Author: April Lindner

Pages: 304

Published by: Poppy

Published on: January 27th 2015

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.

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I got this book from NetGalley for this blog tour in exchange for an honest review. None of my opinions are altered by this.

In the synopsis this book definitely was a romance. After reading the book, it was kind of like a “hurry up and decide” romance. The main character was super confused and you were internally frustrated of how indecisive the main character was. I have nothing against those kinds of romances; In fact, Lindner did a great job. I finished this book within a day because I was on the road for about 7 hours (Currently writing this review in the car!). The 300 pages it was was a good amount for this book. It didn't feel like the story was being dragged on for too long and didn't feel like the ending was just too incomplete.

The romance in this book was cute. Jesse and Lucy are so good for each other and so cute of a couple. You know how I know that? If I ever saw them making out in public I would be muttering “Couples,” and rolling my eyes. It's just not the PDA, the way they act around each other. They both encourage each other and are able to be comfortable with each other. Ugh, so cute! The way they meet and how they start liking each other is just cuteeeee.

An aspect that really brought this book nicely together was the writing style. A lot of the books I read are in first person (I picked up the apple) but I liked the third person going on in this book (Kaitlin picked up the apple). It's funny because sometimes I get some trouble when reading in third person because, well third person, in my opinion, is kind of a hard writing perspective to write in. Lindner did a very good job with that and reading in third person was very smooth for me in this book.

I gave this book 4 stars because I did have some issues with some characters in this book but other than that loved it! If you like the lovey contemporaries this is for you!

Favorite quotes:

Lucy thought for a moment, "I hate being hated," she said.
"Wear it like a badge of pride," Matteo said. "It means you've got something she wants."

"When she wants something she knows how to work for it. I'm starting to think she could do anything, if she sets her mind to it." 

"You have to stand back and let them [love]."

We all have read the book here right? Okay. First, let's just start with the fact that this book got very frustrating at one point. I was just yelling at Lucy because well a) she was totally cheating on Shane and b) she could not make up her mind! Do you want Shane or Jesse because you are wasting everyone's time! Lucy went from Jesse to Shane to Jesse to Shane and back to Jesse. Then there was the one period of time where Lucy was Jesse's and Shane's. (Oh please kill me) She finally realized that she loved Jesse and that was when she was already in New York!

April Lindner

April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, due out in January, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.