Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch | Book Review

Title: Love & Luck
Author: Jenna Evans Welch
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published Date:  May 8th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary, YA, Travel, Ireland
Page Count:320
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
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.

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 My Review:

Last year I read Love & Gelato and really enjoyed it so when I found out that there was going to be a companion novel I had to read it. 

"Did you know that each leaf on a clover stands for something? They do, pet. Faith, Hope, and love. And should you happen to find one with four leaves? Well, that's the one that stands for luck." 

Love and Luck follows Addie who is Lina's best friend who we first saw in Love and Gelato and knew a little about. Addie though is now in Ireland for her Aunts wedding and to then go to Italy and spend a week with Lina, or at least she was.

Instead, she ends up getting into multiple fights with her siblings including one who will not let her forget her mistake and constantly threatens to tell their parents for her. This makes for a rather long trip, but it also helps her learn something about one of her brothers (Ian) who has some secrets of his own and isn't as perfect as he seems. 

This is the start of a secret Ireland trip that no one else is supposed to know about besides Addie, Ian and Ian's Irish friend Rowan. The trip is not without trials. The trio learns so much about Ireland and themselves (thanks to a travel guide Addie finds). 

"But the label thing is part of being human, right? We like to categorize people, so everyone gets labels slapped on them whether they're right or not."We even label ourselves: Bad at math. Flirt. Clueless."They're never right. Labels aren't big enough for people. And once you try to categorize someone, you stop looking for who they actually are. That's why I like talking to Rowan so much. We're friends but completely out of context. I never thought someone I met online could be such a close friend, but I really needed a friend, and he was there." 

Overall I really loved this book. It was a fun read that I needed to start my summer and who doesn't love learning a little bit about Ireland.  If you're going into this book expecting a lot of Lina and Addie time you will be greatly disappointed. This book is truly mostly focused on Addie and the situation she is now along with tons of witty banter and sibling arguments. Seeing all the different sites throughout Ireland and the challenges that the group faced in not only getting to each destination but how it was also a part of helping them get over heartbreak was really cute and nice as well. I just really enjoyed this book and I am so glad I'm giving contemporary books more of a chance.

As for the big secret that this book focused on, kind of was just like meh to me. Yeah, it's a big problem and I wish Addie hadn't done that because theirs no way to make it go away. I just don't agree with the brother pushing her to tell so much, just chill man and let her get over the heartbreak it's not like someone is going to tell on her while everyone's in Ireland.