I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun book. It would be a great book to read by the pool or while on vacation!

Simply gorgeous…… Best friends since childhood, Fern Chambers and Stella Shaw have been through everything together and are at a crossroads in their lives.
Carefree Stella has a monumental secret and down trodden Fern’s happy life is not all it seems.
With their 40th birthdays approaching, a luxury holiday to the island of Capri is a chance for them to reconnect, let their hair down and celebrate in style. But untold truths and frustration bubble beneath the surface, turning what should be a holiday of a lifetime into an opportunity to make life-changing decisions.
Far from home, where anything feels possible, secrets are revealed, heartache is shared, love discovered and new friendships forged.
Will their Italian dream turn into a nightmare or lead to newfound happiness?

Stella won a huge lottery and planed an expensive getaway together with her bestie Fern and daughters to celebrate their 40th birthday. A time for them to reconnect and celebrate in style. However, it is far from what Stella expected. It was in this trip, that Fern comes to know something that both Stella and her own daughter is hiding.

It is a story of relationships, expectation and dreams. 2 besties away from their usual day to day life are force to face their own issues and make changes in their life for the better. Both Stella and Fern are very different but share the same vulnerability. Both of them lacking in confident in facing their own relationship. There is a twist in the story at the end.Overall it is a beautifully written that captured my attention from the first page.

*review post scheduled to be published on my blog on 11/8/22*

Stella and Fern are best friends and have been since they were at school, they are both approaching their 40th birthday.
Stella has won the lottery but doesn't say how much and offers to treat Fern and her family to a holiday on Capri so they can celebrate their birthdays.
What should have been a relaxing fun time turns out to be anything but as secrets that have been hidden for years finally come out

Kate frost does it again. Kate's descriptions in her books are always glorious and they always transport you to gorgeous sunny locations. Where you want to sit on the beach, enjoy the sunshine and rewind and relax. It also has a plethora of wonderful characters, plenty of laugh out loud moments and a gorgeous element of romance running all the way throughout. Joyous.

A beautifully written book. You can see the sun, smell the food and feel the heartbreak. Wonderfully evocative of the region and season, a perfect summer read.

How can you not have a beautiful amazing time with your oldest friend while traveling in Italy? Well you can have a bad time when a lingering secret is revealed changing the course of their friendship in a flash.

Pure escapism, great for reading by the pool or beach with a cocktail in your hand! I was transported to capri and Tuscany. Friendship and love what more can u wish for.

5 Word Review: Family, love, loyalty, wealth, secrets.

What would you do if you won the lottery? I have ideas of what I'd like to do, and you know what? A luxury holiday in Capri sounds just the ticket.

An Italian Dream was the perfect poolside read. It begs to be read on a hot sunny beach. You will want to pick it up on a long summer's evening in the garden. It's just perfect.

Stella and Fern are both amazing character, living rather different lives. Fern is married, perhaps not happily, with two grown daughters who have flown the nest. Stella is twice divorced but not on bad terms, and although her oldest is grown, her son is still young enough to split time between her and her ex.

They have such an amazing friendship, and I want to be like that with my besties in ten years time. But their friendship is tested in this book: are there some betrayals you cannot heal from?

I loved the themes explored in this book: friendship, family, love, trust, betrayal. Emotions were high

Kate Frost has yet again worked magic with the setting: I. Was. There. As much as I loved the luxury of Stella's experience, I loved the sound of Fern's more. I like a quiet life, and the thought of the retreat is just amazing.

I can't wait to read more of Kate Frost's books, they're fast becoming an auto-buy author.

This has been a gorgeously uplifting, escapist and thought provoking read. Kate ensures that her readers are completely immersed in the setting and scenario in which she places her characters. The story quickly moves from Britain to colourful, vibrant and idyllic Capri. This is just one example of her precise, picturesque descriptions:

“The villa itself was hidden by a forest of cypress, oak and olive trees. Glimpses of honey-coloured stone emerged from among the Mediterranean foliage.”

You immediately feel as if you there and this also helps to connect with the characters. Although both characters are found to be harbouring secrets, I do still find them to be mostly likeable and sympathetic characters. I also appreciated that, in this book, Kate makes slightly older characters the focus. This allows for a more developed back story that feels believable and authentic.

This is a book about rediscovering your sense of self and self-worth, finding happiness and taking calculated risks. I was really hoping that both Fern and Stella would show bravery and strength of character in order to embrace all that Capri has to offer.

The multiple perspectives are a vital and effective plot device, especially when Stella and Fern go their separate ways, as well as being able to reveal their secrets to the reader. This builds tension and leaves us waiting in anticipation as we witness the fal fall-out of this.

I was totally captivated by how this one would unfold and ultimately satisfied by its message about self-discovery and new beginnings. A great choice for fans of Maddie Please, Sandy Barker and Lucy Coleman.

Stella has recently won the lottery. She decides to take a trip to Italy with her best friend Fern. The lottery will change winners lives but this trip will change everyone’s life when secrets are revealed. This book was not my favorite and at times it dragged on. I was not a fan of the character Stella. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Fabulous summer reading.

Stella and Fern couldn’t be more different but are best friends following similar paths until Stella wins a life changing sum of money.

Stella is determined to help Fern find herself but Stella’s past drops a spanner in their friendship.

I love the relationships in this novel. Told from both Stella and Ferns perspectives family plays a pivotal role both real and self made. Edith and Matteo provide Fern comfort in different ways and strong bonds are formed.

