I was kind of disappointed with this book. I guess my expectations were too high.

The story is ok but in no way memorable. I liked the characters but I feel the Italian side was a little overdone. I know Italians are very family orientated.
What I liked the most was that they spoke to one another. Yes, actually talked out disagreements, arguments and misunderstandings.
I am not overly excited about this book. It's the kind of book I would read while lying on a beach somewhere hot and just relaxing.
It doesn't over tax your brain too much.

If you like romance give it a go. I'm sure you will enjoy it/

Two photographers, one working for a slightly seedy local photographic studio, the other tied to her family business. Both dream of escaping the small worlds they feel trapped in, one by expectation and tradition, the other by her absolute fear of crossing the water to get off the island. Repeatedly the top two contestants for the local photography competition, they can’t be anything but fierce rivals when the prize is a contact that would take them away from it all. Just how far will thy go to win the prize? And at what cost?

This is a witty, entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable light-hearted romance. Olive is an extremely likeable character you can’t help but root for, hoping she wins the competition and overcomes her chronic phobia. The whole concept of a character born on an island with a deep longing to travel and an overwhelming fear of the ocean creates a great personal conflict.

Gabby is the less likable of the two, arrogant, over confident and a player to boot; while the rumours about her may not be totally true her behaviour at the end is almost unforgivable and severely dented my liking for her. But she is redeemed by having an absolutely hysterical, stereotypical Italian American family with superstitious Gran, overbearing Mother and a screaming hydra of sisters.

It’s extremely well written and edited, a wonderful and well developed cast of characters, excellent dialogue, extremely funny at times and with a warmth and humour throughout. It’s my first from this author but definitely wont be my last, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’m a fan of Ms. Moreau’s work and this book was a really engaging and well told romance between two relatable main characters. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a solid romance.

This is was a perfect romance. Sweet, believable, and with just enough tension in the plot to keep you reading. I loved the characters and the setting. It was the perfect vacation read. I will absolutely check out other books by Lisa Moreau.

*This book was provided to me by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

Olive spends her days taking awkward family photos. Her dreams of being a travel photographer are thwarted by a debilitating phobia. Ready to face her fears, Olive enters the Catalina Isle of Love contest where the winner will tour the world as staff photographer for a popular travel magazine. Olive’s biggest opponent is Gabby, who wins the competition every year and has a reputation for doing anything to succeed. Gabby manages her Italian family’s chain of pizza restaurants. She’s ready to break free from her large, overbearing family and live her secret dream of being a photographer. For Gabby and Olive, nothing will stand in their way of winning…except maybe love.
The book was decent. The plot was not bad. I liked both main characters. I recommend
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

This is the story of Gabby and Olive. They're both photgraphers who have entered the Catalina contest where the grand prize is to become a travel photographer for a magazine that Olive loves. Olive does posed photography for a boss that's not quite a nice guy on the island and has a big secret that keeps her on the island. While Gabby is the general manager of a bunch of pizza stores on the mainland whose whole life has seemed to be predetermined and photography wasn't in that predetermination.

This one is a hard one. It wasn't a bad book, the writing, the plot, the narrative in general I thought was really good. It was the characters that tripped me up. At the beginning I did not like either of them at all. Gabby was an egocentric bitch, and Olive was a follower to the nth degree. That's fine, the problem was that I also thought that by the end of the story Gabby stayed the same, and while I sorta at least understood where Olive was coming from, she still seemed to me like a limp character.

I don't know. Most people seemed to like the book more than I do, so perhaps I was missing something really big that should have changed my point of view or something? But I guess that I just could never get into the book because I never really found myself rooting for the characters in any way.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.

I’ve been reminding myself recently that I should be reading and reviewing more LGBT stories, so when I spotted this lesbian romance available on NetGalley I grabbed it up.

The only problem is that I think this may have started life out as a regular het romance and been re-written to make both protagonists female. I can’t otherwise account for the behaviour of Gabby, who frankly acts exactly like the worst kind of man when the tables are turned on her and she is the one who has to make a decision to ‘tag along after’ Olive or be left behind. Also, why on earth would Gabby’s nickname be ‘The Italian Stallion’? I can’t get past the sneaking suspicion that the author just couldn’t think up a new nickname when she went through changing pronouns.

Picture Perfect is well written and well edited; I found hardly any errors in the book. Olive, a sweet photographer living on Catalina Island and suffering from a paralysing fear of the ocean after a near-death drowning experience as a child, was absolutely delightful and I was rooting for her from the very beginning. Gabby’s overbearing Italian family were hilarious and Gabby, for 90% of the book, was lovely. The issues came towards the end when things didn’t turn out quite as Gabby expected and her arrogance and superior attitude came to the fore. As I said, she behaved like a man, and a pretty unlikable one at that. I’d say exactly the thing about a male protagonist in a romance, and I was disappointed that Olive forgave her so easily in order to fit in a happily-ever-after. Frankly, I got the feeling that Olive would probably have kicked Gabby and her difficult attitude to the curb after a few months of travelling and found someone else to share her dream.

A disappointing conclusion to an otherwise enjoyable F/F romance means that I can’t rate it any higher than three stars.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story. Two women enter a yearly photography competition, both wanting to win and to use the first prize of a job on a popular travel magazine as means to escape their current situations. Olive and Gabby are great characters and their journeys through the book, make fun reading. Gabby' s sister Gina, is bit of scene stealer as a nightmare bride to be!

