Ana asked this question about
Love & Gelato (Love & Gelato, #1):
I’m confused can someone tell me about each chapter in the book?
Katelyn
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[I will preface this by saying that to really understand the story you just have to read the book. There is so much to be said in small details and writing styles. But I hope that this helps!
This is gonna be a long one...
Prologue: Lina's mom who is dying of cancer tells her that she wants Lina to go to Italy once she dies. A man named Howard will be taking care of her.
Chapter 1: Lina moves in with Howard to find that he lives in a literal graveyard. Yikes. Lina is still depressed because her mom just died of cancer and now she's living in another country. She also meets Sonia who lives ion another house on the cemetery grounds. They serve her some really good lasagna. She moves into her new room which Howard decorated for her and she loves it. But she still wants to escape because again... she's pretty depressed.
Chapter 2: Lina calls her best friend Addie to tell her all about her new situation. As she's going to bed she hears Sonia and Howard talking about how she is really quite but will soon come out of her shell like her mom. She doesn't like that they are talking about her and still misses her mom like crazy.
Chapter 3: Lina wakes up to some tacky tourists asking for directions. Lina is pretty sure Howard is her dad but notices that they don't look much alike when the tourist points it out. Lina goes for a run and gets chased by a car full of guys so Howard tells her to go the back way next time. Howard invites Lina to go get pizza together but she respectfully declines.
Chapter 4: Lina is confused by Italian showers. Sonia gives Lina a journal that was shipped to the cemetery which belonged to Lina's mother from the time that she had lived in Italy. She thought it was a message for her.
Chapter 5: Lina starts to read the journal but decides she isn't ready. She takes a nap and then decides to go for a run through the back gate. There she meets a half Italian/half American boy named Lorenzo Ferrara who goes by Ren. Ren has heard about Lina because apparently she's the talk of the town at his American school in Italy. He invites her to his house because his mom is in desperate need of human interaction with an American. She goes with him to find that he lives in what looks just like a gingerbread house. Apparently everyone in Italy lives in weird homes. Even Ren's mom recognizes who she is as Howard Mercer's daughter. They feed her and talk. She meets Ren's little sister Gabriella. As she leaves, Ren writes his number on her hand and it lingers for just a second longer.
Chapter 6: Lina goes with Howard to see the city. It's awkward but they manage. They see the Duomo and get pizza. Lina finds out that Howard didn't know about her until after her mother died.
Chapter 7: Lina starts reading her mother's journal which is prefaced with "I made the wrong choice." Ominous. It talks about when her mother told her parents that she wanted to go to photography school in Italy. They weren't huge fans of the idea. But she goes to Italy. She loves it. Meets her roommate named Francesca. She sees the Duomo. Lina is amazed that she saw the Duomo the same day she read that her mom had and is now determined to explore Italy with her mother. But she can only take the journal is small doses.
Chapter 8: Lina goes downstair in the morning to hear Howard say that she missed a call from Ren. He said they were going to go to a party that night. Howard acted all tough with Ren but approves of the party. She calls Addie to help her get ready and rides with Ren on his electric scooter (probably a Vespa). Everyone at the party is astonished to see her because they've heard so much about her. They all want to meet her. She meets Ren's crush named Mimi who looks like a Swedish model. Then she meets the hottest guy she's ever met named Thomas. They spend the rest of the night talking by the pool until Lina's curfew. Before she leaves they all insist that she follow the newcomer rule where she jumps in the pool with her clothes on. She does it and is finally having fun again since when her mom died.
Chapter 10: Lina comes home sopping wet and Howard and Sonia are having a party at the house with some older people. Howard introduces Lina as Hadley's (her mother's) daughter instead of his own which is kinda strange. Lina changes in her room and calls Addie to tell her about Thomas and Ren. Addie approves of their hotness. They hang up and Lina reads more of the journal. Her mom introduces all of the friends she's met in Italy, including Howard. She then writes that she has fallen in love and writes his name as X to keep him a secret. She says she met him near the beginning in a lecture. They meet in secret and go to a secret bakery and a club called Space.
