Which would be better, to live life safely or to take a risk and chance fate to see what will happen? I am sure there are members of both groups reading this and taking sides. It is just this choice that faces Cat Connelly in our book, Italian for Beginners.

Cat Connelly is an almost thirty-five-year-old woman who has crafted the perfect life. She has a successful career in accounting and lives in a nice part of New York close to the father and sister she tries to take care of. It is only as her much younger sister marries that she realizes family and friends are wondering why she doesn’t have a husband or at least a boyfriend.

She decides to take a chance and flies to Italy to look up an Italian crush from thirteen years before. When he turns out to be a dud, she is left alone in Rome with airline tickets too expensive to change and not enough money for a nice hotel. She is down and out and without plans, but little does she know that is when her life begins.

I loved this book! Cat is a strong character whom many of us can find ourselves in. She is our responsible side, the part of us that doesn’t want to take risks. How wonderful to set ourselves free and join Cat on this voyage of liberation. Kristin Harmel not only creates exciting characters in Cat, crazy Karina, and yummy Marco, but she does such a great job describing Rome it is a trip to Europe for the price of a book. By making the connection to the movie Roman Holiday, the reader even has a visual reference and everyone will love how an American girl got to be Princess Ann.

This is a wonderful read and well worth reading.

Reviews of other titles by the author

Room on Rue Amélie