Blog Tour Review: Prosecco and Promises by A.L. Michael

Prosecco and Promises (Martini Club #2) by A.L. Michael 

Published: 12th February 2018

Publisher: Canelo

Pages: 202

Available on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 5/5

Blurb

A feel-good story of self-discovery and love in the face of grief, join Mia in the beautiful Italian island of Ischia. Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Lindsey Kelk and Lucy Vine.

Since her mother died when Mia was a child, her dad has been her best friend and her idol. Now, the cancer he survived years before is back, and this time there’s no fighting it. To make matters worse her dad’s last request is for Mia to leave him and visit her mother’s family on the Italian island of Ischia so she doesn’t have to be there at the end.
Arriving at the sun-soaked island, Mia is embraced by the warm, crazy family she doesn’t know. While she waits for the phone to ring with the dreaded news, Mia desperately looks for a connection to the mother she never knew. Stumbling upon an antique shop run by the charming Antonio and his grouchy but handsome grandson Salvatore, she throws herself into helping with the shop restoration. As Mia and Salvatore’s bickering soon turns to chemistry, will she risk having her heart broken when she knows what’s waiting for her at home?

Review

Prosecco and Promises is the second novel in A.L Michael’s Martini Club series. I haven’t read the first book in this series Cocktails and Dreams yet but as I enjoyed Prosecco and Promises so much I intend to go back and read it very soon. Don’t worry if you haven’t read Cocktails and Dreams either as Prosecco and Promises focuses on another of the club’s regulars Mia and works perfectly well as a standalone novel.

Mia’s heart is on the verge of breaking. She’s losing her dad and instead of staying by his side until the end, he has sent her away to the island of Ischia near Naples to learn more about her mother’s family. Being among relatives is strange to Mia at first as its been just her and her dad for so long but and she resents being pushed away during his last few days. It’s not long before Mia starts to unwind and finds that being around people who care about her is something she could get used to. Her stay on the island is also helped by the handsome but arrogant Salvatore who Mia just can’t seem to stay away from.

I have always loved A.L. Michael’s ability to create sassy strong female characters and I think Mia is my favourite to date. She’s had a lot of hurt in her life which makes her blunt and a little closed off. She isn’t easily swayed by looks or meaningless gestures as Salvatore finds out, unlike the rest of the women on the island Mia doesn’t instantly fall at his feet, she stands her ground and is true to herself. I loved seeing her passion for history shine throughout the novel, especially on her trip to Naples with her endless questions to the tour guides. I’m glad she was brave enough after her fathers passing to embrace her dreams fully.

This is a wonderful book with some surprising twists throughout which added more depth to this gentle romance. It’s a book full characters which you can’t help but adore, some being very stereotypically Italian, but I loved them all. Enzo however was my favourite, I loved reading about all his over the top romantic gestures and had my fingers crossed he’d finally get his girl. It’s a book about family, passion and heartbreak. If you can read this and not be on the verge of tears at least once I’ll be impressed.  I feel the heart-breaking moments are perfectly balanced though with romance and laughter making this a perfect read.

I’m off to read Cocktails and Dreams now and learn more about Savvy, Mia’s best friend and keeping my fingers crossed that my guess for the next character to have their story told is correct. Thank you so much to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with this copy to review and for inviting me to be part of the blog tour, I loved everything about Prosecco and Promises.