mariareadsbooksalot's Reviews (1.05k)

This is the second book in this series by Sarah Morgenthaler and this one did not disappoint! I instantly want to get onto a plane to Moose Springs, Alaska and become friends with every one of these characters.

Lana was a great female character in my opinion. She knew what she wanted, she was an extremely hard, and passionate worker, and also cared so much about Rick and the entire Moose Springs community.

Rick was my favorite character. He was a hard working business owner and a great uncle and cat/hedgehog dad. His reactions towards Lana were endearing and often funny. He was smitten and like a middle school boy with a crush. He didn't know what to say around her half of the time and I think thats what I loved about him. He was so worried about her and only wanted the best for her.

They came from two very different worlds but they still found each other and they fell in love. I usually am not a huge fan of "insta love" but this was so well done.

Now, time for me to nerd out a little. I LOVE tourism and destination marketing. I have a degree in it and could talk about it for hours. This book made me feel giddy with all the talk of how tourism affects this small town and what would happen without tourism in the area and how business owners survive off of tourism. I felt like this was a really accurate representation of small town tourism marketing. It was so well written and I loved reading about it!

overall, this is a wonderful read for the holidays. I highly recommend this and I cannot wait for the third book to come out!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Casablanca for the ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review!

If you loved the first two in the Love and Gelato series, you are going to LOVE this one!! I absolutely adored this book. It was such a great YA romance but also a great story between a father and daughter. You get so many great moments between Olive and her dad but also Olive and Theo.

Olive was a great main character. She had a lot of validation for feeling the way she did towards her father at the beginning and you really get to see her grow into her own skin and into the woman she wants to be. She is such a strong girl and wants to follow her passion for art and watching her come to terms with what she wants and that it is okay to want to go to art school was great.

Oh man did I love Theo. He was the super cute, slightly annoying, partially greek boy of my dreams. He had such great motives behind everything he did and was such a wonderful character. Watching him and Olive's love story unfold was truly one of the best parts!

Olive and her dad had such great bond before he had left and watching Olive struggle with her feelings of seeing her dad for the first time in a long time felt like I was getting insight into her brain. She struggled with wanting to trust her dad again but had a hard time! It was a totally normal teen girl reaction.

This book also dealt with a lot of topics regarding mental health. It was really nice the way they were covered. You were able to see multiple perspectives into the situation like Olive's parents and also a young Olive's POV. I thought this was handled very well.

Overall, this is a book I am highly recommending to anyone who loves YA and YA romances. I loved this story so much. I would honestly read Jenna Evans Welch's grocery list.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!!