I really enjoy romantic novels, but there are many problems with "The Italian Girl". The biggest one is that the main character's love interest is extremely unlikable. I kept hoping that Rosanna would get over this sexist and move on. I get that love can be illogical, but the way this toxic relationship was labelled as a love story really frustrated me, and made me feel like Rosanna's character didn't evolve much over the years.
There are things I liked about the novel though, for example, the subplot with Rosanna's older brother Luca who is torn between becoming a priest and giving himself to the girl he loves. I also enjoyed the scheming Donatella Bianchi who is one of Roberto's mistresses. She reminded me of a soap opera character.
The author jumps around a lot, with many short parts within each chapter, which could have been expanded with more descriptions of the locations and characters, something that is lacking throughout the novel. It made many scenes feel rushed.
"The Italian Girl" was originally released back in 1996 as "Aria", but Riley reworked it for this new 2014 edition. Sadly, she didn't rework it enough in my opinion. The book is okay and I don't regret reading it, but it could have been a lot better. I've been told that the author's latter books are much better so I might give them a try.
