A thoughtful and comforting read which was easy to sink in to, well written and described Italy beautifully. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Review of Chasing the Italian Dream by Jo Thomas

I do like this authors work and this book didn't disappoint. This is the story of Lucia, a hard working lawyer from Wales who has to re-evaluate her life and her choices when her family pizzeria in Italy is about to be sold due to her grandfathers retirement. Great read in a great setting. Recommend

Lucia goes to Italy to stay with her grandparents for a few weeks who live there and run a pizza restaurant.

While she is there she discovers her nonna and nonno intend to sell the restaurant and Lucia steps in to run it herself. However in Italy women are not allowed to run restaurants and so a competition is devised to see who is worthy of being the new owners. Unfortunately for Lucia her competition is Giacomo who is not only a talented chef, but is also her husband.

Really good, fun read. Really enjoyed it.

JO THOMAS – CHASING THE ITALIAN DREAM ****

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I selected this book to review because I love Italy. And, apart from the opening line which is disappointingly derivative of so many trashy novels whose authors lamely seek attention, it took me there. Not just took but immersed, the food, the heat, the smells, the sounds, the generational family thing that is so common over there and so rare over here.

It’s a simple tale, which three-quarters of the way through I began to find repetitive, but it dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s by the satisfying conclusion.

Half-Welsh-half Italian, Luce, the protagonist, rushes out to Italy on the cusp of the promotion she desperately wants in the lawyer firm for which she works back in Wales, to stay with her beloved grandparents for her annual holiday, as well as divorce her estranged Italian husband.

Once there, and happily settled into the colourful routines of Italian life, she discovers that her grandfather is ill and is having to put up for sale the family pizzeria they have owned for generations. And this is what her battle is about: the sale of the pizzeria she has known since a child to her boo-hiss ex-husband, and the promotion back on Wales she has worked so hard for. More importantly, this is a tale, set in a patriarchal society, about women of all generations coming together and proving they are every bit as powerful and capable as the men who traditionally hold them back.

Despite my occasional reservations, this is an enjoyable, easy read that does what it says within the title: allows the reader to chase their Italian dreams.

This is the first book of Jo’s I have read but as soon as I finished this I started on another.
I really enjoyed this book and was transported to sunny Italy.
Lucia is awaiting promotion from her job as a Lawyer and while waiting for news on whether she has the job she goes to visit her Nonna and Nonno in Italy. While there Nonno announces that he is retiring from the restaurant he owns but has a new owner, however the owner happens to be Lucia’s estranged husband Giacomo. To add insult to injury Lucia finds out she has ben overlooked for the role in favour of a man who has been at the firm for less time who does less work.
Lucia has always enjoyed cooking but has never had the time and doesn’t want the restaurant to change as Giacomo has changes afoot. Nonno however feels that Lucia wouldn’t be able to take over the restaurant because as a woman she would not be excepted by the town working as a pizzaiolo (master pizza maker).
After much thought Nonno agrees that a competition can settle who gets to own the restaurant. Each will have a menu and the one who sells the most dishes over a period of time wins.
Unfortunately there are people trying to sabotage the secret competition which doesn’t help the relationship between Lucia and Giacomo. Working closely together they slowly start to realise what caused their separation but can they at least be friends.
I found the descriptive writing was wonderful, I could imagine the handsome Giacomo, Nonna cooking her famous tomato sauce and Angelo singing as he serves customer, I was transported to Italy, eating the wonderful pizzas and speaking the language.
The supporting characters who had their own stories took the book to another level.
A book I would highly recommend.

Enjoyable story set in a lovely Italian setting.

Lucia is having her usual two week holiday with her grandparents in Italy, when she learns that her grandparents are retiring and selling their pizzeria. Then she finds out she has been passed over yet again for a promotion she's been working hard for at home in Wales. Then to add insult to injury she finds out that the new owner of the pizzeria may be her not quite ex-husband.

So she re-evaluates her life and decides that she's staying in Italy and wants to run the pizzeria, but it's only a small village and a woman running a pizzeria is unheard of and since a lot of the residents are mostly stuck in the past, also unwanted. Her grandfather is very nervous about Lucia 'ruining her life' by letting her run it, so they agree on a secret competition between Lucia and her nearly ex-husband Giacomo to see who sells the most pizzas and wins the pizzeria.

I really enjoyed the way Lucia gathered her group of women to help her, and in doing so helped them all out in their lives too, made them more independent or changed the path they were on.

I did find it a bit sudden that something Lucia had been working towards for years as a lawyer in Wales was suddenly dumped and she decided she wanted to run a pizza restaurant in Italy instead, quite a big change! And I did find her just a tiny bit irritating too. But in the whole a really enjoyable story set in a beautiful setting. A real laid back holiday-reading book!

Although I liked the concept of this story, I did sometimes find it very pedestrian with little depth. Lucia was portrayed as a fair skinned person, but I would go have thought her to be darker with her parentage and ancestry. Overall, I think the book was a very easy read and okay. I do think the lack of descriptions of places left me feeling it could have been set anywhere and I didn’t feel a huge sense of Italy.

