Book Review | Prosecco and Promises

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?

 

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Prosecco and Promises will be published on the 12th February 2018.

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After reading Cocktails and Dreams last year as soon as I saw that A.L. Michael had another book out I knew I had to read it and I am so glad that I did!

This book was wonderful. It was great to get to know Mia after meeting her in Cocktails and Dreams, she was the one to tell it like it is in that book but in Prosecco and Promises, you see that there is a lot more to her. She has such a strong facade and it was really interesting how she handles being sent away and having to actually deal with the things that have happened to her.

I actually found this book really emotional, there were times that I was reduced to tears, but also strangely very uplifting, Mia’s excitement over exploring the history of the island and the treasures in the shop reached out to me and gave me that happy glow when you feel passionate about something.

It was nice to have that balance and it really added a lot of depth to the story that I wouldn’t have maybe picked up on from looking at the cover or reading the blurb.

Mia and Salvatore were amazing together, this wasn’t an instant spark and they were besotted this was more of a slow burn, an enjoyment of spending time together, that felt so natural. I loved the coffee and its symbolism! (you’ll just have to read it if you want to know what that means!)

The setting of Ischia was fantastic, I definitely wanted to be transported there and could even convince myself that I could feel the warmth even though it was wintery outside. Of course, the loud Italian family that go with it were also lovely to hear about, it was nice getting a lot of Mia’s background this way.

In the same vein as the first book there were a lot of yummy food references and also some tasty sounding drinks, I think I will definitely be giving the cocktail recipe a try.

It was nice to hear from Savvy, Jacques and Bel, who featured in Cocktails and Dreams, but you don’t really need to have read that to enjoy this one, although it is also a really good book!

Prosecco and Promises is a lovely story, with a fabulous setting and a wonderful bunch of characters and manages to pull off an emotional but hopeful tone. This is a story that you can easily get wrapped up in and I can’t wait to see what comes next.

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Reviews of other A.L. Michael books

Cocktails and Dreams

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