Title: A Place in the Sun
Author: R.S. Grey
Release Date: Oct 24, 2016
Add on Goodreads
Author: R.S. Grey
Release Date: Oct 24, 2016
Add on Goodreads
When her mother’s incessant matchmaking hits an all-time high, Georgie Archibald does what any sensible woman would do: she flees the country.
Seeking refuge in the picturesque seaside village of Vernazza, Italy, Georgie’s only plan is to lie low, gorge herself on gelato, and let the wine and waves wash her troubles away...that is until she wakes up in a bed that belongs to the most romantic-looking man she’s ever seen.
Gianluca.
After going out of his way to rescue her, the former London financier turned mysterious recluse makes it clear that despite acting as her white knight, he has no plans to co-star in her fairytale.
But Georgie isn’t asking for his heart—she’s merely intrigued.
After all, Gianluca isn’t just gorgeous—tall and tan from days spent in the sun—his touch sets her world on fire. With him, Georgie experiences the most intoxicating passion she’s ever known, and it only takes a few steamy nights for her to realize that sometimes running away from trouble is the best way to find it.
4 stars
Review by Lisa Kane
Georgie Archibald is looking for love. Anything to stop her mother from setting her up on blind dates with open mouth chewers, guys who perpetually smell like tuna fish and grubby paw snatching dates who force her to eat one handed. She is constantly compared to her brother Freddie who met and married the love of his life practically while he was still in his crib. He, his wife Andie and their three chubby cheeked spawn are a tough act to follow. In her mother's opinion, at twenty six she's just about ready to be put out to pasture. So love she will find, even if she has to leave her home in England to find it.
"You're getting older every day!"
She'd said this to me at my twentieth birthday party, just before gifting me an actual antique hourglass, making sure to emphasize the symbolism by flipping it upside down in my hands.
So Georgie got out her trusty globe, gave it a good spin and landed it on Vernazza, Italy.
So this is how she finds herself in Italy, with a little stop over in Rome. Her goal is to get to Cinque Terre by train, but she's giving herself a little down time before tackling the train. Georgie suffers from motion sickness. That's putting it mildly.
When she boards the train she realizes she is sitting facing the wrong direction. Being the gracious people Italians can be, no one offers to switch seats with her when she asks. So the journey to find love in Vernazza is a vomit filled one.
Oh bloody hell.
"Mom! The crazy lady just threw up on me!"
Gianluca has just pulled his boat up from a productive day of fishing. His cousin Massimo is waiting for his catch when he sees a woman dragging her suitcases trying to catch her breath. And down she goes!
He and Massimo reach her, and take her to an abandoned building once used as his grandmother's bed and breakfast. When she wakes up Georgie makes some weird mistakes about who these two guys are.
I'd known it was bound to happen eventually. My mother had given me great bone structure, and growing up with naff brothers had forced me to cultivate a fantastic (and apparently, highly abductable) personality.
It doesn't take long before she realizes she's not living in a Liam Neeson movie. She finds herself spending time with Massimo and Luca and Katerina, Massimo's wife. Over dinner she drops her plans to find a husband.
"Oh! Most importantly, he'd be open and ready for love-without a ton of baggage-"
Massimo tossed his napkin on the table and leaned back. "That rules out Luca."
Luca hasn't always lived in Italy. He once lived in England too, but love took him to Italy. Or rather the loss of it. Now he is scarred and empty and just surviving.
Georgie is attracted to Luca, like a ton of women before her. But Katerina offers her some words of advice.
"Because women always do," explained Katerina. "They think they'll swoop in and coax him out of his shell. They want to heal him like a bird with a broken wing, but it's actually easier with birds, because they want to fly so badly. Gianluca-well, for the past five years, he's made it clear he doesn't want to be healed. He wants to stay on the ground."
That description pretty much sums up a lot of this story. Luca may be attracted to Georgie, and lord knows she wants him in the biblical sense, but he is still lost in the past. But there are forces at work in the universe that we will never understand.
A Place in the Sun is a sweet, slightly angst, often hilarious story about second chances for some and a first time love for others. The characters on the surface are so different but anything is possible under the beautiful Italian sun!
"Fine. Thirty. By the time you're thirty, you'll be happy again and madly in love. I promise. I'll work some kind of cosmic magic to make it happen, just you wait and see."
I am a lover of books, chocolate, reality TV, black labs, and cold weather. Seriously, if I had it my way I would be curled up on the couch with all of those things... everyday.
I live in Texas where I spend my free time writing and reading. My favorite authors are Mindy Kaling & Jonathan Safran Foer. I'm a comedy geek and love all things "funny". Women like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling are definitely the biggest inspirations for my writing, though I think my work tends to skew a bit smuttier than theirs.
I live in Texas where I spend my free time writing and reading. My favorite authors are Mindy Kaling & Jonathan Safran Foer. I'm a comedy geek and love all things "funny". Women like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Mindy Kaling are definitely the biggest inspirations for my writing, though I think my work tends to skew a bit smuttier than theirs.
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