I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The idea of losing my mom, or what my daughter might experience when she will eventually lose me is making me tear up, so of course this book resonated with me and touched me deeply. The line about how she cannot accept and understand that if she ever calls her mom's phone, it would just ring endlessly and she will be never able to hear her voice again. I was already bawling when I got to that section, how do you go on after you lose your mother and she's the great love of your life?

I particularly liked the book setting- Positano, Italy, one of the last place I visited before Covid. Like Katy, I have also hiked up to the path of Gods and even had the lemonade from the stand. I have also done the pizza crawl in Naples. It brought back so much fond memories.

This was a highly anticipated read for me and was not what I expected but in the best kind of ways. The mother daughter story was wonderfully told. I adored how Katy grew to know her mother more after her grand experience to Italy. The descriptions in this book set me over the edge and I truly left immersed in Italy and now have it on my travel bucket list!

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time! Very "Under the Tuscan Sun". I highly, HIGHLY recommend this!

This started out well, and I enjoyed it. The the details of Italian architecture, panoramic views, and cities made me want to hop on a plane, and the food descriptions were been better. I did feel the main character lacked a strong personality-very passive and deemed to let life just happen to her, but that did okay into the plot overall. The ending seemed to come to a resolution pretty quickly, and the middle was a bit drawn out, but overall I enjoyed the plot. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.

ONE ITALIAN SUMMER is about Kathy. Her mom, someone she calls her best friend, the love of her life, passes away after battling cancer. Kathy decides she will make the trip to Positano, the mother-daughter trip the two have been planning to take forever. First of all, can your mom be your BFF? Sure, I’m super close with my mom and call her every day. But, Kathy calling her mom the love of her life was weird. What about her husband? I didn’t like how Kathy treated her husband and her dad.

What I thought would be a book about grieving turned into a weird coming-of-age story of finding yourself. Kind of. I could not relate to Kathy whatsoever and found her extremely selfish and childish. She’s supposed to be 30, but if you told me she was a teenager, I would have believed it. She talks about always having either her mom or her husband Eric make decisions for her. She has this epiphany in Positano that she is her own person, and she CAN make decisions for herself. But she spends most of the trip trying to figure out if she wants to have a fling.

While I appreciate the idea of learning more about your mother’s past and learning that she was more than just a mother, a wife, this book didn’t work for me. I couldn’t figure out if this were supposed to be a romance novel because Kathy spends most of the book wondering if she should have a dreamy Italian fling/affair.

Also, I felt like the writing/descriptions lacked painting a vivid setting of such a beautiful place. Unless you’ve been to Positano/ Amalfi Coast, it would be hard to imagine this place (Google Positano before you read this book). I’m not a wine-drinker, and I don’t particularly like pasta or pizza, but this book did make me dream of the best seafood pasta I’ve ever had when we visited Naples. So, at least there’s that.

A tour of Italy is what this book is! I love the setting, the food, I want wine! The story line had a little time travel in it which I always love. I just didn't get the dependency on Mom. I didn't get the relationship. I just couldn't relate. I don't know why a mother would want her daughter to be so dependent on her that when she is not longer here, she doesn't even know how to live, how to make decisions on her own. This book was written well, very descriptive, just not relatable to me at all. Other than the love of Italy.

Warning: One Italian Summer will make you want to drop everything and immediately fly to the Italian Riviera. This book does a beautiful job of depicting Positano, capturing its natural beauty. The town does feel like a place where magic can happen, making it an appropriate setting for this book.

Rebecca Serle does an amazing job of capturing the grief of losing a mother. The early chapters, where Katy's navigating the immediate aftermath of her mother Carol's death, are so incredibly moving. As someone who is still coping from losing my mom, I found these chapters deeply moving and had high hopes for the book.

Unfortunately, the magical elements of the novel didn't land for me. Upon arriving in Positano, Katy encounters the 30-year-old version of her mother, Carol, and the two are able to connect and appreciate each other's company. Katy is able to learn more about her mother through the magic of time travel, both the good and the bad - including some difficult revelations that lead Katy to question everything she believed about her mother and their relationship.

It was disappointing to go from such a realistic and moving portrayal of grief into this magical element. I would have loved to see how Katy learned to process her grief and come to terms with her mother's death without that magical plot device - because that's something everyone must face after losing a loved one. We're not gifted the magic of being able to travel back in time to reunite with our loved ones and get to know their past selves; we have to learn to move on and process in our own time, in our own ways. That, to me, would have been a much more compelling novel.

