Published: May 3rd, 2016
““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 get 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 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. 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.”
Review:
I love this book. I love this book. I love this book. It starts out with a girl named Lina who’s mother is very ill which sent a shock through her system. During her mother’s treatments, her mother would tell her stories about a man named Howard. Howard lives in Italy where her mom did years of college for photography. After her mother’s passing, Lina was shipped off to Tuscany against her will. There, she meets Howard and his assistant at the cemetery where Lina will be living, and is given her mother’s journal that she kept during that time. This is a tale of a daughter following her mother’s footsteps to uncover secrets not only about her mother’s past, but also her past as well. She meets Ren (Lorenzo) who is Italian in the United States, but American in Italy. He helps Lina by reading the journal as well and taking her to the places that were specified to help uncover the clues that her mother left behind. There is one quote that really stuck out to be in this book:
“You know, people come to Italy for all sorts of reasons, but when they stay, it’s for the same two things.”
“What?”
“Love & Gelato.”
Rating: ★★★★★
Lacey's Library 
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