All Roads Lead to Rome by Sabrina Fedel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
*Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for a digital review copy.
I’ve been on a rom-com kick, so having a clean, YA version was just what I needed on vacation. This was a fun title that I could see many people enjoying.
All Roads Lead to Rome follows the trope of fake dating leads to real romance, but it was Story’s character that made all of the difference in this story. Astoria “Story” Herriot is a “Dip kid” living in Rome while her mother works for the American Embassy. She is smart, introverted, and a loner, not quite fitting in with the other kids in her grade. She winds up fake dating a rich Scottish tabloid kid who himself is secretly dating a pop icon whose ex-boyfriend was just admitted to rehab. Story has high ideals and values and doesn’t pay attention to social media or tabloids until she unintentionally gets tangled up in them. You know that she will fall for Luca, and vice versa, but the process is handled well and feels different from many of the others out there. What I really appreciated was how Story helped Luca see himself better while also gaining a great knowledge and personal sense of self. She was unwilling to back down from being who she was and expected those around her to behave in similar manners.
The story takes its title from the fact that it takes place in Rome but also dances around the story of Roman Holiday. Story is a lover of old films and Audrey Hepburn grace, something that we don’t see a lot of these days. Her personal style harkens back to a different time and perhaps will bring a new group of teens looking at classic Audrey style. An excellent YA read.
