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emilyburdick 's review for:

Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch
2.0
lighthearted reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
I feel strangely like an outlier with my rating and I don’t get it at all… (prepare for some deep rambling)

This book was incomparable to it’s predecessor Love & Gelato (which I adored). Love & Luck was just…so bad. I didn’t connected with a single character in the entire book, the “love” interest was dull, sibling dispute unnecessary and pretty gross once the whole situation between *pauses writing to look up main characters name because I already forgot it* Addie and Cubby was revealed.

I’m (not) sorry but the fact that Ian was pressuring his UNDERAGE sister to expose to her parents that she is a victim of a sexual crime is appalling. And the whole reason Ian was mad in the first place was because he blamed her for his getting kicked off the football team because he fought Cubby over the picture. BUT WAIT, because he also reveals that he didn’t care about football anymore anyways and wanted to be a writer. SO WHY WERE YOU SO PRESSED IN THE FIRST PLACE MY GUY?

That entire situation felt so glossed over and there wasn’t a single mention of the fact that she’s underage and it is literally illegal to distribute the sort of photo in question. It blew my mind. Could Welch have not come up with ANYTHING else? Something that didn’t scream a need for legal repercussions? I know this is a fictional story but that’s not even the only unrealistic detail that I clung to because it made no sense at all. The second thing I couldn’t stop wondering was how the hell did their phones just work in another country? I went to England a few years ago and my phone didn’t work. *reminds self this is a fiction story* *rolls eyes anyways*

All in all I just found this story so boring, the characters had no personality and it was so unrealistic it hurt.
Even Lina and Wren showing up made no sense to me because no parent in their right mind would let their (again, underage) daughter and her boyfriend jet off to another country to meet their friends from America. When Lina’s dad was expecting Addie and Ian to show up in Italy and Lina said “jk they’re not coming” why wouldn’t he call their mom? This story is just riddled with irresponsible adults who want their children to make better choices than they’re willing to.

The story was choppy, and anytime there was a potential for a real, emotional conversation it was cut short by Addie narrating something along the lines of “And I told him everything.” But like, okay Addie, what did you tell? I can’t read your mind so spill it, friend.

Don’t even get me started on the guidebook entries. Call me ‘pet’ one more time I dare you.