Sadly this was a DNF for me. Such a bummer because In Five Years is one of my very favorites (and I also really enjoyed The Dinner Party). I really wanted to just enjoy the Amalfi Coast but the main character is insufferable. She’s unnecessarily cruel to her husband who is trying to be supportive while dealing with his own grief, and she just goes on and on (and on and on, endlessly) about being the love of her mother’s life. Perhaps I’ll pick it up again when I’m more in a mood for this type of book, but just can’t get into it now.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the gifted copy.

(I’m giving it three stars only because Netgalley won’t allow me to post without a rating and I’m not comfortable giving one star on a book I didn’t finish.)

Time travel done well is a great read. This time travel book did nothing for me. Katy was irritating, blind to everything except her poor mother who is dying. It was all about Katy. She decides to go on with the trip to Italy that she and her mother had planned. No concern for her dad or her husband, she just packed exactly what her mother had told her earlier to take. And she took the daily agenda her mother had planned, no deviations, no plans to do anything different from what Mom had planned.

Once there, she falls into a time warp, to the 90s. She thinks she meets her mom, age 30, and they pal around together when Katy isn't hanging on the Italian boyfriend's arm.

The Italian scenery was delightful, especially during an especially nasty winter storm. It was nice to think about sun-warmed beaches and dining al fresco.

Katy is in deep pain due to the recent loss of her mother and best friend, Carol. Before her mother passed, they had planned the trip of a lifetime to Positano, Italy. Katy had been looking forward to visiting with her mother, but she decides to embark on the trip alone. But, once she arrives, she bumps into the 30-year-old version of Carol, a version vastly different than the mother she knew!

The setting is honestly one of my favorite parts of the book — Serle did a fantastic job describing the details and intricacies of the Italian coast. The plot writing was great as well, but I had a hard time connecting to the novel because I couldn't really connect with the main character. While I did feel for her, it was weird to me that her character revolved so much around her mother. It was almost as if she did not have a personality or identity that was separate from being Carol's daughter. Nevertheless, it was a nice read overall and I very much enjoyed the Italian summer vibes.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest opinions!

I have a very, very low tolerance for cheating in books even if it happens when you’re time traveling or other such nonsense (Jamie and Claire the only exception).

Katy drove me nuts from the beginning, I felt so badly for her poor husband.

[ How did she not realize that she was in the 90s? Lack of cell phones or clunky large ones weren’t a clue? And no one seemed to pay for anything! They went out for these extravagant meals with multiple bottles of wine and no mention of paying—that would have clued her in when her credit card didn’t work. Nothing about this book made any sense. (hide spoiler)]

I did love the scenery and the lovely descriptions of Italy and the delicious food and wine. Elevated this book a star because of it.

All the rest was totally illogical and bizarre. I loved this author’s previous book but this one didn’t do it for me. Moving on.

2.5 stars rounded up.

Katy's world has crumbled following the death of her mother, Carol. In the weeks following her death, Katy decides to take a leap and go on the trip that the duo had long-planned to the Amalfi Coast for Carol's 60th birthday. Over two weeks spent in Italy, in the place her mother had cherished memories, Katy grapples with how she can move forward with her life (and her marriage) after having lost the person who she considers the "greatest love of her life." Somehow, Katy finds herself in a time slip as she meets the *younger* Carol and is able to get to know her mother in ways that she never imagined and to answer all of the questions she wishes she'd asked her sooner. Through learning more about her mother and the place that shaped her into the woman Katy (later) knew, Katy learns to move forward.

This book addresses grief and grappling with major life changes really well.
I loved the descriptions of the different locations on the Amalfi Coast - I felt like I was travelling as I read. I liked this quote from chapter 13 "I feel this about Italy in general. All this living history. Different eras and experiences, joy and suffering stacked up on top of each other like sheets of paper."

I felt like the relationships between the characters were a bit two-dimensional, and the time-travel wasn't explained at all - but I enjoyed the story all the same!

Katy's mom, Carol had always been her #1 person, the guide to everything in her life and her best friend. When she dies Katy is completely lost and unsure of what comes next: her life has revolved so much around her mother, what does it look like without her? Drowning in her grief she decides to go on the trip she had planned with her mom, to Positano where Carol had lived years and years ago. And there, at her hotel, Katy is shocked to find her mother- the 30 year old version, magically in the same place as present day Katy. They embark on a friendship and explore the coast together, letting Katy get to know her mother as the person she was before. And in the process working through her grief.

