book. I haven’t read from this author before but would definitely be willing to read from her again.

I was given a digital ARC of this book by Boldwood Books in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.