Love & Gelato (Love & Gelato, #1)

by Jenna Evans Welch

“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.

• ISBN10: 1481432540
• ISBN13: 9781481432542
• Publish Date: 3 May 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon Pulse
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[phyllish]

A fantastic Young Adult story!

I'm always on the lookout for new-to-me authors and especially new-to-me young adult authors. When I first saw Love & Olives by Jenna Evans Welch (releasing November 2020), I was intrigued. So I hurried to my library website to see if any of her other books were available. They were. And that was my induction into the world of one of my now-favorite young adult writers.

There are so many things to love about Love & Gelato! First off, the writing style was great. It was heartfelt and yet not angsty (no matter how many times Lena wept!) I appreciated that it was told from a single point of view. Yes, it would have completely spoiled things if it was done differently. The descriptions of the places Lena saw were so beautiful. Along with mentioning famous landmarks, the stories and legends associated with them were shared in a natural manner that assimilated them very well.

The plot was perhaps not the most original. Girl's mom dies and Girl moves to another country and discovers her mom had been keeping secrets from her. But, oh, the story using this plot! And some of the quirky things that were included. Not the least of which was the house Lena moved into in Italy in the middle of an American memorial cemetery. Which, it ends up, is based on a real girl the author had met who lives in that very place! The unusual houses were also a lot of fun. Each one described was so unexpected and so different from the others.

Soon after Lena arrived in Italy, she was presented with the journal her mother kept while living there herself. It was probably one of the most fascinating journals I've seen included in a story like this. You'll love reading Hailey's account of her year there.

It's easy to continue to gush about the things I loved but I think you get the picture. I'm really looking forward to reading more in the Love & series.

Parents, if you prefer to not have your kids reading stories with underage drinking, be aware that there is some of that here. Though in Italy, there is no such thing. It is neither glorified nor condemned, other than a mention of how stupid one of the characters gets when he is drunk. There was also a hint of one of the characters being found with grass in his hair which he attributed to rolling in the grass. At which his friends teased about him not rolling around alone. And the final caution is from when they were in a club and the dancing by secondary characters was described (briefly) for its sensuous nature.

Read my full review at Among the Reads

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 3.5 Stars

Such a cute little young love story! Kind of gave me Mamma Mia vibes. Fun read!

[nightingalereads]

3.5 stars

This was fun and adorable and very well-written. For being someone who isn't the biggest contemporary fan, it's books like this that remind me how enjoyable they can be. Love & Gelato is a perfect summertime read, because the story is light but doesn't lack depth (a balance I struggle to find sometimes in "fluffier" contemporary). The characters were well-fleshed out and the romance was beyond cute. I'd recommend this book even to readers who, like me, tend to stick to fantasy and literary fiction.

(Sidenote: When will Goodreads allow half-star ratings?!...)

[kymmiejournals]

Finished the book within a day cause it’s a real page-turner. It was about a daughter’s love for her mom and learning a whole different side of her. It was kind of creepy, not sure if living in a cemetery is significant in the main story of Hadley and Howard. It would be really nice if author would use “secret gelato” something instead of a secret bakery, in relation with the book’s title. It’s great and all but it could be better.

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I utterly adored this book. I cried quite a few tears as I grieved with Lina, and wore a huge smile as she found some peace, healing, and her first love.

[readingwithwrin]

Lina is not only dealing with the loss of her mother but now the surprise that she is being sent to live with her father who she knows next to nothing about. Even though she really doesn't want to go and the prospect of living where she will is not comforting she does it anyway in order to please her grandmother.

Things start to look up though as she makes friends with Ren and starts getting to explore the city. I was a little unsure about her friendship with Ren because of things that had happened before they met. After getting to know him though and seeing their friendship grow slowly over time I really did like it, and I'm glad that it changed it to what it did.

“Hey, I just thought of something."
"What?"
"When we're together, we make one whole Italian.”

I also really liked the mystery part of why her mom had left Italy so abruptly and who exactly she was talking about in her journal. I honestly didn't figure it out until the characters did. As for her father and their relationship I liked how it took them both a while to get comfortable with one another and how they had things in common without having ever known each other. Plus the added in surprise that I was not expecting.

Overall I really did enjoy this book, and I'm glad I took a chance with this contemporary.
I don't know what happening to me, but I'm actually looking for contemporary reads and enjoying them. I want to read more books like this as well, that are fun books in different countries outside of America as I've noticed that I do enjoy those more.

If you have any suggestions for contemporary reads in different countries please tell me them in the comments!

[mrs_mander_reads]

Super sweet story, and a fun read for a day off work.

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: Set in Italy, where Lina learnt about her late mother's past, Love & Gelato had much to offer. Naturally, I enjoyed the setting. It was also pretty interesting to follow Lina's journey as she discovered more about her own father, whom she hadn't known her entire life. The romance was fairly slow burn, allowing time for the characters to get to know each other. It was quite a contrast to Lina's mother's year spent in Florence prior to Lina's birth. I liked that Lina was given the opportunity to explore that through her mother's journals.

On the audiobook front, I wasn't too thrilled by the mispronounced Italian words. The narrator could technically pronounce the words, including the rolling "r"s and also managed to convey the intonations convincingly. That's why it baffled me when"stracciatella" was pronounced as stra-kia-tella. That would've only been correct if the Italian spelling of the word had been "stracchiatella", which of course, it isn't. I'm not sure, though, which other words were mispronounced because I don't actually speak Italian. I did, however, spend three weeks in Rome, so I made sure to learn how to pronounce the food on an Italian menu.

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

~full review on The Bent Bookworm~

I went into this book wanting a fluffy, feel-good, summertime read. I was not disappointed! It was as feel-good as a big pile of puppies.

