About Books #34: Accidentally in Love

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten any book reviews in. Quite frankly, January completely kicked my bum. I’m telling you – I had so many plans to get all the reading in. And it just didn’t happened. In my defence, I spend 4 days taking oral exams, 6 days supervising written exams ànd the rest of the time correcting about 350 exams. Luckily, there’s been some reprieve. Long live Netgalley for the ARC’s, and long live Anna Premoli’s Accidentally in Love and its perfect escapism!

I was offered an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed are strictly my own.

So Accidentally in Love was actually already published in Italian last year, and is now getting its release in English. Lucky for me, cuz – while I understand Latin? Reading Italian is just not gonna be happening any time soon 🙂

Story

“Sara Di Giovanni is a successful lawyer in New York City: she is the star of her profession, an excellent role model to her very vivacious little sister, but has so far been unlucky in love…

Ethan Phelps is the rich playboy trouble-maker whose only talent in life is spending money and dating women… That is until Ethan’s father dies with no will to his name, leaving his two sons the legal heirs to his billion-dollar company.

Sara is forced to become the court-appointed guardian to handle Ethan‘s share of the fortune, as his family do not trust him to manage it himself. Sara thinks it should be easy, but it’s not so simple when Ethan is determined to get rid of her by whatever means necessary…

What ensues is a dramatic and hilarious power-play between Sara and Ethan… but what will happen when feelings start to get in the way?”

Characters

If you think you know what’s going to happen? You’re probably right. I mean, this is that kind of book. I was really pleasantly surprised by the way the romance was set up. Especially because, as you might expect from the description, there are definitely some ethical dilemma’s that need to be considered throughout this book.

First of all – I loved  the meet-cute. Again, it was semi-obvious, but it does give you the chance to meet Sara not “in function” with Ethan. Throughout the rest of the novel, that’s something of a rarity, so it was pleasant to actually get that little bit of insight into who she is.

Sure, even then, we mostly get to know her as opposed to her sister, but still.

(By the way – this might just me, but I felt as if there were a couple of set ups that could totally introduce a novel featuring just Sara’s sister, so I will be looking out for that!)

As for Ethan, I have some more remarks. Sure, he is made out to be understandably upset at his family. However, there’s some clear indications of actual mental problems (OCD, maybe? Anxiety? Alcoholism – affirmed). None of those excuse his behaviour – which, at times, is just down right mean. What’s more problematic to me? None of those seem to be resolved or properly addressed throughout the novel. The last one, a little. But come on – no one gets over their absolute phobia of germs by just sitting in a dirty cinema.

That’s not how it works!

Overall: 3/5

I originally  gave this one a 4 but looking back now – and especially because of the whole Ethan- thing, I felt compelled to take it down one star. What saves this novel? Its narration. There’s just enough detail and action to keep you interested, without going too far away from the prime romance.

In general, I had a really good time reading it – I literally got through it in just a couple of hours. Don’t expect too much of a deep story. Do get ready to go along on a wild ride of tricks, stubornness and some legal jargon. With a bit of romance thrown in, of course 😉

Accidentally in Love is out this Thursday! (February 1st), so definitely check it out on Amazon (affiliate link) if you feel like reading a fun love story that feels like it has some depth to it!

-Saar