Janice Lane Palko

Our Lady of the Roses Janice Lane Palko

Janetta Orlando's life has been bouncing along the gutter like a Brunswick bowling ball after a series of disastrous relationships and bad breakups. When her girl's getaway with her best friend, Anne, to the wine country is abruptly cancelled, she is left with nothing to look forward to. No vacation. No wine. No men.

Bob White is headed to Rome from Pittsburgh with his girlfriend, Connie, who is fluent in Italian, to sell his invention to an Italian businessman. Days before their departure, Connie dumps him leaving him without a translator or a clue as to how to conduct business in Rome.

When Bob reluctantly arrives at Janetta's salon, Bella Figura, for the complete makeover Connie had scheduled for them prior to their breakup, Janetta concludes that Bob is a hopeless loser who desperately needs her makeover magic if he's going to have any chance of selling his invention.

When Bob tells her that Connie is no longer accompanying him to Rome, Janetta lies and says that Connie must be crazy. Why any girl would love to go to Rome with him! Janetta muses that she loves the Eternal City so much that she'd go to Rome with Satan if he asked her.

After Bob learns that Janetta has two weeks off and speaks Italian, he presents her with a deal: He will pay her to accompany him to Rome to serve as his translator. At first hesitant, she agrees but soon learns that the devil is in the details as she and Bob clash over nearly everything from fashion to food.

When they finally arrive in Rome, Janetta meets the Italian businessman, handsome Giuliano Legato, where her reckless ways ignite a catastrophe that jeopardizes everything Bob has worked for and dreamed of accomplishing. She also learns that there is more depth to Bob than she'd assumed, and that she is the one who is desperate need of a makeover--of her life.

Laughter, tears, and love flow like the Trevi Fountain as Janetta, with the help an unlikely aide, finds her true herself and her true love in Rome.