appreciate NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review My Big Fat Italian Breakup. I enjoyed the boom and could identify with Erica and her feelings about her weight. I found it an enjoyable summer read. I did t read the first book in the series, but I will go back and read It.

Rating : 3 out of 5
Blurbs :
Erica Cantelli has found her Mr. Right. Hasn't she...?

After a long overdue divorce, Erica has finally made it to Italy with her two children and, amazingly, her now dreamy fiancé Julian Foxham.

The plan was to start fresh and for Erica to run a country B&B, but two years in and her business is failing miserably, while Julian's career as a novelist is soaring and taking him all over the world with his gorgeous agent.

Despite having set a wedding date, with every day that goes by, their dreams are heading in opposite directions. And when her sexy Italian chef Alberto offers her a shoulder to cry on – as the saying goes, When in Rome...

Now Erica needs to decide what she wants her future to look like. Will their wedding cake hold together or are she and Julian skating on thin icing?

Thoughts : I have mixed feelings throughout this book. So I conclude you're either going to love this book or hate it. It's kind of giving me a hard time to actually connect and like the characters, especially Erica. It's kinda slow too. Unfortunately, this book is not for me but it's on me. I still highly recommend this book to any romance readers out there! Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!

A fun beach read that had many laugh out loud moments. Erica has moved to Tuscany with her two children and her fiancé to run a B&B, which unfortunately isn’t doing too well. While Erica struggles with her business Julian’s work as an author takes off and he spends a lot of time in other countries at book signings. Erica had a bad break up from her first marriage which has left her lacking in confidence and over thinking situations.

I enjoyed the book but got a bit fed up with the parts about Erica’ body shape and weight - I think this went on too much and spoilt a good story.

**I received this e-arc form NetGalley & Head of Zeus in exchange for an honest review**

4.5 stars rounded up

I absolutely adored this book!! it’s such a cute & fun summer read, and the pacing made it easy to finish in a day. Although I didn’t realize this book was the second book in a series before I started it, the author gives plenty of information to set the scene, and I feel like this book could be read as a stand-alone. The characters were funny, and I was rooting for them (most of the time.) The only reason I give this a 4.5 and not a 5 is because sometimes I felt the MC was a little too whiny, which caused me not to root for her as much. Other than that, it was a very fun read!

I made sure to read The Husband Diet before tackling this one. It was a fun and easy read and the characters were endearing. Erica was a little frustrating and her relationship with food and body image didn’t do her any favors which made the book very repetitive and sometimes drawn out. A lot of the conflict seemed forced. Overall, I enjoyed the descriptions of Tuscany and its food as well as the characters - old and new but the book felt repetitive.

Quick funny read about a heroine that overthinks about things she shouldn't. Lighthearted and witty.

A lovely summer read with likeable characters and a wonderful story arc I had a lovely weekend reading this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the novel.

I had trouble connecting to this book, but it may be since I did not read the first in the series. The main character was too uptight. I just didn't love it.

I cannot, in good faith, recommend this book. I felt like I was trapped in a delusional Erica's spiralling mind and I couldn't keep up or get out.

Throughout the entire story, she constantly and continuously flips back and forth between Julian is the best, most loving partner and he's a (unfounded) potentially cheating bastard. The poor dude was literally just working the whole time. He was also the one who was always trying to pin down a wedding date even though Erica kept blaming him for it not happening.

Additionally (and I know that I was commenting in this in my progress updates), but the self-deprecating fat jokes were too much for me. I didn't find them funny, I found them hurtful and toxic. It's the one consistent thing at the forefront of her mind, and the reader is just trapped in her self-destructive thought patterns about food and weight. It's just too much.

On top of that, Erica's body issues are projected on literally every person she interacts with - even her children are aware of Mommy not eating pasta today bc she needs to fit into a dress - it made me shudder with revulsion. And bc of Erica's obsession with weight and body issues, the reader doesn't get to know any of the other characters beyond the most vapid surface descriptions. We know that Renata has big boobs (she's her BEST female friend and THAT'S what we know about her), Paul is thin and I guess what she deems a textbook gay man (He's been her BEST FRIEND since childhood and he's basically chalked up to a cartoon), Julian is built like a God, and poor Sienna is a bombshell with a perfect body, so obviously (in Erica's mind) not to be trusted (even though she's a hardworking agent who is literally helping Julian with his career and trying to keep him closer to home for his family). I hated that people were just categorized by their body types and not given much credit for who they were as people.

Add the flip-flopping between American and British English and the grammatical errors to boot and I just wanted the entire book to end ASAP- I really had to force myself to finish this to give an honest review.

Terrible, just terrible.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for sharing this digital ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

Let's meet the cast of this book. We have yh leading lady Erica, Ber two children and her fiance Julian.

Erica has decided to uproot her family and to live her dream running a b&b in th country. However it isn't really going to plan and instead of living the dream Erica is feeling disappointed and like a failure. Whereas bet fiance is jet setting all over the world with his agent bring a best selling author.

Erica and Julian are planning to get married however the amount of time they are spending apart is making them drift apart.

Are they able to fix their relationship or is it time that they go their own way?

This is a good book. About the struggles of life and trying to juggle all of the responsibilities in life. It is a well written book , with some very sweet moments in it.

