I love books set in Italy. and so I was very eager to read this one. Unfortunately, it didn't grab me and I set it aside. Then I decided to try it on audio because Steve West narrates (I love him), and even then I couldn't pay attention and found myself drifting. Clearly, this was a case of "it's not you, it's me". There was nothing wrong with the writing or the characters, I just didn't enjoy reading it. I did not finish this book, and will not be writing a formal review.

This book was a light and easy read with an enjoyable rom com/chick lit feel about it. Even though I didn't fall in love with the story, I fell in love with Rome. it made me want to visit the city more than anything else; it was a beautiful setting and the writing really made Rome come alive.

Drawn in by the cover, I'm not sure I completely sure I knew what this book was about beyond a love story of sorts.

One Summer Day in Rome is a tale of new love, love rediscovered, love's end. Or love are first sight, a couple struggling with a decision, and family grief. I enjoyed the city being the thread linking the three stories and found the young love to be the most real (given the plot). Rome itself is charming and an incredibly enchanting part of the story, to have bits and pieces narrated by the city herself.

I listened to this book while on our month long backpacking trip. My review is posted to goodreads.

I tried many times to get into this book and I just couldn't - I don't like doing that with books that I've agreed to review, but this one just wasn't written in a style that grabbed my attention at all.

I expected a much lighthearted novel than this, but I also had trouble getting into the narration. Rome as narrator is an odd choice, but made especially difficult since I have never been.

Three pairs---a young couple who have just met, a married couple constantly mad at each other, and sisters-in-law---are in Rome for various reasons. Although they don't interact they have several points of connection. There is also an odd narrator/commentator. I couldn't understand why the married couple stayed married. And wished I had visited Rome so I could better visualize the places where the pairs were. I wanted to love this book, but I didn't.

I found this book to be nothing like I thought it would be. I was looking for a lighthearted romp - this was not it.

A delightfully sweet story, perfect for summer beach reading.

Absorbing, romantic and incredibly moving!

One Summer Day in Rome is a story about love, new love, struggling love, eternal love, and lost love.

The story takes place in the time span of one day and takes us into the lives of three couples; Alice and August, university students from different continents who test the idea of love at first sight; Alec and Meg, a middle-aged married couple who’ve lost that loving feeling; and Constance a heartbroken widow who recently lost her soul mate.

The prose is light, humorous and incredibly descriptive. The narration is unconventional. The characters are multi-layered, real and endearing. And the plot is an entertaining mix of emotion, dialogue, humour, hijinks, mishaps, and passion.

I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started One Summer Day in Rome but it wasn’t long before Lamprell not only swept me away to a city he obviously knows and loves and gave me a truly romantic guidebook to all the history, must-see landmarks, culture, lifestyle, and food but also immersed me in a heartfelt, touching story that made me laugh, smile and even cry.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The title, One Summer Day in Rome, was what drew me to the book. Followed by the description. Love in the Eternal City, what could be more romantic? Women’s lit is not normally a huge draw for me but I make an exception when it comes to Rome.

The story revolves around three main groups of people. There are Alec and Meg. They have been married for a while and fight constantly. They have fallen out of love and need to discover it again. They are heading to Rome for ONE day to find a special tile to order for their new home. There are the curmudgeonly British sister-in-laws, Constance and Lizzie. They came to Rome to give Constance’s husband and Lizzie’s brother Henry the send off he requested. Dumping his ashes in the River Tiber. The last person is Alice. She is going to get engaged in Florence to her boyfriend, Daniel, but wanted a few days to herself first. She befriends a group of British students.

Alec and Meg have an adventure when they get in a car accident and Alec needs to go to the hospital for stitches. While there he becomes attracted to the women who put his stitches in. Meg is in a huge hurry to get this special tile. She declines an offer from the attending doctor to give them a ride to their hotel and an offer to buy them dinner. She has a very one track mind. Alec would like to do those things but finds it is easier to just go with the flow. Will they figure out their marriage is doomed before it’s too late?

Constance and Lizzie are old and tired. They came to Rome to give their beloved Henry the send off that he requested in his will. They haul him all over the place in a Harrods bag because Constance is just not ready to let him go. Lizzie allows it since she knows he was the love of Constance’s life. Constance begins to suspect the reason Henty wanted to be dumped off the bridge into the River Tiber was to be close to his old flame that he had an affair with during a rough patch is in marriage to Constance. Will Constance ever find out the truth?

Alice is coming to Rome because she wanted some her time before she became engaged to her boyfriend Daniel. Daniel was a set up from her mother’s office. While the relationship did work out she doesn’t know if she wanted to end up being with him for forever. She made a list, just like Daniel taught her to do when she was unsure of something, and in the end the good outweighed the bad so she decided that she would marry him. When she arrives in Rome she runs into a group of British students. She gives them all names based on their shirt colors. One of them was Pea Green (August or Gus). They give her a ride into town on their Vespa’s and all stay at the same Bed and Breakfast. The next day all the guys are down for the count except one, Pea Green. He offers to take Alice around town and show her the sights. At the end of the day, he drops her off at Termini Station to ride up to Florence to meet Daniel. In the spur of the moment he hops on the train and asks her to stay just one more day and how do you know if he is the one. Will Alice and Pea Green find the love that they have been looking for in each other?

