When an Italian man meets a Jewish girl…

Synopsis

“The Hating Game meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding!”

You think you have a crazy family? Meet Leo Donati, a great guy from a wacky NY Italian family, who is expected to live his life a certain way. There are a few family rules etched in stone that he has done his best to follow:

1. Attend Sunday family dinner. It’s at 2:00. Nobody knows why.

2. Love your mother. 

3. Never tell Nonna you’re full. Unless you have a death wish. 

4. Marry Italian. 

5. Family comes first. Always. Friends come and go, but family is forever. 

The only problem? He’s not living his best life. Not even close. Single, lonely, and spending way too much time at the gym burning sexual energy and ungodly amounts of pasta, Leo hopes his life will change when his father hands over the family business. If only things were that simple. A takeover offer on the business puts Leo on the war path against a strikingly sexy, but overly competitive Jewish woman who is seemingly intent on ruining his life. At least that’s how Leo sees it. 

As tension rises and Italian tempers flare, Leo wonders if perhaps hate isn’t the most accurate word for how he feels about his new nemesis. But it could never work. Yeah, the pizza bagel exists, but real-life cultural divides are more complicated than that, aren’t they?

Humor abounds as corporations and cultures collide. Leo tries to thwart the takeover, find love and happiness, while also trying to avoid being bludgeoned to death by his Nonna’swooden spoon. 

Love & Agita is a laugh-out loud, romantic comedy that has it all: twists, turns, emotional depth, sparkling chemistry and hilarious banter that flies off the page.

My review

Leo Donati’s family is a typical Italian one. Sunday family dinner, always listen to you mother, keep eating even if you’re full, family first and you must marry an Italian.
Leo sees himself as the cheese of a lasagne, keeping all the other bits together. Yet he feels that he is not living his best life. His family, especially his mother and nonna keep pushing him to get married and have children, and now even the family business is causing him headaches.
Leo is ready to take over the business from his father, and is left flabbergasted when his father tells him that a takeover offer has been placed. So Leo won’t become CEO at all and now he also has to face the businesswoman who will make sure the takeover will take place.
But on top of that all, Rae is not only his enemy, but also a woman Leo slowly cannot get out of his head. And while tensions rises, not only business-like, Leo wonders if choosing his family over everything is the right thing to do. Or is it choosing love, with Rae and the many cultural differences that for sure will cause a break with his family? 

THIS BOOK WAS SO F*CKING RECOGNIZABLE FOR ALL ITALIANS!!!!
Every Italian reference Grayson Avery wrote in this book, had me nodding in agreement, even the wooden spoon (at home, named with the terrifying name ‘la bacchetta’)! 

It’s obvious that Leo truly loves his family, with all their traditions and even absurd superstitions. Perhaps he didn’t want to work in the family business, yet he did because he was expected to. And now that he is ready to guide the place into the 21st century, he feels his future fall into pieces.
I totally understood his anger towards his father, as Leo had great ideas, but his father is the typical stubborn Italian, not listening to reason and believe that his word is law.
So obviously, Leo will do whatever he can to keep the business in family hands. 

Enter Rae… and let the fun begin!
We know immediately that Leo is going to fall into love with Rae, but before and while we get there, I had so many laughs!
It was so funny to see Leo turns into a complete idiot, saying the wrong things, things he would never say otherwise, making him look like a real pappagallo (parrot, meaning an idiot 😊)!

Rae is the total opposite of Leo, not only is she obviously a woman and Jewish, but she keeps business and pleasure strictly separated and is focused on showing her father her own worth. Why shouldn’t a woman be capable of doing what Rae is doing? It’s not that being a woman means we are less capable! 

Sparks immediately fly around between Leo and Rae. They started on the wrong foot, yet slowly they become friend-ish and find themselves more attracted to each other.
But they both know that their feelings will cause heartbreak anyway. If they stay together, their families will never approve. And Leo knows from his own family that they can hold on to a grudge for a very long time. And if Leo listens to his family, how can he be truly happy when he has lost the woman he loves? 

I just loved reading how Leo and Rae are falling deeper in love, yet never losing their constant banter. Like a real Italian, Leo wants to proof that Italians are the best in everything, like having the best pasta, pizza, actors,… the list is just endless. And even when it seems impossible, he finds a way to proof that Italians are the best anyway! 

Reading Rae’s notes were the cherry on top of an amazing cake (Italian cake that is! 😊) and I was really looking forward to read more of Rae thoughts! 

In so many ways, Rae and Leo are just perfect for each other. But it also saddened me a little bit to read how wrong it felt for Leo to give up his own happiness for his family. Even with a twists I didn’t see coming, his family finds reputation and how people see them, more important than having a happy Leo. 

This book shows how amazing Italians are (I am not biased at all!) but also the other side of the corner, how they can stubbornly hang on to values that would turn someone into the unhappiest person in the world.
But it’s also the Italian stubbornness that makes Leo reflect on what the right choice to make is. And while I loved the ending, it’s obvious it’s not the end of Leo and Rae, and I cannot wait to read how their romance will evolve even more!