Italian Rendezvous

A sun-drenched, witty summer romance set along the glittering Italian Riviera, perfect for readers who dream of pesto, limoncello, and falling in love somewhere far from home.

After her fiancé abruptly ends their engagement and her beloved grandmother dies, Isla’s carefully ordered life in San Francisco collapses in one spectacularly undignified heap.

So when her grandmother’s stories of a childhood spent on the Italian Riviera begin calling to her, Isla does the only sensible thing a heartbroken history professor can do: she books a one-way ticket to Mare Sereno, a tiny coastal town on the Ligurian Sea, with plans to spend the summer drowning her sorrows in pesto, limoncello, and absolutely no romantic complications.

Then she meets Enzo.

A charming, Vespa-riding local with a dangerous smile and a philosophy of dolce far niente, Enzo is everything Isla has spent her life avoiding: spontaneous, infuriatingly relaxed, and far too good at making her forget her rules.

After a disastrous first encounter involving broken pottery, spilled coffee, and one very bruised ego, Enzo offers to show Isla the real Riviera: hidden beaches, sunlit villages, tangled alleyways, and seaside dinners that last long after the stars come out. Isla tells herself she’s only saying yes for the adventure. For the history. For the view.

Definitely not for the man.

But the more time Isla spends with Enzo, the harder it becomes to ignore the spark between them, or the version of herself waking up under the Italian sun: freer, braver, and maybe ready to want something she never planned for.

As summer slips away, Isla must decide whether to return to the safe life waiting for her back home, or risk everything for a future as unpredictable as the man who taught her how to live again.