I loved loved loved loved this book. I read it in like two and a half days. I was so bummed when the book ended. I had fallen in love with each and every one of the characters. I wanted more of the story. I loved how the characters are really actually entwined with each other. All of the characters in the book are all connected to the other groups of characters. The other thing about this book is how it is written. It’s written from the view point of love. Love, come to find out, has a bigger plan for these people than what they have planned. I have never read a book written from the view point of a feeling before, and I have read a fair amount of books. The one knock on this book is that it jumps from character group to character group every single chapter. Just as you are settling in with this persons story we start a new chapter and off we go with another part of the story. It wasn’t enough to make me drop my star rating but it was annoying enough for me to mention. I will certainly be on the lookout for more books by this author and I sincerely hope that there is a sequel coming out eventually because I will definitely be in line to read it when it does.

Narrated by an unnamed ancient spirit, this is a story about love…love lost, love found, but most of all it is a love poem to the Eternal City. There are three separate yet interwoven stories, the characters of whom occasionally intersect and just may have something in common. Yet, these six people are just the supporting characters for the true star is Rome itself.

Lamprell has a wry sense of humor and is a good observer of life, especially the vagaries of aging. The three couples sometimes find themselves in comical, yet believable situations.

This is a light, quick read and I loved some of the new eccentricities I learned about Rome.

The narration of this book was a little confusing for me at the beginning. I quickly realized it wasn't one of the characters in the book narrating, it was a third party. I'm still a little confused about exactly who that third party is. They seem to be a spirit from an ancient religion associated with genius loci called the genius of love. I'm not sure it matters exactly who they are, their point seems to be that they make love connections happen in Rome and the magical love connection is stronger if generations of a family are involved.

This book is a quick read and I liked that it took me on a tour of Rome along the way. 

"Let me tell you about Rome, my beloved Roma, so ancient she is called eternal, the city that has always been and will always be. Assured of her own magnificence, her venerable significance, she does not seek comparison - and yet I find is almost impossible not to compare."
There are three sets of characters. Two young people who have a chance meeting in a luggage line, a married couple who have lost their way in their relationship and two older ladies in Rome to spread the ashes of their dearly departed husband/brother. 

The book follows each set of characters as they make their way around Rome trying to accomplish what they've set out to do. Find themselves, find the perfect blue tile and spread ashes along with confronting an old demon. The characters are interesting and kept me intrigued as to how this book was going to end.

"August looked at the wonder on Alice's face and felt a rush of emotion so potent that he thought he might vaporize. Alice looked at August and felt her throat tighten. Who is this man, she thought, who is showing me these things?"
"Holding the small blue square, Constance could have sworn it was vibrating, ver softly, in her hand. She wondered whether is was an omen. Had it returned to her for some kind of purpose? Was she supposed to put it in her bag and take it back to London? She had taken it originally for luck, and the tile had brought her luck, certainly, but the luck had been bad as well as good. She counted the years that it had been in her possession as the most tumultuous of her life."
The novel culminates at a hotel that each of the characters is connected to in varying ways and some kind of magic entails. If you are looking for a quick read and dreaming of foreign travel this book is a great find.

I enjoyed reading One Summer Day in Rome very much. Switching back & forth between the couples moved perfectly, & I was interested at the end to see how they were all related in one way or another. Surprise twists throughout the story were perfectly made. Thank you!

One Summer Day in Rome by Mark Lamprell is narrated by the city, Rome, itself. We meet Alice an at student from New York traveling to Rome to find inspiration for art that goes "voosh", in her professors' words. We are also introduced to Constance and Lizzie, elderly ladies journeying to scatter their husband and brother's ashes, thinking that love is the last thing they will find. Finally, we are introduced to Megan and Alec, a couple traveling to Rome to find a certain blue tile for their house project, and hopefully rekindle their love as well.

I loved that the spirit of Rome is what drew this cast or characters to this ancient city. We are drawn into this tale just as the city draws these characters to it. Filled with wit, humor, insights, and an ambulance, One Summer Day in Rome is a beautiful tale of loss and of finding love. I would recommend this book as a great summer read.

I acknowledge that I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

I couldn't finish the one. The writing style was very cliched and unnuanced.

A wonderfully delightful novel. Everyone loves Rome and books about Rome, but this one is the first that I read where Rome is the narrator! The characters are delightful as well. The reader really comes to care about and empathize with them. The plot lines are so well-drawn.

Lamprell takes three couples, all of different ages and places them in Rome, vacationing. Then he coaxes the storyline to bring them together, over and over again, throughout the course of the story. There’s a young couple, head over heels at first sight, an older couple considering infidelity and divorce and a still older couple trying to make sense of it all. Not surprisingly, the oldest couple is by far, the most interesting, but what really brings this story to life is the surroundings. Readers are taken on a tour of the glories of Rome, both past and present and given fascinating little history lessons on the way. A love letter to the power of amour and the beauty of Rome