I wanted to hug it at the end. I really wish I had read books like this when I was the same age as the characters (in this case, 16). Because while it has a few flaws, Love & Gelato is a beautiful story of love had, love lost, love remembered, and love hoped for. Even though I like to pretend I’m too tough for such sentimentality, I still have a real soft spot in my heart for a good happy ending. What really makes me happy though, is a happy ending that isn’t just happily ever after. There’s pain and sadness, enough drama to suit most high-school students but not enough to entirely put the adults off, but above all there is HOPE. Rainbow in the clouds kind of hope.

Anyway. The story starts out on a rather sad note, as 16-year-old Lina’s mom passes from cancer, leaving behind quite the bombshell – surprise! Lina’s never-before-heard-from father, who lives in Italy, wants her to come live with him, and it was her mother’s dying wish (basically) that she go spend the summer with him.

^Basically Lina’s reaction. With a lot more tears, because obviously her mom just died.

So off she hops to Italy, with much encouragement from her grandmother. She arrives, nearly has a meltdown over the fact that her father is the caretaker of a war memorial (i.e., he lives in a cemetery) – which I was first really annoyed about. I’ve never understood people’s aversion to cemeteries, even when I was younger. I was always more fascinated than scared…not sure what that makes me, haha. But, given that Lina’s mom has just died, I guess she can be forgiven her little freak out.

She almost immediately meets a cute neighbor boy, Ren, who is “as Italian as a plate of meatballs,” yet not quite, and there’s a slight, almost-insta-crush. I say almost, because there are a lot of mixed signals, and a couple of chapters later there is insta-LOVE that made me throw up in my mouth a little. There are several moments that made me laugh out loud – and I think most readers will join me no matter where they fall on the age scale! The people in the little community she finds are memorable, lovable, and sometimes just hysterical.

While all that is going down, she’s also finding out more about her mom – mostly through a journal her mom mysteriously mailed to Italy ahead of her, but also through the memories of the people there who remember her from her youth – her dad, and exploring Italy. Italy. How many 16-year-olds get to go to Italy?? I was really glad that Lina didn’t just wallow in her sadness or her boy-crush and actually went out and explored. You can really tell the author has been to Florence herself – I felt like I was walking the streets right beside Lina.

We also see Florence 16 years prior, through the eyes of Lina’s mom via her journal. They both fall in love with gelato. I have yet to get to experience real Italian gelato for myself, but even the exported stuff makes me weak-kneed.

I can’t say a whole lot here without giving spoilers, but suffice to say some things just don’t add up, a lot of things don’t have the happy ending we might expect and there are a couple of big surprises. Love hurts. People make the wrong choices. But sometimes, we all get a second chance.

Turns out there’s a reason they call it falling in love, because when it happens – really happens – that’s exactly how it feels…you just let go and hope that someone’s going to be there to catch you. Otherwise, you’re going to end up with some pretty hefty bruises.

I really loved that Lina has to make choices and that they are realistic. Things are not entirely rosy-glassed here. But some things are! Haha. Because you get roses along with the thorns, eventually. I love the ending. It’s not a promise of happily-ever-after, but a happily-right-now. I wish I had realized at 16 that sometimes, happily-right-now with a hope of happily-later-on is sometimes perfection in and of itself.

4/5 stars. Because of the insta-crush/love, and the sheer convenience of the entire thing being a little far-fetched but mostly overlook-able. Also the “puppy-dog sleeping-boy” smell comment at one point. Sorry, but NO MEMBER OF THE MALE SPECTRUM smells nice first thing in the morning, unless he tricked you and brushed his teeth first. Haha!!

[jeannamichel]

So cute! Started my summer off right with this one.

At her mother’s last request, Lina is shipped off to Italy to meet the father she never knew about. In discovering her mother’s journal, Lina follows her mother’s adventures in Italy. She realizes a whole new side of her mother, she never before saw. Tracking down her mother’s old friends and professors, Lina uncovers a secret about her true father. Through her adventure in Italy, she begins to feel closer to her mother than ever before.

This is a summer read you won’t want to miss. The drama, the romance, and the taste-testing of gelato is enough to make any romance reader jump right into this wild plot. Plus, it’s set in Italy: the most romantic country in the world. Love and Gelato will not only make you fall in love, but also make you go buy tons of gelato, hoping for a taste of Jenna Evans Welch’s Italy.

The drama was fantastic. It was a soap opera at its best. Who’s the father? Who is lying? Should she believe him? These questions are a few of several the reader will ask. To find the answers, readers must keep reading. It’s a memorable plot which is told in a fresh light.

Love and Gelato is marketed as a romance and there is romance. It’s adorable. I found, the real story to be about the drama though. In fact, the romance blossoms between Lina, the protagonist, and a boy she meets in Italy. By way of a timeline, they’ve only known each other less than a week. After noting this, I found the romance to be way too rushed and a bit unbelievable.

Readers will be able to easily predict what happens next and who gets with whom. The characters are written in two categories: characters with depth, who readers can tell significant plot points will happen to them, and flat characters. For example, Lina meets several people at a party she attends and Welch starts introducing names which I will never remember. Welch makes it too easy to guess what is about to happen.

However, Love and Gelato is a fun summer read. Welch gives it a fresh perspective, twisting drama into a basic summer romance plot. Despite being predictable, readers will still fall in love with the many characters—including the relatable character, Lina—and escape to Italy to find out what Lina’s mother was trying to tell her. Love and Gelato is the perfect equation for your next summer romance. Readers can’t go wrong with a little bit of love and whole lot of gelato.