Book Review: Roman Crazy by Alice Clayton & Nina Bocci

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ROMAN CRAZY
The Broads Aboard #1
Author: Alice Clayton & Nina Bocci
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Released: September 13, 2016
Review Source: Gallery Books

Avery Bardot steps off the plane in Rome, looking for a fresh start. She’s left behind a soon-to-be ex-husband in Boston and plans to spend the summer with her best friend Daisy, licking her wounds—and perhaps a gelato or two. But when her American-expat friend throws her a welcome party on her first night, Avery’s thrown for a loop when she sees a man she never thought she’d see again: Italian architect Marcello Bianchi.

Marcello was the man—the one who got away. And now her past is colliding with her present, a present where she should be mourning the loss of her marriage and—hey, that fettuccine is delicious! And so is Marcello…

Slipping easily into the good life of summertime in Rome, Avery spends her days exploring a city that makes art historians swoon, and her nights swooning over her unexpected what was old is new again romance. It’s heady, it’s fevered, it’s wanton, and it’s crazy. But could this really be her new life? Or is it just a temporary reprieve before returning to the land of twin-set cardigans and crustless sandwiches?

A celebration of great friendship, passionate romance, and wonderful food, Roman Crazy is a lighthearted story of second chances and living life to the fullest.

The Story:  Roman Crazy starts out with Avery Bardot walking in on her husband of eight years, with his secretary bent over his desk.  The expected thing for her to do, according to her husband and his family, is to turn a blind eye and work it out together.  "It's your world, too.  Don't forget that Remingtons don't get divorced." The thing is, Avery doesn't consider herself apart of that world and seeing her husband in that compromising position, forces her to take off her blinders.  Avery's long time friend, Daisy, calls her and recommends just what she needs, a vacation in Rome.  When Avery gets to Rome, something in her awakens that she didn't realize she was missing, her passion.  Passion for life, passion for art, and passion for love.  What she didn't count on was seeing the one person that could have been "the love of her life."

The Likes:  The thing I loved most about this book was the fantastic descriptions of the setting.  I have never been to Italy, I don't speak any Italian, the closest I have come to Italian food is Olive Garden; but this story absolutely makes you fall in love with all things Italy.  I could picture myself living there and traveling to all the places Avery traveled and trying all the food Avery tried. I now have a new, must see, bucket list country to visit.  I really liked Avery and Daisy's relationship.  Their dialogue was so funny at times, I laughed out loud. I wouldn't expect anything less from Alice Clayton and Nina Bocci.  I LOVED the hero of this book.  Marcello Bianchi is so incredibly sexy and passionate that he earned a top spot in my book boyfriend list.  I'm a big fan of second chance novels and Alice Clayton and Nina Bocci did not disappoint with this one.

The Dislikes:  I only had a couple of issues with this book.  The first thing was that it was kind of slow for me personally.  It felt like it took a while for things to pick up.  Once things did pick up,  I couldn't put it down.  I also felt due to the slower paced beginning, that the ending was a little rushed.

The Rating:  I am giving Roman Crazy a solid 4 stars because I really enjoyed the writing.  Alice Clayton and Nina Bocci make a great duo and I can't wait to read more from the two of them.  Alice Clayton has been a favorite author of mine and I will definitely be adding Nina Bocci as a favorite also.

Giveaway: The Complete Beautiful Series by Christina Lauren

Beautiful right? 

Here at Once Upon a Twilight we have all the feels!!! We are happy because Beautiful, the last book in the Beautiful series will be coming out (10/4/16), but sad because Beautiful will be the LAST book in the series. We have enjoyed every single moment since the beginning and we hate to see it end. 

What have been your favorite moments? I think we all can agree that the #1 moment for everyone is when we met the Beautiful Bastard himself in book one. Without him, I think the series wouldn't have connected like it did. 

To celebrate this special time, Gallery Books will give one lucky reader a complete set of the Beautiful Series (all 10 books). Pretty awesome right? Just enter the form below and stay tuned when the winner is chosen. 

Visit the Simon & Schuster Beautiful series page to get all the latest on the series:

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Giveaway details:
Winner wins complete set of the Beautiful series (10 books).
Giveaway if for US residents only (sorry international readers).
Please reads giveaway policy here

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Read an Excerpt from STILL ALICE, Now a Major Motion Picture!

Still Alice written by Lisa Genova

Now a major motion picture with Sony Pictures Classics starring Julianne Moore.

In Lisa Genova’s extraordinary New York Times bestselling novel, an accomplished professor diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease learns that her worth is comprised of more than her ability to remember. Now a major motion picture from Sony Pictures Classics starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, and Kristen Stewart.

Excerpt from Still Alice:

As she ran along the river, she became mindful of nothing but the sounds of her Nikes hitting the pavement in syncopated rhythm with the pace of her breath. She didn’t replay her argument with Lydia. She didn’t acknowledge her growling stomach. She didn’t think about John. She just ran.

As was her routine, she stopped running once she made it back to the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Park, a pocket of manicured lawns abutting Memorial Drive. Her head cleared, her body relaxed and rejuvenated, she began walking home. The JFK Park funneled into Harvard Square through a pleasant, bench-lined corridor between the Charles Hotel and the Kennedy School of Government.

At the other end of the corridor, she stood at the intersection of Eliot Street and Brattle, ready to cross, when a woman grabbed her forearm with startling force and said, “Have you thought about heaven today?”

The woman fixed Alice with a penetrating, unwavering stare. She had long hair the color and texture of a teased Brillo pad and wore a handmade placard hung over her chest that read AMERICA REPENT, TURN TO JESUS FROM SIN. There was always someone selling God in Harvard Square, but Alice had never been singled out so directly and intimately before.

“Sorry,” she said and, noticing a break in the flow of traffic, escaped to the other side of the street.

She wanted to continue walking but stood frozen instead. She didn’t know where she was. She looked back across the street. The Brillo-haired woman pursued another sinner down the corridor. The corridor, the hotel, the stores, the illogically meandering streets. She knew she was in Harvard Square, but she didn’t know which way was home.

She tried again, more specifi cally. The Harvard Square Hotel, Eastern Mountain Sports, Dickson Bros. Hardware, Mount Auburn Street. She knew all of these places—this square had been her stomping ground for over twenty-five years—but they somehow didn’t fi t into a mental map that

told her where she lived relative to them. A black-and-white circular “T” sign directly in front of her marked an entrance to the Red Line trains and buses underground, but there were three such entrances in Harvard Square, and she couldn’t piece together which one of the three this was.

Her heart began to race. She started sweating. She told herself that an accelerated heart rate and perspiration were part of an orchestrated and appropriate response to running. But as she stood on the sidewalk, it felt like panic.

She willed herself to walk another block and then another, her rubbery legs feeling like they might give way with each bewildered step. The Coop, Cardullo’s, the magazines on the corner, the Cambridge visitors’ center across the street, and Harvard Yard beyond that. She told herself she could still read and recognize. None of it helped. It all lacked a context.

People, cars, buses, and all kinds of unbearable noise rushed and wove around and past her. She closed her eyes. She listened to her own blood whoosh and pulse behind her ears.

“Please stop this,” she whispered.

She opened her eyes. Just as suddenly as it had left her, the landscape snapped snugly back into place.

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Still Alice is now in theaters!!!

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.