A heartwarming contemporary companion novel to Welch’s Love & Gelato. Sixteen-year-old Addie Bennett takes a summer road trip through Ireland with her brother Ian and gains insight on how to heal the pieces of her shattered heart. Readers will cheer that Addie’s best friend, Lina from the previous book, makes an appearance, but this is Addie’s story. Their friendship is tested when a planned trip to visit Lina in Italy is sidetracked, thanks to her brother Ian and a dimpled-faced driver named Rowan. They take an unexpected road trip to the biggest music festival in the country. Through the winding roads and lush greenery of Dublin, Addie reminisces about her romance with Cubby, Ian’s football teammate, and although Ian disapproves of the relationship, he is the only one who knows what Addie is going through. While offering the advice of a travel guide, each chapter is like a reassuring hug in the icy climate. The teens travel through Ireland in a cramped car with a leaking roof, and the trio meets a selection of colorful characters that unknowingly help Addie get through a lost love and increase her respect for her brother—they learn about one another more than they could imagine. Fans of Love & Gelato will enjoy this as Welch takes on love, laughs, friendship, and the Electric Picnic Festival in a trip through the scenic green hills of Ireland. VERDICT Purchase for all teen romance shelves.–Annisha Jeffries, Cleveland Public Library

2018-04-03
When an ill-advised romance threatens Addie's friendship with her brother, Ian, it takes an Irish road trip to mend their relationship—along with Addie's broken heart.Out of her three older brothers, Addie has always been closest to Ian—until she dates Cubby, Ian's football teammate, despite Ian's warnings. When her family travels to Ireland for a wedding, Addie plans a side trip to Italy, intent on visiting her best friend (who moved to live with her father in Florence) and fixing her life. But a fistfight, an alternative music festival, and a guidebook for the brokenhearted derail Addie's Italian plans—and, ultimately, give her what she needs to get her life back on track. A quick-tempered athlete who is a whiz at fixing cars but struggles with school, Addie is a welcome departure from the bookish, quirky characters who are so often the heroines of teen romances. Furthermore, Welch (Love & Gelato, 2016) describes Cubby's violation of Addie's trust realistically and sympathetically, deftly addressing the very real issues surrounding love in the digital age. The only weakness of this fast-paced, witty read is its lack of diversity: The characters are uniformly white, straight, middle-class, and nondisabled.A skillfully rendered exploration of heartbreak, friendship, family, and destiny—and a quick and enjoyable read. (Romance. 14-18)