Lost in Italy

Title: Lost in Italy
Author: Stacey Joy Netzel
Publisher: Stacey Joy Netzel, 1st Ed, September 28, 2011
Medium: Kindle


Goodreads Synopsis: The best laid plans...


Halli Sanders spent two years planning the trip of a lifetime to Italy. Her itinerary did not include being stranded by her siblings, kidnapped by a sexy American movie star, dodging bullets, or fleeing criminals in a car chase around Lake Como. And that's just in the first three hours.

...often go awry.

Trent Tomlin put his movie career on hold to investigate his brother's murder-ruled-suicide at his Italian villa. He's closing in on the suspects when an American tourist unwittingly films the murder of the retired cop helping him. The killers will stop at nothing to get the evidence--including holding Halli's family as collateral.

Life's a little different unscripted.

Thrust into the role of real-life hero, Trent finds himself falling for the Plain Jane whose beauty blossoms with every challenge they face. But how can he keep the evidence from the murderers to get justice for his brother and friend without betraying Halli and her family?



Lost in Italy by Stacey Joy Netzel was my first book to review for World Literary Cafe.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and I picked a book that I thought would be relatively safe for me to start down this new avenue of networking not only for the author, but for myself as a new book review blogger.  I mean, who wants to start something like this with a whopper of a bad book?  I’m really happy with my choice this month, and am already looking forward to picking something again!!

I really wished that I had read Lost in Italy while hanging out on a beach somewhere, because this is the perfect beach read!  I would have say that this book could be classified as a romantic thriller, because there was a lot of romance and a thrill in every chapter.  There were a lot of bullets, close calls, and some steamy moments.

Netzel did not waste any time getting right into the action, and setting the stage telling the reader about Halli Sanders and Trent Tomlin.  The character development didn’t drag on like many books, but there was once in the beginning that I did go back a chapter to make sure I had all my bad guys straight.  

I loved how the majority of the book spanned only a few days, therefore allowing the story to be jam packed with those little details that sometimes get lost in books that cover a longer periods of time.  Netzel did a great job of keeping me interested and wanting to get to the next chapter and the next and the next, while adding a small amount doubt from time to time, making me wonder if the plot would go another way - because it really could have taken off in an entirely different direction...who knows?

If I could give one criticism about Lost in Italy, it would have to be the overuse of one particular word and all forms of it - growl, and there were no animals in the book!  I checked with Vinnie, the Kindle and he told me that it was used 27 times.  While not overly distracting, it did catch my eye a few times without taking anything away from the great plot of the book.  

If you are heading out to the beach or the lake this summer and want a fun little read, definitely pack your beach bag with Lost in Italy.

Stacey Joy Netzel