Love & Olives

Description

Love & Olives is a young adult novel that combines a wonderful family story of self-discovery with romance. It is the third novel in Jenna Evans Welch’s Love & Gelato series but can easily be read as a standalone novel. The picturesque landscape of Greece forms a perfect backdrop to this story where a teenage girl reconnects with her estranged father while also unraveling mysteries from the past.

Brief Summary:
Plot Summary: The story revolves around 17-year-old Liv Varanakis, who hasn’t really seen her father since he deserted her family many years ago. For all his zeal about Atlantis, Liv’s father invites her to Greece to assist him in filming a documentary for that fabled lost city. Although bitter and hurt, Liv eventually decides to go to Santorini with her father as she is keen on knowing why he deserted her and their mother.

Along with all this feeling about her father, she is also presented with the beauty of Greece and the magic of the project. With this journey, she encounters a sweetly adventurous sort of young boy-theo who exposes her both to the adventure and mystery of Greece but also helps her cope with her emotions. As Liv learns more about herself, her family, and the mysteries surrounding her father’s obsession with Atlantis, she begins to heal and open herself to love and reconciliation.

In the simplest terms, Love & Olives revolves around the emotional journey of Liv trying to find out and forgive her father. It’s about the connections between parents and their children and how abandonment, reunions, and healing old wounds are all tied within those relationships.

The book is set against the beautiful backdrop of Santorini, Greece. Such a setting makes the book as attractive to the place to readers. The myth of Atlantis runs on the lines of the book as a metaphor relating to lost things: whether love, relationships, or dreams and the possibility of finding it again.

Romance Element: Liv’s almost blossoming romance with Theo is sweet and light-hearted, filling the occasionally heavy emotions of her relationship with her father. The romance builds slowly, naturally, and tactfully correlates with warmth and beauty of the setting of Greece.

Themes:

Family and Forgiveness: The first and most pivotal theme is about forgiving broken relations with a family or reconciliation when all the possibilities for the forgiveness seem futile.
Self-Discovery: The journey of Liv is that of self-discovery as she learns how to process her feelings about her father, the past, and the future.
Adventures of Discovery: The actual journey through Greece interlocks with the emotional journey that the characters make, creating sense and a feeling of adventure in the novel.
Love and Healing: The romantic love, familial love, and self-love are the central themes that entwine into telling how love is a good remedy to help heal emotional wounds.
The writing style of Jenna Evans Welch will be well appreciated as warm, engaging, and emotionally resounding in vivid descriptions, focusing on character growth and relationships, although humor and romance are added for a light touch.

Conclusion
Love & Olives is a touching, heartfelt novel containing themes from family, forgiveness, love, and adventure. Setting the story in the lush lands of Greece and the intriguing mythological backdrop of Atlantis make this story both magical and immersive. It is just perfect for young adult lovers of contemporary fiction who enjoy emotional journeys, romance, and the beauty of discovering one’s roots.