Love & Luck

Welch, Jenna Evans. Love & Luck
May 8th 2018 by Simon Pulse
Public library copy

Addie is sad and angry that her best friend Lina has moved to Italy to be with her father (See Love and Gelato), but she's glad that she is able to visit her. Addie's aunt is having a destination wedding in Ireland, which is why Addie is able to make a side trip to Florence. She's supposed to be going with her brother, Ian, with whom she usually gets along, but because of circumstances at school, the two are constantly fighting. Their mother makes them promise that they will get to Florence and NOT fight, but Ian has other plans. He has met Rowan, an Irish music enthusiast, online, and the two are planning on taking a trip and going to the last concert of a band they both love. Ian plans on sending Addie to Florence on her own, and just lying to his parents. Addie reluctantly agrees, since she really doesn't want Ian bringing up her relationship with his football teammate, Cubby, but she misses her plane and gets dragged into the guys trip. She finds out that Ian is a music reviewed/blogger with quite a following, which leads to some interesting encounters. When things get bad, she contacts Lina, who flies over to help her out. Addie and Ian have a great adventure, learn more about each other, work through their problems, and come to an understanding about many facets of their lives.
Strengths: Love and Gelato was a HUGE hit in my library, and with a similar cover, this will be an easy sell. I adore Ireland, so it was fun for me to read about the characters driving around. The relationship between Addie and Ian is something we need to see in more books-- kids in school have to deal with siblings a lot, and perhaps authors who are grown up don't think to include this? I certainly couldn't tell you a lot about how my brother and I got along, but I'm sure at the time it figured largely in my life.
Weaknesses: Addie has done something we tell students NEVER to do, but I don't feel like it was handled well. This might be because it's summer and everyone is away, but I still feel like Cubby should have been punished. It also took a long time to find out WHAT had happened.
What I really think: Didn't like this as well as the first one, probably because of the problems that Addie had, but the descriptions of travel in Ireland are great.