Wednesday, March 06, 2024

Blog Tour: A Villa with a View by Julie Caplin

Raphael Knight is determined to protect his famous step-father from any one who might take advantage. From the time his mother married Ernesto, people have been using Raph to get to him. Now that Raph is Ernesto's business manager, he takes this very seriously. When Lia Bathurst contacts Raph  to try to meet the man that she is claiming is her biological father, Raph is convinced that she is just another opportunist and sends her on her way.

When Lia agrees to do a DNA test for a friend, she has no idea that her whole world is about to turn upside down. The man who she believed was her father is not, and when she confronts her mother about this she is told that a famous Italian film star. She is furious and suddenly feels like she doesn't belong anymore.

Lia is a textile artists who is suffering from artists block (I assume that this is a thing,  like writers block for authors!!) and so she decides to spend the summer in Positano hoping for both some inspiration and maybe to meet her father.  This was actually the second book in a row where one of the characters was an artist who was struggling for inspiration.

Raph is furious when Lia turns up in Positano, having met his young brother Leo, and he is determined to keep her away from the rest of his family. However, before long Raph and Lia keep on getting thrown together in one romantic situation after another. He doesn't trust her but he is also very attracted to her. 


Last year we went to Italy and we visited Positano as part of a drive along the Amalfi coast. We only stayed for one night. It was an  interesting place. There was only main road through the town so if you went past your hotel you had to do the whole road again and hope you didn't miss it the next time around. Whilst we loved the whole amazing Amalfi coast we had said that we probably wouldn't do it again, at least not in the same way.  Here's some video of the drive





Having read this book, I said to my husband I think we need to go back in the summer but stay for at least a week so that we could do some of the things that were in this book. For example, Lia and Raph visited a lemon grove and I could almost smell the lemons, or go out on a boat at sunset. I like to save passages in books about food and places and I bookmarked a lot from passages about lemon pasta, ice cream, lemon groves and so much more



I have read a couple of Julie Caplin books now and really liked both of them. I do have a couple of others on my Kindle to read, and I will will absolutely read whatever comes next!



I am sharing with New Release challenge hosted at The Chocolate Lady's Book Review blog.



Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy. Be sure to visit other stops on the blog tour!



Rating 4/5





About the book


A Villa with a View

Escape to the Amalfi Coast and feel the warmth of the Italian sun on your face, hear the sound of the turquoise waves crashing on the beach and fall in love with a new enemies to lovers romance!

Lia Bathurst had always dreamed of escaping to the white sandy beaches and turquoise blue seas of the Amalfi coast – but that dream hadn’t included meeting her real father. A father she had never even known about until a few weeks ago! Yet here she was, standing outside the gates of a gorgeous pink villa being refused entry by the insufferable – and insufferably handsome – Raphael Knight, her father’s business manager.

When an old black and white photo proves Lia’s claim to be true, Raph is determined to make sure this stranger, with her long caramel waves and infectious smile, doesn’t have an ulterior motive. Even if that means not letting her out of his sight.

As temperatures rise, and not just from the heat of the Mediterranean sun, could Lia and Raph’s forced proximity lead to something more like… amore?


Purchase Link - https://bit.ly/47kOw0a


About the author:



Julie Caplin, formerly a PR director, swanned around Europe for many years taking top food and drink writers on press trips (junkets) sampling the gastronomic delights of various cities in Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Copenhagen and Switzerland. It was a tough job but someone had to do it.

These trips have provided the inspiration and settings for the highly successful Romantic Escapes series which have hit the best seller charts in Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic and have sold over two million copies worldwide.

The first book in the nine strong series,The Little Café in Copenhagen, was shortlisted for a Romantic Novel of the Year Award.

Social Media Links – @JulieCaplin Twitter

https://www.facebook.com/JulieCaplinAuthor/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/juliecaplinauthor/

2 comments:

  1. This sounds fun but what you really need to say to your husband is that you need to turn up unexpectedly in Positano next summer. No one in books seems to plan and save the way we do for a trip in Italy! Admittedly, many of them are closer to begin with.

    I didn't really like the Hotel Portofino series (or the book or the kitchen maid who had my name) but the scenery was great!

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  2. I started watching Hotel Portofino but didn't get very far.

    We do have plans to just appear somewhere in Europe later this year. Unfortunately, it isn't Italy, but it is still going to be great

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