Chapter 11: Lina gets a phone call from Ren who asks her to meet him at the gate for her morning run. They talk and he invites her to go into the city that night. They go to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. It's beautiful. Lina tells Ren about the journal and the things she read and how she hadn't heard much about Howard before her mom was dying. They go to get gelato.
Chapter 12: Lina loves gelato. She gets home and reads more of the journal. Her mom saw a statue called The Rape of the Sabine Women. X told her he loved her. She wants to tell people but can't because of school policy. Her parents are still mad at her and want her to come home. Lina calls Ren to ask if he'll take her to Space (the club her mom went to). He says he's way ahead of her and already asked his friends to get something set up. She continues to read the journal. Her mom got a scholarship. X leaves for the summer and Hadley misses him. She and Howard get pizza together. Lina is confused because the journal says Howard instead of X. Now Lina is confused.
Chapter 13: Lina and Howard visit the city again. Gelato, pizza, Duomo, the works. They start to bond.
Chapter 14: Ren arrives that night to take Lina to Space. He says she looks beautiful. Ren reads up to where Lina had read in her mom's journal. They go to the club and it's dark and loud. Lina is excited that Thomas is there. She starts dancing and is having a lot of fun. Thomas gets a drink and Lina sits on the couch to rest. A creepy older looking man starts talking to her in Italian so she starts to leave. Then the guy grabs her butt. She yells at his but he strokes her shoulder. She starts to run but her grabs her arm. Finally Mimi comes and yells at him in Italian so he leaves. She tells her next time to call them a "Stronzo." Then Mimi and Lina start fighting about Ren. Ren shows up and Lina asks to leave and go to the Piazza.
Chapter 15: Lina sees The Rape of the Sabine Woman with Ren. Ren says that he asked Howard about the secret bakery but he'd said he'd never been to one. Lina goes home and asks Howard about Space and the statue but the things he describes aren't the same as the journal. Lina realizes that Howard isn't X. Lina calls Addie but she isn't answering her phone so she talks to Ren instead. Lina reads more of the journal. Her mom tells X in Rome that she's staying for the summer and X calls things off. He decided to leave the school and needed his creative space. She writes about her sadness and heartbreak. Lina is sad for her mother and realizes that X was a jerk to her.
Chapter 16: Lina decides to track down X and wants Ren's help to do it. Ren is tired and lays his head on her shoulder which brings butterflies to her stomach. She goes home to ask Howard if she can go on an outing with Ren (leaving out the whole going to her mom's old school part) and he says yes. Lina pities Howard because he's not X and she knows that Howard loved her. Ren and Lina go to FAAF (her mom's school). The school gives Lina Francesca's number, but they don't help her out with discovering X. Even though she could tell he knew who it was.
Chapter 17: They call Francesca who tells Lina about Matteo Rossi their professor who Hadley had loved but Francesca thought was a bad influence. She said he had been fired and that Lina should go to Howard for more information about her mother. After they hang up, Lina gets a text from Thomas inviting her to a party but she isn't as excited as she thought she would be. She looks at Ren who is looking really cute. Lina decides to find Matteo Rossi so they go to an Internet Café to Google him. She finds him on a photography website from Rome and the picture of him looks just like her.
Chapter 18: Lina realizes then that Matteo is her father, not Howard. Her grandma was the one who told her Howard was her father, not her mother. Because it wasn't true. Line wonders if the reason her mom left the journal was for Lina to find this out. She doesn't know if Howard knows this or not. She decides to go to Rome to meet her father. Ren and Lina hurry to the train station to go to Rome. She reads more of the journal on the way. She talks about Francesca leaving and spending time with Howard. She is still heartbroken. Howard gets a job and asks Hadley if she wants to stay with him for the summer and she says yes. They spend time together as good friends. Lina lets Ren read up to that point to catch him up on the story.
Chapter 19: They arrive in Rome. They find Matteo's school. Lina asks to talk with him. While they are waiting, they find one of her mother's photographs in his gallery. It's a picture of Lina as a child. Lina decides she can't handle this and starts to leave but Matteo arrives and stops her. She decides she has to do this.
