Review of 'A Very Italian Wedding' by Donna Ashcroft
Release date: June 5th, 2025
Publisher: Bookouture
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REVIEW
Well done to Donna Ashcroft for another delightful novel that lifts and encourages the heart! This enemies to lovers’ romance set in Italy has lots of Donna Ashcroft charm. As always, it is well written with beautiful descriptions that put the reader in the centre of a stunning location.
In A Very Italian Wedding, we are dealing with a seriously flawed leading character. To be honest, Rose is not very likeable at times (nor is she supposed to be) due to her judgemental attitude and unrealistic rules but after a series of events, her world and views are turned upside down and she has to admit maybe she does not know as much as she thinks about love. She may be called by her regular clients the ‘Love Doctor’ in her relationship psychologist role, but her advice and views are tarnished by her parents who race into romantic liaisons, get married quickly only to end up divorced. Rose has been caught in their crossfire more than once. This draws sympathy from us as we know she has been shaped by repeated negative family experiences. And it has given her a jaded view of relationships as she measures every one by her parents’ failures. She does not have faith in ‘love at first sight experiences’ which has now happened to someone she cares deeply about: her best friend, Luna. So, although she is on her way from England to Italy to her best friend’s wedding, she has one mission, to talk her out of getting married. But on the plane she meets the groom’s best man, Ben, and he challenges her rigid beliefs. This sets up the story with lots of expected conflicts.
The tension mounts when Rose arrives, as everything begins to come undone. So many things go wrong and she is challenged on all sides as she encounters a very superstitious family and one member is a clairvoyant. The groom’s older family members definitely go against her fact laden viewpoint.
Handsome best man, Ben Pearson, is determined to keep the couple together while she is bent on the opposite. This puts them at odds and places them in some awkward positions but Rose Loveheart is determined to prove her point.
Ben is a wonderful character with a good heart who gets to share his viewpoint. He also goes through some dramatic changes but he is always likeable—especially when he won’t go along with a scheme to deceive Rose. Of course, you know from the start, these two will clash but also unite eventually—yet not until there have been some serious changes in their lives.
This novels addresses the fact that no marriage is perfect as no two persons are but through communication, understanding and forgiveness— situations can be resolved and that arguments in marriage are part of the fabric of wedding bliss.
Coco the dog is an amazing character with attitude plus and Rose’s reference to him as a demon is quite humorous at times. But he plays an important part in restoration and helping her overcome fear making us see that even dog’s can bring about change!
Rose redeems herself at the end as she manages to fix so many messed up relationships but not before she has altered her thinking. And these changes put the sparkle in the ending. Her transformation is quite dramatic and by the end we smile and breathe a sigh of relief that she has learned valuable lessons and put those revelations to use in helping others by restoring the broken relationships that transpire over the story. So in that respect, Rose becomes the hero! She cares about her friend and her family-in-law so what she does to bring back balance into their lives is done out of love, from the heart, not from head knowledge (which was flawed to begin with). And that means we are given a happy ending!
Donna’s stories always provide wonderful characters we care about, animals that we adore (though Coco was a bit different at first!), relationship issues that need rectification, themes that makes us feel love is essential in our lives and stunning settings that whisk us away as if we have gone on vacation. A Very Italian Wedding is all these things— along with being sincere, honest, heartfelt and pure. Thanks once again to Donna Ashcroft for another great story that tackles beliefs and restores the need for romance in our lives. Loved it! 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for a review copy.
