Teddy is determined to be the perfect wife. after all, she’s waited long enough (she’s now ’spoiling like old milk’ and her rich Texan family has almost given up on her). but now she’s finally married to a diplomat at the American Embassy in Rome and life is good (except that her husband won’t let her spend any money and doesn’t seem to care for her and she has no friends and she can’t find the right dress for the ball and she has a looming secret that’s about to destroy everything she wants). the scene is set for a perfect July 4th party (if Teddy can destroy the evidence of the worst decision she’s ever made).

this novel is both gripping and funny, completely transporting in its setting and its cast of characters. considering that we’re in Teddy’s head, and Teddy is deeply unreliable, the author does an incredible job drawing such distinct characters, who all feel real and gritty and, often, deeply awful. Teddy makes the worst imaginable choices, over and over, and at times you want to shake her, but the authenticity of her portrayal and the richness of her voice carry you along. i absolutely devoured this.

thank you netgalley for this review copy!

Teddy is an exciting character with lots of layers. The descriptions of life in the ‘60’s is facinating. Unfortunately I found the book quite slow and not really leading anywhere. The end was a bit of an anti climax and the ‘twist’ with her aunt was glossed over too quickly. I enjoyed the beginning of the book but lost interest part way through.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance digital copy!

Teddy Huntley Carlyle from Dallas, Texas has always dreamed of a glamorous and exciting life elsewhere, the kind her Aunt Sister has lived. So when she meets and marries David, his job drawing them to Rome, it seems like this dream might finally be becoming reality, as she is swept into the heart of the elite diplomatic circles of the American community in 1960s Italy. But Teddy has her secrets and, one evening at an embassy party, it seems like her past may finally be about to catch up with her; and to fix things, it seems like she may just have to get in over her head.

This goes deeper and darker than I expected. Yes, there’s summer sun, glamour, sizzle and scandal, but there’s also family secrets and shame, sexism and men abusing their power over women, expectations placed on women at the time, the versions of ourselves we put forward to others to succeed and the strain this causes, and the agency ultimately needed to regain control of the narrative. Moving back and forth in time, between an interrogation and Teddy’s story that brings us to this point, the story slowly builds tension towards what we know will be some explosive event. Teddy is a complex and multi-layered character. Brought up in a cocooned and privileged environment, she yearns for independence but then doesn’t always seem to know what to do with it. Naive at times (or seeming so anyway) but ambitious, glamorous but also slightly messy, unwilling to settle but also making a lot of questionable choices, divulging her worries, vulnerabilities and mistakes to the reader, but also at times coming across as impenetrable and composed as could be, knowing exactly what she’s doing and not giving away more than she wants to. Great detail is given to dress and interior decor, and Dunlay takes delight in walking us through Rome’s rich cultural and luxury urbanscape. In Teddy, Dunlay has created an intriguing character, constantly trying to outrun the past that has shaped her, whose story unfolds in a city drenched in heat, art, elegance, luxury, and bubbling with an undercurrent of darkness, deception and manipulation, where nothing is what it seems.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the DRC.

Teddy is a larger than life girl from Dallas. With an interesting past behind her, she has now gotten married to David, a government employee, who has whisked her off to live in Rome as he is attached to the American Embassy there. At first she struggles, but after she is finally invited to a party there, her life starts taking a upward trajectory and although her fears of her past being discovered are still there, she starts to relax. However, in trying t0 fix something, she causes more problems than she solves and things start to come crashing down.
A read about how naive the privileged can be. Even allowing for different times I wasn't whether or not I liked Teddy until she appeared to grow a spine.

Set in the 1960's in Rome and Dallas Teddy is quite a character and we live her amazing life with her in this book which for me was a quick read. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

This is exactly as you thought it might be - an enthralling summer read. Really fun and entertaining!

When I saw this book was set in the 1960's in the US and Italy I thought it was going to be something it wasn't. However I really enjoyed what it turned out to be. At first Teddy's 'poor little rich girl' character annoyed me but then we were shown just how manipulated, confused and unhappy she really was. Knowing what life was like in the 60s for women (I was there) I can empathize with her totally. I don't want to give anything away but I really loved the ending of the book. Very fitting.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

An absolutely enthralling read from cover to cover. This book has it all - highly interesting characters, great storyline and absorbing writing style. 5 stars, highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley andthepublisherfortheadvance digital copy..

A really unusual, different story that had me hooked from the beginning. It hooked me with its glamorous setting and high society lives, and reeled me in with its enticing storytelling. Great suspense, fabulous characters, gorgeous settings, addictive writing style, interesting twists. I enjoyed this cover to cover. And I'm still left trying to read between the lines, to better understand Teddy. Was she really unlucky and naive, a product of an overprotective upbringing, or is she far more astute and cunning that any of us give her credit for? Not easy for books to keep you thinking, when our lives are already so crowded.

