I was kind of nervous going into Love, Lucy by April Lindner. I had recently DNFed Catherine by Lindner which is a retelling of Wuthering Heights and so was super nervous this would be another DNF. Also, I’ve never read A Room With A View which I think this is supposed to be a modernization of. Thankfully, Love, Lucy COMPLETELY exceeds expectations. Granted, when your expectations aren’t all that high, that’s easy to do. But wow, this book was basically gobbled up all in one sitting.

Love, Lucy is about a girl named Lucy who is backpacking through Europe after making a deal with her parents to quit acting and major in business. While in Italy, her friend Charlene gets the pair the room upgrade they were promised, which is a room with a view (ohhhhhh). And Lucy meets this musician named Jesse and falls for him in their brief time together. However, she has to go back to America and to college. And so, the second half of the book is about Lucy’s time in college and trying to get over Jesse but still having those dreams.

Love, Lucy is a really quick read with a main character who is kind of naive and filled with serious FOMO at first, to a character who just really grows as a person. I can get behind and appreciate that as a reader. On the whole, this is an engaging read that kind of reads like NA light given the college setting. I would say this is my favorite by Lindner by far. Definitely would recommend and well, I kind of want to read A Room With A View now.

I’m starting to realize that while I like April Lindner’s books, I don’t love them. This one had been on my radar for some time and I finally decided last year to buy the book and now I kind of wish I had just gotten it from the library. I loved the comparisons to Roman Holiday (one of my favourite movies) and I loved Lucy’s trip to Europe, but I didn’t really like her character and I kind of wished she would just stand up to her dad. I might still just be a parent to littles, but I could not get behind his demands and I don’t understand why she couldn’t still just act on the side – like, was it really that big of a deal?? And I’m definitely over the love triangle trope in YA. I wanted Lucy to move on and yet everything I predicted would happen did happen and it made the book kind of ‘meh’ for me.