Dante's Girl (The Paradise Diaries 1) by Courtney Cole Review

Dante's Girl (The Paradise Diaries 1) by Courtney Cole-YA Contemporary Romance

Kindle format given by author for review/blog tour ARC

Summary:

I have spent every summer since I was ten years old with my father in London. Every summer, since I was ten years old, has been uneventful and boring.
Until this year.

And this year, after a freak volcanic eruption strands me far from home, I have learned these things:

1. I can make do with one outfit for three days before I buy new clothes.
2. If I hear the phrase, “You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” even one more time, I might become a homicidal maniac.
3. I am horribly and embarrassingly allergic to jellyfish.
4. I am in love with Dante Giliberti, who just happens to be the beautiful, sophisticated son of the Prime Minister of a Mediterranean paradise.
5. See number four above. Because it brings with it a whole slew of problems and I’ve learned something from every one of them.

Let’s start with the fact that Dante’s world is five light-years away from mine. He goes to black-tie functions and knows the Prime Minister of England on a first name basis. I was born and raised on a farm in Kansas and wear cut-off jeans paired with cowboy boots. See the difference?

But hearts don’t care about differences. Hearts want what they want. And mine just wants to be Dante’s girl.

My heart just might be crazy.

My Take:
There are so many things I liked about this book. The primary reason I liked it...it was just easy to read. I loved the humor, romance, and the characters. 


Pretty much from the first sentence, I liked Reece. She's funny, smart, confident, but also sensitive. Overall, just a likable character. Another reason I liked her was that she wasn't overly impressed or intimidated by Dante's family or his social status. She really fell for him as a person. 


Dante is a total sweetheart. I loved how he tried to comfort Reece on the plane at the beginning of the book. Obviously he was attracted to her, but it shows that he has good moral character as well. I felt like he really worked hard at making Reece feel comfortable in his world. Dante fell for Reece pretty hard. I loved watching them fall in love. 


The supporting characters were all strong. I really liked Mia. There are plans to continue the series with some of the supporting characters and I really look forward to seeing what happens with each one of them. 


The overall story was very sweet. There are some more serious situations, but they fit the story's overall theme. I appreciated the fact that even though this is a YA novel, there is a lot of truth in what happens in a teenage romance. It made their relationship much more believable and not so fairytale-like.  


I would definitely recommend this book. It's appropriate for the 15 and older age group. If you are a fan of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series or a PG-13 version of The Princess Diaries, you would love this book. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the series develops from here.

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About Courtney Cole

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Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could.

She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds.

Every Last Kiss is her debut novel and she followed it with the rest of The Bloodstone Saga (Every Last Kiss, Fated, With My Last Breath and My Tattered Bonds).

Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.

Learn more about Courtney and her books at www.courtneycolewrites.com