A Portrait of Emily Price

Starred review from September 12, 2016
Romance novelist Reay (Dear Mr. Knightley) crafts another engaging and sprightly page-turning bildungsroman. Emily Price is an art restorer and artist with underdeveloped talent and some personal blind spots. She works for an Italian expatriate based out of Atlanta, who has an exquisite art sensibility and a family that includes a handsome, sexy brother, Ben, who can cook and charm. After Emily falls for Ben, she acquires a set of Roman in-laws with secrets and another way of life. When Emily heads to Rome to meet the family, everybody has something to learn, not least the young American woman who discovers how to look at people and art with more care and consideration. The American-goes-to-Europe plot is a real chestnut, familiar but nicely revived by Reay who hits a sweet spot between adventure romance and artistic rumination; the novel finds a fantastic groove where chick lit meets Henry James. Reay’s well-realized characters enliven the formula, and the moral development of the heroine owes a lot to the Jane Austen novels that Reay has echoed in other works. Though not every detail of Italian culture rings quite true, on the whole this is another delight from Reay. Agent: Claudia Cross, Folio Literary Management.

September 1, 2016
On a whim, a restoration artist marries a chef and moves to Italy, where she uncovers hidden artwork and family secrets.Emily Price is restoring a fire-damaged house in Atlanta when she meets the handsome Vassallo brothers, Joseph and Ben, who are working to revitalize their aunt and uncle's Italian restaurant. Although she's tempted to say yes when Joseph offers her a better restoration gig, she can't say no when Ben offers his hand in marriage. At first her relationship with Ben is bland in its perfection, but when she joins him at his parents' restaurant in Italy, she's caught in the middle of a dispute between Ben's aging father and his disapproving mother. The constant tension does wonders for her personal art projects, which never earned her as much recognition as her restoration work. Even her thoughts are more painterly, which Reay captures in a lush yet modern style: "A blush on me was more of a blotchy oil-mixed-with-water affair, a discordant clash of color. I envied the whole cream-and-roses look," Emily says of her new sister-in-law. Reay's signature references to literary classics, in this case, Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, beautifully match the characters' desires to break free from expectations and discover themselves in new surroundings, and her depiction of Rome is breathtaking. But there are so many broken things for Emily to fix--two restaurants, a mural in a church, multiple family feuds--that her eyes can't rest on any one problem for too long. Pretty writing and a dreamy setting bring focus to an otherwise hazy plot.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

On a whim, a restoration artist marries a chef and moves to Italy, where she uncovers hidden artwork and family secrets.Emily Price is restoring a fire-damaged house in Atlanta when she meets the handsome Vassallo brothers, Joseph and Ben, who are working to revitalize their aunt and uncle's Italian restaurant. Although she's tempted to say yes when Joseph offers her a better restoration gig, she can't say no when Ben offers his hand in marriage. At first her relationship with Ben is bland in its perfection, but when she joins him at his parents' restaurant in Italy, she's caught in the middle of a dispute between Ben's aging father and his disapproving mother. The constant tension does wonders for her personal art projects, which never earned her as much recognition as her restoration work. Even her thoughts are more painterly, which Reay captures in a lush yet modern style: "A blush on me was more of a blotchy oil-mixed-with-water affair, a discordant clash of color. I envied the whole cream-and-roses look," Emily says of her new sister-in-law. Reay's signature references to literary classics, in this case, Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, beautifully match the characters' desires to break free from expectations and discover themselves in new surroundings, and her depiction of Rome is breathtaking. But there are so many broken things for Emily to fix--two restaurants, a mural in a church, multiple family feuds--that her eyes can't rest on any one problem for too long. Pretty writing and a dreamy setting bring focus to an otherwise hazy plot. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2016

Art restorer Emily Price's work schedule in Atlanta leaves little time for romance, until she meets chef Ben Vassallo. Charming and attractive, he weaves a spell around her. When Ben asks her to help restore his aunt and uncle's pizzeria in Atlanta, she agrees, and before she knows it, she is in Italy as Ben's wife. But Emily soon begins to think twice about her choices as she struggles to adjust to life in a new country. In the character of Emily, the author captures the free-spirited essence of a young woman reaching a crossroads in her life and following a path wherever it leads--sometimes with unexpected consequences. VERDICT Reay's sensually evocative descriptions of Italian food and scenery makes this a delight for fans of Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun. The author of The Bronte Plot writes novels that speak to the universal truths in the human heart, and her latest will appeal to readers of new adult fiction with its focus on the power of following a dream. [See author Q&A, p. 66.--Ed.]

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