Wow! This story packed a punch, it was obvious just from the synopsis which direction this story was going to take, but nothing prepared me for being completely sucked into the gorgeous, sizzling romance.
There’s a past history between Jake and Anna. Jake has a reputation for being a bad boy after his father died during his teenage years and then a stint in prison. Anna is the daughter of a senior police officer, now retired, but very much aware of Jake’s chequered past. They have both formed opinions about each other with Anna seeing Jake as a no hoper and Jake viewing Anna as a snooty sort. So, when Anna has to ask Jake for a massive favour, it’s clear that it could be a recipe for disaster.
I just loved both of the characters in this gorgeous story of pre-conceptions and the attraction of opposites. Jake and Anna were captivating, and I found myself willing them on to a happy ending. Of course, there are more characters in the story and each one was likable and wonderfully introduced and developed. When I say each one, I make an exception for Nigel who was vile!
A special mention has to be given to the food. My mouth was watering as I imagined dining in the castle kitchen, sampling Anna's amazing dishes. I have always imagined that a trip to Italy would centre around food, and this story didn't disappoint.
Lake Como and the surrounding Italian villages caught my imagination and I had visions of being skippered across the lake in a beautiful, varnished boat. The sort that we see in Bond films and action movies.
This is a gorgeous book and I cannot recommend it enough.

A fun take on enemies to lovers, I enjoyed the nuances of Jake an Anna’s characters. The setting was a fun twist, I wish I knew more about Italy, it totally put an Italian castle on my travel wishlist! This one had a satisfying ending too.

This was a cute summer read and definitely one that I would have taken with me to the beach had the weather been warm enough lol. Always love a romance to escape into and this one was fun

<b><i>A memorable premise, forgettable read</b></i>

<b>Overall Rating: </b>2.5/5
- Fake dating
- Dislike to love
- Castle life
- Third person alternating perspectives

TW: Cheating partner (past mentions)

<i>Premise:</i> 3/5
<i>Characterization:</i> 2.5/5
<i>Dialogue:</i> 3/5
<i>Chemistry:</i> 2/5
<i>Secondary characters:</i> NA
<i>Unique quotient:</i> 2.5/5

I usually like to format my reviews in a pros-and-cons way, but with this book I'm on the fence! I loved the premise and requested an advance copy to devour the enemies-to-lovers in an exotic castle book. This book read... bland. Maybe it is me, but I couldn't feel the chemistry between the characters at all. There seemed to be a whole lot of lust, and the author seemed to tell us what the characters were feeling rather than show us. It was evident the characters had a lot of baggage, and I liked the depth that was put into character development, but I felt it didn't translate all that great into chemistry. It's also wonderful that the author chose to represent a curvy character - we need more curvy romance MCs :) The book didn't have notable secondary characters that stuck with me. If I waited one more day to write this review, I wouldn't even remember who they were.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book for my review.

The book starts with Anna Roberts, living with her dad, leaving her boyfriend who works at the restaurant she was a cook. She longs for something else and finds an ad for caretakers at a castle located at Lake Como in Italy. But, it says a couple. She has living next door, a gorgeous, bad boy reputation with a body to die for. She finds he too is jobless and asks him to join her in this adventure. They pre-tend to be a couple.

It was a fun and annoying and frustrating read. You wanted to bang there heads together. They kept double guessing everything the other one said and how they reacted..

They go from pretending to friends to couple to lovers. Oh but what they went thru to get there is the story. An enjoyable fast beach read

Relax, laugh and enjoy!

Unfortunately, this one just isn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy the characters and the writing just felt very ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’ and I just didn’t see the chemistry. I don’t think it’s anything the author did wrong, I just think the style of writing isn’t my cup of tea.

DNF @ 29%

I first came across this book on the One More Chapter's One Night In, and it sounded fantastic. I don't read a tremendous amount of romance but do like it on occasion, and this is one of my favourite tropes, enemies to lovers.

Anna has just broken up with her boyfriend after finding him cheating on her… in their bed! So she moves back home with her adored dad and looks for her dream job. She finds it (far too quickly) a live-in position in a castle on Lake Como. The only downside is that she needs a partner as they are looking for a couple.

Conveniently, her next-door neighbour's son, Jake, her long-time enemy, has just got out of prison and could do with a fresh start. So Anna makes a plan, and they attend the interview together, where they are offered the job with an instant start.

The setting is beautifully described, and who wouldn't jump at the chance to live in a castle? Anna and Jake make a great show of acting like a couple, but the cracks start to appear just hours after they are left alone, with Jake leaving her alone while he visits the local pub.

