Thank you so much to Net Galley, Harper Collins UK, and One More Chapter for providing me with a free copy of the Italian Job by Kathryn Freeman in exchange for an honest review. All of the following opinions are all my own.

2.75 out of 5 stars

I was very excited when I got approved for this. Fake "dating" and Italy?! Yes, please! This is a supreme idea - although I don't completely agree with the character choice and age this is targeted at. If I'm super honest, I feel like it might have been better if the target audience was 45-year-old moms who were into the Tuscan style decor craze in the early to mid 2000s.

The cover is very enticing and I'm not really one for the romance cartoon covers.

When I started this book, I was immediately bothered by the formatting and grammar of the novel. I always like to note that formatting should never be noticed by a reader. I'm not sure if this is because it is an ARC or something, but why is everything the characters say only preceded by a single quotation mark?

'That's weird and very distracting.'

I wanted to like the characters and I think I might have if the dialogue was different. The writing style was not for me. I think if someone else wrote it or the formatting was cleaned it I would have loved the plot.

The idea is super cute though!

This was such a cute, funny, adorable rom-com with all the best tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fake dating/relationship, and forced proximity!

Anna is recently out of a job and a boyfriend due to her lying, cheating ex also being her boss. When looking for a new “dream” job, she finds a position in Lake Como to manage an entire castle from cooking, cleaning, etc! The only catch is the posting wants a couple for the position… In comes her bad boy neighbor who she’s never had a conversation with without it turning into an argument of insults. What better person to pretend to be in a relationship with since Jake is also looking for a job and to get away from their small town too?!

As you can imagine we go on a wild adventure with these two trying to get along and maintain their fake relationship while living in the same small apartment within the castle. Not to mention Anna is completely Type A and Jake is completely the opposite! It definitely makes for MANY laughs!

I’m now wishing for my own Italian countryside adventure complete with staying in a gorgeous castle!

Did their reference of the movies The Italian Job also make me love it more — yes, yes it did because that was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of this book!

If all of this sounds like something you’d love to read it comes out May 6th!

I adored this book! I adored Anna and Jake!

I initially wanted to read this because I have a honeymoon to Lake Como planned for June of this year. I was excited to read something that got me even MORE excited for the trip. While I do wish there was more aspects of Lake Como in the story (more scenery, local places ,etc), I still very much enjoyed Anna and Jake's story. And the setting of the castle on Lake Como was great for an escapist reader like me.

I felt Jake's story in particular was important, as he has spent time in prison and is dealing with how society treats him afterward. It's a huge problem for many people who try to seek employment after prison. Anna had some baggage too and I felt like it was a perfect mix personal issues, romance, setting, and some great secondary characters (evil and good).

I loved this book. The main characters were flawed, relatable, and fun with complex backstories that really guided their (often not great) choices. And best of all, they had that classic enemies to lovers banter that is just perfection.

Add in desperation for a job, close quarters inside an Italian castle, and the local residents of the town and you have a recipe for some great times! Every major character had such a unique personality and I really felt like I was right there with them in the small Italian town.

I could not put this book down. Once they decided to go along with the fake dating ploy, every second of this book kept me hooked. I had such a great time following them as they learned more about each other, were forced into some couples situations, and eventually learned how to love each other.

A solid enemies to lovers, fake dating story with a planner who needs to control everything and a man who's unpredictable and outside her control. Their growth as a couple (both physically and emotionally) progressed so naturally with successes and setbacks along the way that were believable and so very in character, even if I wanted to shout at the characters for making the wrong choices.

I definitely recommend this book!

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for access to the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was so much fun!! Everything I needed in a light-hearted romance and to get me ready for the warmer months. This genre isn't my usual but I adored this, and I'll definitely be dipping my toe in the romance pool again. This book honestly had me looking up trips to Lake Como!

What I liked:
-The Italian backdrop - ugh, delightful! Who would pass up the opportunity to live in a castle for a year?! Not me! Also, the isolation Jake feels at not being able to speak Italian like Anna does is so accurate!
-The history between Anna and Jake was believable and I loved their misconceptions of the other.
-The sheer CHEMISTRY whilst the fake dating trope was in full swing - iconic!
-This wasn't just romance, this was a learning to love yourself in order to be loved, kind of book and I have a lot of time for that!
-The side character romances; would love to see a little novella or book detailing those!! They were so cute.
-A little bit of spice can be nice...

Read if you like
- Enemies to lovers
- Fake dating / forced proximity
- Guy falls first!
- A smidgen of steam...

