One Summer Day in Rome

June 5, 2017
A mysterious blue tile connects the lives of two elderly British women, a middle-aged American couple in a rut, and a young woman escaping her New York life in Lamprell’s (The Full Ridiculous) sparkly Roman romance. Narrated by a mystical “quantum mechanic” who arranges matters of love in the Eternal City, the novel follows three almost completely separate stories. Shy college student Alice travels to Rome from New York to escape the dreary life her powerful mother has laid out for her and meets a group of young British students. Meg, an interior design blogger, and Alec, the owner of a lighting retail conglomerate, plan to find the tile maker who crafted the gorgeous blue tile Meg has carried with her for years—but their madcap mission threatens to break their marriage. And in the final thread, Constance makes the trip to Rome with her sister-in-law so they can spread her late husband’s ashes, and maybe find some answers about his life. As in many romantic comedies that rely on interconnected stories to fuel the plot, none of the three tales firmly stands on its own, and the tile, although an interesting metaphor, barely ties the three tales together. Despite these flaws, the characters have enough spirit to carry them through tropes that haven’t aged as well as the ancient city where they play out.

April 15, 2016
All roads lead to Rome for three dizzy duos in this meditation on the nature of love. An aggregation of confused visitors careens around Rome in a second novel by Babe: Pig in the City co-screenwriter Lamprell (The Full Ridiculous, 2014). Alice, a 19-year-old New Yorker, has stopped over in the Eternal City on her way to meet her lackluster fiance but instead falls in lust with August, a British student on a Motorino scooter. Alec and Meg, a warring married couple from Los Angeles, are at each others' throats from the moment they arrive at the Rome airport. At Meg's behest, the well-heeled spouses have flown to Rome for the day on "a mission" to find a specific tile with magical qualities for their home. (Metaphor alert!) Constance, a septuagenarian Londoner, has brought her recently departed husband, Henry, to the city with her, lugging his ashes in a Harrods bag. Accompanied by Lizzie, her forbearing sister-in-law, Constance intends to throw Henry's remains off the Ponte Sant'Angelo bridge as Henry requested. The tourists run around Rome in concentric circles, making muddled messes of their lives. But the travelers are not to be pitied; rather, the author uses the lightly sketched characters as vehicles for bons mots. Although the narrator describes himself as the spirit of Rome itself, a "genius loci," in truth the storytelling ping pongs crazily from one character's perspective to the next. The most successfully drawn people are Alec and Meg; Lamprell has perfect pitch when it comes to marital discord. ("It occurred to Alec that he could kill her, dispose of her body, and be back in California before anyone had even noticed she was missing.") But by the end, this guidebook reads like it has gone through a Cuisinart, leaving a choppy, chaotic mess. Arrivederci, Roma. The wise reader will stick with Fodor's next time.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2017

Nineteen-year-old Alice, despite her exceptional flair for color, has always felt inferior to her brilliant family. When her fine arts professor tells her she needs to do something with voosh, she heads to Rome to reinvent herself. In London, Lizzie and her sister-in-law, recently widowed Constance, decide to go to the Eternal City to spread the ashes of their beloved brother and husband. Meanwhile, wealthy, fortysomething entrepreneurs Alec and Meg plan to be in Rome for just a day. Disgruntled with each other after 20 years of marriage, they embark on what Meg (to her husband's irritation) calls "a mission" to find the source of a tile, something that will, over the course of a wild day, bind all three couples together. Narrated by a Roman genius loci, specifically the tutelary spirit of love, Lamprell's second solo effort (after The Full Ridiculous; he and his wife, Klay, also cowrite YA novels) is both a delightful tour of Roman sites, both hidden and well known, and a breezy summer romance that follows the escapades of three couples representing different aspects of love. While the narrator's intrusions and some abrupt shifts in point of view are startling, by the satisfying conclusion, all is also forgiven. VERDICT For romance fans of all ages with special appeal to those who devour the Italian romances of Elizabeth Adler. [See Prepub Alert, 2/20/17.]--Ron Terpening, formerly of Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017

As Lamprell cowrote the film Babe: Pig in the City, it's not surprising that his fiction has a lighthearted twist; witness the title of his well-received first novel, The Full Ridiculous. That novel was written in second person, and here Rome serves not just as setting but narrator. Timid Alice travels there for a last chance at excitement before marrying; Meg and Alec are looking for the perfect kitchen tiles but clearly need marital repair; and close sisters-in-law Constance and Lizzie want to scatter the ashes of a beloved husband and brother.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.