Chapter 20: He recognizes her. He says that her mom was foolish and was a stupid child in love with her instructor. He said everything in the journal is made up. Lina doesn't think she believes him but he's pretty convincing. He acts like he never reciprocated any feelings. He says that her mom had started sleeping with anyone who came her way and that one of those men must be Lina's father. She says he's a liar. He snatches the journal and makes fun of it. She grabs the journal backa nd runs away in tears. Ren sees her leave and runs after her. They stop outside and she cries in his arms onto his shirt. She tells him what happened. He doesn't believe it. Neither does she. Lina can't believe her mom ever loved him. She looks up and her and Ren's eyes lock.
Chapter 21: Ren and Lina start making out. For like 5 seconds. Then Ren pushes her off of him. He wouldn't even look at her. She's mega embarrassed. But she thought he had been kissing her back. He says that the timing was off. She agrees and says that they're just friends because she doesn't want him to know that she thought of it as more. She said she "never, ever, ever thought of him as anything more." He says, "It's okay. Don't worry about it." with an unreadable expression. They get in a taxi and Lina is still super duper embarrassed. She realizes she's in love with Ren and is heartbroken that he hadn't felt the same way. They arrive at the train station and wait for the train. Ren goes off to get something to eat and brings back a sandwich. Lina apologizes again and Ren says not to worry about it again. But she still worries about it. They don't talk for 35 minutes and then the train arrives. She decides to read the journal to get her mind off things. She talks about Howard and the process of falling in love with him. She's over X and realizes how much better Howard is.
Chapter 22: Lina is still reading the journal. She reads about her mother discovering she is pregnant and going back to Matteo. They start a relationship again because she thinks it's fate. But when Matteo kisses her she can only think of Howard. So she tells him she's pregnant. he flips out and starts throwing things and calling her a liar. So she tells him he's right, that Howard is the father (even though it's not true) and leaves. Lina gets a ride home from Ren and they talk like it's goodbye. Ren leaves.
Chapter 23: Lina calls Addie to tell her the news. About Ren and Matteo. Lina dreads needing to tell Howard. Lina, Howard, and Sonia go to a movie but Lina isn't paying much attention. Then we get the origin of the title when Sonia says, "You know, people come to Italy for all sorts of reasons, but when they stay, it's for the same two things. Love and gelato." They go home and Lina gets a call from Thomas inviting her to the party again. He says everyone will be there. She says she'll think about it.
Chapter 24: Lina goes on a run and tries not to think about Ren. She finds the lighthouse that her mother had described in her journal as where she had fallen in love with Howard. She tries to find signs of her mom there to no avail. As the sun rises she realizes that she will never stop missing her mother. She decides to finish the journal. She decides to leave Italy and not tell Howard how she feels. Lina realizes that the wrong choice her mom made was leaving Howard behind. And since she couldn't reverse history she had sent Lina to Howard.
Chapter 25: She tells Howard but he already knows. He gives her the journal and he reads it. She realizes that the journal was sent for Howard, not for her. She tells Howard about going to Rome.
Chapter 26: Howard tells Lina his side of the story. How we was in love with Hadley all along. How he was the one who told the school about Matteo's affairs. How he thought she had chosen Matteo. He tells her that even though they aren't biologically related, he still wants to be her dad.
