I used to read books a lot. But I’ve been lazy in the past years and I haven’t done it in a while. The other day I started reading Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch and I finished it the next day. It felt so good–not just the thought of finishing a book (my first for the year, in spite of the months of working from home because of the C word)–but I’d actually forgotten how nice it felt to be lost in a book, to live someone else’s story for a couple of days, to see and hear and taste new things.
The story revolves around Lina, a teenager starting a new life in Italy with her father, Howard, that she’s never met before, and who happens to live in a house in the middle of a cemetery. Her grandmother sent her to Europe from America after her mother died of cancer. Lina begrudgingly settles into her new life but discovers through one of her mother’s old journals that there’s more to Howard than what she’s been told. Retracing her mother’s footsteps though her journal, Lina and her new friend Ren go on adventures in Florence and Rome, where they try to piece together memories and stories that she never got to share with her mom.
It’s a light read with bits of teenage romance, mystery, and dealing with death and grief.
In the book, Lina has never been to Italy before. Everything is new and she never knows what to expect. She goes to Florence and sees the duomo and Ponte Vecchio and is struck by how beautiful it is. She eats hazelnut gelato and margherita pizza and scarfs them down in a heartbeat. She goes to a party and feels awkward but kilig when a cute British boy chats her up. It was nice to feel all the feels while reading the book. It felt good to feel lost and lonely and–hold the cheese–to be found again. Being a member of the dead mom’s club for several years now, I felt her anger and confusion. I liked rooting for Lina because she felt so real and imperfect. Clumsy but daring. Smart and stupid.
These past few months have been a journey because of the C word, and I never felt a more overwhelming feeling to NOT read. I’m too anxious, too scatterbrained, too preoccupied with the more important things at hand–keeping safe and healthy, bills, work (and the dreaded possibility of losing work).
Everyday I feel anxious, wishing I could find a way to quiet down the nerves even just for a few moments. I was too focused on being anxious that I’d forgotten how good it feels to escape to a different world through the pages of a book. I’m grateful Love & Gelato not only gave me a temporary escape, but it also gave me something to look forward to: a fantasy that I can focus on as the world goes through these uncertain times.
Maybe someday when we’re allowed to go out again, I could scarf down a hazelnut gelato or eat a piping hot slice of margherita pizza. Maybe I could lose myself in a nice romantic kiss, or watch a sunrise and say to myself that life is good.
It's an iced coffee kind of morning 