Sara’s eyes fill with tears as she reads the letter, her last words from her dearest friend: ‘I’m buying you your freedom. You don’t need to ask your husband’s permission and you have to put yourself first for once. Have an incredible adventure before it’s too late for both of us…’

Sara has lost her zest for life. Trapped sharing a house with her soon-to-be-ex-husband, with grown-up children who still need her but take her for granted, working in a job where her boss bullies her, the final straw is the heartbreak of losing her beloved best friend Lainey.

But Lainey’s death could be the beginning of Sara’s new life… as the last gift Lainey gives to her friend is a sum of money and a request: that Sara travels to Italy, the scene of the pair’s youthful adventures, and scatters Lainey’s ashes on the beach at Portofino.

For once, Sara decides to be brave. She quits her job, tells her family they can manage without her, and sets off on the trip of a lifetime. Swept up by new friends and relishing the freedom of being away from home in beautiful Florence, Sara finds herself drawn to Carlo. Handsome and charming, he is everything Sara finds it so hard to be: carefree, impulsive, living in the moment without worrying about the future.

And then Sara sees something she shouldn’t… and discovers a secret about Carlo that makes her question everything she thought she knew. Stuck at a crossroads in her life and her travels, she can’t face returning home yet, but nor is she brave enough to continue the challenge that Lainey set her. And then she meets an English woman who tells her about an apartment in Rome, that could just be the answer to everything…

Return to the sunny streets of beautiful Rome with this heart-warming and romantic story about discovering your true path in life. Perfect for fans of Jill Mansell, Elin Hilderbrand and Sheila O’Flanagan.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I clung onto the rush of adrenaline, the dizzying high of ‘Am I really doing this?’, feeling like the school swot who’d suddenly started throwing chairs before flinging exercise books out of the window, pages of algorithms and equations a-fluttering, while swearing at the teacher.

He had a way of looking at me that made me feel as though I’d swum into a warm spot in a cold sea.

‘Now I’m all about the good karma.’ He pinched his thumbs and forefingers together in a mock-meditative pose. ‘Though I still love to see a total tosser get his comeuppance.’

Learnt helplessness. All my husbands suffered from it. Perfectly capable in the areas they were interested in, then lying around like beetles on their backs if something was too much effort.

It’s hard enough to stay alive without him boring me half to death.

My Review:

I reveled in this delightfully witty and insightfully written tale that kept me chortling and smirking gleefully throughout my perusal. The writing style and storylines were a joy to delve into and were populated by uniquely authentic yet perceptively written and knowable characters. I haven’t had this much fun in ages. I want to stop time and just sit and read all of Kerry Fisher’s scribblings.