DREAMING OF ROME

I really started dreaming of Rome while reading this book. The Eternal City is captured beautifully and makes me want to see all those sites that Jo and Corrado discovered together. Unfortunately, these travel-guide-like descriptions were the parts I liked best. The blossoming romance was too technical & theoretical for me, lacking an emotional factor. Too much talk about love, lust and limbic systems - but no feeling. Not even in the final chapter - the 'showdown' - did I get butterflies (Jo's hobby, by the way) in my stomach. Thus I didn't really root for these two people that each repeated their views on love, relationships and how they are 'only very good friends' way too often for my liking. It got boring after a while. Additionally, this side-story about Markus was just weird. Since I'm not a dog-person, not even Daisy could make me like the characters more. Only their jobs sounded very interesting. Saving the planet by reducing plastic waste! Sadly, we don't get to hear one single idea what could replace plastic packaging or disposable articles made out of plastic.