Chapter 27: Lina tells Howard about her and Ren and he tells her not to give up because of a miscommunication. Lina calls Ren but he doesn't answer. She calls his home phone and his mom answers saying that Ren doesn't want to talk but that he is going to a party (the party that Thomas invited Lina to). Lina texts Thomas that she wants to go to the party and asks Sonia and Howard for help finding the perfect dress to wear. They tell Sonia about Howard not being Lina's father. Sonia is confused because she thought that Ren and Lina were together because of the way that Ren looks at her. Lina tells her he has a girlfriend but that she's in love with him and is going to this party in the perfect dress to try to salvage their friendship after she kissed him. Sonia helps her find the perfect dress. They also help her with her hair and makeup. Thomas takes her to the party. He's flirty and touchy but it doesn't have the same effect on her as before. She can't wait to see Ren. She sees her other friends but not Ren. One of them tells her that Ren broke up with Mimi yesterday. She still can't find Ren. Thomas shows her the fireworks and then kisses her. She tells him she likes Ren and that she shouldn't have agreed to come with him. He understands. Then she finally sees Ren. She asks to talk with him and he agrees. They walk together and thinks are still really weird. Not being able to handle it anymore, she tells Ren that she really likes him and that she wants to remedy the awkwardness between them even if it's just as friends because she doesn't want to lose him. He doesn't say anything for a while. Then he asks why she didn't say anything sooner and why in Rome she said she'd never thought of him as anything more than a friend. He says that he really did want to kiss her then but that it wasn't the right time because of Matteo and he wasn't sure if it meant anything and then she said that it didn't. And that he broke up with Mimi the night of Space because he wanted the chance of something between them. But then he saw her and Thomas and was mad that he was just a backup. She was mad that he still acted like he was with Mimi. She calls him a Stronzo (if you don't remember, that's the word Mimi said to use at the club to the creepy guy).
Chapter 28: Howard picks Lina up from the party. She tells him about what happened. While she's asleep, she feels something hit her and then sees coins all over her bedroom. She looks out her window to find Ren throwing coins at her. She climbs out her window to talk with him. He apologizes and says that he was really upset when she said they would never ever ever be more than friends and then he saw her with Thomas. She asks if he's still with Mimi and he says no. He asks about the journal. Then Ren tells her that he found a secret bakery and got her a cornetta con Nutella and then used the spare change to wake her up. She tells him she meant what she said about liking Ren. Maybe love. He says he maybe loves her too. Then they kiss (that part is really cute and I recommend reading it because a summary doesn't do it justice). She tells him that she's staying in Italy.
And that's the book! I hope I did it justice. I love this book so much and writing this was fun because I got to pretty much reread it. Hope this helps! (hide spoiler)]
This is gonna be a long one...
Prologue: Lina's mom who is dying of cancer tells her that she wants Lina to go to Italy once she dies. A man named Howard will be taking care of her.
Chapter 1: Lina moves in with Howard to find that he lives in a literal graveyard. Yikes. Lina is still depressed because her mom just died of cancer and now she's living in another country. She also meets Sonia who lives ion another house on the cemetery grounds. They serve her some really good lasagna. She moves into her new room which Howard decorated for her and she loves it. But she still wants to escape because again... she's pretty depressed.
Chapter 2: Lina calls her best friend Addie to tell her all about her new situation. As she's going to bed she hears Sonia and Howard talking about how she is really quite but will soon come out of her shell like her mom. She doesn't like that they are talking about her and still misses her mom like crazy.
Chapter 3: Lina wakes up to some tacky tourists asking for directions. Lina is pretty sure Howard is her dad but notices that they don't look much alike when the tourist points it out. Lina goes for a run and gets chased by a car full of guys so Howard tells her to go the back way next time. Howard invites Lina to go get pizza together but she respectfully declines.
Chapter 4: Lina is confused by Italian showers. Sonia gives Lina a journal that was shipped to the cemetery which belonged to Lina's mother from the time that she had lived in Italy. She thought it was a message for her.
Chapter 5: Lina starts to read the journal but decides she isn't ready. She takes a nap and then decides to go for a run through the back gate. There she meets a half Italian/half American boy named Lorenzo Ferrara who goes by Ren. Ren has heard about Lina because apparently she's the talk of the town at his American school in Italy. He invites her to his house because his mom is in desperate need of human interaction with an American. She goes with him to find that he lives in what looks just like a gingerbread house. Apparently everyone in Italy lives in weird homes. Even Ren's mom recognizes who she is as Howard Mercer's daughter. They feed her and talk. She meets Ren's little sister Gabriella. As she leaves, Ren writes his number on her hand and it lingers for just a second longer.
