A New York Times Bestseller From the New York Times bestselling author of Love & Gelato comes a Mamma Mia!-inspired tale about a teen girl finding romance while trying to connect with her absent father in beautiful Santorini, Greece. Liv Varanakis doesn’t have a lot of fond memories of her father, which makes sense–he fled to Greece when she was only eight. What Liv does remember, though, … Greece when she was only eight. What Liv does remember, though, is their shared love for Greek myths and the lost city of Atlantis. So when Liv suddenly receives a postcard from her father explaining that National Geographic is funding a documentary about his theories on Atlantis–and will she fly out to Greece and help?–Liv jumps at the opportunity.
But when she arrives to gorgeous Santorini, things are a little…awkward. There are so many questions, so many emotions that flood to the surface after seeing her father for the first time in years. And yet Liv doesn’t want their past to get in the way of a possible reconciliation. She also definitely doesn’t want Theo–her father’s charismatic so-called “protégé”–to witness her struggle.
And that means diving into all that Santorini has to offer–the beautiful sunsets, the turquoise water, the hidden caves, and the delicious cuisine. But not everything on the Greek island is as perfect as it seems. Because as Liv slowly begins to discover, her father may not have invited her to Greece for Atlantis, but for something much more important.
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*Ahem* I will start by saying this, Olive is a terrible narrator. At first, she wasn’t too bad. I mean, she made some very irrational assumptions about her father and didn’t even bother to ask for confirmation. Sure, your dad is obsessed with Atlantis. Yes, he left when you were eight years old. Mmm, those two things might be related. Key word being might. You can’t just go assuming things like that. I think what pushed me over the edge was when Nico tried to have a nice dinner with her and offer an apology and an explanation on where he’d been all those years, and she just shut him down. She. Shut. Him. Down. That was terrible! But, not as terrible as Liv finding out her father has bipolar depressive disorder, and her first thought is if she can catch it. That really did me in. Seriously? You find out that your dad left to protect both you and your mother, and you’re disgusted by him like it’s his fault? Have you no heart? And then she grills him while he’s laying in the hospital bed as if she’s entitled to answers. I didn’t want to mention this, but I have to address another main issue. “The boyfriend”. Liv flirts with Theo many times, and every time she catches herself doing it, she slaps Theo in the face by mentioning Dax, her boyfriend. Her boyfriend, who doesn’t even know what college she wants to go to. Her boyfriend, who doesn’t know who her father really is. Her boyfriend, who doesn’t even know who she really is. Of course, in the end, Theo and Olive get together after she pushes him away. Her dad is better, suddenly perfectly fine, and her mother exists again. I absolutely adore Welch’s novel Love & Gelato. Maybe my expectations were just too high for this one.
Santorini is calling…
A long lost father
A long lost city of Atlantis
What will Olive “Liv” find and discover
This was such a fun read that immersed and transported me to this gorgeous island in the Aegean Sea, in Greece. I loved how Welch wrote Liv’s character and going into this adventure with her, full of discovery, some heart breaking moments, love and forgiveness.
I loved this book. I loved the beautiful story, the writing and pacing, I am definitely a fan. I am looking forward to reading the rest, Love and Gelato, and Love and Luck!
Each book works as a stand alone and I highly recommend these for a fun escape read and stories that will touch your heart.
After enjoying the first books in this trilogy, Love & Olives was one of my most anticipated 2020 releases. Admittedly for the first part of the book, I was quite disappointed, but it did improve as the story went on.
Love & Olives starts very slowly and with a lukewarm tone. Olive seemed rather boring, initially, and I simply could not feel connected to the character; Theo seemed goofy and almost childish. I honestly did not begin to enjoy Love & Olives until close to page 200 (yes 200, Love & Olives is about 500 pages long), but as soon as I did I was hooked.
Olive experienced wonderful character growth, as she allowed herself to be truly herself and let go of Liv. Theo really grew on me, he ended up being slightly goofy but sweet and kind, and as we learned about his backstory I understood him better.
One area of Love & Olives that felt lacking was the fact that I did not fall in love with any of the secondary characters. I enjoyed some of them (especially Geoffrey and his “fake” ballerina girlfriend), but ideally (in my opinion) side characters should rival the main characters and they simply did not.
The search for Atlantis is a main theme of this story. It was interesting, and I truly hoped that Olive and her dad would discover proof of Atlantis, but I cannot deny the fact that they found each other was even better.
