45 pages • 1 hour read
Sarah AdamsWhen in Rome: A Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 30-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 30 Summary: “Amelia”
Despite everyone’s relentless teasing about her pancakes, Amelia enjoys being around people who genuinely care for her. At dinner, she can’t stop glancing over at Noah, leading to an awkward moment when Madison loudly suggests that something is going on between the two of them and assumes they’ve slept together. Though Noah tries to deny everything and keep their secrets, his sisters eventually pry the story of the previous day’s kiss out of him. Emily reminds Noah that Amelia is leaving, and he assures her that he is not leaving Rome again. Emily eats a terrible pancake as an apology and the mood returns to normal. As everyone starts to leave, Noah and Amelia both feel nervous to be alone together again.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Amelia”
Amelia can’t sleep that night because of a loud storm, but even that can’t drown out her thoughts about Noah and her anger at not being able to pursue a relationship with him. She hears a knock on her door and Noah comes in and asks if he can just sleep in the same bed as her. He has been terrified of storms since his parents died in one. Amelia distracts him by telling him about her relationship with her mother. They discuss their relationship and feelings for one another and inevitably come to the same conclusion: They can’t be together. However, they decide that they should make the most of the time they have together and, forgetting all their rules and boundaries, they give in to one another and have sex.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Noah”
The next time Noah and Amelia go into town, he warns her that the townsfolk can sense gossip and will know something has changed in their relationship. As Noah predicted, several people harass them on their way to the pie shop. Amelia stops suddenly and admits to Noah that she doesn’t want to go back to her old life, she wants to stay in Rome with him.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Amelia”
Amelia knows she doesn’t want to quit music, and she knows Noah knows that too, but she feels she must find a way to face her conflicted emotions on the matter. Though Amelia doesn’t ask Noah to come with her on tour, she tells him he is always welcome wherever she is. As they embrace, Mabel rushes into the pie shop to tell them that Amelia needs to hide as there are even more paparazzi in town looking for her.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Amelia”
Amelia warns Noah to get away from her if he doesn’t want his life to be on the front page of the tabloids, but he refuses to leave her side as they run out the back entrance of the pie shop. Noah tells her he doesn’t care who knows about their relationship because he wants an actual relationship with her, regardless of the distance and obstacles they will have to face. Yet as they flee into the alley, they’re cornered by paparazzi shouting questions about who Noah is and if he thinks he is good enough to date a celebrity. As Mabel and other townsfolk try to push the paparazzi back, two black SUVs drive up with Susan and Amelia’s bodyguard Will inside. They get the paparazzi to disperse and usher Amelia and Noah inside the car, but as soon as she looks at Susan, Amelia knows she is the one who sent the paparazzi. Susan drops them off at Noah’s house and tells Amelia to pack her bags, but instead, Amelia calls her mother and confirms she wasn’t the one who called the press. She also discovers that Susan has been lying about setting up meetings with her mother and selling stories about her to the tabloids. Amelia confronts Susan, who initially tries to deny the accusations. Amelia fires her and tells Susan she’s staying in Rome.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Amelia”
After she fires Susan, Amelia gets the call that her car is fixed and she can leave town whenever she’s ready. Amelia stays an extra week, talking on the phone to her mom and beginning to rebuild their relationship, all while trying to make the most of the last days in Rome. Though they confess their love for one another and know they want to be together in the future, Noah still fears that if Amelia leaves town, he will never see her again.
Chapter 36 Summary: “Noah”
Three days after Amelia leaves for her tour, Emily confronts Noah. He’s been ignoring Amelia’s calls and not putting any effort into their relationship since she left. The two eldest siblings discuss how the trauma of their parents’ death has affected them, making them both afraid of abandonment. Emily tells Noah that she and their sisters will do anything he needs in Rome with the pie shop whenever he wants to see Amelia so they can make their relationship work, and Noah finally knows what he needs to do.
Chapter 37 Summary: “Amelia”
Before the opening night of her tour, Amelia hires a new manager and Claire as her assistant. Though she doesn’t feel as lonely with Claire and her mother accompanying her, she misses Noah desperately. She finishes the show to great applause and receives several bouquets, which makes her think of Annie’s flower shop in Rome. As she heads back to her dressing room, she finds Noah waiting for her. He apologizes for trying to avoid the difficulties in their relationship over the last few days and takes up her offer to come with her on parts of the tour.
Epilogue Summary
A tabloid headline speculates that after going on hiatus for three months after her tour, Rae Rose has gotten engaged to a mystery man in Rome, Italy.
Chapter 30-Epilogue Analysis
The final chapters of the novel center on The Importance of Mental and Emotional Health as both Noah and Amelia finally learn to prioritize their well-being over their perceived responsibilities to others. As the oldest siblings in their family, Noah and his sister Emily were particularly affected by their parents’ death. In Chapter 36, Emily tells Noah, “We are old enough to remember exactly what it felt like that day when we got the call about them. And so we know exactly where our trauma comes from, whereas [our younger sisters] feel it, but don’t always know why” (277). Noah, who struggles with this trauma and the added heartbreak of his relationship with Merritt, finally begins to recognize how his past affects his actions toward Amelia. As Emily helps him to work through it and convinces him that his past shouldn’t prevent him from being with Amelia, he’s able to start moving toward his happy ending. Similarly, Amelia grapples with her past and the toll her career has taken on her mental and emotional health, particularly as related to her relationship with her mother. In firing Susan, Amelia finally begins to stand up for herself and what she needs and wants, reconnecting with her mother and prioritizing her own well-being.
In Rome, Amelia finds the home and community that she’s longed for and begins to heal the loneliness and isolation that has defined her life as Rae Rose. In the final chapters, Adams emphasizes how the community continues to show Amelia that they care about her and see her as family. The townsfolk, even those who haven’t yet met her, help her avoid the paparazzi when Susan tells them that Amelia is in town. When the paparazzi swarm her and Noah in Chapter 34, several characters divert their attention, causing Amelia to feel guilty for pulling everyone else into her problems. When she leaves to start her tour, Emily, Madison, Annie, Mabel, and others agree to help share Noah’s duties in Rome so the two of them can be together. In finding a community that cares for her not as a pop star but just as herself, Amelia begins to reconcile The Inherent Tension Between Celebrity and Authenticity.
In the novel’s conclusion, both Amelia and Noah complete their arcs, finally recognizing what they want from themselves and one another. Despite his earlier fears, Noah admits that he wants to attempt to have an actual relationship with Amelia even if it must be long distance. Though he’s still skeptical about long-distance relationships after his last heartbreak and avoids Amelia the first few days she’s away, Noah ultimately decides to prioritize the connection that he and Amelia share and works to make their relationship work for both of them. Both characters also overcome some of their biggest fears and insecurities to be together. While Noah learns that he has to take risks to find happiness with Amelia, leaving Rome again in the process, Amelia learns to stand up for herself. As she begins to fight back against the people who tried to control and define her, Amelia frees herself from the pressures and superficial expectations that kept her away from Noah in the first place. With both characters changed for the better, they experience the traditional happy ending of the contemporary romance genre. The epilogue that announces their engagement affirms the balance they’ve achieved in their life together both in Amelia’s career and their home in Rome.
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