One Hot Italian Summer

De: Karina Halle

Narrado por: Samantha Cook, John Lane

An author finds inspiration in Tuscany in the form of a hot Italian single dad.... This summer is going to be a scorcher.

A writer who's blocked - I'm a total cliche.

Lucky for me, my agent has a cure that's an even bigger stereotype - a month at her villa in Tuscany, with nothing to do but find my muse.

When he walks right in the front door, adorable son in tow, it feels like fate has finally done for me what it does for every other clichéd girl I've seen in the movies. Except that he's completely off-limits. In this case, business and pleasure can never mix.

Because Claudio is my agent's ex.

Still, he's smart, charming, and wickedly sexy, plus a great father to Vanni. He's fast becoming the cure to all my writing woes. And it's clear he wants me as much as I want him.

As the hot Italian summer wears on, it becomes harder and harder to resist. Succumbing to the heat even just one time could ruin my career. Or he could be exactly what I need.

Contains mature themes.

©2020 Karina Halle (P)2020 Tantor

One Of My Favorite Audiobooks By This Author!

I still absolutely adore this story.
I love how broken Grace is at the start of the book and how she chooses to keep leaning into opening herself up even though she is scared.
I still love Claudio SO much! The hot dad vibes PLUS Italian sculpture. 🥵
I saw some reviews that complained about the Italian and Scottish accents but honestly I had no issue with them.
Also, the food descriptions made me so hungry!
I highly recommend this book!

Hot Italian

I enjoyed the story and the characters. The descriptions of Italy were beautiful. The narration was for me the best part. The Scottish accent the Italian accent and language or musical. And even the voice of the child wonderfully done by both narrators.

Wonderful getaway!

This story was heartbreaking, sexy, inspiring and funny! I loved the descriptive prose about Italy and can picture it in my mind. This story warmed my heart. I loved getting inside the mind of both artist and love their accents.

A quiet, reflective story about identity

A blocked writer. An unempty villa. One scorching Italian summer that might change everything. 🇮🇹☀️💔

Read if you like:
✨ single dad romances
✨ artist/writer main characters
✨ lush Italian settings
✨ healing through travel and love
✨ a slower-paced, emotional romance with character introspection

📚 One Hot Italian Summer is exactly what it promises: a sun-drenched, slow-burn romance set against the stunning backdrop of Tuscany. When writer Grace heads to her agent’s villa in Lucca in hopes of rediscovering her voice (and herself), she doesn’t expect a housemate—much less Claudio: her agent’s ex, a single dad, and a wildly charming Italian sculptor. Cue the heat, the heartbreak, and the quiet rediscovery of both creativity and connection.

👨‍👧 Claudio is an absolute highlight: soft-spoken but passionate, talented yet vulnerable, and a genuinely devoted father to his sweet, gifted son, Giovanni (Vanni). His own artistic journey—living in the shadow of a famous father—adds depth to his character without weighing the story down. Grace, meanwhile, is grieving the off-page loss of her former writing partner and best friend, and it shows. She’s fragile, unsure, and struggling to rebuild her identity—not just as a writer, but as a woman.

💞 Their chemistry simmers throughout, but it wasn’t always seamless. Grace’s insecurity and internal monologues occasionally felt repetitive and heavy-handed; there were moments I wanted her to feel and act more than narrate and analyze. That said, the romance still hit the emotional beats it needed to, and the connection felt real enough to root for them.

🌍 The setting, however, is where this book absolutely shines. From Lucca’s piazzas to Florence's intriguingly brutal pastimes, Karina Halle paints Tuscany with vivid, immersive detail that made me want to pack a bag and book a flight immediately. This is the kind of book that makes you feel like you’re traveling—even if you're just curled up on your couch.

🎧 I listened to the audiobook, and while both narrators (Samantha Cook and John Lane) have great voices, the accents were a bit distracting. Samantha’s Scottish accent was OK, but her attempt at Claudio’s voice didn’t quite land for me. And while I loved John Lane’s seductive tone, his Italian accent didn’t fully come through—his English was too polished, which made the immersion wobble a bit.

👧 Grace’s emotional arc was hit or miss. I understood her grief and lack of direction after losing her writing partner, but as a 30-year-old woman with life experience, her extreme self-doubt and internal back-and-forth sometimes felt overly juvenile. Still, her journey toward rediscovering her purpose was heartfelt—and ultimately satisfying.

🌟 Final thoughts? One Hot Italian Summer is more than just a swoony romance—it’s a quiet, reflective story about identity, creativity, and choosing joy again after loss. The romance could have been a touch tighter, and Grace’s voice didn’t always resonate with me—but the setting, the emotion, and Claudio made this a worthy summer read.

Beautiful story, truly awful narration.

Karina’s prose and her ability to suck you into her world were on point, as always, but the narration killed this book for me. Both narrators were so awful that I had a hard time finishing this book. The male did a better Scottish accent than the female character, but his Italian accent wound up sounding a lot like Transylvanian. I kept picturing Dracula every time he spoke. I read exclusively on audio, but if you can pick this up in ecopy or paperback you should definitely do yourself a favor and give it a go. 5 stars for story, but the terrible accents mean I’ll be giving any books with those two narrators a big skip.

Scheduling conflict leads to love

When you fall in love with your literary agents ex husband while trying to write your book romance takes flight in life and in the page. The narrators were perfect in this story and the story itself was wonderful and captivating.

it was good

It took me a couple of chapters to listen and be excited for this book. only because the female accent was so strong it drove me crazy. but it dies down to normal as the book goes on and I did end up loving it.

So Good!

I really enjoyed this book. I love the author, Karina Halle has other amazing books you will never forget. over all this book was my least favorite but over all good.

Slow burn w/heartfelt story

Overall, I very much enjoyed this story. The other reviews are correct - her Scottish accent is a little jarring at first. I sped it up to x1.2 and it smoothed it out enough for me to listen. An enjoyable, heartfelt story with great character development.

Narration is awful

I hate to say that I read the reviews about how bad the fake accents were, yet I bought the audiobook anyway. The Scottish accent was painful to listen to and just really poorly done. I couldn’t get into the story at all because of how distracting it was. It’s really frustrating cause I was looking forward to this one.