Lina narrates in a breezy style, her mother’s journal entries interwoven to provide revelations at carefully paced intervals. The journal her mother mailed to Italy-detailing her own year in Florence as a photography student-holds some but not all the answers. Why her mother never mentioned him until she became ill, and why Lina looks nothing like him, remain mysteries she’s determined to solve. Howard proves both likable and an ideal parent-caring but not hovering. He introduces her to classmates who welcome her into their close-knit posse, including a wealthy-and hot-Brit, Thomas. Lorenzo, known as Ren, a handsome, half-Italian, half-American neighbor, attends the school she’ll be enrolled in if she stays.

Soon Lina’s seduced by its rolling hills and Florence’s myriad beauties and attractions. But as readers probably know by now, Tuscany is irresistible. Determined not to stay, Lina secures a promise from her best friend, Addie, to help her return to Seattle.

She’s had enough of death, thanks, and doesn’t need to see all those crosses outside her bedroom window. Lina’s repulsed to discover that her father, Howard, is the caretaker of a World War II cemetery in Italy. Kirkus Reviews called Love & Gelato “a sure bet for fans of romance fiction,” while VOYA said readers “will find it difficult to put this book down.” Readers are about to discover a new place, a new romance, and a new talent.Her life already upended by her mother’s short illness and death, Lina, 16, moves to Tuscany to live with the father she’s never met. People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more. It’s a secret that will change everything Lina knew about her mother, her father-and even herself. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.īut then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. A summer in Italy turns into a road trip across Tuscany in this sweeping New York Times bestseller filled with romance, mystery, and adventure.

Love and gelato series order