So delightful! Laugh out loud while you follow this Irish family through the ups and downs of life. Addiction, moving to another country, Covid, and home renovations make for a great story and Meleady manages to find humor while she continues to work hard to make sure her family is happy and healthy. Released Oct 15, a great memoir!

. Rosie Meleady has a way of writing that’s escapist and uplifting, a perfect holiday read. I loved this book based on the unlikely purchase of a grand old house in Italy and accompanying dramas that ensued as the family go through times of grief, the uncertainty and upheaval of a move, an ongoing pandemic and financial issues. For me it was a nostalgic read having purchased our own property in Spain and all the highs and lows that such a purchase entails and the crazy times of Covid that’s already becoming a distant memory. Looking forward to reading other books by this author.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This book begins with the main setup and then goes back in time to give us a wider picture about all the things that have happened in Rosie’s life pertaining to the home she began the book with.

Memoirs of this type work well if the author’s writing style personally appeals to me and I enjoyed the tone from the very first page.

Rosie is a hard working person with a sense of humour and some setbacks in life. I did not ( but should have) seen the COVID section coming. It was hard to see the precautions talked about again but also strange as if it was almost fictional. It seems near impossible to think that such dramatic things happened so recently!

Unlike fiction, this book talks of bureaucracy that impact lives of people who want to make a life in a new country. It is not a very exciting topic but it is presented in an entertaining manner.

In the midst of the humour, the enormity of the pandemic is treated with the respect and seriousness it deserves.

This book is a personal journey, one that continues on with more books. I would love to try the rest in the series to see what happens next.

Highly recommend this book to anyone who finds the blurb interesting.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I liked this book! It was fun and entertaining. I think it was a bit dull in some moments being a memoir, but it was still very entertaining other than the few slow parts

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

alcohol-issues, England, Tuscany, family-drama, family-dynamics, family-expectations, situational-humor, verbal-humor, laugh-riot, relatives, relationships, relocating, pandemic, panic-attacks, bridezilla, wedding-madness, compromise, memories, memoir, bureaucracy, grieving, grief, unpleasant-neighbors, unputdownable, nonfiction, travel, travel-with-family*****

This is the first in a series. This is the story of Rosie (who develops a business as a wedding planner), her family (including the untimely death of her sister), marriage to Ronan (professional photographer) and their family (two kids and two dogs) together up to the time they actually take possession of said rundown villa near the end of the pandemic tight restrictions. Theirs is a peripatetic and somewhat chaotic lifestyle that is also way too much fun! I laughed my way through it and plan to read the rest as well!
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected proof copy from Sourcebooks via NetGalley. Thank you!
#ARosieLifeInItaly by Rosie Meleady #NetGalley @Sourcebooks #Nonfiction #Humor #Relocating

This was an enjoyable, Laugh out Loud, stressful, and fun read.
It follows the Rosie as she gives up being a writer to move to become a wedding planner and work with her sister. She ends up deciding to move to Italy to have her business there after some things in the her home area happen. She moves to Italy, tries to buy a house as the world is closing because of Covid 19, figure out how to pivot as there aren't any more weddings and slow down to enjoy the beauty of the place she decided to call home.
I was really enjoying the story until Covid popped up and then had to relive all that again which I did not enjoy. She was trying to close on a house with multiple family members involved but couldn't because of the way the city and country governments are. So it' was more stressful to read than I expected. So Happy for how it ended and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

"A Rosie Life in Italy" is a sweet, tender, and heartbreaking memoir set against the Irish and Italian countrysides. It's a delightful commentary on the fickleness of life, the cyclical nature of grief, and the beauty of letting the universe carry you through it. The straightforward writing style grounds you in Rosie's lifestyle and inspires you to take a risk or two.

I thought A Rosie Life in Italy was going to be a fictional escape, but it was a nonfiction/memoir. Author Rosie Meleady’s tale is not so much about buying and renovating a dilapidated house in Italy, as much as it is the story of a free-spirited family who make impulsive and not fully thought out decisions. They travel back and forth from Ireland to Europe multiple times as their mediocre business/economy acumen leads them further and further into financial muck.

While their life skills are in question, their love of family is obvious and abundant. Every choice they make is in hopes of making the family’s situation better. Rosie is a wedding planner and Ronan is a photographer, so together they venture into the destination wedding scene. Along the way, they meet interesting people, their children have great experiences, and they fall in love with Italy.

After a bit of time in Italy, they start looking for a home to make the transition more permanent. So, they didn’t truly “accidentally” buy a house. They sort of tripped over themselves in the half-hearted attempt to buy what seemed like the best home and best business opportunity on the market. The biggest problems being crazy, convoluted ownership of said property, the ridiculous amount of repair and renovation needed, and CoVid19 as the pandemic got in the way of all everyday life.

Ms. Meleady has me intrigued enough to start following her blog, and I wish them all the best in their original endeavors as destination wedding planners with full package plans.

Rosie has been a writer and publisher; more recently she pivoted to wedding planning. She’s had opportunities to coordinate weddings in Ireland and in distant locations. She’d really enjoy being able to just move to Italy, where many of the destination weddings she helps plan take place. It’s a crazy notion, but maybe someday she will be able to pull it off.

In this memoir, Rosie Meleady shares the background of how she did eventually end up in Italy as an Irish expatriate. As I found out towards the end of the book, she started a blog during the Covid pandemic lockdowns and wrote all about how she was in Italy, a country that had a notoriously bad hotspot of deaths. Knowing that, the style of the book made a lot of sense. It does read like a long meandering tale, simply chronological from year/situation A through to year/situation F. I felt often that it could use a bit more structure.

