Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Love & Gelato. Vacanță la Florența

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Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Love & Gelato. Vacanță la Florența by Jenna Evans Welch

98 reviews

dazzlingreader_'s review against another edition

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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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lovestory26's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

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rosegoes3's review against another edition

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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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cherrygray's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

There's a lot to address with this book. For one, it was incredibly cheesy and i kept getting embarrassed on behalf of the characters. Mostly Lina. This story essentially follows two timelines, Lina's Present-day timeline in Florence, Italy. And her mom, Hadley's past timeline 17 years in the past in Florence, Italy.
I wish I could give this book more of a better rating but it just didn't hit the 4/5 mark, it barely hit the 3.5/5 mark, in all honesty.

Currently unable to make a cohesive sentence, I'm going to put this into a pro/con list. From this point on their will be minor spoilers, but nothing to give away the plot too much. Read with caution.

PRO: Very funny and heartwarming story. 2)Filled with characters that are easy to follow and get to know, both present and past.

CON: Many situations were overlooked and bypassed, and frankly just brought up to make a segway between other characters. 1) For example: in the first few chapters, Lina is out jogging and gets chased and harassed by some dudes in a car. Now this felt like it could've had potential to bring around and connect back into the story, like if it were Thomas's car. It was really only used to give Lorenzo some fear of Howard. 1b) Another example: When Lena got groped in Space. while these are both very realistic things that happened i feel like it could've been used to add to the plot other than making Lina not want to go back to Space again (which is reasonable.) 2) I loved the characters, except for Matteo. I'd love to type so many profanities at him but that's beside the point. Mimi had no substance. She lacked personality other than to pose the purpose and play the part of the mean model chick. 3) I get that this book was meant to keep a lighthearted/happy tone but there could've been more to tap into with Matteo and Hadley's relationship and how toxic it was. 4) Matteo is a con. Lina using Thomas to get to the party is a con. Mimi's lack of personality is a con. How little we see outside of Howard/Lina/Ren/and Hadley('s previous life) is a con.

All in all, I did enjoy reading this book and annotating it. It was cute and romantic and cheesy and just easy to follow along with. It brought me through my emotions and left me satisfied with the ending. Frankly, I don't think I'd recommend this to anyone but if you read it then you've read it, if you don't I do not think you're missing out on anything that special.

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sofiija's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted 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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izzyslittlelibrary's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.25

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julialima's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful 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

4.0

If you are looking for a fun, cliché, lighthearted romance this is the book for you!
This was a very sweet read, the only thing that annoyed me is the amount of scenery description, which slowed the book's pace but was also super important and made i seem like I was on a trip to Florence.
I rarely say this but this book would be an amazing movie, lol
Also: Thomas please kiss me<3

Another thing that annoyed the heck out of me is how Lina and Ren's relationship only worked out at the end of the book. I NEED A SEQUEL THAT FOCUSES ONLY ON THIS COUPLE!!

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lauf22's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.0

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

Eek! This book was every level of cute! Once I started listening to the audiobook, I didn't want to stop. I had to know what happened next.

I'm a huge fan of Mamma Mia and this definitely gave me those vibes between the "finding the father" bit, the "learning more about her mom" bit, and the "set in a coastal European city" bit.

I'm also a huge fan of stories within stories and this book did a great job with that. Lina's mom's journal was just as exciting (if not more exciting) than Lina's adventures! Plus, it gave us not one, but two coming-of-age plots.

There was found family, romance, self-discovery, comedy, heartbreak, and GELATO in this book, so what more could you ask for? I can't wait to read the sequel!

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emelisa_19's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

I picked up this book as a reccomendation from my English teacher as a light hearted read that would take me out of a year long reading slump. It did its job beautifully.

While it may be a bit slow in the first 100-150 pages, the book picks up speed once Lina, the main character, starts reading her death mother's journal. After that, I was pretty much unable to put down the book.

The book is very plot driven, you really dont get a lot of development on the characters or their flaws. Since its such a lighthearted read, some of the characters may come off as bland and surface level, even the main characters. But I dont mean this as an insult, the author managed to make flat characters lovable, which is something not many can do. As superficial as I felt Ren, the love interest, I did fall hard for him and it had me wishing I had a man like that.

One character that did experience somewhat development was Howard, Lina's step dad< and I dont think that really counts as development since it was just that you found out stuff that was already there, just that the reader wasn't aware of it

Overall, 'Love & Gelato' was exactly what I expected it to be: fun, fast, lighthearted. If you want a book for your summer vacation in Europe or a book that will have you smilling like a mad person at 3 am (because you are unable to put it down at such ungodly hours), this one is it for you.

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