This was such a delight! I was as grouchy as a pie store owner who doesn’t love pie when I started this book. I chose it at the time because no one cheers me up like Sarah Adams. And she does it again! When in Rome is a cleverly written sunshine/grump, small town; celebrity romance with sizzling chemistry, belly laughs and just makes you happy. I loved that Amelia was the celebrity, that reverse Cinderella story always grabs my heart. And the whole town of characters - gahhhh. I fell in love with the town as much as grumpy Noah and sunny singer escaping reality Amelia. Hoping there will be more books in this series!

As a Kentuckian, I was thrilled to see that When in Rome is set in a fictional Kentucky town, but the story itself didn’t do much for me. This leans a bit too far into Hallmark movie vibes for my taste, which I think is great for many readers, but not totally in my wheelhouse.

My review will be posted on my instagram & Goodreads : @nats_bookventures
The review will be posted on May 25th, 2022 around 12pm


Amelia is the princess of soulful pop with a love for Audrey Hepburn. The need for a break from her life leads her to take a page out of Hepburns movie Roman holiday and go to Rome . Only
Problem is , Rome is too far ; Amelia settles for Rome, Kentucky where she comes face to face with Noah walker when her car breaks down on his lawn. Noah feels she’s a spoiled pop-star and does not want her around at all, but doesn’t have an other option because she is stranded . As Noah gets to know Amelia, he realizes there is more to her than meets the eye and he likes what he sees. Their growing attraction scares both of them, but they can no longer deny it. Will Noah be able to handle Amelia’s lifestyle , or will past hurts get in the way.

Thank you to the author, publisher of this book as well as netgalley for this advanced reader copy. I could not put this book down! I love how Amelia really went on a journey of asking for she wants and also learning to reconnect with not only her passion for singing, but herself. Although Noah played a part in that, she really took the journey with herself to get there. She also learned to let her walls down and be vulnerable .

Noah had his own issues with letting someone in only to have his heart crushed, so he took a lot longer to come around to the idea falling for Amelia. It was truly beautiful to see him let his own walls down and let people in. He uses that grumpy exterior to keep people at bay and I think because Amelia saw past it and challenged it, that was something that was scared him .

Their relationship towards each other only became more beautiful as the chapters went on. This book pulled at all my emotions and made me really feel for each individual character. I cannot wait to read more by this author. This book EASILY gets 5 stars from me.

What a fun, charming, entertaining small town, grumpy/sunshine, celebrity romance!! When you read a Sarah Adams book just know you are going to smile from page 1 to The End! This very much gives me modern “Roman Holiday” vibes, and is full of funny and sweet moments and self discovery. I couldn’t get enough of Noah and his gruff exterior/super sweet interior. He absolutely melted my heart from the moment he stepped onto the page and I love how he just couldn’t help himself when it came to Amelia, no matter how hard he tried.

When in Rome comes out 9/20 and is one you will want to add to your TBR/shopping cart!

Thank you @randomhouse and @netgalley for the gifted eARC in exchange for an honest review

Such a sweet rom-com !

If the grumpy sunshine trope is your jam, you will LOVE this story.

Amelia is an international pop star who needs a break from her hectic lonely life. She ends up going to Rome just like her idol Audrey Hepburn in the movie Roman Holiday. But it’s not the one in Italy but a small town in Kentucky. When her car breaks down in front of Noah, the grumpy local pie shop owner’s house, her life starts changing for the better.

Y’all I loved this book. It had me cracking up the whole time, the banter between all the characters was so good.

It is a slow burn and fade to black which I’m usually not into but I really liked the writing style and I loved how it wasn’t a dragged out miscommunication trope. Amelia and Noah really had a great adult friendship to relationship.

Highly recommend this hilarious, sweet rom-com !

*I was sent this arc from NetGalley

So, this book started off very promising. It jumped right into the plot, and I thought Noah and Amelia's quirky personalities were endearing. However, the further I got into the book the more disappointed I became.

One of my main grievances with this book was how cringy some of the interactions were. While in the beginning the quirkiness was cute, the more it went on the more unrealistic it became and uncomfortable it was. In addition, the amount of flip flopping in their emotions and whether they wanted/were willing to be in a relationship gave me whiplash. It took away from the great spark that they had in the beginning of the book.

Also, that ending just came out of nowhere and, in my opinion, held no purpose. All of the emotional baggage that was laid out on the table just became seemingly nonexistent, so everything was really just okay. I love a good happy ending but not at the expense of all the progress and build up just being pointless filler.

This book held such great promise with the small-town romance and the main characters. I just feel like it wasn't done successfully.

