Despite inheriting a steady trust in magic, belief in her late mother’s homeland of the mystical North (where fantastical creatures live), and philosophy of hope for the future, her dreams are dashed when Luc, her love, pledges to marry Marisol instead. When her father passes away, Evangeline is left with her cold stepmother and kind but distant stepsister, Marisol.

Seasoned with luscious descriptions of Renaissance architecture and Italian food, a sure bet for fans of romance fiction and armchair travel.Īfter praying to a Fate for help, Evangeline discovers the dangerous world of magic. Lina narrates in a breezy style, her mother’s journal entries interwoven to provide revelations at carefully paced intervals. The journal her mother mailed to Italy-detailing her own year in Florence as a photography student-holds some but not all the answers. Why her mother never mentioned him until she became ill, and why Lina looks nothing like him, remain mysteries she’s determined to solve. Howard proves both likable and an ideal parent-caring but not hovering. He introduces her to classmates who welcome her into their close-knit posse, including a wealthy-and hot-Brit, Thomas. Lorenzo, known as Ren, a handsome, half-Italian, half-American neighbor, attends the school she’ll be enrolled in if she stays.

Soon Lina’s seduced by its rolling hills and Florence’s myriad beauties and attractions. But as readers probably know by now, Tuscany is irresistible. Determined not to stay, Lina secures a promise from her best friend, Addie, to help her return to Seattle. She’s had enough of death, thanks, and doesn’t need to see all those crosses outside her bedroom window. Lina’s repulsed to discover that her father, Howard, is the caretaker of a World War II cemetery in Italy. Her life already upended by her mother’s short illness and death, Lina, 16, moves to Tuscany to live with the father she’s never met.

Love and gelato jenna evans welch