Stuck with You by Anna Premoli

Stuck with You: A fun, feisty romance by Anna Premoli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Expected publication date: 01 Nov 2017

**Received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Stuck with You is a story about two students in Milan, Lavinia and Sebastiano, who are required to work together on a project in their last year of university. Neither one wants to do the project, but it will give Lavinia some much needed extra credit -- if only she can get Sebastiano, with his superior attitude and rigid schedule, to cooperate.

There is a certain awkward charm in this book. From what I've read, Anna Premoli has several popular Italian-language novels. I don't know if she enlisted the help of a translator for the book (I didn't see any reference to one), but I'm willing to bet that she wrote it in English herself. There is a stiltedness to the writing that makes it clear that English is not Premoli's first language. She mixed British and American slang with what sounded like Italian slang translated into English. There was also word usage that didn't seem to fit at all. For instance:

"No, but it's your fault that you insist on not pushing the beds closer together. If we accosted them, we would have a bit more space."

The word "accosted" does have an ancient definition of "side by side" but most English speakers wouldn't use it this way. Once I started reading this book with the same mindset I use to watch Korean dramas (with all their delightful foreignness), I started to enjoy the book more. Even using my Kdrama lens didn't make the sex scenes easy to read, though.

Even with the stiltedness, there was some charm to this book. My interest in the situation itself kept me turning the pages, despite the awkwardness in the writing. Some of the banter between Lavinia and Sebastiano was cute, and I kept rooting for Lavinia to break through his defenses.

This can be an enjoyable romance, as long as the reader remembers that it is not written in the average American or British style. That can be refreshing sometimes, can't it?

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