Gemma Townley

This was a cute and light read but I found Georgie incredibly irritating. she's neurotic and a complete liar & selfish. She's painful to read - whether she learns in the end or not.

David was sweet and it was just hard to read how awful Georgie was to him.

And Candy. Honestly, these two deserve each other as friends (because NEITHER are good friends)

At least Nigel was a good person. And Guy had a good head on his shoulders. And her mom, luckily, was willing to tell Georgie just how crappy she show more is. At least her mom could see it.

And Mike. Ugh, worse. guy. ever. show less

I'm sure that Gemma Townley must get sick of people referring to her this way, but let's just say it one more time: Gemma Townley is Sophie Kinsella's kid sister! Any fan of Sophie's will definitely not be dissapointed. Gemma's debut novel is amazing! When In Rome is the hilarious story of Georgie Beauchamps, a researcher at a legal publishing company in London, who spends her mornings at work reading her horoscope online and e-mailing her boyfriend, the dependable David Bradley. When her show more ex-boyfriend, Mike, suddenly turns up on the scene begging her to forgive him for leaving her for a stick insect blonde, Georgie is forced to do some quick thinking. Should she choose David, who is lovely, kind and dependable but lacks spontaneity? Or should she choose Mike, who looks like a model and wants to whisk her off to Rome, but was a completely jerky slacker when they dated two years ago? This same story, written by anyone else would not have been half as good. Gemma does an amazing job at creating characters that you can't help but root for. Highly recommended. show less

A book about choosing between what you want/need and what you think you want/need.

I didn't like the main character, Georgie, at first. Her thought process annoyed me. It took at least until the middle of the book for her to 'get a clue.' It ended up being a really good book. It was a very easy read.

I read it while on vacation and it was a perfect vaca read.

Tried to read it, but mostly skimmed it. The basic premise bothered me and I knew that I'd feel really pissed off if everything worked out in the end, even if the author is sisters with Sophie Kinsella. There may have been some meat in the tale but there was a great deal of superficiality which put me off -- things like the idea that someone will "pop the question" to a girl because she's wearing designer clothes, or that bank accounts matter more than actual emotions.