Teddy is one of those books that grabs you right from page one and sinks its red taloned claws into you and just spits you out at the end. We’re caught up in the glamorous Italian 60s, the couture shops, the palazzos, they just ooze elegance. Teddy is simultaneously alluring yet naive, I sometimes didn’t know what to make of her. She went from calamity to calamity, making situations worse with various blunders but at times I was struck by her sadness, her addictions, her vulnerability in such a male dominated world. This book made me think. It’s still making me think.

Very entertaining and compelling.
I liked Teddy and the atmosphere.
I'm not sure if Rome was so glamorous as there were a lot of darker parts that a charachter like Teddy couldn't avoid (terrorism, spys, students protests, etc etc) but I enjoyed it and didn't care about historical accuracy
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A woman's place is where her husband says it is, or if not yet married her father.
A marriage in her thirties is unexpected and then a move from Texas to Rome.
A new chapter, the past wiped clean, no ghosts from previous liaisons. That is what marriage and a new country should of been but you can never truly escape your past.
The moral codes and politics, is teddy leading her own life or being directed behind scenes she is not even aware of?
Skilful, emotive writing that will take you back in time and feel teddy's feelings.

When Teddy marries American diplomat David she moves to Rome and becomes caught up in a whole new world of glamour and secrets…. but what is she hiding?

Set between the 50s and 60s, Teddy is a glamorous intoxicating read that I raced through

The two timelines show Teddy’s life and how it changes over the years - from a scandalous, spoiled heiress to a diplomats wife. All is going well until the 4th of July when Teddy’s life as she knows it begins to blow up and the secrets she’s hidden begin to unravel.

This was a really well written, heady read that I became totally wrapped up in. I loved Teddy even though her actions were questionable and she was a bit of a mess (but who isn’t!) I also loved the setting, it reminded me of Christine Mangan’s Tangerine which I also enjoyed.

A great read.

Oh my gosh, my new favourite character just landed. Teddy is such a fascinating and fun character to read and I loved her story! I loved how she simply doesn't care about the men around her - nor should she - and everything she does is for her own gain. This is truly if Betty Draper had stayed in Rome and I will be pushing it into the hands of everyone!

I warmed to Teddy straight away, she is such a character, being worldly wise on the surface, but also incredibly naive. She sounds like fun, but there is an underlying hardness and calculation to her outlook. and approach to life. Having read the first few chapters, I wasn’t keen on the direction the book was taking. It became a bit boring, with its backwards and-forwards repetition of the same scene, whilst not really moving the storyline forward in any way. I lost interest, and could not relate to the many more characters introduced. Not for me, I’m sorry to say, this was a DNF.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

What an utter, utter delight.
Teddy is a novel that has clearly been deeply researched, and written by its author, Emily Dubai, with the utmost tenderness and care. Everything about it felt authentic, from its setting and dialogue, to the descriptions of the fashion and architecture of the time, as well as Teddy’s deepest fears, insecurities, and realisations.
Teddy is a romp, Teddy is a joy, Teddy is a book I wish I could read for the first time all over again. THIS is how to do historical fiction, in my eyes. Thank you to the publisher, thank you to NetGalley, and thank you to Emily Finlay for what’s certain to be a complete summer scorcher. If I could buy shares in this book I would. It’s that good.

I'm so sad to say that this is probably my biggest disappointment of the year.

I dont think the cover and synopsis completely matches the story. This isn't a bad book at all but really wasn't for me.

Also what the hell does "the pearl felt toothy like velvet" mean?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

Teddy is one of those lost souls. Always searching for something and being very hard on herself. She married David and they start their new life in Rome. All is going well until David boss makes a pass on teddy and the kiss is captured by a photographer. Teddy tries to remedy the situation but it gets out of hand.

I loved the atmosphere for this one. 1960s Rome, the glamour and polished exterior of a city that thrives on its past as well as the up and coming. Teddy fits seamlessly into this world, with her shiny exterior that hides secrets underneath. However I'm really not a personal fan of dual time lines as I find they often take me out of the story, and I always prefer one storyline to the other. This was no exception, as I loved the chapters set in the 1960s yet didn't really like the more present scenes.

I really liked Teddy as a character. She's well written and developed, intriguing and charming. Impulsive and passionate. Vivacious. And I really wanted to know everything about her. She oozes charisma, and seems the complete opposite of her husband David, which just added to the air of mystery that surrounds their marriage and past. I just wish everyone else was as well developed, because in reality they all paled in comparison to Teddy. Almost as if Teddy dimmed the lights of everyone else.

Great character development from Teddy, but I struggled with the time lines and lack of secondary character development. Great writing and setting though.

I mostly really enjoyed Teddy – Teddy was such a fun character to read about, and Emily Dunlay was so so good at creating atmosphere. The 1960s were so brilliantly evoked, from wealthy Dallas to the gorgeous descriptions of Rome, and I really liked the undercurrents of unreliability permeating Teddy's narrative. I do think it went a bit off the rails at the end and tbh the last chapter was a let-down but on the whole I still really enjoyed my reading experience and it was the perfect book to read by the pool in Ibiza.