I had one thought while reading this book: This would make a very good movie. I think the action was perfect for a rom-com that I would definitely watch and enjoy. The action was fast-paced and the setting was beautiful. My only problem was that I couldn't fully connect with the characters, but a reason for that could be that I am personally not a fan of 3rd person narrative.
All in all, it was an entertaining journey and the action was great.

how does one get sentenced to 6 months in PRISON for punching a guy?? that's all i could think about the entire time i was reading this

Anna Roberts’ gets her dream job - management of a castle on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. The only catch is she can’t do it alone…and with the last man she would have chosen, Jake Tucker. Anna and Jake never have seen eye to eye and learn quickly that pretending to be a couple is difficult.

I enjoyed this book. It was very entertaining. I love the enemies to lovers trope. I love the characters. I would recommend this book!

Special thanks to NetGalley, and Harper Collins UK, One More Chapter for this eARC.

This book is a fantastic combination of the enemies to lovers + fake dating tropes. I loved every second of it. I really felt like I could connect immediately to Anna, our main character, as she struggles with the heartbreak of a broken relationship that leaves her high and dry. I loved the different dimensions that this story took on as Anna returns to her childhood home with her father and rebuilds her life while sparking chemistry with Jake, her childhood nemesis. I will say there were times during their adventure where they made assumptions about each other that frustrated me endlessly, but I loved watching their story unfold. I would absolutely recommend this to friends and fans of Emily Henry and Sally Thorne!

Thank you HarperCollins UK and One More Chapter for the ARC!

I discovered the Kathryn Freeman books for the first time last year when I read The New Guy and I immediately loved her writing style. However every one I’ve read since has always fallen a little short of that one… until now. The Italian Job was an utter easy read, with the perfect bit of holiday escapism thrown in. The storyline was enjoyable without being ridiculously over the top and I really enjoyed spending a few hours in Lake Como. Would recommend as a holiday read.

Overall I enjoyed this book. Anna and jake were easy characters to like and the plot was one readers can easily get into. I do feel like it was missing something though, the storyline just felt a bit anti-climatic. It will make a great read for the summer and can easily see the book become a favorite on social media

This was my first book by the author and needless to say I will eagerly be seeking out everything she's previously written!

I loved the storyline, like a summer holiday without having to leave the sofa. The characters were both frustrating and loveable at the right times and I found myself really rooting for them through the story.

A great read, every time I put it down I was eagerly awaiting my next chance to read a bit more. Highly recommending to all!

Anna and Jake were a classic case of enemies to lovers, however, there was less banter and more full on arguments. While I appreciated the full character development of them both, I still had a few problems with the book that made me not love it. I enjoyed the plot although it was a bit *too* predictable, even for me. Within a couple pages, it was pretty obvious how the characters would end up, and what the plot twists would be. My main problem was I didn’t care for the writing style. This book had a lot of potential, but often the way things were written or they way the dialogue sounded had me disconnecting from the story.

To make sure this review is not all negative, here are a few things I enjoyed. The tension between them was sizzling, even if it was mostly one-sided on Jake’s part. I liked the ending a lot and how everything wrapped up well. I enjoyed how the development of Jake and Anna’s relationship allowed them to learn more about each and develop a greater understanding of how they each viewed the world and preferred to live their lives. They were, on many counts, opposites, but they still made it work in the way that counted.

Anna Roberts lived and worked with her boyfriend, Miles Rutherford, until the day she caught him in their bed with one of his employees. Since then, she’s been living with her dad in her childhood home.

Jake Tucker was her neighbor while growing up and they never got along. His life is as complicated as hers, with bad jobs and no friends since he got out of prison.

One day, Anna sees her dream job while searching online: living and cooking in a castle at Lake Como, Italy – the only problem is that they are looking for a couple to take care of the castle. She finds herself with two options: forget the job of her dreams or find a fake boyfriend. She thinks she might as well try the second possibility and convinces Jake to play along. This is how Anna and Jake find themselves in paradise, away from everyone that knows them.

It’s a book essentially about love but it makes us think about the ways people see themselves. Anna thinks she’s not worthy of love and that she’s not a chef that good. Will sees himself only as an ex-con, not worthy of a good job, friends, love, and respect. With time they help each other understand that what happened to us in the past doesn’t have to define who we are.

It was an amazing reading! Very funny, evocative, and charming. I felt like I was in the castle in Lake Como watching the story unfold. I liked the narrative and characters, their ways of thinking, and sympathized with them. Also, I enjoyed it so much that bought the book while having read only 77%. So, believe me when I say that I liked this book and give it a try!

To the writer: a book about Sara and Will would be interesting to read!

