LOVE AND GELATO
BY JENNA EVANS WELCH
GENRE : YOUNG ADULT
SYNOPSIS:
Her life already upended by her mother’s short illness and death, Lina, 16, moves to Tuscany to live with the father she’s never met.
Lina’s repulsed to discover that her father, Howard, is the caretaker of a World War II cemetery in Italy. She’s had enough of death, thanks, and doesn’t need to see all those crosses outside her bedroom window. Determined not to stay, Lina secures a promise from her best friend, Addie, to help her return to Seattle. But as readers probably know by now, Tuscany is irresistible. Soon Lina’s seduced by its rolling hills and Florence’s myriad beauties and attractions. Gelato and a guy play their parts. Lorenzo, known as Ren, a handsome, half-Italian, half-American neighbor, attends the school she’ll be enrolled in if she stays. He introduces her to classmates who welcome her into their close-knit posse, including a wealthy—and hot—Brit, Thomas. Howard proves both likable and an ideal parent—caring but not hovering. Why her mother never mentioned him until she became ill, and why Lina looks nothing like him, remain mysteries she’s determined to solve. The journal her mother mailed to Italy—detailing her own year in Florence as a photography student—holds some but not all the answers. Lina narrates in a breezy style, her mother’s journal entries interwoven to provide revelations at carefully paced intervals.
Seasoned with luscious descriptions of Renaissance architecture and Italian food, a sure bet for fans of romance fiction and armchair travel.
REVIEW:
I told my sister how I wasn't going to be able to read this book because I wasn't in the mood and couldn't renew it (because it's popular and has lots of holds). Before setting it aside, I read the prologue. And finished the book by staying up way too late on the night before we check out of New Orleans. And yes, that tells you all you need to know about how engaging the book is.
It's not all win. It's a somewhat formulaic bildungsroman of the teen-girl-finds-herself-in-Europe variety. And yeah, I can't believe that's a trope even though I've read a handful of them. The mom's journal is the worst of the trope offense because I just don't buy all the pausing. I mean, I get that it's an emotional read (because her mom is dead and it's hard) but I don't see actually putting it down for days at a time just because of feelz, conveniently enough, on a pace to preserve the mystery so Lina doesn't figure things out too fast. Since the journal is a separate font and formatting, I sometimes found myself flipping ahead to find the next section and being dismayed that it was chapters away. Which indicates that yeah, I was totally engaged with the plot, but also that the author's manipulation was particularly painful.
That said, Lina's story was engaging on its own (in addition to the history from mom's journal) and her figuring out both the past and her present was fantastic. It helps that we have some truly engaging secondary characters in Howard and Ren. Their modern guidance and support were as important as figuring out the past. And I particularly enjoyed how well Welch pegged the teen preoccupation with self and image but without compromising the fundamental integrity of the characters involved. Ren and Lina have some very believable miscommunications and working through those was engaging and felt very real.
Less real was Howard. I mean, he's a good guy and all kinds of awesome, but his story doesn't really survive scrutiny.
So yeah, I'm spending a lot of time on stuff I didn't like. So bear in mind that it's a fully-earned five-stars and I'm glad I stayed up way too late to finish even though that's making my four hour airport wait particularly draining.
RATING:
💗💗💗💗💗
DOWNLOAD LOVE AND GELATO Epub
REVIEW:
I told my sister how I wasn't going to be able to read this book because I wasn't in the mood and couldn't renew it (because it's popular and has lots of holds). Before setting it aside, I read the prologue. And finished the book by staying up way too late on the night before we check out of New Orleans. And yes, that tells you all you need to know about how engaging the book is.
It's not all win. It's a somewhat formulaic bildungsroman of the teen-girl-finds-herself-in-Europe variety. And yeah, I can't believe that's a trope even though I've read a handful of them. The mom's journal is the worst of the trope offense because I just don't buy all the pausing. I mean, I get that it's an emotional read (because her mom is dead and it's hard) but I don't see actually putting it down for days at a time just because of feelz, conveniently enough, on a pace to preserve the mystery so Lina doesn't figure things out too fast. Since the journal is a separate font and formatting, I sometimes found myself flipping ahead to find the next section and being dismayed that it was chapters away. Which indicates that yeah, I was totally engaged with the plot, but also that the author's manipulation was particularly painful.
That said, Lina's story was engaging on its own (in addition to the history from mom's journal) and her figuring out both the past and her present was fantastic. It helps that we have some truly engaging secondary characters in Howard and Ren. Their modern guidance and support were as important as figuring out the past. And I particularly enjoyed how well Welch pegged the teen preoccupation with self and image but without compromising the fundamental integrity of the characters involved. Ren and Lina have some very believable miscommunications and working through those was engaging and felt very real.
Less real was Howard. I mean, he's a good guy and all kinds of awesome, but his story doesn't really survive scrutiny.
So yeah, I'm spending a lot of time on stuff I didn't like. So bear in mind that it's a fully-earned five-stars and I'm glad I stayed up way too late to finish even though that's making my four hour airport wait particularly draining.
RATING:
💗💗💗💗💗
DOWNLOAD LOVE AND GELATO Epub
0 Comments