Rome in Love by Anita Hughes - Review

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Synopsis: From the author of LAKE COMO comes the story of a young actress who lands the lead in a film that is shooting in Rome, bringing about difficult life choices, new friendships, and a chance at love.

When Amelia Tate is cast to play the Audrey Hepburn role in a remake of Roman Holiday, she feels as if all her dreams have come true. She has a handsome boyfriend, is portraying her idol in a major motion picture, and gets to live in beautiful Rome for the next two months. 

Once there, she befriends a young woman named Sophie with whom she begins to explore the city. Together, they discover all the amazing riches that Rome has to offer. But when Amelia’s boyfriend breaks up with her over her acting career, her perfect world begins to crumble. 

While moping in her hotel suite, Amelia discovers a stack of letters written by Audrey Hepburn that start to put her own life into perspective. Then, she meets Philip, a handsome journalist who is under the impression that she is a hotel maid, and it appears as if things are finally looking up. The problem is she can never find the right time to tell Philip her true identity. Not to mention that Philip has a few secrets of his own. Can Amelia finally have both the career and love that she’s always wanted, or will she be forced to choose again?

With her sensory descriptions of the beautiful sites, decadent food, and high fashion of Rome, Hughes draws readers into this fast-paced and superbly written novel. Rome in Love will capture the hearts of readers everywhere.

Review:

**Received a free copy from St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review**

Firstly, huge thanks to Staci Burt from St. Martin's Press for emailing me about this book. Not only that, she offered to send me a paperback copy all the way from New York, so thank you so much! Onto the review!

I remember while reading the first few pages of this book, I thought to myself how interesting and how fast my attention was held from this book. I would read it during work, while sipping a latte of my own and just sit there during the slow hours and just...indulge in this book.

Amelia Tate is a girl everyone wants to be. She's a star actress, she's beautiful, and has the right kind of guy on her arm, and she's in ROME! Rome is one of those places in the world that has a lot of stories to tell. Whether it's in the future or the past, I can guarantee almost anyone who resides there has a story to tell. So, our heroine, while learning her role of Audrey Hepburn, discovers letters written by Audrey after her life starts to crash into pieces. She devils and reads the letters as if she's experiencing them herself and thus enters the reader in another story...Audrey.

And then we have Phillip. Phillip who mistaken's Amelia for a maid while she's on the run from the press, allowing Amelia conceal her career from him. Phillip is a journalist who's struggling with his career and his life, really. I liked how their relationship progressed slowly and the fact that they're both keeping secrets from each other had me on the edge for quite some time. I found myself screaming in my head, "Just tell her!" or "You could have easily told him right then and there." 

And we cannot forget about lovely Sophie. She's a princess from a small country who's been set off to marry a man whom she has no idea of. An arranged marriage, if you will. Of course she meets Theo and suddenly, pleasing daddy dearest because it's "right" suddenly doesn't matter anymore. 

I could go on about this book, really. But this book kind of reminded me of that one movie, Letters to Juliet obviously much different. But the concept of reading old letters of someone who fell in love and back then, sending letters was the only way of communication. Kind of makes me want to land up in a foreign country and discover love letters written by someone else.