At the beginning, this was most the case; I was thinking about DNFing it around the 15% mark on my Kindle. But I did come back to it and found it got more interesting, so I did finish. I also see that she’s written several more books continuing the story that begins in this book. Here, she ends with buying a house in Italy, and in other books, the renovation tales continue. In real time, she is now close to opening up part of the large house for paying guests.

A Rosie Life in Italy is basically an introduction to a long collection of blog posts, edited together in five books to this point. It is fun, and a great travelogue. Rosie is an entertaining storyteller and makes her adventures come alive on the page. If you love Italy, stories of expatriates buying homes and settling into the Italian life, you’ll very likely be satisfied with this.

How many people do this---move to another country, buy a run-down villa, deal with the Italian bureaucracy, start a business and then deal with a Covid shut-down? Funny and eye-rolling story if you can deal with utter uncertainty? Not my idea of a good decision, but an enjoyable escape from my ordinary life.

Rating: ⭐⭐½ (2.5/5 stars)

A Rosie Life in Italy is a memoir that chronicles Rosie Meleady’s experiences as she and her family relocate to Italy in search of a new life. However, instead of finding the charming, transformative narrative one might expect from a story set in a beautiful Italian countryside, I found myself struggling with the book's tone and direction.

The protagonist comes across as aimless, drifting from one idea to the next without much forethought. This impulsiveness not only affects her life but also pulls her husband and children along with little consideration for how these whims impact them. While spontaneous adventures can add excitement to a memoir, here the lack of intentionality felt more frustrating than charming. It became difficult to sympathize with her decisions or stay invested in the family’s journey.

A significant portion of the book focuses on the family’s experience during the COVID-19 lockdown, and unfortunately, this section did not resonate with me. I found it particularly hard to connect with the tone, perhaps because the challenges of lockdown are still a fresh memory for many readers. Rather than adding emotional depth or insight, the narrative during this part felt draining and slowed the pace of the book.

While A Rosie Life in Italy offers occasional moments of humor and some glimpses of Italy’s charm, the overall structure lacked cohesion. The narrative felt scattered, much like the protagonist’s life, making it a challenge to fully engage with the story. Readers who enjoy free-spirited, meandering memoirs may appreciate this book more, but it wasn’t a great fit for me.

Overall, I found the story to be a mixed bag, with potential that remained unrealized. I would rate it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Love this story - I am a dreamer and love to live vicariously through the protagonists as they relocate ti another country! Wasn’t so fun re-living Covid but it was a great account of what life was like in Italy at the time! Thankful for this opportunity to read a lovely story!

Starting out in Ireland, Rosie and her family end up seeking a new home after their initial business plans fall apart. This book takes the reader through the twists and turns of their relocations and efforts to get a new start. It's not really a travelogue, but the reader will learn about some places in foreign countries. The main focus of the story is the family, their tribulations, and their adventures.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I really enjoyed reading this memoir about Rosie, an Irish wedding planner and her husband Ronan, relocating from Ireland to Italy right before the Covid outbreak.

They had a plan in place to relocate to Spain, but a family tragedy put those plans into disarray. Instead they took a trip to Italy for some time to heal. One thing leads to another and “Voila!” They have bought a property in Italy.

I was immersed into the story of their lives, but I must admit, once covid hit Italy, I was not so interested. Luckily, they were in a part of Italy that wasn’t so affected. I didn’t realize how strict Italy had been on their covid precautions. Once things began to die down, Rosie and Ronan proceeded with their dream of renovating their new Italian home.

At the end of the book, I read that Rosie has a blog, so now I am interested in taking a look and finding out how things are going with the renovation.

Many thanks to NetGally and Sourcebooks for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to recommend this memoir to others and give my honest review.

A memoir about moving to Italy? Sold! But guess what, this sweet story was so much more than a fun tale of a move to a new country. Rosie is Irish and ready to move with her family away from rainy, expensive Ireland. After a devastating tragedy, she and her family finally make the big move...

This memoir about life, taking chances, and making the big move is charming and delightful. This has me wishing I was headed to Italy tomorrow!

A fun read, but the story doesn't match the blurb.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for an arc. All opinions expressed are my own.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have a harder time finding non-fiction that I enjoy than fiction, so I was excited to get the chance to read this book. I enjoyed it a lot!

This made me smile more than once-even during the pandemic sections. Rosie and her family pick up and move to Italy but they discover things aren't going to be as easy or fun as they hoped. It's the struggle that makes this fun and relatable. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. This was originally self published and admittedly that's apparent in spots but it's a good read.

I enjoyed reading this memoir from a "regular person." It's always nice to see someone who hasn't come from extreme means or celebrity talk about taking the big swings! Her writing style is fun and easy to read, although in the really emotional moments I think the deeper feelings were often glossed over. I got really nervous when she got to the COVID section because that all still seems fresh and fraught to read about, but I felt like she did a great job really capturing what the "not knowing" felt like. Overall, a very enjoyable read that transports you to Italy!

Thank you to the author, Sourcebooks and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was - for the most part - an entertaining read, but I did find it quite a mismatch between the blurb and the actual contents. It's not so much about moving to Italy, buying a house and restoring it - the first half is a recounting of the family's misadventures in homeowning in Ireland (lots of pearl clutching on my part at the complete naivété of these people and their readiness to make bad decisions) and quite depressing at that. Once they do make the move to Italy, it's not until just before the book finishes that we find out whether they are able to buy the house they have their eye (and heart set) on. I did not realize this was self-published and the first of a series, and after reading this, I am not motivated to read on to find out what happened.