The Love Fool: A Rome-antic Comedy

By: Lorenzo Petruzziello 
Publisher: Quill Publishing Company
Publication Date: March 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1947848194
Reviewed by: Anita Lock
Date: March 16, 2018

A young man who moves to Italy faces unresolved love issues when his estranged girlfriend comes to visit in Lorenzo Petruzziello’s debut, The Love Fool.

After getting laid off from “an amazing job with a large global PR firm” in the U.S., Alex Corso takes a lower-level marketing position at Zero Otto Marketing in Rome, Italy. He is given an assignment to promote a Danish cooking show into the Italian market. To Alex’s advantage, the drop-dead-gorgeous host, Pernille Bjǿrn, easily attracts publicity. 

Quite the storyteller, Petruzziello spins an amusing tale of unrequited love and superficial relationships. Petruzziello’s third-person plot centers on its protagonist, Alex Corso, who has no idea what life will have in store for him once he moves to Italy. His U.S. position provided the perfect outlet for Alex to lose himself in his work and thereby bury his unresolved love life. Now stripped of his successful job, the ugliness of his past resurfaces.

To capture Alex’s life, Petruzziello alternates between the present (2011) and past (the 1990s—Alex’s college days when he met Emily). Before Emily’s entrance, the first few chapters vacillate between the crazy things that take place in Alex’s new job and his loneliness. As sweet as Alex and Emily are toward one another, they both have additional unresolved issues, which is very apparent in their passive-aggressive conversations.

Petruzziello concentrates on dialogue to amplify the emotional tension between the two lovers. This constant ebb-and-flow of their relationship may be annoying, but it is also intriguing because of the driving element of resolution tightly woven into the fabric of this story. Petruzziello also incorporates plenty of twists—on top of more problems at work—that make his debut a real page-turner.

 Quill says: Replete with a surprise ending, The Love Fool is one well-written and unforgettable romantic tale with Silver-Screen potential.

For more information on The Love Fool: A Rome-antic Comedy, please visit the book's website at: http://thelovefool.com

Author Interview