An emotional, engaging, and lovely book set in an Italian lakeside castle. This book has polar-opposite enemies to lovers, and all the best components of a beach read. Jake and Anna's romance is well earned, written, and perfectly steamy. The prose is accessible, and accurately explores the issues of prison sentencing and privilege, trauma, and the ways in which criminal records serve as an unending punishment even for those who completed their time.

This was a light hearted read. It was well written and I enjoyed the setting. I found the story dragged a little but overall it was a decent read.

This story desperately made me long for a trip to Italy. I mean, who wouldn’t want to stay in a castle by a lake? The budding love story between the two MCs co rains so many tropes: enemies to lovers, close proximity, opposites attract, and it’s a lovely slow burn, but it did take a bit to get into . While I loved the MCs, several of the side characters were just awful. Miles, Nigel, Phoebe, and Carina were just bad people and while I’m sure they were written to add some conflict to the story, I think they detracted more than they added.

I was given an ARC of this book by NetGalley and HarperCollins UK. All opinions are my own.

I don't think I was the reader for this book. I didn't connect too well with the writing style in the sense that it was fine, but there just was something missing to really draw me in and make me care. The dialogue felt a little . . . off? at times. I thought the characters were fine, and I loved their flaws. The setting was great, and I'm dying to pack my bags for a castle on an Italian lake now. The ending was a little absurd feeling and could've been resolved so easily at so many different points. That was a little frustrating because it felt like it was being dragged out just for the sake of hitting a word count or something. Like, duh, y'all both like each other and it is BEYOND OBVIOUS. For me, personally, this was an "okay" read--nothing special, but nothing bad.

This is a 3rd person, dual POV novel, set in England and then Italy. Younger MMC. Sort of enemies to lovers. It's an easy read that would be perfect to throw in your beach/pool bag. I've never read this author before, so I"m glad I got the chance to read her, and I would be interested in reading her again!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I received an ARC of, The Italian Job, by Kathryn Freeman. I found this book to be way to immature. I did not like the characters at all.

Anna, who after catching her boyfriend cheating, moves back in with her dad and runs into her neighbor and bad boy, Jake. Having lost her job working in her ex’s restaurant, Anna finds her dream job: running a castle on a lake in Italy. The only downside is that the owners are looking for a couple to run the castle, leaving Anna to enlist Jake as her fake boyfriend. The two seem like perfect candidates and are quickly offered the job. Can they make their fake-dating convincing or will their past come back to bite them in the ass?

The Italian Job is a very cute rom-com set in the English, what I’m imagining, countryside. From the writing, you can imagine how beautiful and almost magical feeling the castle is. The tension between Anna and Jake from the first time they see each other is so palpable that you find yourself rooting for them. As the story progresses and the two main characters become accustomed to life in the castle, you can really see their character development. From Anna overly prepared to relaxing and Jake going from extremely protective and defensive to reigning himself in and controlling his emotions, the character development is *chef’s kiss*. Even better, is that, though the other person helped their character development, the changes weren’t because they were trying to be what the other one wanted. Their development happened alongside each other but was influenced by the other, which goes to show how strong of characters that the author was able to write.

Despite how great this book was, it is not immune to a few problems. The first being that the characters and their personalities seem kinda sexist, not nearly sexist enough to be problematic or make me not want to read the book. Anna is a meticulous person and a great chef. Jake is very much a handyman, an I-can-fix-everything type of guy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as you learn that Jake is an intensely protective guy of those he loves and is super caring. And Anna is just stubborn and headstrong about what she cares for. This all makes them such a great and unexpected match. The only slightly sexist thing in the book that did rub me the wrong way was one line where I think Jake was saying Anna belonged in the kitchen. It wasn’t meant to have a sexist undertone because he was meant it in the way that she is such a talented and creative chef that her not putting her heart into her food is a waste of skills. I’m not even sure if I’m explaining that properly but the line was not intended to have a sexist undertone.

My only other problem with this book is that, as of April 23rd and the book releases May 6th, I do not know of any plans for this to be released in paperback. From what I can tell, it is only coming out as an ebook which is so unfair to this book. This book deserves to come out in paperback as well, to be placed on every rom-com table in stores, and to be worshipped for what it is. It is a crime that it won’t be able to sit on my bookshelves or that people who come into the store looking for a rom-com won’t be able to pick it up and read it. It won’t get the kind of attention that it rightfully deserves and so, please HarpersCollins and One More Chapter, please please please see the potential this book has and publish it as both a paperback and ebook. I’m begging of you to do this, please.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review an eARC of The Italian Job. All thoughts and opinions stated in this review are of my own honest beliefs.