Welcome to the review tour for Interwoven by Michelle Montebello, hosted by Goddess Fish Promotions. Visit the various stops along the tour to read all of our reviews and to have more chances to win a $20 gift card to Amazon or Barnes and Noble. You can also download a copy of this book for just 99 cents during the tour, as I did. Please note that I do have affiliate links in this post and should you make a purchase through one of these, I may earn a small commission to help support my websites at no extra cost to you. Thanks for stopping by and remember to leave a comment for Michelle!
Interwoven
Belle Hamilton is a romantic at heart. She's engaged to the love of her life and dreams of marriage, children and a happily ever after. Belle’s world is close to perfect until one afternoon she makes a decision she can't take back.
In the blink of an eye, Belle’s life spirals out of control. She loses everything that is dear to her and is forced to flee to the other side of the world where she meets Andrea, a local bartender from Rome, and develops an unexpected connection with him.
Can they break through the complications of past hurts and a long-distance relationship to make it work or will one terrifying night in Paris end it before it had a chance to begin?
In the blink of an eye, Belle’s life spirals out of control. She loses everything that is dear to her and is forced to flee to the other side of the world where she meets Andrea, a local bartender from Rome, and develops an unexpected connection with him.
Can they break through the complications of past hurts and a long-distance relationship to make it work or will one terrifying night in Paris end it before it had a chance to begin?
Read an excerpt:
Prologue
Paris, France
She looked around for him but he was no longer beside her. The smell of gunfire was acrid in the air. Everything moved in slow motion—shots darted past her ears, plates shattered on tables, bodies fell against her. She heard the torturous moans of the injured and saw the eerie stillness of the dead.
She searched for him amidst the carnage. She needed to hold his hand, to feel him beside her; to reassure her again that they would be okay. She saw him lying motionless on the floor beside a chair, his eyes closed, deathly still. Belle dropped to the ground with a heartbreaking sob as blood pooled around his head. She saw the wound above his right eye. Small, round, perfectly fatal.
Her ears filled with the sound of her screams. She pulled him to her and cradled his head in her lap. She didn’t know how long she sat there with the gaping injury to his head staining her jeans. She sat there until she felt the barrel of a shotgun press against her head.
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Apparently it is the season of contemporary romance novels revolving around a second chance at life in Italy. And I have to say that I can't blame authors for choosing that locale. It is truly a romantic place and one ripe for starting over, which is exactly what Belle ends up doing with her best friend Riley by her side.
Belle is a very likable character and you can't help but feel sorry for her after she finds her fiance in bed with another woman. You give her major kudos for getting a little bit of revenge against the two of them in a very public fashion. And you can't help but be a little jealous that she has the ability to jet off across the world on her parents' dime (and supplemented by her best friend) to try to find herself again. To her credit, though, she is determined to make it on her own and does land herself a job to help earn her keep.
The lively Avery and her family are the breath of fresh air that Belle needs as she tries to mend her broken heart. They all complement each other well. Riley is the balancing opposite to Belle, a lot more impulsive and wild, which helps Belle to break out of her quiet plotted life. Then you have the lovely Andrea and the elusive and strange Roberto. I want to smack her parents, but more her father than her mother, because I feel like her mother is trying a little bit to understand and help her daughter.
I love the descriptions of the Italian locales and foods. The rich descriptions simply make me want to go there even more. You start feeling warm and fuzzy about how everything is going.
And then all of a sudden, the whole story takes a few bizarre twists. The twists jarred me a bit and I lost my connection to the story. Or possibly it was just that there were so many of them. I almost thought of the strange twists that happened in the Bridget Jones series. They felt a bit out of place and made me lose touch with the story for a while. And yet, I was still intrigued by Bridget's story and kept on going with the series, even after those weird twists. I kind of feel the same with Belle's story. Despite her weird implausible twists, timely as they may be, I still want to know what is going to happen next. I know that a sequel is coming, because there was a preview at the end of this one. And I want to read it.
I do know that other people will not be as thrown by these twists as I was and won't mind them. I do think that the love story, the fantastic Italian food, and the second chance romance aspects of the book make it worth the quick read.
About Michelle Montebello
Michelle Montebello was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, where she lives with her husband and two young children. She has always had a passion for reading, writing and the dramatic arts and she spent most of her childhood immersed in books, writing stories and performing in plays.
She has worked full-time in the corporate sector since 1998. It wasn't until she completed a writing course with James Patterson that she was inspired to write and publish her first novel, Interwoven, in 2017.
In addition to her writing, she also has a passion for travel and loves to combine her two favourite things - creative writing and travelling - to create vibrant worlds for her characters to explore.
When this busy mum is not working, chasing little ones or searching under beds for monsters, she can be found reading, writing or plotting her next story.
Social Media Links:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/michellemontebelloauthor/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/michellemontebelloauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/michelle_monteb
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Yes, the location is a favorite.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mary. One of my favorite places (and cuisine to eat too!)
DeleteI enjoyed getting to know your book; congrats on the tour and I hope it is a fun one for you :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa! Nice to hear from you again.
DeleteGood luck in the giveaway xxx
Glad you enjoyed, even through the bumps along the way.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
Thanks for stopping by Sherry! Hope you joined the giveaway and good luck xxx
DeleteThanks for sharing the great excerpt!
ReplyDeleteHey Victoria! Thanks for stopping by again. Great to hear from you and good luck in the giveaway xxx
DeleteThank you for hosting Andi and for your lovely review. It is much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteBook 2 (A House of Lies) is now available!
Hope everyone enjoys the tour and good luck in the giveaway :)
Michelle xxx
Thanks for stopping by Nikolina. Good luck in the giveaway! xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting the giveaway. This looks like a fun read. Thanks for sharing. Bernie Wallace BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
ReplyDelete