Chapter 6: Lina goes with Howard to see the city. It's awkward but they manage. They see the Duomo and get pizza. Lina finds out that Howard didn't know about her until after her mother died.
Chapter 7: Lina starts reading her mother's journal which is prefaced with "I made the wrong choice." Ominous. It talks about when her mother told her parents that she wanted to go to photography school in Italy. They weren't huge fans of the idea. But she goes to Italy. She loves it. Meets her roommate named Francesca. She sees the Duomo. Lina is amazed that she saw the Duomo the same day she read that her mom had and is now determined to explore Italy with her mother. But she can only take the journal is small doses.
Chapter 8: Lina goes downstair in the morning to hear Howard say that she missed a call from Ren. He said they were going to go to a party that night. Howard acted all tough with Ren but approves of the party. She calls Addie to help her get ready and rides with Ren on his electric scooter (probably a Vespa). Everyone at the party is astonished to see her because they've heard so much about her. They all want to meet her. She meets Ren's crush named Mimi who looks like a Swedish model. Then she meets the hottest guy she's ever met named Thomas. They spend the rest of the night talking by the pool until Lina's curfew. Before she leaves they all insist that she follow the newcomer rule where she jumps in the pool with her clothes on. She does it and is finally having fun again since when her mom died.
Chapter 10: Lina comes home sopping wet and Howard and Sonia are having a party at the house with some older people. Howard introduces Lina as Hadley's (her mother's) daughter instead of his own which is kinda strange. Lina changes in her room and calls Addie to tell her about Thomas and Ren. Addie approves of their hotness. They hang up and Lina reads more of the journal. Her mom introduces all of the friends she's met in Italy, including Howard. She then writes that she has fallen in love and writes his name as X to keep him a secret. She says she met him near the beginning in a lecture. They meet in secret and go to a secret bakery and a club called Space.
Chapter 11: Lina gets a phone call from Ren who asks her to meet him at the gate for her morning run. They talk and he invites her to go into the city that night. They go to the Ponte Vecchio bridge. It's beautiful. Lina tells Ren about the journal and the things she read and how she hadn't heard much about Howard before her mom was dying. They go to get gelato.
Chapter 12: Lina loves gelato. She gets home and reads more of the journal. Her mom saw a statue called The Rape of the Sabine Women. X told her he loved her. She wants to tell people but can't because of school policy. Her parents are still mad at her and want her to come home. Lina calls Ren to ask if he'll take her to Space (the club her mom went to). He says he's way ahead of her and already asked his friends to get something set up. She continues to read the journal. Her mom got a scholarship. X leaves for the summer and Hadley misses him. She and Howard get pizza together. Lina is confused because the journal says Howard instead of X. Now Lina is confused.
Chapter 13: Lina and Howard visit the city again. Gelato, pizza, Duomo, the works. They start to bond.
Chapter 14: Ren arrives that night to take Lina to Space. He says she looks beautiful. Ren reads up to where Lina had read in her mom's journal. They go to the club and it's dark and loud. Lina is excited that Thomas is there. She starts dancing and is having a lot of fun. Thomas gets a drink and Lina sits on the couch to rest. A creepy older looking man starts talking to her in Italian so she starts to leave. Then the guy grabs her butt. She yells at his but he strokes her shoulder. She starts to run but her grabs her arm. Finally Mimi comes and yells at him in Italian so he leaves. She tells her next time to call them a "Stronzo." Then Mimi and Lina start fighting about Ren. Ren shows up and Lina asks to leave and go to the Piazza.
Chapter 15: Lina sees The Rape of the Sabine Woman with Ren. Ren says that he asked Howard about the secret bakery but he'd said he'd never been to one. Lina goes home and asks Howard about Space and the statue but the things he describes aren't the same as the journal. Lina realizes that Howard isn't X. Lina calls Addie but she isn't answering her phone so she talks to Ren instead. Lina reads more of the journal. Her mom tells X in Rome that she's staying for the summer and X calls things off. He decided to leave the school and needed his creative space. She writes about her sadness and heartbreak. Lina is sad for her mother and realizes that X was a jerk to her.