A good story with well written characters.. I do enjoy city girl meets small town. I hope we will get to read about the sisters in the future.

Brief Synopsis: Amelia Rose aka Rae Rose is a mega-famous pop star who gets super burnt out and wants to run away from her life. She decides to follow in the steps of Audrey Hepburn and travels to the closest version of Rome she can find, Rome, Kentucky. Her car breaks down in the front lawn of (of course) the town’s super eligible, super good-looking grumpy bachelor and thanks to meddling townspeople, she’s forced to stay in his guest bedroom until her car gets fixed and then you can pretty much guess the rest.

I’ve read every book by Sarah Adams and the last few have been hit or miss for me and this one sadly is more of a miss. Amelia is FAR too naïve for her age (I literally thought she was like 19 for most of the book when she’s supposed to be like 28). Her inevitable “taking control of her own life glow-up” is too contrived and wasn’t enough to convince me that she’s actually grown as a character. I also struggled with the hero, Noah. His “I want you but I should stay away from you but I can’t help myself” schtick got old really fast. Plus, his whole thing is just that he’s “grumpy” and hot and has sisters…that’s pretty much it. I would have enjoyed a bit more depth to both MCs.

As far as content, I feel like the author is trying too hard to appease both the clean romance fans and the spicy romance fans and both camps will end up a little disappointed with this one.

That being said, it was a quick, easy read. I finished it in one afternoon. It’s light and cute, the banter is pretty good, and the side characters are mostly solid. Definitely a good, hallmark-style book for summer. I just wished I had enjoyed it more than I did.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah Adams can do no wrong and this book is no exception!! She knows how to write in a way that has you laughing, squealing and not being able to totally guess how it’ll all play out. When in Rome is completely unputdownable and super bingeable.

Amelia (Rae Rose) is a pop star who takes a break from the spotlight in small town Rome.. as in Rome, Kentucky! There she meets Noah, the super grumpy pie shop owner who wants nothing to do with a city girl because of past heartbreak. Amelia is super funny and sarcastic and pretty soon is breaking down the walls Noah has built around his heart. But how will they work out when he has no desire to leave his family and she loves her music?? YOU’VE GOT TO READ THIS BOOK! Comes out September 20, 2022!

You’ll like this book if you like:
- Small Towns, think Stars Hollow and Gilmore Girls
- Grumpy vs sunshine
- Dual POV
- Audrey Hepburn

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is like being wrapped in a comfy, cozy blanket. It’s so sweet, wholesome, and cute. Any romance fan will enjoy this love story between a celebrity and a small town, kind hearted family man.

Pop star Amelia needs an escape from her busy lifestyle. Feeling inspired by Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, she decides to go to Rome. Oh, and by the way, that’s Rome, Kentucky. Why, which Rome were you thinking of?

On her way into town, her car breaks down on Noah’s lawn. Although he starts off as your typical small town grump (think Luke from Gilmore Girls), Amelia soon finds out that there’s more to love about Noah and his small town than she anticipated.

The book features a lovable cast of characters, including a stand-in grandma, three sisters, and a nice guy best friend. I enjoyed the forced proximity as well as the lovable grumpy guy storyline. Noah and Amelia had some funny banter and a sweet, slow burn romance. Although the storyline and villain were a bit predictable, I enjoyed it and devoured this book in a day.

Thank you so much to @netgalley and @randomhouse for my digital reviewers copy of When in Rome in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4.5 stars

I absolutely loved this book!! To be fair though, I read it as if it were a Taylor Swift fan fiction (I know it's not okay? But let me dream!!) Anyway, I absolutely loved Amelia and even though I lot of the descriptions about looks and her backstory aren't the same (she's brunette not blond lol) I still immediately pictured Amelia being played by Taylor Swift.

But beside that, I had so much fun reading this book, I was giggling into my pillow, kicking up my comforter and just overall being very giddy because the book was that good.

To be quite fair, I requested this book solely because of the cute cover and the title, thinking I would get to tour Rome, Italy through the book, and was in for a big shock when I found out that the book was actually set in Rome, Kentucky lmao. BUT, I'm a huge fan of small town romances (and this delivered superbly) so I wasn't jaded by the misleading title. However, I would recommend NOT going blind with this book and reading the synopsis (or even just knowing that this book is not set in Italy) so that in case the cute small town romance doesn't win you over, at least you won't be disappointed that the book isn't letting you live vicariously through the main characters who were supposed to be in Italy.

