Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

3 reviews

rylin_marie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted relaxing 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Pedophilia, Alcohol, Grief, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Sexual assault, and 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: 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.

hapalyn's review against another edition

inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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

Minor: Bullying and Chronic illness