Book Review: An Unexpected Proposal By Sara Anzellotti

Reviewer: Allie

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Viola is a thirty year old lawyer, who lives in Rome.  She’s been dating Leo for fifteen years and been quite happy.  After her younger sister, Emma, graduates from college and moves to New York City, Viola starts to panic that her life lacks excitement.  She decides it’s time to get married – all she has to do is get Leo to propose.  When events don’t go as planned, Viola decides to join her sister in New York.  Once there, she inadvertently interferes in another woman’s proposal.  Feeling responsible, Viola teams up with the dashing Liam, to help him convince the woman to reconsider his proposal.  Viola begins to develop feelings for Liam, but she also still loves for Leo – who will not let her go.  Should Viola embark on a new and exciting life in New York, or return to her sweet and safe life, with Leo?

Unfortunately, I had a number of issues with this book.  I was often confused, because the heroine was all over the place.  Viola had no clue what she wanted and her inside-of-her-head monologues rambled.  There were a number of typos in the book and the formatting was very inconsistent.  Sometime dialogue was italicized, with no quotations, and then a few pages later, character thoughts were italicized.  The author also broke the number one rule of fiction writing, “Show, don’t tell.”  Whole scenes would be skipped, and then re-told in a character’s head.  The author is Italian and I believe the book was originally published in Italy, but this translated version does not click.  Even the American characters spoke in broken English and the grammar was bad.  There were a number of pop culture references that were incorrect, as well.  It was frustrating.  But the plot is very clever (with the exception of some stereotypical twists) and I was charmed by the story – uncertain about which path Viola would take.  The author kept me guessing until the very end.