Loving Roxie by G. G. Vandagriff

Roxie Castro comes to Florence, Italy to help her friend Georgia heal after the death of her husband. While there she decides to chase her dream of being an author, collaborating with the gorgeous Professor Stefano Nae in researching the murder of Princess Isabela di Medici. However, when they begin to delve into her history, strange things start happening to Roxie: panic attacks, the resurfacing of buried memories, and a fear that something from her past has come forward to haunt her future.

The professor's help triggers her powerful attraction to him, and this in turn worsens the attacks.The closer they get to solving the mystery surrounding her past, the more tangled her emotions become. Will discovering Roxie’s secret finally free them to explore their newfound feelings or will it snatch away the one chance they have for a lasting love?

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This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting.  But now, going back and reading the blurb, I guess it is exactly what it said it was going to be.  I must have just got the wrong first impression when I read it.  I thought this was going to be more of a mystery/suspense kind of book with some romance thrown in but it was more of a tangled web of emotional and mental trauma that the main character had to work through.

Roxie is an unusual and very confusing character.  I honestly didn't know if I liked her for most of the book but I knew I could if the understanding were there.  It took a long time to get to that point, but it did happen and once I understood where Roxie was coming from, I liked her better.  

Stefano is a saint among men.  I didn't really understand his connection with Roxie or what he saw in her, but I did love his patience and the devotion he had to his mother and family.  He is a steady, kind man and he kept this book anchored amidst the emotional turmoil that was everywhere.

I loved the Italian setting. The descriptions of the places there were fantastic and made me long to be there too.

Content:  Mention of abuse, nothing descriptive.  Death, depression, dysfunctional families, PTSD

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.