Book Review: DANTE'S GIRL by Courtney Cole

Book:  Dante’s Girl

Author:  Courtney Cole

Publisher:  Lakehouse Press

Category:  YA Romance Fiction

“….I love you.  Everyone can see it.  Everyone knows that.”- Dante

“I really want to believe you.  But believing you isn’t even the problem anymore…You and I… we aren’t a match.  Let’s just lay it out there.  I’m a farm girl from Kansas.  You are a VIP with an even more important father.  We are not going to work.  We’re just not.”- Reece

Book Description via Goodreads:

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

Heroines with a good sense of humor are always sure to keep me interested in a book and that’s exactly what I got here with Reece.  She is funny as she is sweet with a bit of innocence about her looks and insecurity with her social status, specifically because of Dante Giliberti.

They literally bump into each other at the airport waiting for a flight to London and luckily are on the same flight when airports all over Europe are shut down due to a nearby volcanic eruption.  Dante, along with his bodyguards, was allowed to leave the plane being the VIP that he is and took Reece along with him back to his home in Greece, a tiny place called Caberra, where his father is not only a multi Billionare but is also the Prime Minister.

To the citizens of Caberra, Dante is a celebrity and a prince and as such, all eyes are on him, which means he has to be on his best behavior at all times.  Much is expected from the only son of a very important father.  So falling in love with someone who is not of their status is not exactly welcome.

But fall in love they do, despite Dante trying (not very hard mind you) to control himself around Reece, and despite Reece knowing that someone else claims Dante as hers.  That someone else is beautiful Elena, Dante’s childhood friend, sometimes girlfriend, fellow billionaire and the daughter of his father’s political ally. 

To say theirs is a complicated relationship would be an understatement. Can happily ever after be achieved by two very different people whose paths lead in two different directions?

I can’t tell you the answer to that, however I can tell you that reading this book was fun.  It is a lighthearted read that would tickle your imagination.  Many of us have had fantasies about meeting someone like Prince Harry (swoon...) who would sweep us off our feet, and that he would have and be everything: gorgeous, kind, loving, sweet, generous…in other words, Perfect.  That is what Dante Giliberti is.

He makes girls swoon, but his love is only for one.  Reece is also a lovable sweetheart, a girl’s girl whom you want to root for.  So in terms of characters, this book is a winner.

Though this book is geared towards teens, older women would still appreciate the good read this will provide.  Courtney Cole’s writing is smooth and the plot is good.  I also like the romantic, albeit, dramatic ending.

Overall, this is a good book. I recommend this to those who want to end the day with a smile… because that’s exactly what you’ll have by the last page of Dante’s Girl.