The plot continues and is an enjoyable read; it's well written and paced. Although it has many of the cliches of this trope, you can tell that each person has feelings for the other quite quickly, though neither would admit to it. The number of times the words "groin", "Breasts", "sex", and "cocky" are mentioned a bit too repetitively, and the constant thinking of the other without saying what they think and second-guessing each other gets a little frustrating after a while. However, the obvious happily ever after, the coming together as a couple, and their journey offers a fun read.

The characters were well-developed, and I liked most of them. The evil son of the owners, Nigel, is particularly well portrayed. I disliked him almost immediately. Jake is obviously a hunky, laid back kind of guy. He is confident in himself and has served time defending his family rather than being a thug. Anna is super organised, no doubt traumatised by her mother leaving when she was younger but determined to make something of herself and is confident in her cooking skills, if not her ability to fall in love with Jake.

Overall, this was a quick and enjoyable read. Perfect for the warmer summer days ahead, don't forget to pack this one to take to the beach with you.

The premise of the Italian Job is really nice: guy and girl who totally hate each other go to Italy as a secret couple and gradually learn not to hate each other until the inevitable happens. However, as a book I didn’t massively enjoy it.

For a lot of the book, I felt that the execution was off. The writing was a bit average and pretty repetitive at times. The characters were fine but there wasn’t anything really exciting about them that made me attached or interested. I did like seeing their growth over the book but generally didn’t find myself desperate to keep reading. The setting was really nice and the sub-characters were cool too. A lot of the inner themes within the book were good too. Wouldn’t highly recommend but maybe if you’re in Italy/Lake Como and feel like you absolutely have to read a book set there (though the setting was pretty generic at times)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC of The Italian Job by Kathryn Freeman. This was 2 tropes! Enemies to lovers and fake relationship. 2 tropes I love. This one started slow for me, but after about 20% I flew through it!

The Italian Job is about two people who are complete opposites! Anna is organized, very detailed and just scared to take risks! Jake is all adventure, risk taking, and not very organized. I think the dynamic of a couple like this is really good, but I just didn’t believe their chemistry at all! I wanted more of a grump sunshine from this but I got more grumpy grumpy and it wasn’t for me. I did really enjoy the fake dating and multiple POV, those are essential to this book and I think it did add to the story! I also really enjoyed the castle vibes. Overall, I think the story was good and cute. But I wish I could have had more of a backstory fleshed out and I wish i believed the relationship more.

Thank you, NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, and One More Chapter, for providing me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book and read it in almost one sitting. I first read The Beach Reads Book Club by Kathryn Freeman and got a feeling that I'd like more of her books, so when I saw this, I instantly requested it. I love the fake dating, forced proximity and enemies-to-lovers tropes and this book delivered all of them.
Their romance was cute, the banter was top tier, and the spice was at a 2/5 level. It was a slow-burn, from enemies to friends to lovers, and I really enjoyed how their relationship grew in a healthy way. I loved how they were attracted to each other but refused to admit to themselves that they actually liked each other. Also, I loved that it was dual POV. Although, at times they were frustrating because they kept having moments of making assumptions about each other ebcause they woukdn't be forthcoming. (miscommunication trope will one day be the death of me).
As for the characters, Jake is the perfect book boyfriend: tattoos, blonde, loyal, and "sexy". Loved him, though him breaking them up for dumb reasons annoyed me. Anna was relatable and likeable. I liked how she made lists for everything (I do that too). As for the side characters, they were all fine, none really stood out.
Although it was fun having the setting being Italy, there really wasn't anything else that made it fully seem like they were in Italy. The characters eating pizza doesn't really make it italian... I'm not italian but I've been there and there's much more to Italy than pizza.
Also, I really did not like that their parents ended up dating each other. They didn't get married or anything that would make Jake and Anna actual step siblings but it felt gross to me.
Overall, a very enjoyable romance book with great characters and a fun plot.

This was a lighthearted fun summer read. My issue was the characters werent fleshed out enough. I didnt really believe the chemistry between Anna & Jack. I love the Italy setting and I normally love the fake dating trope but this was missing something for me. In enemies to lovers theres usually good banter, but this was more argumentative?

Thank you @onemorechapterhc & metallurgy providing me with a digital copy. The opinions are my own.

The book was a romcom delight and since I was already sold over the synopsis, it did not disappoint. Fake dating, enemies to lovers, opposites attract, and a beautiful location with a castle, make a perfect summer read. Sparks start to fly, things get steamy but our protagonist is weary of trusting men. Jake, however, doesn't shy away from his attraction towards her. Anna's penchant for lists and Jake's innate ability to wind her up were comic and bordering on snarky, yet adorable . There was a lot of sexual tension between the two, crafted very well by the author. The book also focuses on some serious social issues, like the power of wealth and it's abuse and how sometimes the innocent pay for a crime they didn't committ and also abandonment and it's consequences. I'm a nutshell, Jake was the balm to Anna's blistering personality.
My first book from the author, this might be one of my 2022 favourites. Jake has spoiled me and I am off to read more from @kathryn.freeman_author

When you mix my favourite tropes with my favourite place on earth, you get The Italian Job. The banter was witty, the setting was gorgeous, and the MMC was swoony . . . what more could I ask for?

