Love & Luck

April 15, 2018
When an ill-advised romance threatens Addie's friendship with her brother, Ian, it takes an Irish road trip to mend their relationship--along with Addie's broken heart.Out of her three older brothers, Addie has always been closest to Ian--until she dates Cubby, Ian's football teammate, despite Ian's warnings. When her family travels to Ireland for a wedding, Addie plans a side trip to Italy, intent on visiting her best friend (who moved to live with her father in Florence) and fixing her life. But a fistfight, an alternative music festival, and a guidebook for the brokenhearted derail Addie's Italian plans--and, ultimately, give her what she needs to get her life back on track. A quick-tempered athlete who is a whiz at fixing cars but struggles with school, Addie is a welcome departure from the bookish, quirky characters who are so often the heroines of teen romances. Furthermore, Welch (Love & Gelato, 2016) describes Cubby's violation of Addie's trust realistically and sympathetically, deftly addressing the very real issues surrounding love in the digital age. The only weakness of this fast-paced, witty read is its lack of diversity: The characters are uniformly white, straight, middle-class, and nondisabled.A skillfully rendered exploration of heartbreak, friendship, family, and destiny--and a quick and enjoyable read. (Romance. 14-18)

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