The Heavenly Italian Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements

Anna and her husband Matteo are ready to embark a delicious Italian adventure. After a year and a half running their ice cream shop on Brighton beach and raising their baby Isabella, Matteo is starting to miss Italy. A shared passion for ices means it's easy to settle on a new business idea - they'll open a shop in Sorrento's cobbled square, a short walk from the sparkling blue sea. For a while, life is sweet; but then Matteo's overbearing family get involved … 

Anna's younger sister Imogen feels like things are finally coming together - she's living with boyfriend Finn in a beach house in Brighton, and her photography is taking off. Then her career stalls, and the lure of Capri - and a man from her past - prove difficult to resist.

I still remember reading Abby Clements debut book Meet Me Under the Mistletoe and being blown away by what an incredible read it was especially for a first book. I have read each of her books since and they have all been easy 5* reviews and her writing style has grown with each book but I have to say out of her books it is the characters from Vivien’s Heavenly Ice Cream Shop who have stayed with me and I was really hoping that there would be a sequel to this book as there still seemed to be more to be told about Anna and Imogen so you can imagine my delight when I found out that they were both returning in The Heavenly Italian Ice Cream Shop.

Business is booming in Vivien’s and Anna and partner Matteo are so passionate about their job everything seems to be going well but Matteo is really missing home and really wants to return to Italy and give daughter Bella a taste of the Italian life. Anna takes a chance and between them they come up with a plan to open up a new shop in Sorrento.

With things going so well for her sister Imogen finds herself at a cross roads, feeling anxious in her relationship at the thought of taking things to the next level and settling down and her career has taken a nose dive.

It was no surprise to me that Abby Clements has again struck gold providing us with another summer delight that transported me away to the Amalfi Coast I feel like I have returned from an idyllic holiday!

The books pulls you in straight from the Prologue and managed to capture my attention the whole way through thanks to these familiar friendly characters and the tantalising menu of desserts, cocktails  and ice cream! The authors manages to make her descriptions of not only the treats but of the settings really easily to visualise, the square where Anna and Matteo opened their new shop just felt so tranquil and welcoming I would love to have been sitting by the fountain reading this book!

I really enjoyed the relationship between Anna and her mother in-law as I could really relate to it but looking on the outside in I actually found it quite funny too!

I thought this was a superb sequel and I was so pleased to catch up with Anna and Imogen to see what life has thrown at them since the previous book and I wasn’t disappointed. I do think you could read this as a standalone but the first book Is such a treat and so you wouldn’t want to miss out so treat yourself to both books and a tub of lemon sorbet to go with it!

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