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sarahsbookss's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Grief
booksbyantheia's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-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? Yes
5.0
Este es el tipo de romance que me hubiera gustado encontrar más seguido en la secundaria. ¿Levemente cliché? ¿Empalagoso? Quizás. Pero sano, lleno de vida, de esperanza.
Y NI SIQUIERA ES EL ELEMENTO PRINCIPAL DEL LIBRO.
La historia de Lina y la de Hadley son muy emocionales. Ambas enfrentaron al amor, ambas recorrieron sus caminos con valentía. Lina es una de las protagonistas más preciosas que he leído, y a pesar de la situación tan difícil que pasó, sigue siendo una adolescente, cometiendo errores, teniendo respuestas divertidas, a veces cringes, pero hermosas.
Este libro es como un mimo. Es como el gelato. Dulce, inevitable de querer repetir.
Y NI SIQUIERA ES EL ELEMENTO PRINCIPAL DEL LIBRO.
La historia de Lina y la de Hadley son muy emocionales. Ambas enfrentaron al amor, ambas recorrieron sus caminos con valentía. Lina es una de las protagonistas más preciosas que he leído, y a pesar de la situación tan difícil que pasó, sigue siendo una adolescente, cometiendo errores, teniendo respuestas divertidas, a veces cringes, pero hermosas.
Este libro es como un mimo. Es como el gelato. Dulce, inevitable de querer repetir.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Death
Moderate: Infidelity, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Terminal illness
Food, false identity.kiarelia's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Pregnancy
rosegoes3's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
So cute. Definitely tugs at the heartstrings a little bit but I think it was very well-balanced. Tells a really great story of love and grief and found family. I normally steer away from YA, as I don’t like reading about teenagers now that I am no longer one, but I liked this little summer journey.
The pacing was a little slow to get started but once the adventure begins (55% through?) it is a very quick read. Really loved these characters.
Her American-ness felt a little bit overdone (we have prosciutto and gelato in the US as well? How do you not know the Medici family?) but it was cool how sometimes they spoke in Italian considering they were in fact in Italy. Get me a flight to Florence stat
There were some timeline instances the timeline of Ren and Lina seemingly being in love <\spoiler> that I didn’t fully agree with and it felt like a little bit of a rush to happily ever after but overall good.
The pacing was a little slow to get started but once the adventure begins (55% through?) it is a very quick read. Really loved these characters.
Her American-ness felt a little bit overdone (we have prosciutto and gelato in the US as well? How do you not know the Medici family?) but it was cool how sometimes they spoke in Italian considering they were in fact in Italy. Get me a flight to Florence stat
There were some timeline instances
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Grief, and Sexual harassment
maddiesbookshelf's review
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I really enjoyed this book but I wished we got more of her and her mom’s dynamic but I definitely liked this book.✨🤍
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault
Minor: Toxic relationship
Italy, friends to lovers trope, summer vibeskameko's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book was such a fun and adventurous read! It truly felt like I was traveling to Italy while I read this. The description of her adventures made it feel like I too was on an adventure! This book had romance, grief, and adventure. It was well rounded and such a good summer read!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Abandonment
durrareadsstuff's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Sonia met my eyes in the mirror. "You know, people come to Italy for all sorts of reasons, but when they stay, it's for the same two things."
"What?"
"Love and gelato."
Woww, I have no complaints about this book. It's been a long time since I picked up a ya contemporary and I don't regret it at all. I'm telling you, you should read this. It's got Italy, gelato, pastries, pizza, a main character who loves food. The writing is easy and humorous I was laughing constantly. The love interest was cute and so was the romance.
So many themes were covered in the book : grief, breakups, toxic relationships, finding your passion, to name a few. As someone who's struggled with grief before, I find the way it's described to be quite accurate. I loved every character, even Mimi. And Howard was just-- I'll just leave it at that.
Point is, if you haven't read this, please do. I promise you won't regret it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Cancer
madsmcw_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I really fell in love with Lina and her story. I started this two days before Father's Day and I went in a little blind not knowing about the loss of a parent storyline, but Lina and her story captivated me and I didn't know how much I needed her. I felt seen in her feelings or grief and thought it was handled so well. I loved Lina and Ren, that part of the story just warmed my heart. This also seriously made me feel like I was in Italy with it's descriptions. So good, highly recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship
nebraskanwriter's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
This book was just not for me. There were so many things that happened that I just could not stand. Lina getting assaulted by that guy in the nightclub but no one bats an eye. Her traumatic meeting with X and yet she moves on like everything is fine. There were just so many traumatic things that happen to her that the other characters don’t care to see if she is actually okay and that she herself processes for like 2 seconds and then moves on with immediately like a very scarring/damaging thing just did not happen to her.
Also, the ending? You’re kidding me. I know its a young adult romance and so I wasn’t expecting too much but so many things happened (in the span of a week, this book takes place over a week) that I just couldn’t believe. Lorenzo breaks up with a girl he’s been in love with for 2 years because he met Lina (literally yesterday) and now she’s the love of his life even though he barely knows her.
Also if you’ve just met someone, why would you let them read your mom’s journal? Lina literally meets Lorenzo and just dumps all this personal life stuff on him and he asks to read her mom’s journal which details all the painful, personal things her mom went through. Lorenzo is a complete stranger and yet you’re trusting him with such personal information regarding your deceased mother that you yourself just discovered?
I don’t know, I can suspend my belief for a little bit but all of this happening in the span of a week? Ridiculous. I’m sorry, I’m not usually so negative about books but there were so many things in this book, traumatic things, that were just handled so awfully. And on top of it all she falls in love with a boy in literally a week and he drops his girlfriend so he can be with a girl he’s literally known for a couple of days.
And then at the very end she decides to move to Italy to stay with Howard and be with Lorenzo (let me reiterate *grabs megaphone* ALL WHILE ONLY KNOWING ALL THE PEOPLE IN THIS STORY FOR LITERALLY A WEEK) The whole thing was just too unbelievable for me.
Also, the ending? You’re kidding me. I know its a young adult romance and so I wasn’t expecting too much but so many things happened (in the span of a week, this book takes place over a week) that I just couldn’t believe. Lorenzo breaks up with a girl he’s been in love with for 2 years because he met Lina (literally yesterday) and now she’s the love of his life even though he barely knows her.
Also if you’ve just met someone, why would you let them read your mom’s journal? Lina literally meets Lorenzo and just dumps all this personal life stuff on him and he asks to read her mom’s journal which details all the painful, personal things her mom went through. Lorenzo is a complete stranger and yet you’re trusting him with such personal information regarding your deceased mother that you yourself just discovered?
I don’t know, I can suspend my belief for a little bit but all of this happening in the span of a week? Ridiculous. I’m sorry, I’m not usually so negative about books but there were so many things in this book, traumatic things, that were just handled so awfully. And on top of it all she falls in love with a boy in literally a week and he drops his girlfriend so he can be with a girl he’s literally known for a couple of days.
And then at the very end she decides to move to Italy to stay with Howard and be with Lorenzo (let me reiterate *grabs megaphone* ALL WHILE ONLY KNOWING ALL THE PEOPLE IN THIS STORY FOR LITERALLY A WEEK) The whole thing was just too unbelievable for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault
readbeales's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I can’t say this book was good but it did get me out of a reading slump!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent