about the book
Lina made a promise to her dying mother, Hadley. That’s the only reason she’s in Florence, Italy, right now. The. Only. Reason. Now that her mother is gone, she’s left to cope an ocean away from where she grew up, with a father she’s just met.
Within hours of arriving, Lina’s already plotting her escape. Her father is the caretaker of a World War II cemetery—and his house is on the property. (As if she needed a constant reminder of death each time she looked out her window.)
Early on in her stay, one of her mother’s old friends passes on a journal Hadley kept while spending a year in Italy. Her mother said something about how she wanted Lin to have the same wonderful experience that she had.
Though she terribly misses her best friend Addie, Lin meets a cute Italian boy named Ren and her summer begins to seem bearable. In the pages of the journal, Lina discovers a side of her mother she never knew and learns how one’s choices impact the future.
about the author
If you find something that makes you want to sing from the rooftops and has you waking up from a dead sleep to scribble wildly on a pad of paper you keep next to your bed, then find a way to do it. Even if it’s for ten minutes a day.
The above looks like advice directly from the The Green Lemon, author Jenna Evans Welch’s blog. Peruse through blog posts dating back to 2010, however, and you realize the above words are really Jenna self-talk. For many years, Jenna had to convince herself she could write a novel. She dabbled, yes. She continually reminded herself of the positive feedback she received in her college writing groups. And she did not write her novel.
She allowed other events to take over. She started a blog. She worked as a writing assistant for her New York Times best-selling-author dad, author Richard Paul Evans. She married and had a baby. She spent a lot of time at Trader Joe’s. She discovered this really cool app that helps her organize her life.
Enter lots of starts and stops: Her father pushed her to continue writing her novel. Her editors told her the story was flat. Her friends encouraged her to write. Her editors told her they didn’t like how she resolved a conflict. She discovered these amazing butter sandwich cookies at Trader Joe’s.
Mostly, the reason Love & Gelato is now in our hands, is the voice inside of her that told her to ignore the icky, unkempt state of her apartment and go for it. (Reread the first paragraph.)
Thank you, Jenna Evans Welch! This is a great, first novel.
In case you were wondering, Jenna lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband and young son, Samuel.
Source:
Author website
Author blog
Author interview: Adventures in YA Publishing
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