Ciao for Now by Kate Bromley Published by Graydon House on June 6, 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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When an American interning at a fashion house in Rome butts heads with her professor's surly son, sparks fly!
With her thirties rapidly approaching and a mountain of student debt looming over her, Violet Luciano’s dream of finishing design school and working in fashion has cost her everything. So when she lands an internship at an up-and-coming fashion brand in Rome, she brings her A game to Italy. With nothing left to lose, Violet plans to win the competition among the interns for the ultimate prize—a job at a New York label.
But when a coffee run goes wrong and Violet accidentally destroys a stranger’s laptop, all of the apology Americanos in the world won’t help her. Because it turns out that the man from the café is Matteo, her professor’s eternally grumpy son, who thinks she’s a clumsy American…and maybe a stalker. Their animosity (and undeniable chemistry) grows as together they’re forced to face a summer of chic parties, adventures through Rome and sharing a home…with the person they can’t stand the most.
The more time she spends with him, the more distracted she finds herself. With her chance to win the competition slipping out of her grasp, Violet has to decide whether to say ciao to Matteo—or ciao to her dreams.
I loooooove books set in Italy, so when I saw the title of Ciao for Now my eyebrows immediately shot up and I was interested. I loved the idea of a fashion intern falling for her boss’s grumpy son, and I also really liked the idea of an almost-30-year-old college student. Most college romances involve characters in their early twenties (or maybe 18/19), so I was excited to meet Violet. Ciao for Now also has multiple tropes that I love: grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, and a mild enemies to lovers (just how I like it). While there were a few things that prevented this book from being a brand new favorite of mine, I did enjoy many parts of it and ultimately enjoyed my reading experience. I had so much fun walking the streets of Rome and riding the waves in Capri.
1. Right off the bat, I knew I was going to simply adore Violet’s best friend, Marco. He is a shining, shimmering sunbeam and I could not get enough of him. He’s one of the three interns in this design competition, and I would have been happy if there was no romance at all and the story just focused on him and his friendship with Violet. His snark and humor and personality shot off the page and into my heart, and he was definitely the most dynamic and interesting person in this book. I need a best friend named Marco.
2. Marco and Violet arrive in Rome together and almost immediately Matt enters the scene with one of the cutest and most embarrassing meet-cutes I’ve read. I seriously had so much second-hand embarrassment for Violet, who stumbles and ultimately destroys Matt’s laptop in a cafe. They sit and chat for a while, and the banter was off the charts. My grin was as huge as Marco’s as I read the interactions between Violet and Matt. It was so electric and exciting. Shortly after this unfortunate (yet delightful) encounter, we discover that Matt is the son of Violet’s boss and they will be living in the same house for the entirety of Violet’s one-month stay in Italy. Neither one of them is very happy about it.
3. After the initial meet-cute, though, Violet’s and Matt’s chemistry fizzled and I never got fully back on board with the two of them. What started out as exciting and sexy kind of spiraled down into… well, not much of anything. They really just don’t like each other and I never understood why. Did they not like each other just so the book could be marketed as the ever popular enemies-to-lovers trope? I mean yes, Violet accidentally destroyed his laptop and he lost a lot of his work (he’s a writer for a popular sexy space TV show) but he never gets mad at her for it. He’s actually way nicer than anyone would expect. Because he was so nice, Violet has no reason to hate him. She caused all the problems and he was nice about it. lol. I actually had no idea this was supposed to be enemies-to-lovers. I thought they left the cafe happy to have met, and I assumed they would be happy to run into each other again. This mutual hatred came out of nowhere for me.
4. While Violet and Matt do have some great moments together and some really fun banter, I didn’t feel like the romance was strong enough. These two also seem much younger than the 29 (Violet) and 32 (Matt), neither one of them acted mature enough to convince me they were the ages they were supposed to be. Violet in particular grated on my nerves. Yes, she’s going through a growing phase in her life but she just came off as selfish and immature. We learn about Matt’s past, which I think was supposed to add depth to his character and explain why he’s so surly, but I didn’t buy it. I think their lack of maturity made the inevitable third-act break-up much more dramatic than it needed to be.
5. BUT. I loved the friendships in this book, and that’s what propelled my reading forward. I’ve already mentioned Marco, but there’s also Holly, the third intern. I really liked her, and she gets a cute little side romance that I found myself wishing was the main romance because she is so likeable and the guy is pretty swoony. Violet also becomes close friends with Mina, an employee at the design firm. Mina introduces her to a group of other women who work in fashion, and they have the coolest support system and friendship. Then there’s the woman who own the fabric shop down the street, who has so much wisdom and gives great advice. And Violet’s boss was amazing! She’s like the opposite of Miranda Priestly, with her brightly colored flowing dresses, her bubbly enthusiasm, and her propensity to rain showers of compliments and affection down on everyone around her. Ciao for Now has the strongest cast of secondary characters ever–possibly the strongest cast I’ve ever read about.
6. Italy delivered for me. I loved when the characters were sightseeing, and found it to be so much more entertaining than all the fashion talk. Violet, Marco, and Holly take the city by storm for an assignment and visit so many touristy spots in Rome that I’ve been to, so I could picture everything in my mind so perfectly. Violet and Matt go on a weekend trip to Capri and stay in what sounds like the most magical oceanfront hotel in existence. I loved the descriptions of all the scenery and the things they did. The characters spend time walking the streets and sitting on the balcony working in the evenings. I loved these parts of the story the most.
So all in all, I enjoyed Ciao for Now! I really think my only problem with it was that I didn’t like the two main characters, so the romance didn’t work for me. Sometimes I skimmed their long discussions because I didn’t care about them. But I loved the secondary characters so much that I felt so many happy feelings while reading. Kate Bromley did such a great job with the cast of characters and their friendships and banter and love for one another, and she did such an amazing job writing about Italy that I didn’t even care that the main characters and their journey to find love didn’t work for me. And honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before. So I’m surprised and happy to say I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a kind of Devil Wears Prada-esque fashion story set in Italy, with a slew of characters to fall in love with.