Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜
Title: Love & Olives
Author: Jenna Evans Welch
Genre: YA Fiction/ YA Romance
Author Info: She/ Her
Setting: Seattle, WA & Santorini, Greece
Month Read: March 2021
Book Type: Hardcover
Publication: 2020
Pages: 506
Trigger Warning:
Illness, Abandonment, Trauma, PTSD
"No one knows what they're doing. It's called Life."
No Spoiler Summary:
We meet Olive (Liv) Varanakis in Seattle - planning to spend the summer with her boyfriend, Dax, going to a pre- college retreat with a bunch of friends. Liv is putting off going to a Stanford event (to meet up with Dax at college once she graduates next summer) and it is starting to cause a rift.
Liv's summer plans get thwarted when her mom tells her her estranged dad would like to see her in Greece because he has a huge surprise. Liv's dad, Nico, walked out on her mom and her when she was young, to go back to Greece to focus on his obsession with finding the lost city of Atlantis. Despite her protests, Liv's mom says she's been speaking to her father for a few months, and it would be good if she would go.
Liv goes to Santorini against her wishes, and finds much more than she bargained for. Liv needs to face her fears in order to mend her relationship with things that aren't always what they seem. She quickly realizes Santorini is a magical place, filled with an amusing cast of characters, and a hunt for the lost city she and her father have been obsessed with finding her whole life. Will Liv find more than just Atlantis?
Review:
Love & Olives was a book I wasn't expecting to like as much as I did. It perfectly fit with the other two books in this meet-cute teen romance series, Love & Gelato and Love & Luck. A likable main character, an adorable sidekick/ love(???) interest, and Jenna's signature adventure.
I've never wanted to travel to places as badly as I have reading the 'Love &' Series. The settings in this book seem absolutely gorgeous- and the characters are SO likable it almost hurts.
I don't want to give away too much- but a few parts made me extremely teary- and watching Liv and Nico try to mend a very broken relationship in a 2 week time frame after almost a decade of separation is really wild/beautiful/painful.
This wasn't my favorite book in the series (it was longer than the others, and less of a romance), but still totally worth getting a copy. I was really hoping there were more books in this series (because it's so cute, and so easy to read) but it looks like Love & Olives is the final novel in this short saga.
Recommendation:
If you're into YA Meet Cutes and romance:
The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi
Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson
The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
Authors to read:
Jenny Han
Sandhya Menon
Jennifer E. Smith
Sarah Dessen
If you're into YA books that transport you to faraway destinations:
The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone
The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid
If you're into YA books with not-so-picture-perfect-families or family separation:
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
"You are never quite alone when you work in a bookstore. So many voices are jammed into one place, it is impossible to feel alone."