I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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 Lina 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 Lina 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.

Short and Sweet Review

Lina’s mothers dying wish was for Lina to live in Italy with her father and get to know him. When Lina arrives in Italy she’s standoffish towards Howard, after all she never even knew about her father until her mom got sick and now she has to live in Italy with him. Howard is also the caretaker of a world war memorial so Lina is basically living near a cemetery. Lina finds out that her mother left a journal and wrote about her time in Italy and now Lina wants to follow in her mothers footsteps and even uncover some secrets. In Italy Lina meets some cute boys one of them is Red and I loved him, he was funny and down to earth and he didn’t off as a creep. I liked seeing Howard and Red take Lina around the city it was almost enough to make me want to visit Italy myself. I did like how Lina and Red started off as friends and how that relationship slowly progressed. I also loved Howard he was patient and understanding about the whole situation and I usually don’t cry when reading books but something he said to Lina during the end of the book made me tear up.

This book was so much fun I loved the setting and I liked seeing how Lina tried to piece together her moms life through the journal. The romance was great and so were all of the supporting characters! Definitely a good book for the summer with a nice scoop of gelato to go along with it!