Review: Lost in Italy by Stacey Joy Netzel

The best laid plans...

Halli Sanders spent two years planning the trip of a lifetime to Italy. Her itinerary did not include being stranded by her siblings, kidnapped by a sexy American movie star, dodging bullets, or fleeing criminals in a car chase around Lake Como. And that's just in the first three hours.

...often go awry.

Trent Tomlin put his movie career on hold to investigate his brother's murder-ruled-suicide at his Italian villa. He's closing in on the suspects when an American tourist unwittingly films the murder of the retired cop helping him. The killers will stop at nothing to get the evidence-including holding Halli's family as collateral. Life's a little different unscripted. Thrust into the role of real-life hero, Trent finds himself falling for the Plain Jane whose beauty blossoms with every challenge they face. But how can he keep the evidence from falling into the wrong hands and get justice for his brother and friend without betraying Halli and her family?

Review
You know a book is good when it keeps you up reading until 4am! It's fast paced and gripping, and I just couldn't put it down! The villain of the piece is worthy of any Bond film, and indeed you can picture the car chases and daring escapes as if you are watching them on a screen.

The relationship between Trent and Halli is adorable - I literally felt like hugging my kindle at certain  moments! Thrown together by circumstance, they live completely different lives but they sparked off each other really well, and the novel fizzed with sexual tension to the point where I just wanted to shout at them to admit their feelings to each other.

I liked Halli. She was feisty and determined, and despite her anxiety issues she was willing to do anything to save her family. Then there's Trent. Hollywood megastar turned real-life action hero he is every girl's dream. With a dazzling smile and a body to match women fall at his feet, but it's the personality behind the cool-guy bravado that I really fell for, and I've no shame in saying that I was in love with him by the end.

Another great thing about this book is that it's a standalone; as I got more and more into the story I was worried that it was going to end abruptly and tell me to buy the next installment but thankfully it's all there - though I would love to read about Trent and Halli again someday, and it would be interesting to see how their relationship would work back in the real world.

Sure, the plot is a little far-fetched, but escapism is exactly what I look for in a novel - and I'd be Trent's sidekick any day!

5/5 stars: Equal parts action and romance, Lost in Italy is a novel that will keep you up all night and leave you with a massive smile on your face.


*At time of purchase this novel was available for free on Amazon and was read as part of the Clean Out Your E-Reader Challenge!*