Love And Gelato Book Review

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Hi everyone! Today I’m going to be reviewing Love And Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch.

Rating: ✯✯✯✯

Love And Gelato follows the protagonist, Lina, who is spending her summer in Tuscany following her mother’s dying wish that she gets to know her father. Not long after she has arrived, she is gifted her mother’s journal, where she uncovers a world of romance and Italian culture. With the help of the journal, Lina starts piecing together what truly happened to her mother – and why she so abruptly returned to the US.

I think it goes without saying that my favourite part of this book was setting. Italy is somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit (let’s hope it happens in the next couple of years) and reading Lina begin to uncover its history and culture was so much fun. Of course, this was mainly in Florence, where she was staying, and which was full of so many wonderful places. I loved reading about the Duomo in particular!

The importance of family was also a really big theme in Love And Gelato. The story dealt with Lina dealing with the death of her mother as well as her initial hostility towards her father, Howard (who was one of my favourite characters). It was really nice reading their relationship blossom and things develop between them – they came to share such a close bond!

Lina’s mother’s journal also played a really central role. I really enjoyed the different journal entries and I was really invested in Hadley’s story – I needed to know what happened to her! I had a hunch from the beginning that X wasn’t who he appeared to be, and I really wanted to know his true identity. The search for the truth really kept me invested!

Of course, another thing which kept me invested was the romance. Shortly after arriving in Italy, Lina met Ren, who she instantly became friends with. Right from the beginning I was hoping they would be endgame and shipping them – I don’t want to give away too much but let’s just say the main relationship was really cute when it finally happened, particularly at the end.

I also really enjoyed the amazing friendships in Love And Gelato, the main one being Lina and Ren’s. I loved how close the two became and reading them come together as Lina explored Italy. I also loved the general friendship their group shared – another stand out would have to be Lina and Elena’s. I thought it was also really great that she still stayed in contact with her best friend, Addie, who was still in America – their facetime calls were really fun to read!

The character development was also really fantastic. I loved reading Lina slowly become more open to more people and opportunities, for example Howard and the idea of staying in Italy. This general theme was such an important lesson to take away from the book and I really appreciated Lina’s growth.

However, that’s not to say that I enjoyed absolutely everything about this book. If you’re a regular reader you might know that love triangles are very hit or miss for me (I either love them or hate them) and unfortunately Love And Gelato fell into the former. I felt the love triangle was really poorly executed and not nearly enough development when into Thomas, but that may just be personal preference.

I also had some issues with some of Lina’s decisions – namely, choosing not to finish the whole journal in one go. I appreciate how difficult it must have been reading her mother’s thoughts, and I understand the need to initially hold off, but once things started picking up I didn’t understand why consistently stopped. Her search for answers would’ve been a lot easier if she’d simply kept on reading, but in all fairness it did a lot more adventure to the book.

I also thought the romance was a little cheesy in places, which is actually incredibly rare for me to say! I was cringing at some of the moments and the ending, albeit cute, was just a little too much for me. That being said, that’s not exactly unusual in YA, so I wouldn’t let any of that put you off!

Overall, I would recommend Love And Gelato to anyone looking for a lovely summer read, as this was such a quick, fun read, perfect for the summer. I would also recommend it to anyone who loves books about travelling, as the Italian setting was really interesting and I loved finding out more about the history – I definitely want to do some further reading!

Have you read Love And Gelato yet? Will you be adding it to your TBR? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you enjoyed this review!

Ceri

51 thoughts on “Love And Gelato Book Review”

  3. I do love me the odd romance filled book but if it’s cringey, that’s the turn off point for me lol! Thank you so much for sharing such an amazing in-depth review lovely, it does sound like it has a good storyline to it! Xo

    Elle – ellegracedeveson.com

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    1. Yes same, for the most part I enjoyed the romance but some of it was just too far-fetched and cringey! The storyline was really great, I loved the exploration of family, friendship and Italy. Thank you so much for reading and commenting xx

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  7. This sounds great! I’ve always wanted to to Tuscany as well. And love triangles aren’t my favorite trope and they have to be very well done to keep my interest.

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    1. It definitely is! I hope you get the chance to go to Tuscany one day. I’m completely the same with love triangles, they have to be executed perfectly for me to enjoy them! Thank you so much for reading and commenting.

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    1. Yes it did – parts of it were just too much, but it was still a great read overall! Definitely recommend picking it up if you’d like to visit Italy, I loved the setting. Thank you so much for reading and commenting.

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    1. It definitely is! The journal was honestly one of my favourite parts. And of course, I always make sure my reviews are as honest as possible! Thank you so much for reading and commenting.

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    1. Yes it’s getting so much hype at the moment! I’m so glad to hear that, I really hope you enjoy it – and yes the cover is gorgeous! Thank you so much for reading and commenting.

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  17. I have Love & Gelato on my radar thanks to stellar reviews from multiple bloggers I follow, and yours only served to make me want to read it more with your thoughts on its Italian setting! I am in a small conundrum, though, as I cannot decide on whether to watch the movie or read the book first.

    I want to read the book first, but I also wonder if that would take away from my enjoyment of the movie, as I do not really want to spend the whole time saying ‘But that’s not what happened in the book!” So . . . 🙂

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    1. I’m so glad to hear I made you want to read it even more Jaya, the setting was honestly wonderful! I normally always read the book first but on this occasion I would probably watch the movie first, I’ve heard some really mixed things about it and it might be ruined for you if you read the book first. Thank you so much for reading and commenting 🙂

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    1. Oh it definitely is! Honestly I’d say it’s worth reading for the setting alone (although of course there are many other wonderful aspects), it made me desperate to visit Italy and worth getting through the cheesy romance haha. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

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  22. ok ok BUT CAN I JUST AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU’VE SAID??? 😭😭 the setting part of it was literal PERFECTION and 836255% MY MOST FAVORITE PART!! all the locations were so interesting to read about AND ALSO THE DESCRIPTIONS WERE STUNNING AHHH!! also the scenes where howard THREATENED REN OVER THE PHONE due to mistaken identities??? THOSE SCENES WERE GOLD OK AND MADE THE WHOLE BOOK WORTH IT!! also omg YES the friendships WERE THE BEST EVER AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!! but also completely agree with you on it not making sense that curiosity was ignored AND LINA SOMEHOW DECIDED TO SEARCH FOR HER FATHER INSTEAD OF FINISHING THE DIARY AND GETTING ANSWERS FROM THE DIARY ITSELF??

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    1. Haha I’m so glad you agree! Ok but honestly same, the setting was by far my favourite and I’m desperate to visit and also read more books about Italy now! And omg don’t get me started on that it was absolutely hilarious! I’m glad you agree with the whole Lina ignoring the diary thing too, I didn’t know if it was just me so glad you think so too! Thank you so much for reading and leaving such a long comment, I really appreciate it ❤

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  23. Amazing review for an amazing book! I enjoyed Love and Gelato so much, as well. Fun, cute and lovely. The leads’ friendship was so pure and sweet and how the romance slowly blossomed just caught my heart!
    It’s one of my favorite Romance books.
    Btw, do you have any recommendations similar to this book? Thanks.

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    1. Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it too – I completely agree!

      In terms of recommendations for similar books, I’m going to go with She Gets The Girl, The Start Of Me And You, Confessions Of An Alleged Good Girl and Perfect On Paper for similar, friends-to-lovers romances. If you’re looking for other travelly books I’d recommend Love & Other Great Expectations (set in the UK) and Love A La Mode (set in Paris). I hope these help! ❤

      Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

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