This is a delicious slow burn with lots of character growth and a healthy dose of drama. I highly recommend it! Plus, how pretty is that cover?

I was very disappointed by this book. I thought the summary sounded cute and was really looking forward to it. Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but I found the two main characters unbearable to the point where I couldn’t even finish the story. Perhaps, it gets better as it goes, but I just couldn’t force myself to figure it out.

The Italian Job is a book about two people who don’t look like they would go together on paper but after being thrust into a long term contact managing a castle in Italy, find that they truly could belong together.
This book was a romance novel primarily with a back story about Anna and Jake’s childhoods growing up as neighbors and their individual histories. One big part of the backstory was about Jake being an ex con for hitting a guy who had hurt his sister. In my opinion, this was really over played in the book to the point it seemed unrealistic. Yes he had been to jail but the book played out how everyone thought differently of him and treated him differently for having been to prison for this one punch. It didn’t seem very realistic that his one punch would make so many people turn their backs on him and treat him differently.
All in all, the book was an average read for me. I enjoyed the elements in the castle and I liked when Anna and Jake started falling in love but that seemed to take a frustratingly long time.

5 ⭐️ // I loved The Italian Job from the very beginning! The author easily kept my attention, and I couldn’t get enough of the story. I was convinced I would read it in one sitting, but my drowsiness got the best of me. I quickly devoured the story once I had a full night’s sleep though. Plus, it had the “fake dating” trope, so of course, I adored every minute of it!

What I liked —
🥸 “Fake Dating” trope
👀 Multiple POVs
🥰 Perfect Rom-Com
🏃‍♀️ Faced Paced
😏 Fun Banter
💪 Strong Characters + Development

Read this book if —
🏰 You’d like to live in a castle
👨‍👧 You have a protective father
✒️ You find tattoos attractive
👩‍🍳 You could run your own restaurant
🇮🇹 You’d love to visit Italy

TW: infidelity, parental death, abandonment, grief, miscarriage, prison

Thank you, NetGalley, HarperCollins UK, and One More Chapter, for providing me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

An entertaining read that I devoured within a day. Is this the best book I’ve ever read? No. However, after reading some very heavy and troubling books this was like a breath of fresh air. Anna has just dumped her cheating boyfriend and is now jobless and living with her dad. Desperate to find a job away from her ex-boyfriend and his influence, she sees the perfect application for her. Running a castle in Italy, the only problem is they want a couple to run it. Enter Anna’s neighbour, Jake. After serving six months in prison, Jake is eager to get his life back on track and accepts Anna’s offer to pretending to be her fake boyfriend.

Both characters have insecurities that the other has an incredible talent at bringing up. Anna and Jake are at constant loggerheads for the first part of the book, and it’s not the nicest to be reading about arguments. The beginning of the book was frustrating as their behaviour towards each other really makes you question why they agreed to this scheme. At the beginning, neither can compliment the other on doing a job well, or even acknowledge the others’ feelings and how they could have hurt them.

We do understand why both feel they shouldn’t pursue a relationship. Anna’s confidence and self-esteem have plummeted after her relationship ended, while Jake feels inferior. Although Jake does not reveal much about his time in prison, the reasons behind his time there were interesting as wealth and power played pivotal roles. As the book developed I liked how Jake’s true nature shone through, and I felt that this made the book more enjoyable.

A light-hearted contemporary romance perfect to pick up and read this summer.

<i> The Italian Job</i> is a fake dating and enemies-to-lovers romance set on the backdrop of an Italian castle, where Anna (the uptight, driven, girl-next-door type) and Jake (bad-boy rep with a soft spot for those he loves) have taken up residence for a year on what is essentially a working holiday and a chance for both to start over.

I really enjoyed the dual perspective and found the pacing to be decent, although at times a little slow. This is my first taste of author Kathryn Freeman's writing style and I liked it; third person is my preferred narrative. The story itself is very middle-of-the-road for me - I wasn't enthralled by it, nor was I turned off from it. It's much like any other contemporary romance; I would compare this to other popular contemporaries right now like <The Unhoneymooners<i> by Christina Lauren and <i>The Hating Game</i> by Sally Thorne.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for providing me with an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

This was such a fun book to read. I was pulled in immediately and couldn't wait to see how things were going to end up!