Love and Luck by Jenna Evans Welch

Summary from Goodreads:

Addie is visiting Ireland for her aunt’s over-the-top destination wedding, and hoping she can stop thinking about the one horrible thing she did that left her miserable and heartbroken—and threatens her future. But her brother, Ian, isn’t about to let her forget, and his constant needling leads to arguments and even a fistfight between the two once inseparable siblings. Miserable, Addie can’t wait to visit her friend in Italy and leave her brother—and her problems—behind.

So when Addie discovers an unusual guidebook, Ireland for the Heartbroken, hidden in the dusty shelves of the hotel library, she’s able to finally escape her anxious mind and Ian’s criticism.

And then their travel plans change. Suddenly Addie finds herself on a whirlwind tour of the Emerald Isle, trapped in the world’s smallest vehicle with Ian and his admittedly cute, Irish-accented friend Rowan. As the trio journeys over breathtaking green hills, past countless castles, and through a number of fairy-tale forests, Addie hopes her guidebook will heal not only her broken heart, but also her shattered relationship with her brother.

That is if they don’t get completely lost along the way.

Review:

I loved getting to see and love Ireland this way. Stopping at the stops in a guidebook called “Ireland for the Heartbroken” I thought was pretty genius. It was like a self-help book guide to the beautiful setting. I want to see all the things in person. This book definitely hiked up Ireland on my Need-to-See list.

Also, I loved that this was a YA novel that focused more on a sibling relationship than a romantic one. The fight between brother and sister was more the focal point than any heartache seemed to be. I found that kind of refreshing. I liked that the journey here was to bring back this amazingly close brother/sister friendship.

However, I hated not knowing the secret about the main character until the end. I 100% think this was an unnecessary plot device that took away from my overall enjoyment. I couldn’t grow with the main character or watch her learn things because I didn’t know what she was growing from. All the stops that the guidebook took them to, could have been better for me if I new the source of Addie’s heart ache. Sometimes not knowing a big secret could keep me more interested because I’d keep reading to find out what it is. But, sometimes, this has the opposite effect, and with each coming chapter I just get more and more annoyed for not knowing. And unfortunately, this book falls into the annoying category.

 Not knowing took me out of the story. I kept pausing my reading to think, “when will they just tell me?”  And while the secret Addie was keeping was terrible, I was expecting way worse after such a build-up. I can’t help but feel let down by the whole story. And the sibling argument really felt more like a giant misunderstanding than anything that needed to span months…Like, if you’re not going to tell me something for an entire book, I expect that something to be monumental at the end.

This book had a fantastic setting. I loved the focus on brother/sister stuff. I loved the humor in it. I didn’t love the plot device of keeping the reader in the dark. And I really didn’t love what the secret ended up being. I felt a little cheated. I definitely like Love and Gelato more. I still read this pretty quickly. And it did make me want to go to Ireland super badly. I give it a 7/10.