Love & Olives is a journey — a transportive and unexpectedly emotional story about trying to find something that was once thought to be lost.

Jenna Evans Welch is so good at what she does! Her ability to completely transport a reader to the setting of her books and evoke every emotion is top-tier. The feeling of complete immersiveness when reading her stories is incomparable!

Love & Olives is very layered. On the surface is a story about a teenager who gets a second chance at a relationship with the father that abandoned her while going on the adventure of a lifetime. Beneath that is a coming-of-age story with a lot of emotional depth as Olivia tries to keep moving forward with a future of her own while also trying to piece together all of the brokenness from her past. There’s also a charming boy in the mix! My emotions were basically in a blender for all 500+ pages!

Speaking of, I think the length of the book was its only downfall. 500 pages for a YA contemporary seems like a lot. Personally, I feel that if a reader isn’t super interested in reading and learning about Atlantis, they’re going to struggle with this one. While I really enjoyed that element, those parts of the story seemed overwhelming at times, in the sense that they take up a large amount of the real estate in this book.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Love & Olives! Check this one out if you’re looking for those summer vibes with a magical setting, a fun adventure, a sweet romance, and lots of feels!

*Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book. This did not affect my opinion or the content of my review.