I love books about travel, especially when we're talking about Europe. I was able to travel to Europe twice last year, for my first and second time overseas. It was amazing. Seeing buildings that have been standing since before the United States was even a thing was just amazing.

I've wanted to visit Italy for years. So when I learned that this book took place primarily in Italy, I was sold. Unfortunately, I didn't end up enjoying this book at all.

What I liked (kind of):

1. The Italian setting. Again, I really want to go to Italy, namely Tuscany. I want it so bad. A good portion of this book takes place in Florence, so I was expecting some rich, lush descriptions of the scenery and also the city of Florence. But that didn't happen. I felt like Italy was just a backdrop for a really subpar story.

What I didn't like:

1. LUCY. Lucy is the WORST. She is the absolute worst. If you want a spoiled, privileged main character who complains endlessly about her parents sending her to Europe and paying for her entire tuition at a fancy college, this book may be for you. If not, you may want to steer clear. Seriously, Lucy was insufferable. Her father sent her to Europe for the summer in return for her giving up her dream to be an actor and going into the business program at his alma mater, which he is paying for 100%. She complains the entire book about how her trip to Europe 'destroyed her future'. Oh, you poor, poor little rich girl. Apparently it never occurred to her to turn down the trip and choose a less expensive college where she could be a theatre major...because why would it?

She treats Charlene, the girl her parents pay to accompany her, like garbage, despite the fact that Charlene seems to be the one who has had to make all of the arrangements for their trip. She never shows her any real gratitude, and it's obvious from the way that she is written that we are supposed to dislike her. But I was 100% #TeamCharlene.

And then we get to the way she acts when she gets back to school. I'm specifically talking about her actions toward Shane and Jesse. It was not okay. I thought both of the guys deserved better. I did feel like the author tried to write Shane in a way that we wouldn't like him, but I felt like he was absolutely justified in the way he spoke to Lucy. In all honesty, he went too easy on her. She. Was. The. WORST.

2. Inconsistent characterization. Lucy's dad is written as almost a manic personality. He is tough and strict, but he's going to send his daughter off to Europe for the summer? He freaks out when she is doing a play, even though she is following his wishes as far as her major goes. He threatens to cut her off financially if she doesn't quit a play? It just seems very overblown. Then he just...changes his mind and is okay with it all because he sees her in a play, regardless of the fact that he'd seen her in multiple plays before. It just felt very contrived to me. The author needed Lucy to struggle in some way so there was an external conflict outside the relationships, so she made her dad this total jerk. There are even a couple of points where she alludes to the fact that Lucy's father can get incredibly angry, and implies that it may also be in a violent way. But at the end, all is okay and he even sends her back to Europe with her boyfriend. Okay, I totally believe that would happen.
There are other examples, but I've already ranted long enough on this topic.

3. The 'Romance'/Insta-love/Cheating:
In the course of a few weeks, Lucy:
a)Meets and falls in love with Jesse (they were literally together only one week)
b)Pines over him at home because he doesn't answer he emails right away
c)Meets Shane at a party and gives him her number
d)Plans a romantic weekend away with Shane
e)Jumps in the sack with Jesse the night before she's supposed to go on said romantic weekend.
She was calling Shane her boyfriend. They were together. Whether or not she felt conflicted, she let him believe that she cared about him. When Jesse showed up, that pretty much went out the window unless she was trying to use the existence of Shane to make Jesse jealous. It was gross. And then when she sleeps with Jesse, I hated her even more. I don't care if she was just with Shane because she thought she couldn't be with Jesse. Actually, that makes it WORSE, because she was using him. Of course, after that the author attempted to suggest that Shane wasn't the best guy. And I didn't really care for him, to be honest. But damn, both he and Jesse deserved better than Lucy. I actually don't understand what either of them saw in her, besides maybe her looks.

4. The writing. It was very one-dimensional and shallow. I didn't feel like there was any depth to the characters or their motivations. It was clunky and awkward in spots. It was just cliche after cliche of nonsense and I just plain didn't like it.

5. Lucy. Yes, She is number one. But I really hated her. She deserves to be on here twice for how insufferable she was.

I realized part of the way into this story that the author wrote another book I didn't care for, Jane. It was a Jane Eyre retelling where the Mr. Rochester character (named Nico Rathbone in the adaptation...) is a rock star. I just don't think her books are for me.