Solid Women’s Fiction/ Romance Blend. This is one of those tales the genre blends between women’s fiction and technically satisfying all known RWA/RNA “romance genre” requirements… while being around habanero spicy to boot, at least in once instance. (Others are closer to jalapeno or even milder, though still stronger than a warm glass of milk.)
Told from a few different characters’ perspectives and thus allowing them all to feel fully fleshed out, one weakness here is that many characters outside these specific perspective characters often feel… not as fully fleshed out. Indeed, at least a few are “I need a character in this role” thin – but for the most part they’re also barely relevant to the story at hand, so it does make at least a degree of sense that they aren’t as strongly written. Particularly given the length of the tale even with these “less fully fleshed out” characters – giving them more to do and making them feel more fully alive the way our main characters do could easily have added a few dozen pages to this already decently chunky tale, particularly given its type.
Overall this is exactly one of those safe *enough* women’s fiction / romance blends that while it may have a thing or two here or there that may begin to step on some toes, for most readers this really will go down about as easily as a cool bottle of Coca Cola on a hot summer day – which is exactly what it was designed to do, clearly. It is that exact kind of not-quite-bland-yet-also-not-too-memorable tale that is almost explicitly designed to appeal to as many readers as possible, and I have exactly zero doubt that it will do exactly that. If you’re looking for a safe *enough* read over the summer, one that transports you to an exotic location – again visiting Italy’s Amalfi Coast, as Sarah Penner’s The Amalfi Curse did last summer and a few others have done over the years – and tickles the brain *enough* and warms the heart *enough* while also providing *enough*… “excitement”… for other regions of the body that it will quite clearly play well with the summer “beach read” / “vacation read” set, which this is clearly intended for.
One thing that makes this a touch more interesting to read after its release (due to life issues arising just before its release, despite having had it as an Advance Review Copy for nearly four months prior to release) is Novak’s public announcement about her own real life shortly after the publication of this book and how that seems to inform various aspects of this tale.
There is also a decent amount of social commentary about various topics, specifically the publishing industry as well as a few others, but other than perhaps the publishing industry “inside baseball”, none of it ever really comes across as preachy. Again, this is where the brain is tickled a bit while never going so far as to produce real agitation, at least for most readers.
Ultimately this is a book that will likely do everything it set out to do – a perfectly safe, flavorful enough, summer/ vacation/ beach read that will play well with the women’s fiction/ romance set generally while being perhaps a bit spicier than the Hallmarkie crowd specifically would prefer.
Very much recommended.
This review of Meet Me In Italy by Brenda Novak was originally written on May 11, 2026.