Loveandpizza.it is coming back!

(Day 1 of 30 — story crumbs from the world of Loveandpizza.it 🍕)

Right. Gather round, I’ve got news. ☕

Remember the novel I published a few years ago? The one set in Napoli, with the pizza and the sea and the two impossible men and a heroine who swears, hand on heart, that she is completely done with love (bless her)? The one I then went rather quiet about?

That one.

Well, it’s coming back, and properly this time. There’s a gorgeous new cover, and for the very first time it’s being published in Italian and Portuguese as well as English. And – because I have apparently lost the plot entirely – I’ve decided to talk about it every single day for thirty days. 🫠

I know, I know. Thirty days. While holding down a full-time job, building a business, writing a second novel (paused for now), attempting to learn Italian (I’ll confess – I make a far better teacher than I do a student! 😳), and answering to Cookie: my dog, my shadow, my mascot, the Writing Shed Club’s CAO – Chief Adorable Officer, and my self-appointed lucky charm, who has very strong opinions about my schedule. (Hubby has already raised an eyebrow,  though he’s beginning to understand why I disappear into my writing shed the second I finish work. He’ll rise to the challenge with me, I know he will; while I was writing Loveandpizza.it the first time round, he practically fed me. 😅🥰) 

But here’s the thing: I’ve been “going to bring Loveandpizza.it back one day” for so long that “one day” had started to look suspiciously like “never.” So. This is me, finally, doing the brave thing… out loud, where you can all see it and hold me to it. (And please do! Pop onto any of my Instagram or Facebook posts and nag me daily. I mean it. 😉)

So what is this, exactly?

For the next month I’m taking part in something called the Ultimate Blog Challenge – thirty days, thirty posts – and I’m spending every one of them taking you behind the scenes of Loveandpizza.it: the people, the place, and the story behind the story.

Think of it as me letting you wander around inside the world of the book before it’s even back on the shelves. You’ll meet the people who live there. You’ll walk the streets of Napoli with me (and them!): the heat, the noise, the scooters, the washing strung between the balconies, the neighbours who sound like they’re in the middle of a furious row right up until they suddenly burst out laughing. I’ll tell you where the whole thing came from, what’s changed since the very first version, and why on earth (or a volcano!) a love story and a pizza belong in the same sentence. (They do. I’ll prove it.)

What I will not do is spoil it. Not the ending, not who-ends-up-with-whom, not what my heroine is so busy hiding. Cross my heart. Think of these thirty posts as crumbs; little warm bits you can taste now, while the full meal is still in the oven. 🍕

Why now? And why like this?

Because Loveandpizza.it is coming back properly this time – in English, Italian and Portuguese – and I really, really didn’t want to just pop up one morning with a “buy my book!” post and a hopeful little smile.

A story isn’t only its plot, is it? It has a life of its own. It has a place. It’s a handful of people you start to miss the second you close the cover – even the ones you can’t stand but have to write about anyway (more on that in the next thirty days) – and a particular feeling you carry around for days, like a song you can’t shake. That’s what I want to introduce you to first: the world, the mood, the heart of it, long before I ask you to read a single chapter. Because if you’re going to fall for this book (and oh, I hope you do), I’d so much rather you fell slowly. (Although I have a feeling it won’t be long before you’re looking up flights to Napoli! 😉)

And honestly? There’s something rather fitting about doing all this through a relaunch. Underneath the pizza and the romance, this is a story about second chances; about going back to something you’d half talked yourself out of, and being brave enough to want it out loud again. Bringing the book back is my own version of exactly that. My heroine would understand. And I suspect you might, too, because most of us are carrying something we’ve set aside and keep promising ourselves we’ll return to, aren’t we?

Come along for the ride

Here’s all you have to do: show up, be a little bit curious – and, yes, nag me (see above 😉). Jump into the comments and ask me anything: I promise to answer every single question… unless you’re fishing for a spoiler, in which case you’ll get a polite “Not yet, Gentle Reader.” (What can I say… there’s a little Lady Whistledown in me.)

Some days I’ll introduce you to a character. Some days we’ll eat – fair warning, you’ll come away hungry. Some days I’ll pull back the curtain on the gloriously messy business of actually writing the thing (blood, sweat and tears… many, many tears). There’ll be a playlist. There’ll be a moodboard. And right at the very end of the month, there’s a surprise I’ve been dying to show you. (No peeking. It’s worth the wait. 😉)

If Napoli, complicated hearts and a bit of emotional chaos served warm sound like your sort of evening, the best thing you can do is make sure you don’t miss the day it’s back.

👉 Join the relaunch list, pick your edition – English, Italian or Portuguese – and I’ll send you the first slice the moment it’s ready.

I’m so glad you’re here, right at the very beginning of this. Tomorrow, we start where every good story should: with what it’s really about.

“Naples is a Paradise: everyone lives in a state of intoxicated self-forgetfulness, myself included. I seem to be a completely different person whom I hardly recognize. Yesterday I thought to myself: Either you were mad before, or you are mad now.”

~ Goethe, Italian Journey, 1786–1788

See you then. ❤️

Dani. x

P.S. Loveandpizza.it is coming back in English, Italian and Portuguese. Save your slice here and I’ll make sure you’re first to know the second your edition is out.