Chapter 16: Lina decides to track down X and wants Ren's help to do it. Ren is tired and lays his head on her shoulder which brings butterflies to her stomach. She goes home to ask Howard if she can go on an outing with Ren (leaving out the whole going to her mom's old school part) and he says yes. Lina pities Howard because he's not X and she knows that Howard loved her. Ren and Lina go to FAAF (her mom's school). The school gives Lina Francesca's number, but they don't help her out with discovering X. Even though she could tell he knew who it was.
Chapter 17: They call Francesca who tells Lina about Matteo Rossi their professor who Hadley had loved but Francesca thought was a bad influence. She said he had been fired and that Lina should go to Howard for more information about her mother. After they hang up, Lina gets a text from Thomas inviting her to a party but she isn't as excited as she thought she would be. She looks at Ren who is looking really cute. Lina decides to find Matteo Rossi so they go to an Internet Café to Google him. She finds him on a photography website from Rome and the picture of him looks just like her.
Chapter 18: Lina realizes then that Matteo is her father, not Howard. Her grandma was the one who told her Howard was her father, not her mother. Because it wasn't true. Line wonders if the reason her mom left the journal was for Lina to find this out. She doesn't know if Howard knows this or not. She decides to go to Rome to meet her father. Ren and Lina hurry to the train station to go to Rome. She reads more of the journal on the way. She talks about Francesca leaving and spending time with Howard. She is still heartbroken. Howard gets a job and asks Hadley if she wants to stay with him for the summer and she says yes. They spend time together as good friends. Lina lets Ren read up to that point to catch him up on the story.
Chapter 19: They arrive in Rome. They find Matteo's school. Lina asks to talk with him. While they are waiting, they find one of her mother's photographs in his gallery. It's a picture of Lina as a child. Lina decides she can't handle this and starts to leave but Matteo arrives and stops her. She decides she has to do this.
Chapter 20: He recognizes her. He says that her mom was foolish and was a stupid child in love with her instructor. He said everything in the journal is made up. Lina doesn't think she believes him but he's pretty convincing. He acts like he never reciprocated any feelings. He says that her mom had started sleeping with anyone who came her way and that one of those men must be Lina's father. She says he's a liar. He snatches the journal and makes fun of it. She grabs the journal backa nd runs away in tears. Ren sees her leave and runs after her. They stop outside and she cries in his arms onto his shirt. She tells him what happened. He doesn't believe it. Neither does she. Lina can't believe her mom ever loved him. She looks up and her and Ren's eyes lock.
Chapter 21: Ren and Lina start making out. For like 5 seconds. Then Ren pushes her off of him. He wouldn't even look at her. She's mega embarrassed. But she thought he had been kissing her back. He says that the timing was off. She agrees and says that they're just friends because she doesn't want him to know that she thought of it as more. She said she "never, ever, ever thought of him as anything more." He says, "It's okay. Don't worry about it." with an unreadable expression. They get in a taxi and Lina is still super duper embarrassed. She realizes she's in love with Ren and is heartbroken that he hadn't felt the same way. They arrive at the train station and wait for the train. Ren goes off to get something to eat and brings back a sandwich. Lina apologizes again and Ren says not to worry about it again. But she still worries about it. They don't talk for 35 minutes and then the train arrives. She decides to read the journal to get her mind off things. She talks about Howard and the process of falling in love with him. She's over X and realizes how much better Howard is.
Chapter 22: Lina is still reading the journal. She reads about her mother discovering she is pregnant and going back to Matteo. They start a relationship again because she thinks it's fate. But when Matteo kisses her she can only think of Howard. So she tells him she's pregnant. he flips out and starts throwing things and calling her a liar. So she tells him he's right, that Howard is the father (even though it's not true) and leaves. Lina gets a ride home from Ren and they talk like it's goodbye. Ren leaves.