I am absolutely in love with Oia, Greece, although the large amounts of people there sounds rather overwhelming. Thanks to Love & Olives Greece may have found itself on my mental list of places I want to visit one day. Atlantis Books sounds rather magical, and the pictures on the internet make it seem just as wonderful in real life.
All in all, Love & Olives was an enjoyable, clean, contemporary YA read that I would recommend to anyone who wishes they could travel somewhere warm and beautiful.
“Kalamata, no one knows what they’re doing. It’s called life.” Jenna Evans Welch
A cute boy. A gorgeous location. Reuniting with your long lost dad. What could be better? Liv hasn’t seen her dad for years, but is now in Greece, helping him and his cute assistant, Theo, with a documentary on the lost city of Atlantis. It might seem like fun and games, but there are a lot of bumps on this road to coming-of-age.
Welch does a great job of transporting the reader to a beautiful setting on a multi-level engaging adventure. This story isn’t fast-paced, but made me feel like I was there, working on this age-old mystery and coming to know Santorini and its residents, as well as unraveling the reasons why Liv’s father has been missing from her life for so many years.
There are some twists and turns embedded in the angst, and the characters are real and flawed, with vivid emotions. Although I liked Theo, it took me a minute to warm up to him, as well as to Liv’s father.
All in all, this Mama Mia inspired tale was an enjoyable diversion.
Content: mild romance
Fantastic!
Love & Olives made me laugh, made me want to cry, made me want to shout!
Though broken when her father left her for his first love, Atlantis, Liv still held on to the twenty-six things he had left behind. I loved the way each chapter started with an explanation of one of them.
Theo’s method of respecting Liv’s request to not call her Olive caused me to grin. Every time. And then, when he started citing facts about olives each time they were together?? His love for documenting using his camera was so annoying it made him perfect!
The other characters were all rather wonderful. Her little brother, Julius, was adorable! His obsession with ninjas made me laugh! Then there was Gregory the Canadian, the clerk in the amazing bookstore with the pretend ballerina girlfriend who had a gift for naming cats. And Theo’s bapou…
I do think that Nico, Liv’s dad, might have been my favorite, though. His larger-than-life personality and the way he had the entire village feeling like they owed him. His passion for everything he set his heart to. And the reason behind his search for Atlantis.
Be prepared for stunning vistas of the Greek island of Santorini to come to life with the beautiful descriptions scattered throughout the story. The winding maze of the streets, the white houses designed to make the towns invisible to pirates at sea. The red, black, and white beaches. The incredible sunsets…
If you enjoy coming-of-age stories, even if you are no longer a young adult, you will enjoy Love & Olives!
Read my review of Love & Olives by Jenna Evans Welch at AmongTheReads.net
I was given a copy of this book. I was not required to give a favorable review nor was any money received for this review. All comments and opinions are my own.
So this is the first book I’ve read in this series, and I was blown away! Of course leave it to me to read the longest one too! It was a very big book, I mean over 400 pages! Greece is definitely on the list of places I’ve always wanted to visit. And the sound of the bookstore that Liv gets to stay in and spend a lot of time in is just perfect! I love the idea of all the homes in the cliffs and if I was ever going to meet someone and fall in love and get married, and had the money, I always thought a wedding on the cliffs there would be cool.
But besides the setting, which was a huge character in the story all by itself, there were the actual characters and they were perfect as well. Liv was a normal teenager in the way she felt about so many things as they related to her, not always seeing that there was another side, that her father had been her age once, that maybe there was more to the reasons he left and maybe she wasn’t remembering everything from her childhood correctly or accurately, but from a child’s experience and limited world knowledge. Her father was perfect, and I just knew his trips away were for a reason other than he was giving her, but even when we found out what they were for, there were still other things that popped up and surprised me and added so many layers to this story.
Of course I do love a good legendary myth or story like Atlantis, although it’s never been the one I’ve really thought about that much. But the way they explored it and all the different theories in this book were so interesting it definitely grabbed my interest.
And then there is Theo. I adored Theo. His sense of humor, his arrogance, he was just the perfect summer guy to be there not only as an antagonizer, but also as a comfort for Liv.
Luckily I’ve now got copies of the first two books as well, thanks to the publisher, and I can’t wait to dive into them! Although they are noticeably shorter books, so I should be able to get through them in no time, and I can’t wait to see what worlds they take me to, Italy, my ancestors’ home, and Ireland, which I’ve learned I have Irish ancestry as well, so that should be fun too.