A feel good story all about family and food. It certainly transports you to Italy, with lots of warm sunshine and aromatic smells. I enjoyed reading this book although there were really no surprises and maybe some of the characters were just a shade annoying.

Lucia is a hard-working lawyer, based in Wales. After devoting every waking hour to gaining promotion, Lucia takes her well-earned annual break to her grandparents' home in southern Italy. Whilst waiting for the results of her bid for promotion, Lucia helps in her grandfather's pizza restaurant.
Finding that her grandfather intends to retire from running the restaurant, Lucia is desperate to keep it in the family and carry on with it's traditions and reputation. Traditional Italian villages however do not allow women to run such restaurants.
Lucia hears that she has not gained her promotion and enters into competition with Giacomo, her estranged husband, to take control of the restaurant.
This book transports you to traditional Italy with the sounds, smells and characters brilliantly described. It just made me want to go on holiday to Italy and spend all day eating!

A feast for the tastebuds and a wonderful setting for readers aching to get some sunshine.
The visual descriptions were a treat as was the descriptions of the food.
That said, Luica wasn't a particularly warm character, a bitter, resentful person who thought the worse of her ex. I thought the Lucia's dialogue explained - frequency in various guises- the events of the past. which was rather repetive and unnecessary.I didn't need constant retelling,and it shows how she mistook time and time again, who was responsible for events . She was an annoying, angry woman and the ending was a foreseen conclusion.

Lucia, a business lawyer living in Wales, goes on holiday to stay with her grandparents who run a pizza restaurant in a small town in Italy. They're she heard some unexpected news both there and at home which makes her reconsider her career going forward.
The setting sounds idyllic, both the setting and pizzas - the latter had my mouth watering at many points in the book. There is definitely an eclectic cast of characters, from her grandparents, her ex-husband, a lady of the night amongst others. It also brings to life the downside of living in a small community, especially from the story one in Italy which sounds very old fashioned.
Overall a book ideal for escapism and to bring some sunshine into our lives during these troubling times. Now where can I get some decent pizza hre in the UK......
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, however this did not influence my review of the book.

Lucia Rossi-Llewellyn, a business lawyer, has gone on hoiliday to a little town outside Naples. This is where her Noona & Nonno live & run a retaurant. Lucia spends her holiday here every year & it's where she is most happy. Her Nonno wants to retire but Lucia is not happy about who will take the restaurant over. Great book, that flows happily through the story. Loved the characters & their stories too. Lovely book for a quiet afternoon that will leave you feeling content.

I have read all of Jo Thomas’ books and fallen in love with each and every one of them, so when given the opportunity to read this latest novel I jumped at the chance!.

Chasing the Italian Dream takes us on an adventure with Lucia – who has been working herself hard for years as a lawyer, desperately seeking the promotion to partner within the law firm she gives her all to every day. Knowing she has done all that she can to earn this promotion – which she has already earnt twice over in my opinion! – Lucia decides to take a break to Italy, visiting her much loved grandparents.

But when Lucia arrives in Southern Italy where her grandparents reside, there are many shocks awaiting her – the biggest one being the return of her estranged husband Giacomo – someone who she has managed to avoid for quite some time now, following their romance fizzling away.

Alongside this, Lucia also learns that Giacomo has reappeared in her life with the sole purpose of taking over the pizzeria that her Nonno has owned his entire life. Realising he is at the point of retirement, and with no son to pass the family business on to, Nonno decides that Giacomo is the next best thing – after all, he is still a part of their family as Lucia’s husband.

But Lucia is far from happy with this arrangement, and the situation seems to give her the push that she needed to realise that her heart is not in her current job as a a lawyer – it is in fact fully invested in keeping her families legacy alive here in Italy. Deciding that it is only fair to give them both a fair chance, Lucia and Giacomo must work alongside each other to prove they are the right person for the job.

I absolutely adored this story from the very beginning. Jo Thomas has such an immersive writing style that makes you feel as though you are living within the world in which she has created. The characters are authentic and well developed, each of them having flaws and difficulties to overcome – factors in which make them all the more human. The setting was an absolute dream, which once again was brought to life wonderfully by the author – I could certainly picture myself taking a much needed break there too!.

A gorgeous, heartwarming story that has you hooked to the very end. I adored this book!.

One thing that you will learn if you follow Jo Thomas on social media is that she loves food and loves to write about it. Chasing the Italian Dream is the literary foodies absolute dream, but don’t read it on an empty stomach, because it will definitely make your tummy rumble!

This book was seriously mouth-watering perfection. As soon as Lucia arrived in Italy to visit her Nonno and Nonna, it was a complete sensory explosion, thanks to the stunning descriptions. It was so wonderful, but I really must warn you, you WILL want Italian food while reading this.

When Lucia’s Nonno decides it is time to retire from his pizzeria, Lucia decides she wants to take over. Unfortunately in this small town in Southern Italy, ,women can’t make pizzas because it is considered to be a job only for men. When she realises that her Nonno intends to hand over the business to her estranged husband Giacomo, she asks her grandfather to give her a chance to prove herself.

