Chasing the Italian Dream: Escape and unwind with bestselling author Jo Thomas

Lucia's promotion to partner in a Welsh law firm is almost assured when she goes to visit her grandparents in Italy. But when she gets to Italy she finds out her Nonno (granddad) is thinking of retiring and selling the family pizzeria, he desperately wants to pass the pizzeria on to a member of the family but Lucia's brother has his own successful business in Wales. Then in an added blow, her Nonno announces that he will instead give the pizzeria to Lucia's estranged husband Giacomo. Lucia and Giacomo have been separated, but not divorced, for seven years. Lucia can't bear the idea of her family's heritage being transformed into a chain coffee shop by some conglomerate, but even worse would be to see her family's traditions trashed by Giacomo and his quest for new flavour combinations as a pizzaiolo, a master pizza-maker. When he tells her he intends to install an electric oven to bake his pizzas it's the last straw. Nonno agrees to a limited period competition between Lucia and Giacomo, the two of them will cook their pizzas in the restaurant. Whoever sells the most pizzas by the time of the annual Bocce competition on 31 August will win the restaurant. But because Nonno believes the village would not stand for a pizzaiola (a woman master pizza-maker) the competition must be a secret. Lucia may have grown up helping her Nonno make the pizza dough and adding the toppings, but she has never physically made a pizza before in the wood oven. At first it seems like an impossible task, especially when Giac uses all the ingredients, but then Lucia's Nonna (grandmother) introduces her to the Nonna-network, the unsung women who grow the ingredients and cook at home while the menfolk get all the glory in the restaurants. This book should come with a warning, or two. First its all about pizza-making so you end up craving a handmade wood-fired pizza with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and rocket. Second, everyone is forever drinking wine and grappa so by 3pm I was also craving a glass of something Italian to wash it down with! I thoroughly enjoyed this, there were no surprises but it was a fun read and I could almost smell the Italian coffee as I read the book. I was invited to read this book by the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Enjoyable story set in a lovely Italian setting. Lucia is having her usual two week holiday with her grandparents in Italy, when she learns that her grandparents are retiring and selling their pizzeria. Then she finds out she has been passed over yet again for a promotion she's been working hard for at home in Wales. Then to add insult to injury she finds out that the new owner of the pizzeria may be her not quite ex-husband. So she re-evaluates her life and decides that she's staying in Italy and wants to run the pizzeria, but it's only a small village and a woman running a pizzeria is unheard of and since a lot of the residents are mostly stuck in the past, also unwanted. Her grandfather is very nervous about Lucia 'ruining her life' by letting her run it, so they agree on a secret competition between Lucia and her nearly ex-husband Giacomo to see who sells the most pizzas and wins the pizzeria. I really enjoyed the way Lucia gathered her group of women to help her, and in doing so helped them all out in their lives too, made them more independent or changed the path they were on. I did find it a bit sudden that something Lucia had been working towards for years as a lawyer in Wales was suddenly dumped and she decided she wanted to run a pizza restaurant in Italy instead, quite a big change! And I did find her just a tiny bit irritating too. But in the whole a really enjoyable story set in a beautiful setting. A real laid back holiday-reading book!