“Sonia met my eyes in the mirror. ‘You know, people come to Italy for all sorts of reasons, but when they stay its for the same two things.’ ‘What?’ ‘Love and gelato.’ ‘Amen,’ Howard said.”
Jenna Evans Welch, Love and Gelato
Hey guys! I’m here with another book review! I hope you enjoyed my last one about A Curse so Dark and Lonely. Love and Gelato is a contemporary novel that was published in 2016 and it has 389 pages. Like many other books, my sister read this first, and she was saying that it was really good. My favorite genre of books is probably contemporary, so I really enjoyed reading this book.
Synopsis:
“I made the wrong choice.”
Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is go back home.
But then she is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires her, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.
People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.
My thoughts on the book
Characters
Carolina, Lina for short, is the main character. Some people might think that she seems ungrateful in the beginning, because she’s in this beautiful place, and all she’s thinking about is how she doesn’t want to be there. But I get it. Her mom just died, and she doesn’t want to go live with her father, who she doesn’t even know.
“Turns out there’s a reason they call it falling in love, because when it happens – really happens – that’s exactly how it feels. There’s no doing or trying, you just let go and hope that someone’s going to be there to catch you.”
Jenna Evans Welch, Love and Gelato
While Lina is in Italy, she meets Lorenzo, Ren for short, and they get to know each other. He is a very sweet, helpful, and kind boy. He helps Lina find out more about the secrets her mother kept and also explore the city.
Plot, writing, and other things
“A life without love is like a year without summer.”
Jenna Evans Welch, Love and Gelato
First of all, this book made me hungry! There were so much descriptions of food. So, if you are hungry (or don’t have any good food to eat) then you might not want to read this. It also made me want to go to Italy. It sounds like a very magical place to visit.
“So… Italian gelato. Take the deliciousness of a regular ice-cream cone, times it by a million, then sprinkle it with crushed-up unicorn horns.”
Jenna Evans Welch, Love and Gelato
I liked how this book is kind of a mystery. You get to find out all of these things as Lina and Ren are too about her mother’s life there and everything.
However, there is something that I didn’t like about the book. I think that it was not logical for Lina to not read the journal later in the book. If she wants to find all of these things out, then why doesn’t she just finish reading the journal first?
I also found some of the parts where she was reading the journal boring, but I get that they had to have that in it for the reader to understand the story.
I had to keep using the translator app on google to see what they were saying so I could follow along with some of the dialogue. I personally don’t really mind this, but some people might not be able to translate it because they don’t have any translating device. It’s fine if you don’t because there are just a few parts where they talk in Italian, but it is a helpful tool.
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
Jenna Evans Welch, Love and Gelato
Conclusion
I rated this book five out of five stars, and I think that it was a sweet, light, romance, with just the right amount of mystery. I loved the ending, and am thinking about reading the next book, Love and Luck, which is about Lina’s friend, Addie.
I hope you have a good day! 🙂
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