Sadly I couldn't finish this one. In researching this book I realized it's book 2 in a series and I haven't read book 1. But this story follows Erica post divorce and living in Italy. I felt some of the MC actions were childish and immature and I did not enjoy how insecure and whiny she was.

Ok, not sure how I feel about the book in general, I don't like that it just created a whole problem just to get a sequel , but well
The book was nice, the story was a little bit too much for me, but overall i will give it 3 stars
Erica did drive me nuts like seriously. And well i think julian blow everything out of proportion.
Anyway, totally will recommend it, but definitely not one of my top reads

I did not read the first book in the series but didn’t feel like I was missing too much. I was not fond of this book. The main character was not very likable.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I did not realize going into this that it was the second in a series/a sequel to the author's first book. She does explain and make references to things to help the reader along, Although the characters were well formed and the plot line interesting, I just couldn't get into the text or feel a lot of sympathy for Erica. I liked her relationship with Renata at first, but her relationships with her stepmother and aunts "The Ms" just felt forced. I also wish that the author had found a different way to present Erica's struggles with weight loss and body image insecurity. It is of course very relatable to feel not great about your body, especially as an older female, but the insistence upon it throughout the text became tiresome. The lush descriptions of Tuscany were beautiful, but the fun tone of the cover and description were not matched by the full novel.

I'm thankful to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC to review.

Erica thought moving to Tuscany with her fiance Julian and her kids would be terrific and she was over the moon about the chance to run her own B&B. But now, two years in, the B&B is struggling. And, Julian's become a best selling author. That's great except he's not around much and her insecurities just soar. Luckily, or not, Alberto who works as her chef is more than happy to listen to her. You know how this is going to go- or do you? I liked Erica, who has issues with those who have issues with her weight and the other characters are terrific as well. AND the setting! thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A fun read.

Thank you NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.5/5 stars (rounded up to 4)

We follow Erica Cantelli who moved to Italy with her two children and fiancé Julian. She is recently divorced and she wanted to start fresh with her new family. However, she has spent the past two years trying to grow her B and B but it is not doing as well as she had hoped. Her fiancé on the other hand is a successful author who spends a lot of time promoting his books and traveling. Despite trying to plan their wedding, she feels like things aren’t working out the way that she wants them to and turns to her sexy Italian chef’s shoulder to cry on.
*
I didn’t realize when I requested this book on NetGalley that it was the second in a series that I haven’t read yet. I struggled a bit at times with some of the information even though the author did a good job helping the readers try to understand the backstory and what happened in the first book. I thought it was a cute and fun story that provided good laughter at times. I did struggle with the way her body was portrayed at times because I felt like it was just constantly being referred to in a negative light instead of being confident in her skin. It was definitely triggering at times when the mother would make negative comments towards her body. Overall, I thought it was a good story and if you can get past all the other things, I thought it was definitely enjoyable and I loved picturing the setting of Tuscany throughout the book!

Lovely story about Erica and the people around her. What I liked was that this was a book about a relationship after having children and all the dynamics of having a step family. Erica even has a step mother too. So I loved all the family dynamics (and dramas!)

Loved that it talked of Nutella and some lovely sweet treats. Also, set in a gorgeous location. So this book has all the feels for a rom-Com.

Many thanks for letting me review this book on NetGalley for an honest review.

This book was fun. I didn't read the first book in this series but I feel like the author introduced the characters and backstory well so it didn't feel like I was missing out on too much. This book was fun and messy and overall very entertaining. I loved all of the descriptions of Tuscany and the olive groves. One thing I wish was health with better was the topic of ericas body image. It bugged me so much how negative everything was surrounding HER body. Since it was a prevalent topic in this book I wish it was dealt with in a better way where erica came to love her body or become more confident. As a whole, this book was enjoyable and a very quick read.

My Big Fat Italian Break-up
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Romance
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 7/21/22
Author: Nancy Barone
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Pages: 320
Goodreads Rating: 3.92

Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for providing a digital advanced readers copy of the book for me to read for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: After a failed marriage, Erica Cantelli has finally made it to Italy with her two children- and, amazingly, their delicious school principal Julian Foxham. The plan was for him to run the farm and for her to run her the country B&B, A Taste of Tuscany. Two years in, however, her business is failing miserably, while Julian's career as a novelist is soaring. As is he, jetting off with his younger- and gorgeous- publicist. When she discovers that a rival B&B is scheming to run her into the ground, Erica, a former hotel manager and butt-kicker extraordinaire who has been a ‘dormant’ housewife until now, finally unleashes all her cut-throat instincts to fight back and protect her family’s livelihood.

My Thoughts: This was a follow up book and I did struggle a little bit, even though the author did make an attempt to provide some backstory from the first book in this series. As a person who has always struggled with their weight and body image, and while appreciating our MC is a plus size heroine, I just felt the topic could have been more positively attacked rather than negative. Tuscan was described beautifully and I felt like I was part of it. The characters could of used a little more embellishment since this is a book in a series and not all readers would have read the prior books. While this was a good book, it could have been better with what I mentioned before. I would try other books by this author.

A fun read about a beautiful B & B in Tuscany, Italy. The innkeeper is following her dream and is concerned about bookings being down. Her fiance is pressuring her to secure a wedding date.
Enjoy this lovely beach read!