Review: Love & Gelato Series by Jenna Evans Welch

The Love & Gelato Series is one of those series that makes you want to pick up your passport and fly off to the locations in these novels to check out where Liv, Addie and Lina visit. I listened to all these books, and the narrator does an amazing job bringing the characters to life. If I were to go back and do a reread, I would love to paper read these books so I could tab and notate in the books all the locations and important moments for the characters. There were also a lot of quotes I loved both from the author as well as quotes that the author used from famous people that were an inspiration to her characters. I really loved that all of her leads seemed to be well read. Check out my thoughts on all three books below and pick them all up now!

Love & Gelato (Love & Gelato, #1)

by Jenna Evans Welch
Published by: Simon Pulse
on May 3, 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Audible
Goodreads

“I made the wrong choice.”
Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is go back home.
But then she is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires her, 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. It’s a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.
People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.

Series Review

Love & Gelato

I have to say I think I loved this book the best, but for me I think it was both the mystery behind the mom’s secret and the love interest with Ren that got me. I tend to love scavenger hunt style books. Lina takes her mothers diary, follows it to the conclusion to figure out her mom’s secrets of her time in Tuscany, and uncovers why she did not know about her dad. She also gets to live in a graveyard, which I thought was kinda neat. There was so much history and information about the different locations – it was like I got to take the trip with Lina, which was a nice mind vacation after 9 months of staying at home for COVID. I think this book was even more needed. I would definitely recommend this book as either a paper or audiobook read for anyone who wants an adventure with a bit of bittersweet mystery. 

Love & Luck

When the book keeps me wondering for the first half of the book, asking, “what did she do?!”, you know you got me hooked. I seriously wanted to know, and I am not going to tell you so haha now you need to go find out as well! Addie did something big that her brother Ian and her are up in arms about and she is super freaked out that her Mom will find out. All she wants is to get to Tuscany to tell Lina, her BFF, what happened but is waylaid by Ian and his friend’s, Rowan, plans. What ever goes the way we want it to in life, right? When I saw this book is set in Ireland, I was like yes (!!!!), the audio narrator is going to have an accent! (hehehe). Rowan was the sibling’s saving grace and my favorite character. I loved that he played the tour guide and helped both siblings on their own healing journey. The book that Addie finds “Ireland for the Heartbroken” acts like Lina’s moms book in Love and Gelato in helping Rowan and Addie have destination insight and things to do at each location. All of the books have a strong family connection, but I felt like this one had the strongest since the whole story is wrapped around Ian and Addie’s need to connect or reconnect through Ireland.

Love & Olives

Love and Olives brought back the finding the family secrets and reconnecting with the past feel which I loved in the first book in the series alot. Some of the topics that were revealed later in the book were important and serious topics that are not touched upon in books as much and I thought that the author did a great job with the lead up and how she had her characters handle the revelations. Finding Atlantis was a fun twist, which led to all sorts of adventures, and information about Santorini, which of course made me want to tab this book up with all the places I wanted to revisit whenever I am able to plan a vacation. This book had me laughing the most of the three. There was so much to enjoy in this novel, and so many great notes I want to highlight. I wanted to reread it again right away. I also liked the addition of the romantic interest, he gave the book a nice dynamic, but I am also just a sucker for romance. 

After reading all three books I can not wait to see what Evans Welch has next for us to read and what new adventure she will take us on. All of the books had so many well researched locations, it seemed like she did so much homework for her books. If I got to ask her one question it would be what locations, or information, about the places she researched did she have to cut from the books. It seemed like everything was so perfectly placed. This seems like just the beginning of something great and I can’t wait to see what comes next! 

Love & Luck (Love & Gelato, #2)

by Jenna Evans Welch
Published by: Simon Pulse
on June 4, 2019
Genres: Contemporary
Audible
Goodreads

A New York Times bestseller
From the author of the New York Times bestselling Love & Gelato comes a heartwarming tale of a road trip through Ireland filled with love, adventure, and the true meaning behind the word family.

Addie is visiting Ireland for her aunt’s over-the-top destination wedding and hoping she can stop thinking about the one thing she did that left her miserable and heartbroken—and threatens her future. But her brother, Ian, isn’t about to let her forget, and his constant needling leads to arguments and even a fistfight between the two once inseparable siblings. Miserable, Addie can’t wait to visit her friend in Italy and leave her brother—and her problems—behind.

So when Addie discovers an unusual guidebook, Ireland for the Heartbroken, hidden in the dusty shelves of the hotel library, she’s able to finally escape her anxious mind and Ian’s criticism.

And then their travel plans change. Suddenly Addie finds herself on a whirlwind tour of the Emerald Isle, trapped in the world’s smallest vehicle with Ian and his admittedly cute, Irish-accented friend Rowan. As the trio journeys over breathtaking green hills, past countless castles, and through a number of fairy-tale forests, Addie hopes her guidebook will heal not only her broken heart, but also her shattered relationship with her brother.

That is if they don’t get completely lost along the way.

Love & Olives (Love & Gelato, #3)

by Jenna Evans Welch
Published by: Simon Pulse
on November 10, 2020
Genres: Contemporary
Audible
Goodreads

Santorini felt like an island holding its breath. As if it were keeping in a secret...

Liv Varanakis doesn’t like to think about her father much, which makes sense—he fled to Greece when she was only eight, leaving her with just a few painful memories of their shared love for the lost city of Atlantis. So when teenage Liv suddenly receives a postcard from her father, who explains that National Geographic is supporting a documentary about his theories on Atlantis—and asks if she will fly out to Greece and help—Liv is less than thrilled.

When she arrives in gorgeous Santorini, things are just as awkward as she'd imagined. There are so many questions, so many emotions that flood to the surface after seeing her father for the first time in years. Liv doesn’t want to get sucked back into her father's world. She also definitely doesn’t want Theo, her father’s charismatic so-called protégé, to witness her struggle.

Even so, she can't help but be charmed by everything Santorini has to offer—the beautiful sunsets, the turquoise water, the sun-drenched villages, and the delicious cuisine. But not everything on the Greek island is as perfect as it seems. Because as Liv slowly begins to discover, her father may not have invited her to Greece for Atlantis, but for something much more important.