BOOK REVIEW
TITLE: One Italian Summer
AUTHOR: Rebecca Serle
PUBLISHER: Atria Books
RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2022
GENRE: Fiction, Romance, Summer Reads
When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.
But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.
And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue. (Description from Goodreads.com)
MY THOUGHTS
(***Please note that this review may contain spoilers***)
I found this book at London Heathrow Airport waiting for our connecting flight home. I had just finished up a three week Italy trip, with my husband, celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary. I read the back cover and there was no question that I needed to read it on the long flight back to Los Angeles.
It’s set on the Amalfi Coast in Positano, Italy which I fell in love with visiting the first time in 2010. I was really excited to return and experience it with my husband. We had lunch at the restaurant in Hotel Poseidon and that hotel is featured in the book. What a weird coincidence! So the setting of the book was one reason for purchasing it.
The most important reason I purchased the book was the main character, Katy, losing her mother and somehow getting her back in Italy. Even though the time traveling aspect is not real life; the longing to see someone you lost recently is so relatable.
My father in-law died a week before our Italy trip so I wanted to see what this book could offer in terms of grieving a loved one. There were so many things I could relate to when Katy was thinking of her mom. Katy would be sitting on balconies and terraces with some wine or an Aperol Spritz just reminiscing about the times she had with her mom. My husband and I did a lot of that during our trip thinking about his dad’s smile or getting sad about what we didn’t get to say to him. The trip was very emotional for us and this book validated the things we were feeling.
The book kept reminding me of all the little things about my father in-law. For example, Katy would describe the things her mom loved to do like cooking and decorating. My father in-law couldn’t do either of those things, but it did make me think about what we would miss most like his infectious laugh and smile.
Then when Katy sees her mother again as a young woman who is carefree, happy, hopeful, and having fun, I couldn’t help but be envious. I would give anything to see my father in-law again in any form where he wasn’t sick and in pain.
The book had many parallels to my real life including the sad ones. In the book, Katy’s mother passed away from cancer; my father in-law passed away the same way. Katy describes watching her mother wither away and how that impacted her; we experienced the same thing.. There’s also part of the book where she’s angry at her mother; we have also had those feelings.
Overall, everything that Katy was going through in the book I was going through a version of it as well. I feel like I was meant to read this book at the exact time I found it. If I found it before my father in-law passed away I don’t think it would have had exactly the same impact. It’s still a very good book, but it’s even better for me at this point in time because of everything we are going through in real life. I would highly recommend this book. Rebecca is also on my favorite author list now. Excited to read more of Rebecca’s work. I already bought two more of her books; Expiration Date and In Five Years.
OVERALL RATING
ABOUT REBECCA SERLE
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM
Rebecca Serle is the New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years, The Dinner List, and the young adult novels The Edge of Falling and When You Were Mine. Serle also developed the hit TV adaptation Famous in Love, based on her YA series of the same name. She is a graduate of USC and The New School and lives in Los Angeles.
(Bio and photo found on Goodreads)
Stories Unfolded 