Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

6 reviews

matchabookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Grief

Minor: Emotional abuse

hazydazywaffles's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book has such strong themes. I  cried like 3 times in the last hundred pages and the pictures of love in this book were beautiful. The mistakes and consequences of one's past life are a theme that grips you and the reminder that the thrill of selfish love is fleeting are all things that really stuck out to me. This book surprised me and moved me. I was kinda expecting a surface-level meet-cute romance but instead was given a beautiful story of love, grief, and beauty.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent and Emotional abuse

Minor: Cursing

Most of the cursing is in Italian, there is a word or two in there

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, Cancer, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault

shannasbooksnhooks's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

"You've had bad days before, right? You know, the ones where your alarm doesn't go off, your toast practically catches on fire, and you remember way too late that every article of clothing you own is soaking wet in the bottom of the washer?"
Finishing up the book and writing this review has sort of been a confusing time for me. I really didn't know what star rating to give it. I knew it was at least 4 stars but wasn't quite 5 stars. And then I couldn't decide if I should do 4.25, 4.5, or 4.75 stars, so I ended up just settling on 4 stars.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which is why I think I'm in this confused state now. I never pick up books where the main genre is "romance." I have read plenty where romance has been a factor in the story, major or not. However, it's usually a sub-plot and/or sub-genre - not the main point of the book. Yet with Love & Gelato, it is. Although I think it being a "romance" book is a bit deceiving. The romantic plot of this book

especially between Ren, Lina, and Thomas

is more of a major sub-plot rather than the main plot of the story, which I really appreciated from this book and Jenna Evans Welch. I definitely recommend this as a read, especially if you like romance but aren't necessarily a big fan of soley-romance-based plots. As I mentioned, the fact that this book is a "romance book" is a bit deceiving if you consider the plots of romance books to be extremely romance-heavy (and only focusing on the romance, if you're like me). The characters are really amazing, the setting is beautiful, and it's a really good coming-of-age story. I've started to open up to books with more romance-heavy plots (like Natasha Lester's books or Lovely War). Love & Gelato really brought it home that I am ok with romance in books - it just can't be the sole plot, conflict, etc. of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

When Ren and Lina go to meet Matteo Rossi, Lina's biological father, it wasn't surprising that he was a total jerk given how Hadley (Lina's mom) wrote about him and how Francesca spoke of him.

And I was actually happy that Howard knew (second memorable scene for me). I was actually thinking of including the quote where he basically says that he's not her dad by blood/DNA, but he is her dad because he wants to be in her life and help her out. And Howard 1000% is her father in this sense. I was neutral about Howard until this scene.

As I hinted at earlier, there was, sort of, a bit of "romantic drama" between Ren, Lina, and Thomas. Thankfully, it wasn't a cliched love triangle. It started out seeming that way, but you really see that, as time goes on, Thomas is there more as a distraction for Lina from Ren. And I enjoyed when Thomas called Lina out on that at Valentina's 18th birthday party - because it was a low blow. But I also liked how he just let it blow over because he understood and it didn't turn into this whole drama.

kingrosereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This book is something I would have loved as a 16/17 year old. It’s written exactly with a teenager’s thought process in mind. Honestly, when I’m reading YA books, I want reckless behavior and not-well-thought-out actions when the protagonist is under the age of 23. But even more so when they’re still in high school. It’s why I read YA books. To fault the book because the teen protagonist is a brat, judgmental, and makes reckless decisions is like getting mad at a waiter for giving you exactly what you ordered. 

Carolina “Lina” Emerson is 16 and just lost her mom (Hadley Emerson) to pancreatic cancer after a very short battle. Lina’s from Seattle and stayed with her best friend’s (Addie) family for the last semester of her sophomore year. Unfortunately, Lina doesn’t have a dad (her mom never revealed his identity) and her grandparents aren’t able to care for her. This is all fine, because Hadley already set up for Lina to spend the summer with her old beau, Howard, in Florence, Italy. 

Howard confirms with Lina’s grandparents that he’s Lina’s father which means they push her to stay with him to try to build a relationship. Of course, as a typical 16 year old, she digs in her heels and only goes because she promised her mom she would. Hadley apparently spent a year in Italy back in the late 90s where she met Howard, a fellow American student at their Italian art school (and conceived Lina). 

With the aid of her mom’s journal from her time in Italy, Lina tries to walk in her mother’s footsteps over Florence and tries to understand how Lina was conceived, how Howard and Hadley fell in love, and why her mother ran away from Italy when she found out she was pregnant and never told Howard why she left. 

Along the way, she meets Lorenzo “Ren” Ferrara. A cute charming Italian teen that joins her on her crazy adventure. And (of course) they begin to fall for one another. 

It’s super cheesy, some of it doesn’t make sense, and it made me cry actual real tears. It had a charm to it that I can’t explain. Lina and Ren both irritated me, but made me laugh and my heart ached for them. I wish Howard were my dad. I don’t get why Lina hated the idea of living in a cemetery because I definitely would’ve loved that at 16 (hell I’d love it now). But Lina’s mom just died and I guess to some, cemeteries are creepy. Being forced to bond with a stranger because you made a death bed promise also sucks. Sometimes you have to just sit back and shit talk about strangers with your bestie to feel better. It’s all the angst of being a teenager without the one person who was supposed to guide you through it. But forreal, if I had the CHANCE to go live in Italy, I’d do it in a heartbeat. 

This book made me laugh, cry, and cringe. It was cheesy and awkward and I loved it. Was it clunky, rushed, and not as developed as it could’ve been? Yes. But I still enjoyed it. I liked that Lina was always on the go from one scene to the other. I always wanted to know what it was like to be a reckless teenager who just fell so madly in love in a way only 16 year old could, and that’s why I read these kinds of books. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

dazzlingreader_'s review

hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I was looking for a light read that I didn't have to pay too much attention to, that didn't have a slow narrative and that was still enjoyable to read, this book fulfilled everything I was looking for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer