Christmas in Venice / The Italian's Christmas Bride by Joanne Walsh

Ok, I'm all for a second chance romance. And I was very interested in seeing why Lorenzo and Ashlynne divorced and how they were going to rekindle their love in Venice. I love Venice! I love Christmas and snow, and was very excited for this story. I think the book does readers a huge disservice in not revealing in the synopsis that the "ghosts of their marriage" was miscarriage. I know that this is a very real, tragic, and all too common reason for couple to part ways. It must be so devastating and I can see that it could easily become the wedge that drives couple apart. All that being said, the constant talk of it ended up being very depressing. I was blindsided. Luckily I've never had a miscarriage, because I can only understand the damage this could have done to a person grieving a loss of a baby when they turned to a festive novella looking for an escape. A content warning is definitely needed. Also... I hate the name Ashlynne an unreasonable amount, I know. But oh that spelling. WHY. I did enjoy the Christmas parts. And the Venice parts. And Lorenzo isn't bad. But overall this just wasn't for me.

After five years, exes, Ashlynne and Lorenzo, meet again at the Marco Polo airport. Due to weather conditions, she cannot return home, so he offers her shelter in his apartment. They soon discover that the passion and attraction are still there, but so are old insecurities that helped their marriage to implode.


Formulaic, predictable and with a very Harlequin-Silhouette feel, with an insecure heroine that believes and trusts the words of a stranger over the words of the man she supposedly loves, a bland hero that still merits sainthood for putting up with the idiot woman, a lukewarm at best romance and as sugary as possible ending.

Blah!