Hello and happy Saturday. Look at me posting for three consecutive days. Don’t get used to that, though, since I’ll get back to work on Tuesday and life will get busy again for me. While I was on vacation, actually while I was on a plane, I started reading Just One Night in Rome by Tiziana Olbrich. I got the chance to read and review this book via NetGalley, so I’d like to thank them, the author and the publisher.

I started reading this book on a plane and thought it would be the perfect holiday read since I was on holiday myself. I found it to be way too dense for that, although I don’t consider this a negative aspect of the novel, just something to consider when deciding to read this. Does that make any sense? I hope it does.

Now, the idea of the novel was great, in my opinion: we get two tourists who meet in a hostel and spend their last night in, you guessed it, Rome, and realize they like each other. Cute, right? And the reason why I found the book too dense to read while traveling was because the first half, which is when Josefine and Leo are getting to know each other, is basically one long dialog. One would expect that, of course, since this is how people get to know each other, right? But it was a bit exhausting for me. Again, I don’t think that’s the book’s issue, just a matter of personal preference.

Now, like I said, the idea was great, but the execution was lacking, and I’ll explain why by suggesting some changes (which I know the author will probably not consider, since there’s already a second book out). I would first make this fully dual perspective; you see, up until halfway through we only get Josefine’s perspective, which is fine, but then we start getting these chapters from Leo’s perspective and there’s no rhyme or reason as to when we’ll get them. We could’ve had both POVs from the start. To that point, I’d add that I would have enjoyed some context before the characters actually meet. I think getting to know them and their reasons for traveling to Rome before meeting each other would’ve been an amazing addition to the plot. Lastly, I would incorporate a lot more mixed media. Once both characters were in different countries, which happens about halfway through the novel, I would have had them write emails or texts to each other. I also would have preferred to read their actual phone conversations instead of being told by the author that the characters were speaking. Is that too much to ask?