Review: Gianni is here!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 18, 2013
Gianni is the third installment in the new series The Santinis by Melissa Schroeder. I received the ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.  So far, I have enjoyed all of the books in this series, some more than others. Gee as he is known and called by his family and friends is stationed in Valdosta Georgia and this is where he first encounters Kianna Jones.He is entranced by the woman he sees in the sweet shop and he tries to win her over with his usual charm. He has 24 hours before he ships out and he wants to make the most of it and this time he wants to do it with no regrets. Kianna however doesn't make it easy for Gee. Their first encounter is one of slight embarrassment and unclear signals and it sure does make the usually suave Gianni appear less than capable in getting to know this woman that he is interested in.Truth be known, Gianni's interest has also thrown Kianna for a loop and yet she is still able to keep her cool and Gianni is able to charm her into spending time with her before he is shipped out. I liked Gianni in the previous installments when he did make an appearance and he is one smooth talker, but he also knows what he wants and he is a go getter, going after Kianna, because he does want her and more than that he wants to get to know her.Each chapter of the story has a line or two from the emails that Gianni and Kianna wrote to each other while he was deployed in Afghanistan, but I personally didn't like this as I felt that it didn't add much to the story or to the characters of Gianni and Kianna. I would rather read about them interacting with each other and seeing their relationship develop.I liked Kianna as a character. She has been married before and she has to deal with two sisters who sometimes don't make the best choices. She is a strong character who knows what she wants and needs. I also liked reading more about Gianni and seeing what he was really like in a relationship. He also looked out for Kianna and they were good together. It was also good to see the various Santini clan members pop up and see what they were up to.It is mentioned more than a few times and by different characters that Gianni is six years younger than Kianna, but in my opinion, this really didn't seem to have any bearing on the development of the relationship, so why it was mentioned again and again had me wondering. Kianna didn't raise it as a serious issue that prevented their relationship from moving forward until right at the end when it seemed a bit pointless to raise it, and Gianni didn't seem to worry about it much either.One other little niggle is the plane ride at the end with Alana. It just seemed as if it was thrown in for effect. Unless you have read the previous installment you wouldn't have a clue who Alana is. This needed to be explained otherwise, it could just have been a simple plane ride home, and we don't even get to meet her.This is a series about military men, but there is very little of this aspect revealed in this story, which I think is a shame. I would have loved to have a better idea of the work that Gianni does as this is such a big part of who he is as a person and it is important to him. Added to that, the fact that his family is a military family.  I just think that this would have really rounded out the story more and added more depth to Gianni's character. We got to see a bit of Kianna at work, so why not Gianni?After this story there is one more brother and I cannot wait to read about the last Santini! Bring it on Ms. Schroeder!