What follows is Lucia and Giac competing in the weeks before the town’s Bocce (a game similar to boules) festival. The only prerequisite that Nonno sets is that the town cannot find out that Lucia is cooking some of the pizzas.

All of the female protagonists in this book were completely inspirational, and as for the ‘Nonna network’, it made me wish I was there, joining forces with all of these incredible women.

In the days were armchair travel is pretty much all we can do, this was the perfect escapism, making me wish I was eating pizza under the Italian sun. I swear I gained weight just reading this book! I love books that combine escapism/armchair travel with local food because when I think about the places that I have travelled to, without fail I think of a memorable meal I ate while I was there. In addition, I also adored the second chance at love that Lucia and Giacomo were given.

Lucia may have been ‘Chasing the Italian Dream’, but Jo Thomas managed to whisk us away with her!

A wonderful book where you are transported to Southern Italy, sunshine and pizza. Very well written with vivd descriptions and great characters.

Lucia is a hard working business lawyer from Wales with Italian heritage. She goes to visit her Nonno and Nonna on her yearly 2 week holiday on Italy and helps out at their resturant. At the start of her holiday Nonno tells her that he is retiring from his resturant and her ex husband Giacoma is to take it over and run it. Lucia is awaiting news of a promotion back in Wales whilst on holiday and finds out that she didn't get it and she realises that she wants to stay in Italy and run the restaurant.

Nonno decides to do a deal for Lucia and Giac to each run their own half of the kitchen and whoever has the most sales at the end of the month will run the family restaurant. Let the competition begin...

In this heart warming story you are immersed into Southern Italy; transported into the kitchen imagining the smells of the cooking, fresh and crisp; you could picture being there in the sunshine.

Has a great mix of characters who you could relate to. Nonna, a strong Italian matriarch, dependable, caring and clever. Lucia, an independent, fiesty modern woman. Nonno, the loving Italian grandfather set in his ways. Giac, the ex husband.

A story of friendship and family filled with love and emotion. This is the first of Jo Thomas's books I have read and I will be seeking out her others. I would definitely recommend this to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Chasing the Italian Dream was a dream to read. It was set in one of my favourite places in the world and there was a lot of pizza involved. For someone who knows how good pizza is in Italy this book had me drooling.

I was hooked from the start and I honestly devoured this book. I fell hard for the characters, Lucia and Giacomo and their relationship, the teams at the Pizzeria. And particular Nonna and her network of other Nonna's. She was the star of the book and one of my favourites with her stealthy methods of getting around Nonno.

Lucia is our main girl and she is devastated when her Nonno announces his retirement. This big announcement causes her to view her own life and see if there is anything she would change. Throughout she meets some amazing people, who with a bit of help also manage to make a change in their life.

I easily felt that I could have spend the week in southern Italy, learning about the traditions of being a pizzeria expert and how to change those traditions. To find out more about Lucia and her family. The book ended far to quickly for me and I was super sad when I turned the last page.

Chasing the Italian Dream was a delight to read. It transported to me to sunny Italy and lifted my spirits. I cannot wait to read this again and see what else Jo Thomas comes up with.

Another fabulous book by Jo
Lucia goes on her annual 2 weeks holiday to see her Italian Nonna and Nonno where she hopes to hear she has got a promotion, she finds out she has been passed over once again for someone more junior than her so quits
Nonno wants to retire and wants to pass the pizzeria to her Italian husband who she has been seperated from for years, Lucia decides she wants to keep it in the family exactly as it is so isn't going down fight.
A lovely stoey with a happy ending

This was my second book of Jo's and I really enjoyed it. I love reading books featuring travel and food, and these two were married here perfectly. You can visualise the Italian hills and almost taste the delicious pizzas Lucia and her family make.

When a book is so heavily focused on recipes, I love when these are included as an appendix. This is something that could easily be done for the finished book.

Having really enjoyed Jo Thomas’ previous books Finding Love at the Christmas Market, and Escape to the French Farmhouse, I decided to give Chasing the Italian Dream a whirl.

I found this book was an absorbing read. The atmosphere of the location really came through, and I loved Nonno’s especially. I loved the warmth and love that went into all the food in this book. I warn you though, this story will make you crave pizza! I thought Lucia’s Nonna was also a great character, and the network of women was a wonderful touch.

The one thing that frustrated me about this story is the lack of communication between Lucia and Giacomo. By 75% of the way through, they still haven’t talked properly about their past, or their future. I’m also not a huge fan of the competition and sabotage storyline, I found it stressful. I think it was well written in this case though, and an important part of the plot. For these reasons, I have given 3 stars (my ratings are based entirely on my own enjoyment). If these two things don’t bother you, this is an excellent story.

If you’re looking for a well written tale about finding your way, with a suitably romantic happy ending, look no further.

I was given a free copy of this book, my opinions are my own.

This book had a real feel good factor and was a great tonic to read in lockdown. It transports the reader to a lovely Italian village and makes you feel as though you can actually taste the pizza! Recommended.