Flirting in Italian by Lauren Henderson

Release Date: June 12, 2012

Four girls. One magical, and possibly dangerous Italian summer. Family mysteries, ancient castles, long hot nights of dancing under the stars . . . and, of course, plenty of gorgeous Italian boys!

Is that seriously the only synopsis we get? It sure is. And so we begin...

You know when you see a baby and you have the knee-jerk reaction to say how cute he/she is, when in reality the baby is ugly as sin? That's kind of the reaction I have to this book. Let me explain: I certainly didn't LOVE this book, but it wasn't awful. So my immediate reaction is to say that "it was cute" even when I really didn't like it very much. Knee-jerk.

Did it have sexy, steamy make-out scenes? It sure did! But did those make-out scenes make me want to vomit in my mouth a little bit by the end of the book? Also a yes. There is a trend, it seems, with books right now that is pushing the boundaries of propriety. This is one out of a handful of books that have had a similar ending--all the while I am thinking that I am enjoying a cute story with a little bit of mystery, and what I'm really doing is building up to a highly disappointing and rather frustratingly unnecessary ending.

Another unexpected twist--this is a series. Or, at least, there will be one more book. Which I thought was strange for a contemporary romance/chick lit type book. It's been a really long time since I've read a series that didn't have any kind of magical, mystical undertones. I can't decide if it will be a good thing in this case or not. It certainly would give the author time to clear up confusion one way or another about the ending. However, right now, I can say one way or another whether I'll read the next book. So far, I'm leaning towards no. But curiosity could get the better of me. It's happened before.

Happy Reading!

*I received this egalley from the publisher for the purpose of review.