Picture Perfect. Olive has lived her whole life on Catalina Island. While she loves her home she yearns to travel the world but having a deep fear of the ocean makes it impossible to fulfill her dream. Gabby is in her own way as trapped as Olive but while she has no problem traveling she can't, who else is going to manage her family's restaurant chain. Olive works taking photographs for a living while Gabby keeps her love for photography to herself. Both enter a contest run by a travel magazine with the grand prize being the magazine's top photographer but find themselves spending their time helping each other and falling in love. I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. A very nice read.

Rivals to lovers is one of my favourite tropes and I was really hoping this book would deliver, but unfortunately it didn't. 

The trope wasn't really part of the story and another problem with the book was, well, it was kinda boring. I personally didn't find the story at all engaging. The wedding subplot was really boring and I didn't like how Gabby's sister was just reduced to a one note bridezilla caricature. 

Another thing I didn't like was that Olive rejected Gabby's flirting and... kind of... refused to listen. There also wasn't too much chemistry between them. I did care at all if they ended up together. 

Something I thought was a little odd was how even though Gabby's mum is super Italian there's only one mention of religion, that being  a joke comment of how Gabby thought her mother would want her to become a nun. I would've expected it to have a little more religion, even something as small as them going to mass. I will say the only things I did like was the photography aspect and that Gabby's mother wasn't homomisic. Just wasn't my favourite romance book out there.

My very first time reading from this author already had me hooked so going into this book was such a journey of not being disappointed whatsoever! Talk about hitting home with being able to overcome fear and follow your dreams. Everyone knows the struggle and being from such a tight knit family, it’s one of the hardest things to overcome but god, what a journey these two characters have with a growing love to push each other to be better. 19 stars guys, read this book!

This was a good read however not too engrossing to make it hard to put down. Just enough juice to keep you coming back for more. By the end of it, I was happy for the characters but not left wanting more.

I'm a big fan of the author first and foremost. There are few authors whose dialogue is so engrossing that it doesn't matter what the set-up of the story is, it will be a good read. She's one of those authors. I just enjoy being able to listen in and watch the two main characters fall in love.

She also has this great ability to create these amazing characters, so that even the side characters feel fully developed. I especially loved the whole Italian posse/family of Gabby. I could just picture them throughout the book and was thoroughly entertained. Also, the whole concept of a character born on an island being terrified of the ocean was brilliant. I had never really thought about someone being sheltered in such a way.

If I had one criticism it would be that it ended a little abruptly. This would have been a great book to have a bit of an epilogue. Maybe a sequel? I could see a lot of funny material with Olive dealing with Gabby's family and both or their careers going forward.

Overall a definite buy.

I know I'm being picky and hopefully an editor caught this but three times in the book the author uses the word clinched instead of clenched and, well, it bothers me. And at one point the one character says "I will make myself scrambled eggs" and was answered by her mother with "grilled cheese isn't food"...huh? They weren't even discussing the same meal and the author appears to have forgotten the character about to eat was lactose intolerant. Overall the story was somewhat enjoyable and the characters (when they remembered who they were) were likable.

An honest review thanks to NetGalley. I like Lisa Moreau, I am a big fan of her books and had high hopes for this one. I started out liking this book and thought this was going to hit home with me. Even in the middle of the book I had high hopes, I had a major problem with Gabby's ego. The fact that she couldn't even comprehend that Olive might win and everything that came out of it. How Olive acted from this made the unrealistic actions from her. Otherwise, from this deeply seated annoyance, the book was very well written and good.

This book is cute. The two protagonists are cute. Olive is a woman who, due to a childhood trauma, has always lived in Catalina, never leaving the island. Gabby is a woman of a very traditional Italian family who has a very high sense of duty, which has made her take care of the family pizza business since her father's death. Their passion for photography unites them, also the wedding of one of Gabby's sisters. But the story is excesively topical and predictable. There are some funny situations and in general it's nice to read. Although it's nothing extraordinary, it is not disappointing either. It's cute and sweet.

ARC received from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I haven’t read anything by this author before, but was intrigued by the premise. Both characters were interesting and the chemistry between them was believable. I also enjoyed the way their romance developed, and that any misunderstandings/issues were fixed up quickly.

Gina was a conundrum, both wishywashy and kind of obnoxious, while also somewhat thoughtful. I also found Gina’s family to be a bit too stereotypical, but did enjoy the fact that for once the issue wasn’t that they’d have a problem with her sexuality, but rather what she’d do for a living. Olive was a sweetheart (almost too sweet, especially at the end) and I liked how she overcame her fears.

Overall, this is a sweet enough story, there’s nothing earthshattering in it, and I did see most of it coming, but it was still enjoyable. 3.5 stars.

Picture Perfect is one of those cliche romance novels that's so much fun to read. There are so many layers to this novel with colorful characters so full of life and sweet soulfulness that it's a delight to get to know every one of them. The scenic Catalina Island adds to a picturesque backdrop to Olive and Gabby's love story. Their romance entangling with the photography competition was a push and pull of strong personalities and undeniable attraction. Throw in a good dose of overbearing and loud Italian family and it's one hilarious moment after the next tempered with solemn moments of the uncertainty of whether or not their love will survive another day. This is a great book to curl up with and escape for a few hours.

Standard genre fare, with the added benefit of the tension that can arise between personalities competing for the same goal. However, that dramatic dimension was resolved fairly early in the plot and the romance commenced. While the characters were likable, especially Gabby (whose interactions with her family made me slightly nostalgic), the plot concluded in a readily predictable manner. Still, Ms. Moreau is a skilled author that I will continue to follow.