Chapter 23: Lina calls Addie to tell her the news. About Ren and Matteo. Lina dreads needing to tell Howard. Lina, Howard, and Sonia go to a movie but Lina isn't paying much attention. Then we get the origin of the title when Sonia says, "You know, people come to Italy for all sorts of reasons, but when they stay, it's for the same two things. Love and gelato." They go home and Lina gets a call from Thomas inviting her to the party again. He says everyone will be there. She says she'll think about it.
Chapter 24: Lina goes on a run and tries not to think about Ren. She finds the lighthouse that her mother had described in her journal as where she had fallen in love with Howard. She tries to find signs of her mom there to no avail. As the sun rises she realizes that she will never stop missing her mother. She decides to finish the journal. She decides to leave Italy and not tell Howard how she feels. Lina realizes that the wrong choice her mom made was leaving Howard behind. And since she couldn't reverse history she had sent Lina to Howard.
Chapter 25: She tells Howard but he already knows. He gives her the journal and he reads it. She realizes that the journal was sent for Howard, not for her. She tells Howard about going to Rome.
Chapter 26: Howard tells Lina his side of the story. How we was in love with Hadley all along. How he was the one who told the school about Matteo's affairs. How he thought she had chosen Matteo. He tells her that even though they aren't biologically related, he still wants to be her dad.
Chapter 27: Lina tells Howard about her and Ren and he tells her not to give up because of a miscommunication. Lina calls Ren but he doesn't answer. She calls his home phone and his mom answers saying that Ren doesn't want to talk but that he is going to a party (the party that Thomas invited Lina to). Lina texts Thomas that she wants to go to the party and asks Sonia and Howard for help finding the perfect dress to wear. They tell Sonia about Howard not being Lina's father. Sonia is confused because she thought that Ren and Lina were together because of the way that Ren looks at her. Lina tells her he has a girlfriend but that she's in love with him and is going to this party in the perfect dress to try to salvage their friendship after she kissed him. Sonia helps her find the perfect dress. They also help her with her hair and makeup. Thomas takes her to the party. He's flirty and touchy but it doesn't have the same effect on her as before. She can't wait to see Ren. She sees her other friends but not Ren. One of them tells her that Ren broke up with Mimi yesterday. She still can't find Ren. Thomas shows her the fireworks and then kisses her. She tells him she likes Ren and that she shouldn't have agreed to come with him. He understands. Then she finally sees Ren. She asks to talk with him and he agrees. They walk together and thinks are still really weird. Not being able to handle it anymore, she tells Ren that she really likes him and that she wants to remedy the awkwardness between them even if it's just as friends because she doesn't want to lose him. He doesn't say anything for a while. Then he asks why she didn't say anything sooner and why in Rome she said she'd never thought of him as anything more than a friend. He says that he really did want to kiss her then but that it wasn't the right time because of Matteo and he wasn't sure if it meant anything and then she said that it didn't. And that he broke up with Mimi the night of Space because he wanted the chance of something between them. But then he saw her and Thomas and was mad that he was just a backup. She was mad that he still acted like he was with Mimi. She calls him a Stronzo (if you don't remember, that's the word Mimi said to use at the club to the creepy guy).
Chapter 28: Howard picks Lina up from the party. She tells him about what happened. While she's asleep, she feels something hit her and then sees coins all over her bedroom. She looks out her window to find Ren throwing coins at her. She climbs out her window to talk with him. He apologizes and says that he was really upset when she said they would never ever ever be more than friends and then he saw her with Thomas. She asks if he's still with Mimi and he says no. He asks about the journal. Then Ren tells her that he found a secret bakery and got her a cornetta con Nutella and then used the spare change to wake her up. She tells him she meant what she said about liking Ren. Maybe love. He says he maybe loves her too. Then they kiss (that part is really cute and I recommend reading it because a summary doesn't do it justice). She tells him that she's staying in Italy.
And that's the book! I hope I did it justice. I love this book so much and writing this was fun because I got to pretty much reread it. Hope this helps! (hide spoiler)]
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Jenna Evans Welch (Goodreads Author)
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