Rome in Love: A Novel by Anita Hughes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rome in Love is an amazing, detailed book about a new actress who gets to be the Princess Ann in the remake of Roman Holiday that I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of from NetGalley. She is filming in Rome, Italy (my first love of travel). Rome in Love is about choices and sacrifices for doing the things that are close to our hearts. Amelia Tate, who oddly enough was pre-med in school, somehow is chosen o play Princess Ann in the remake of Roman Holiday. She leaves her long-time boyfriend whom she was already having a long-distance relationship with so that she could pursue her acting career in Hollywood and he could pursue a contract for his business in the San Francisco area. They seemed to be enduring until she was temporarily living in Rome, Italy during the filming of Roman Holiday which placed more strain on their relationship and eventually causes the relationship to fail.

Amelia meets a reporter, Philip, when her life seems to begin to mimic Roman Holiday when she pretends to be a maid at the hotel she where is staying so that she can sneak off and have a bit of peace and quiet and some time to herself. As they both fill their parts in this living remake of Roman Holiday they grow closer. In addition to meeting Philip, she also befriends Sophie, a woman that she begins to explore the city and other areas of Italy. They have a lot in common and create an enduring friendship that is one of the cornerstones of the book. Another of the great aspects of Rome in Love are the fabulous descriptions of Italy. Anita Hughes does a wonderful job of bringing Italy alive for the reader. She also does a great job of making the characters larger than life. There is a fascinating portion of this book that allows the reader to also learn more about Audrey Hepburn and you can't help wanting to run and watch Roman Holiday again. I also learned more about Gregory Peck's life. I do not normally watch classic movies but I have a great love for Rome, Italy so I had to watch Roman Holiday. This book is a great retelling of Roman Holiday and pays great homage to it.