First Line Friday is a bookish meme hosted by Hoarding Books where you post the first line of a book. This week I want to talk about my August book club pick, Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch.

This is my second time reading Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch, and so far I’m enjoying it, even more, the second time around. I love exploring Italy vicariously through Lina and her mother’s diary.

The First Line(s)

“You’ve had bad days before, right? You know, the ones where your alarm doesn’t go off, your toast practically catches on fire, and you remember way too late that every article of clothing you own is soaking wet in the bottom of the washer?”

Goodreads Description

“I made the wrong choice.”

Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.

But then she is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.

People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.”

Have you read this book? Is it on your TBR? Let me know in the comments! And if you’re interested in joining in on the First Line Friday fun, check out Hoarding Books for all of the details and to add your blog to the list!