Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Love & Gelato. Vacanță la Florența by Jenna Evans Welch

48 reviews

jele_sc's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Sexual harassment

remib's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

baileykmaier's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

saturnsreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cancer, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual harassment

shannasbooksnhooks's review against another edition

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

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, 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.

sarahsbookss's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Food, false identity.

kiarelia's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Death, and Pregnancy

rosegoes3's review against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

maddiesbookshelf's review against another edition

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.✨🤍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Toxic relationship

Italy, friends to lovers trope, summer vibes