Blog Tour: Love Lucy by April Lindner

Hi guys today I get to share my review of Love Lucy by April Lindner with you as part of the Blog Tour hosted by The Fantastic Flying Bookclub! Before my review here's a little about the book.

Publisher: Poppy
Publication Date: January 27th 2015

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too. In this coming-of-age romance, April Lindner perfectly captures the highs and lows of a summer love that might just be meant to last beyond the season.

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I adore books which feature travel, I’ve always wanted to travel the world so as I haven’t been able to do so yet, living vicariously through books which feature travel have kept me going so far. So I was extremely giddy when I found out Love Lucy was set around our MC travelling Europe.

Lucy’s dad let Lucy go on this fantastic journey opportunity of a life time however only if she agreed to study business afterwards.  Lucy however was not into business; she was a super actress, one of the best. But of course Lucy’s dad knew best, there was no possibility that Lucy could even hit the big time, so business could definitely provide Lucy with the best opportunities. And so what if Lucy didn’t like business, at least she’d get to travel the some neat places before she started her course. Lindner described the places Lucy visited beautifully, it made me feel like I was there as a tourist myself and I did want Lucy to have the best time ever whilst she was out there, she would be stuck doing something she didn’t want to later, so why not make the most of the time she had. However on this trip none of Lucy’s friends were able to go, they were either too busy, or had plans for their own family vacations. So Lucy ended up taking one of her mum’s friend’s daughters with her. I’m assuming Charlene was fun at the beginning, but when we’re given the chance to get to know her she just comes across as a sullen girl who wants no fun. Charlene met a great guy but ended up deciding not to spend more time with him and instead stick to the schedule Lucy and her had planned. Lucy even insisted a couple of times that she could stay if she wanted to and that she wouldn’t mind, but Charlene decides no and ends up being moody for the rest of the trip. Moody enough even when Lucy meets the dream guy in Jesse. Lucy’s never felt like this way about a guy before, so Charlene could at least be happy for her, but no Lucy’s forced to ducking around just to make every last moment with Jesse count. Also Jesse actually makes Lucy believe in herself once more, wasn’t it right to do something you wanted to do and what you was good at rather than something your parents wanted you to do? I appreciated that Jesse encouraged Lucy to want to do things herself.

When Lucy had to leave it did sort of remind me of the book Just One Day, (a book which I loved) Lucy had the best time of her life with Jesse, but now she had to go back and start over. I did feel for Lucy and for the loss of not being with Jesse, but I don’t think I was affected by this loss as much as I was with Just One Day. It was a struggle for Lucy to get through each day, but I had hope that soon things would get better for Lucy, after the summer Lucy had she deserved it.

I’m not going to reveal how things ended up for Lucy, but it really was an unexpected sort of events. I’m glad that Lucy was able to meet some good friends along the way. They gave her the support and encouragement exactly when she needed it the most. And even though this other guy was thrown in to the mix later on I knew and was pretty sure Lucy did where her heart really belonged to. Love Lucy really was a different read to what I was expecting, but I loved getting lost in Italy with Jesse and experiencing some great adventures with both him and Lucy.

 

April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, due out in January, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

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