In a nutshell: teenage love, romance and more in beautiful Italy
Lina’s mum is dying, and she has one wish for her daughter: to go to Florence and spend a year with someone called Howard, a man Lina has never met but who her mum describes as, ‘the best man I’ve ever known’. When she gets to Italy there are more surprises for Lina, the fact that Howard’s home is in a graveyard (a WWII cemetery), the fact that her mum also arranged for her old journals to be sent out to Lina. As the months pass, Lina learns not just to love Italy and its people (the gorgeous Lorenzo in particular), but the truth about her own beginnings and her mother’s life. By turns funny, tender and truthful, there’s a great deal to enjoy in this quirky novel and it will leave everyone longing to get on a flight for Italy. ~ Andrea Reece
People go to Italy for love & gelato ...but sometimes they discover much more. The dying wish of 16-year-old Lina's mother was for her daughter to live in Tuscany and get to know her father, whom Lina has never met.
Howard is the best man I've ever known, her mother says, he'll keep you safe.
Why did her mother wait so long to tell her about him? Lina has a happy life in Seattle and doesn't want to leave. Shortly after she arrives at Howard's home, Lina meets Sonya, who gives Lina a diary that belonged to Lina's mother, the one she had kept while she was a photography student in Florence. While Lina is living her life and exploring Tuscany with her handsome neighbour, Ren, she follows in the footsteps of her mother and gets to know her as never before. She also finds out the truth about her father. Mostly she finds out about herself.
Jenna Evans Welch spent her high school years in Florence, Italy, where she drove a scooter, danced in fountains and ate entirely too much gelato. She was the kind of insatiable child reader who had no choice but to grow up to become a writer. Love & Gelato is her first novel and was a NY Times Bestseller, a 2016 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction, and is currently being published in fifteen countries. When she isn’t writing “girl abroad” stories, Jenna can be found chasing her babies or making elaborate messes in the kitchen. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband and two young children.