Also!!! This is such a perfect summer read too, so I would highly recommend adding this to your TBR for summer... if you're from down under because this book comes out on 20th September, which is technically the end of summer lol

At this point, I'm just babbling away but I'll leave you with some tropes in the book to re-emphasize that you should add this to your TBR/ preorder it and read it when it comes out in September!

Tropes: small town romance, celebrity x non-celebrity relationship, forced proximity, found family, slow burn

A charming small town, lovable characters and a sweet romance made this book by Sarah Adams a wonderful read. A quick read I did not want to finish. The budding romance was sweet and steamy without being explicit, There were moments when I smiled and laughed out loud. I want to read more from Sarah Adams and I hope she brings these characters back for another book.

I so enjoyed this small town romance! Amelia is a big pop star needing a break from stardom. She decides to escape to the closest Rome to her after watching her favorite Audrey Hepburn Roman Holiday. Amelia heads to Rome, Kentucky and ends up breaking down in Noah’s front yard. Noah owns and runs Rome’s pie shop and has sworn off out of town women. When he meets Amelia their lives turn upside down. The more time they spend together, the more Amelia and Noah break down each other’s personal walls. But can their newfound relationship work with their lives being so completely different? This romance blends vulnerability with mental health and what a healthy relationship truly means. I can see this becoming a series with a continuation of Noah’s sisters stories. Looking forward to more from Sarah Adams!

I have loved all of Sarah Adams’ books. She writes wonderful characters with compelling stories and never fails to make you both laugh and swoon. She can write steamy romance without being explicit.
As for this book: I love grumpy heroes, so Noah was right up my alley. Sometimes authors make their heroines kind of obnoxious, but Amelia was so fun and lovable, despite the expectation that she would be spoiled and entitled. I loved everyone in Rome, especially Noah’s family.
Looking forward to her next book…

Very good and entertaining. Reminds me of the great classic romance movies. Great characters and beautiful romance. Wonderful read to get away. You are invested in these characters from the start. They can try all they want but sometimes you can’t stop what is meant to be. You are routing and shouting for their happy ending. Definitely recommend this read.

This was a great weekend read. I felt like I was in a rut with books and this is just what I needed, something cute and light. The book was a quick read, mostly predictable but in a good way. It didn't have anything too steamy, just some kissing and implied sex so would be great for teen audiences too.

This was the small town, stuck together, grumpy/sunshine book that I’ve been waiting forever to find!
I will read anything by Sarah Adams, her books always make me feel so happy. They are the perfect romcoms, with funny moments and characters that are going through challenges but are still the sweetest characters ever and the relationships are amazing!
I feel like each of her books just keeps getting better! There’s a special place in my heart for The Cheat Sheet, it’s my emotional support book but When In Rome might just be my new favorite from her.
It had a completely different feel to it. The small town felt homey and the side characters were real and hilarious. (I need more on Mabel and Noah’s sisters and the ladies at the hair salon!) I think I loved Amelia’s relationship with Noah’s sisters as much as I loved his relationship with them. The family aspect was so well done. Noah and Amelia were so perfect for each other. Amelia was such a good character. Even being famous, she was relatable! Noah is the new fictional guy that I’m going to obsess over because he’s perfect. The man bakes, reads, loves his family, and loves flowers. I mean, what more could you want??
The ending!! Ahh I was so happy, I love them so much.

Whenever it’s grumpy/sunshine and he takes care of her I just can’t handle it, it’s so sweet! Their banter, and her nicknames were just amazing. They made me laugh so many times. I will be thinking about this book for a long long time and wishing I could just jump into this world.



Thank you so much to NetGalley and Sarah Adams for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you are wanting a cute, lighthearted, easy read… this one is for you!

I would have rated this higher, had it not been predictable. But, in saying that, I really did enjoy this book.

Rae Rose, a celebrity singer, ends up in the yard of hunky Wilderness Ken - I mean, Noah. As you’ll learn, Rae - or Amelia rather - has cute nicknames for Noah throughout the book. I’m sure you can guess what happens next.

Very sweet and enjoyable romantic comedy. Even though the themes are familiar (opposites, grumpy male lead, will they or won't they energy), the characters were well developed and personable. I was invested in their relationship and really enjoyed the ride. It was everything one would want for a quick, fun read.

This book had some of my favorite tropes including grumpy/sunshine and celebrity/civilian. Small town baker Noah meets big city pop star Amelia (Rae). Unfortunately i didnt connect with Amelia and I found her to act like a 17yr old than a 28yr old. The miscommunication trope is one of my least favorites. Just talk it out! I also didnt buy the chemistry between the 2 characters. When they finally kissed 25% of the way in, i really didnt care. I like Sarah Adams other books and will continue to read from her, this just wasnt for me.