Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Love & Olives

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Love & Olives by Jenna Evans Welch

29 reviews

lauf22's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

3.5

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shannasbooksnhooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

"No matter what happened, I'd keep searching until every piece had been found. Olive had always been good at that."
It feels like this book took me longer than it should have to read. I know it took only around 5 days (Aug. 3-8), but it felt like a long time. I feel like it's mostly due to the fact that I breezed through my 6 most recent reads - Carly Spade's Contemporary Mothos series - within a 5-6 day period.
But I really enjoyed this book. It was a sweet read. Honestly, I feel like the story encompassed many a child's dreams (inner child's dreams as well). ~~Indiana Jones was one of my major film crushes as a child.~~ This was another fantastic coming-of-age story from Jenna Evans Welch, and I felt like it was a great ending to the Love & series. I was half expecting to see Lina and/or Addie - or other supporting characters - from Love & Gelato and Love & Luck. I wasn't disappointed not seeing any of them, but, if I'm honest, it was still a bit of a letdown. I think Olive, "Liv," went through so much emotional turmoil in this book, and it was so well-represented.

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sabrinaxlim's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

wonderful, fizzy, slow burn romance about how stories evolve and priorities change. It touches on mental health, immigration, bipolar disorder, coping mechanisms, absent fathers and of course, The Lost City of Atlantis. This lovely book was set in Santorini, Greece, a place I’ve always wanted to visit. I think this is my favorite Jenna Welsh Book.

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chronicallytck's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I hate how much I relate to so many characters in this book. My willingness to change myself to cope like Liv, my type 4-ness from Theo. God, Theo. Being a tck is such a complex phenomenon but he brings to light the struggle and the pain without dwelling on it. Best book I've read in a while. Highly recommend.

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casandra_lovealwaysbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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kallio08's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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charizaaard's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted sad

3.5

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joanna77_'s review against another edition

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emotional informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

First Reread:
I didn’t love this quite as much the second time around, honestly. It’s probably closer to a 4 star read. I really struggled with the romance in this one and how it never really developed. It also kind of felt like cheating a bit and I hated how Theo lied to Liv like he did but overall I still love this story and will reread it again I’m sure. It just doesn’t have the same magic for me as Love and Gelato.

Original Review:
Just finished this and holy cow, it was incredible. I don't know how to sum up my feelings, but needless to say, I cried twice, which is something I never do in books. I adored our main character. Her depth and growth were off the charts. I loved seeing her relationship adapt and I found the whole concept of this book fascinating. I learned so much about Atlantis and Greece.

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navayiota's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This would be a great read because I love Greek mythology and such, so a book about finding Atlantis seemed like a perfect book for me. I can tell the author put a lot of effort in researching Atlantis and I appreciate it, however I wish they had focused a bit more on Greek people too. Like, the way real humans speak. The Greeks in this book felt cartoonish and embarrassing to read, as someone who grew up in Greece. "Bapou" was especially annoying. First of all, they use the wrong word, which yes they address and explain but the author has complete control over the story and they chose to consistently screw up a very basic word for no reason, thus misrepresenting the whole language. It might not sound like a big deal, but this is probably the most frequent Greek word in the book and it's wrong. If it was just that I probably would look past it, but "Bapou" was so badly written, I think for comedic purposes. He keeps repeating "Beautiful, welcome to santorini" in different tones depending on the context like a pokemon because they chose to make him not speak English. (even though a lot of older people here speak at least some very basic English, especially in islands where there are a lot of tourists)
Olive was an annoying and completely un self aware character who was frustrating to follow. Personally I hate reading about characters with no backbone and I think she was like that for way too long. The only reason I pushed through her whining was because I was excited to see what the author would do with Atlantis and whether they would find it or not. The filming and diving parts of the book were the most interesting in my opinion and the only time that I think her disorder was written well. (also the nightmares)
Nikos, Olive's dad was probably the best written character, not because he was likeable (he is not) but because he is so.. Greek. In an actually realistic way. My dad is exactly like him, down to the way they talk to strangers and act around their kids. He was a highlight of the book, even though I hated reading about him lol.
There's more stuff I want to write about but I'm tired and somewhat upset over this book. I had such high hopes. I definitely think most of these could have been solved by talking to a few Greeks and maybe getting a beta reader or two who have actually lived here.

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Welp, I realized while I was halfway through this book that I read the series out of order. I was supposed to read Love & Luck first, but I thought this was the sequel. Oh well! I'm kind of glad I did because I wound up liking it the most, I think!

The way that the chapters were written, with Olive's list preceding the story, was really insightful. It helped me to understand her and her father a lot better. I would have liked to see a little more graciousness coming from Olive (or at least a willingness to sit down and talk) earlier on in, but I guess that's what... made it a book rather than a short story.

More than anything, this book made me want to take a trip to Greece. I want to eat the food, smell the sea, and mostly: VISIT THAT BOOKSTORE. Ah!

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