The Little Book Spy: Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

How’s it going everyone. Today, I’ll be reviewing Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch. This book came out a year ago and I've seen a few people talk about the book and how much they loved it. I ended up adding this book, along with a few others, to my Book I Want to Buy TBR list that I put together a while back. When I was in iBooks during the second to last week of August, in the young adult genre, I was in the top paid books section and I saw this book was on sale while I was scrolling through. After reading a small sample of the story, I was really intrigued and I wanted to read more and I knew that I had to get this book. Anyways, let's jump right in with my review.

About the Book:

Title: Love & Gelato

Author: Jenna Evans Welch

Release Date: May 3, 2016

Series: Love & #1
Genre: Romance
Pages: 337

My Rating: 5/5 ⭐️

Summary:

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 get back home.

But then Lina 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 Lina, 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 Lina 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:

I loved reading this story so much. It was so cute and adorable, I couldn’t put it down. I loved the character Lina. She is such a sweet and energetic girl that was on an adventure. After the passing of her mom, Lina was sent to live with Howard. After she arrives, Sonia, a friend of her mother’s during her time in Italy, gives Lina her mother’s journal that was sent ahead of time before she had passed. With the help of Ren, a boy who lives close by, they go on an adventure of not only exploring Italy, but also discovering what her mother did during her time in Italy and her love life while in Italy. The story flowed really well and was super detailed. Everything that happened in the story was so easy to imagine that sometimes I would forget that I was reading and I would literally see a movie playing in my mind as I read the story. Ren was such an adorable character. He was so sweet, charming and was a great friend to Lina and very helpful when it came to showing Lina the city of Florence and helping her with what she discovered in her mother's journal.

There was a lot of emotion in this story and it tugged at my heartstrings, especially one scene that happens close to the end of the book. I won't go into full detail about it because I don't want to give away any major spoilers, but I will try to be slightly vague talking about that scene. During one scene, one character had criticized and completely trashed another character and lied about the kind of person they were because they were holding a very huge grudge. Even though the character that was being told this had every right to be upset with their words. If anyone were to have said those kinds of things about someone I cared about, I would have be furious and I would have gone off on them.

This was an amazing story full of love, adventure, and heartbreak that I think everyone will love. I definitely suggest checking this book out. I also found out the author has a new book coming out called, Love & Luck which follows Lina’s best friend, Addie. I am 100% going to add to my TBR after it is published. If it is amazing as Love & Gelato, then I know that it will also become another one of my favorites.

If you're interested in checking out Jenna's pages, the links are below along with places you can get the book.