Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch Summary

Love & Gelato follows sixteen-year-old Lina who reluctantly travels to Tuscany, Italy to fulfill her dying mother's wish—to know her absent father. When Lina discovers her mother's journal from years ago, she uncovers a world of secret romances, hidden bakeries, and art that leads her to a life-changing family secret. With the help of charming Ren, Lina follows her mother's footsteps through Florence, discovering not just answers about her past, but also her own path forward.

Jenna Evans Welch is a New York Times bestselling author who specializes in young adult contemporary romance novels set abroad. She lived in Florence, Italy for two years at age fifteen, an experience that deeply influenced her "girl abroad" series including Love & Gelato, Love & Luck, and Love & Olives. Welch decided to become a YA author at eleven years old after being disappointed by limited teen book selections at her local library. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and two children.

Love & Gelato is perfect for young adult readers who enjoy contemporary romance with international settings and emotional depth. The book appeals to teens navigating grief, family relationships, and self-discovery, as well as anyone who loves armchair travel to Italy. Readers who appreciate dual-timeline storytelling, mother-daughter relationships, and coming-of-age journeys will find this story particularly compelling. The novel also attracts fans of lighthearted romance balanced with meaningful themes about identity and belonging.

Love & Gelato is worth reading for its emotionally rich storytelling and vivid portrayal of Tuscany. The New York Times bestseller was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Readers' Favorite Young Adult Fiction in 2016, reflecting its strong reception. Readers praise how Jenna Evans Welch balances grief and healing with romance and adventure, creating a story with surprising depth beneath its charming title. The dual narratives of Lina and her mother add layers that make Love & Gelato more than a typical YA romance.

The main theme of Love & Gelato centers on self-discovery through understanding the past. As Lina reads her mother's journal, she learns that knowing someone's full story—including their mistakes and secrets—helps us understand ourselves better. The novel explores how grief can transform into growth, and how sometimes we must leave our comfort zones to find where we truly belong. Family, both chosen and biological, emerges as a powerful force for healing throughout the story.

The journal in Love & Gelato serves as a bridge between past and present, allowing Lina to see her mother as a complete person beyond just being her parent. Through the journal entries, readers experience a dual timeline—Lina's present-day summer and her mother's romantic adventures years earlier in Florence. This literary device reveals hidden family secrets while showing how the past shapes our understanding of identity and relationships. The journal transforms Lina's reluctant visit into an adventure that mirrors her mother's own journey.

"Love and gelato" represents the two reasons people stay in Italy, according to a key quote in the book: "People come to Italy for all sorts of reasons, but when they stay, it's for the same two things...Love and gelato". This phrase symbolizes how simple pleasures and deep connections can transform our lives unexpectedly. For Lina, it captures her journey from resistance to embracing Italy, relationships, and her new life. The title suggests that sometimes life's most important discoveries come disguised as ordinary joys.

Love & Gelato is primarily set in Tuscany, Italy, with much of the action occurring in and around Florence. Lina stays with her father who works at an American cemetery, giving readers glimpses of both tourist destinations and hidden local spots. The novel features Italy's "famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape," including secret bakeries and art-filled streets that Lina explores using her mother's journal as a guide. Jenna Evans Welch draws on her own two years living in Florence to create an authentic and enchanting Italian setting.

Love & Gelato is the first book in Jenna Evans Welch's companion novel series. The series includes Love & Luck (set in Ireland) and Love & Olives (set in Greece), each featuring different protagonists in new international locations. These books can be read as standalones but share Welch's signature style of combining romance, self-discovery, and travel. The author describes them as "girl abroad stories" that explore how traveling to new places can expand our understanding of ourselves and the world.

The main conflict in Love & Gelato involves Lina's resistance to connecting with her father who abandoned her for sixteen years. She arrives in Italy angry and closed-off, wanting only to return home and honor her mother's memory rather than fulfill her wish. As Lina reads her mother's journal, she discovers secrets that challenge everything she thought she knew about her parents and her own identity. The internal conflict between honoring the past and embracing a new future drives Lina's emotional journey throughout the story.

Love & Gelato portrays grief as a transformative process rather than something to simply overcome. Jenna Evans Welch shows Lina working through her mother's death while simultaneously discovering new aspects of who her mother was through the journal entries. The novel demonstrates that healing doesn't mean forgetting, but rather integrating loss into a fuller understanding of life and relationships. By placing Lina in Italy—where her mother once lived—the story suggests that sometimes we need to walk in someone's footsteps to find peace.

Love & Gelato is appropriate for readers aged 13 and up, fitting squarely in the young adult contemporary genre. The novel deals with mature themes including death, grief, and family secrets, but handles them in an age-appropriate way without explicit content. Teenage readers navigating questions about identity, family relationships, and first love will find the most resonance with Lina's story. Adult readers who enjoy YA fiction and armchair travel also frequently appreciate Love & Gelato for its emotional depth and Italian setting.