A fabulous summer read well worth a read with an iced drink and nibbles.

I enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and something I would probably like to take on holiday with me. Great beach read.

I really enjoyed my trip to Italy with Stella, Fern and their girls. The setting was absolutely gorgeous and with the descriptions it was so easy to picture it and practically feel the sun on my skin.

I definitely liked Fern a lot more than Stella as I could not relate to Stella or how she behaved and the secrets she had kept.

I smiled quite a bit while reading this story and I was also rather moved during some of the hard times, but to be honest I felt like I was missing part of the story after the truth came out... it moved a little too quickly over how that affected these best friends for my liking.

Kate Frost writes sweet, romantic women's fiction and I had liked her previous work "One Greek Summer" to some extent. So, when I got the opportunity to receive an ARC for this book, I wanted to give another book of her's a try, to see if I can grow to love her work.

An Italian Dream immerses us into the stories of best friends Stella and Fern. They have both been best friends since childhood and are closer to each other, than their respective families. Stella's unexpected windfall of winning the lottery, gives her the idea of renting a property in Capri to celebrate their upcoming 40th birthday together.

What follows is an account of the different paths each of them had taken and how it converges during their stay in this idyllic Italian town. The story is told alternately between Stella and Fern, in their points of view; we travel along with them as they come to terms with what their life is and what is the new path they have to take, so as to do justice to the kind of person they have become. In that way, this story is also about self-discovery and moving forward in life when life throws unexpected turns towards us.

This story is meant to be a light, summer read and in a way it is. We travel along with the characters to the scenic Italian town of Capri and experience the gorgeous beauty of the place, through these people's eyes. The author also has managed to bring all the characters in the story to life, giving every one of them depth and substance. However, I felt the story was quite long and could have been made shorter. Both Stella and Fern tend to ramble someone sometimes and that was tedious to read. There were also places where I felt like asking the author to move on to the next scene already.

Overall, it's an apt book if you are looking for something light to read this summer while idling during holidays, if you don't mind reading certain lengthy deliberation and thoughts.

My turn on the blog tour.

If there is a book I could jump in and be part of, this is it! Escapism as it’s finest.
I got swept away in the stunning Italian back drop, the romance, the food/drink, the pretty places of Capri, Positano, Tuscany and even the craziness of Naples. It was definitely an Italian dream!

I was captivated from the beginning and adored this very much. I literally whizzed through it.

What I really loved :

•Friendships - The connection between Fern and Stella. I really enjoyed getting to know both of them and their stories. Also Edith, I found her lovely and a right little treasure. I am also a big fan of solo travel so was intrigued by her story.
•Watching characters grow and be taken on a journey.
•Secrets - just wow and they kept you guessing.
•Romance - love a sweet bit of love and lust!
•Beautiful descriptive writing - The way the setting was written really was amazing. Capri is something else out this world and the author captured this perfectly.
•Also how the food and drink was written - My mouth was watering the whole time, I was hungry and craving it all, especially a limoncello 🍋
•Major Below Deck vibes from this 🛥

I cannot rave enough about this book and would definitely recommend picking it up this summer.

Escape to beautiful Italy in Kate Frost’s charming An Italian Dream.

This story is like a vacation in a book. I just loved all the descriptions of Capri: the gorgeous scenery, the fabulous food. I couldn’t get enough of it. Similar to Kate’s previous book One Greek Summer, she will have you believing you can feel the Mediterranean breeze in your hair.

I liked both the main characters in this book though Fern really stood out for me. Although she’s lost a bit of herself over the years, she is kind, a great mom, and stuck to her values. I really liked that this book featured characters entering their forties. I wish there were more books featuring characters in midlife. Secondary character Edith is also terrific. We should all be so lucky to have an Edith in our life.

I would say this one is a breezy read. Although some secrets are revealed and there is a bit of drama, nothing too traumatising happens. You can easily gobble this one up in a sitting. Romance wise there is enough steam to make things believable but most of the action is behind closed doors.

If you are looking for a beach read that will transport you away to somewhere more exotic, give this one a try.

Thank you, Boldwood Books and Rachel’s Random Resources for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this novel was going to be about Stella's lottery win, but that was a minor point, or so it seemed. This novel was really Fern's story. I did like Fern, but I felt some of the passages where we learnt her thoughts went on for too long. Loved the descriptions of Capri. This was realistic I suppose, but I couldn't get past what Stella did to her supposed best friend. With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a fabulous setting for a book and so well described that by the end I felt as if I knew my way around Capri. Of course, that now means another location to add to my bucket list.

I loved the two main characters and their shared history. Stella, it seems has a secret that she hasn't shared with anyone yet there is a second secret that threatens their friendship. A beautiful story of friendship and the power of women. This book will go on my favourites list.

What a wonderful story set in a gorgeous destination, full of sunshine, cocktails and food with the added addition of wonderful friendships both old and new.

I loved meeting Stella & Fern and learning about their friendship and looking back over the past 20 years as they both head towards their 40th birthdays. Fern fell pregnant with her twins at just 18 years old and so her life took a very unexpected turn, whilst her best friend although she fell pregnant young has lived a very different life.

I love books by Kate Frost, she always takes us to beautiful destinations that make you feel as if you are really there and soaking in the atmosphere alongside the wonderful characters that she creates.

A truly wonderful summer read, that is perfect for a lazy day in the sun to make you want to reach for your cocktail glass and soak up the summer rays.