Love, Lucy
by April Lindner
♦publisher: Little Brown BYR
♦release date: January 27th, 2014
♦hardcover, 304 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦stand-alone
♦source: from publisher for honest review
While backpacking
through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to
college, Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the
culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome
street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home,
determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because
summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too.
In this coming-of-age romance, April Lindner perfectly captures the highs and lows of a summer love that might just be meant to last beyond the season.
In this coming-of-age romance, April Lindner perfectly captures the highs and lows of a summer love that might just be meant to last beyond the season.
Review: Love, Lucy is a sweet little romantic story. We follow along with Lucy on a enchanting jaunt through scenic Italy and her exciting first taste of a college experience. To get this trip, she sacrificed her greatest love---acting on the stage---to follow in her father's college alma mater, but while there she finds love and someone who awakens passion in her in more ways than one.
While I didn't always love Lucy herself, it made her character's eventual growth all the more satisfying. She was sometimes childish and irrationally jealous, but hey, what coming-of-age/first love story would be completely realistic without those moments? I couldn't help but be completely brokenhearted for her with the awful father she had to put up with. He was cruel and stubborn, and completely squashed her confidence, forcing her to give up her dreams with bribery and eventually very heartless words. As his daughter, and a bit of a people-pleaser in general, Lucy finds herself under his thumb.
The romance is fun and sweet, starting out as a "vacation flirtation" and growing into something more. Lucy is swept along in the romance of Italy and Rome with a guy who is a bit of a free spirit, traveling and performing on the street and getting Lucy to remember just how much she loves performing, too. When the vacation ends, their connection doesn't---but the uncertainties and the ups and downs that came with her trying to get over something that still firmly had her by the heart, rang absolutely true.
The writing often feels very straight-forward, but April Lindner never fails to keep me enthralled in the story. Lucy goes through a great journey to find what she really wants in love and in life and the strength to fight for it, both against her own draw-backs and others that try to hold her back. Mentions of characters from past books are a fun little treat and had me wanting to pick up Jane, one of my favorites from this author (actually, one of my favorites in YA fiction!).