For me, this book had a very personal connection. My mom went to art school in Positano, living there for months and falling in love with the town. My parents took their honeymoon there, then spent every year going back when they retired. We took a family trip when I was in high school. They have a number of friends there, most of whom my mom met all those years ago in the 70's. My dad passed away three years ago- at first I thought these connections might make the book too tender for me to read. But it was so beautifully written and Serle managed to write about grief without making me feel like I'm delving back into my own.

What makes this novel more universal though is the connection between daughter and mother, particuarly how Katy has perceived Carol all her life and how there are other layers she never got to witness. To Katy her mom always knew the right answers, was sure of herself and her place in the world, and was the guide for Katy who was lost. When meeting 30 year old Carol though she realizes that of course her mother was not always this way, that she too was unfinished at 30. I think about my own mother, how the person she was in the 1970's living it up on the Amalfi Coast would be both different and familiar to who I know. And how my own daughter will also view me in the light she is familiar with, not knowing the different versions that came before I was Mom.

I adored this novel- it's meditations on grief, the mother-daughter love, and the stunning setting of a place that I know is pure magic.

One Italian Summer was an interesting (read: magical) take on the grieving process. When Katy's mom dies, she suddenly feels afloat in her own life. Her mother was her best friend and not a single decision in her life has been made without her input. Which makes her question her own autonomy and agency. She decides to go to Positano for the two week mother-daughter trip they had originally planned together and when she reaches the Amalfi Coast, she immediately starts to feel refreshed. But then she sees her mother there, except she's 30 years old and has no idea who Katy is. Katy doesn't understand how or why this is possible but she's given this incredible gift of getting to know her mother as the young woman she once was and doesn't waste a minute of it. I certainly felt like I was living vicariously through her and couldn't help thinking of all the things I'd love to ask my mom about her youth. We never talked about it while she was alive and now I have so many questions. I will say I didn't exactly relate to Katy in terms of that co-dependency and there was one or two decisions of hers I definitely questioned but there were aspects of her life and relationship with her mom that hit very close to home for me. Plus this whole book was such a wish fulfillment fantasy for anyone who's lost a parent. The only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars was because there were two plot points I didn't necessarily agree with but otherwise, it was beautifully written and my favorite book from Rebecca Serle so far.

Every time I pick up a book written by Rebecca Serle I never know what to expect and this one hit the mark. The beauty in the writing transports you to Postiano and creates an entire world that you can't help but want to be. The way she gives her characters life and connection to the reader entangles your soul. This made me really want to book a one way ticket to Postiano so I can discover Italy in a similar way. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a beautiful emotional read.

Oh, I adored this book. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, because I love how Rebecca Serle writes and I absolutely love Positano. I really enjoyed reading about Katy’s relationship with her mother. One Italian Summer is such a heartfelt book full of travel, personal growth, grief, love and acceptance. You will definitely experience a wide range of emotions while you read this book.

Positano is one of my favorite places on earth and this book transported me right back there. It was really fun reading about Katy’s experiences in Positano, when I have done most of the things that she did while she was there. All I’m saying is, you can’t visit Positano without eating at Chez Black and then taking a boat ride to see the view of Positano from the water.

i really like Rebecca Serle books because they are emotional and transport me. This book was just what I needed to read at the right time.

This is a lovely story about a relationship between mother and daughter with a hint of time travel and magic. When Kaity's mom dies she decides to take the trip to Italy they had planned together. During this journey Kaity not only learned about her mother during her carefree years but she learned more about herself and her own destiny.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC

"One Italian Summer" transports the reader from California to the beautiful town of Positano, Italy. We get to know Katy, a thirty year old who has just lost her mother to cancer. Reeling from the hole in her life, she travels to Italy on the trip she and her mother were supposed to take together. Leaving her husband behind, she sets out to find herself and remnants of her mother in this seaside town. I enjoyed the story and the gorgeous descriptions of the Amalfi coast. I struggled to understand Katy's borderline obsession with her mother because it blinded her to other things in her life. I also struggled with the time travel piece, as Katy readily accepted it without investigating the reason. Just like the vacation spirit she embodied, the reader needs to let go a bit to fully embrace the story for what it is.

Thank you, Atria Books, for gifting me a copy of One Italian Summer{partner}

Genre: Fiction
Trope: Magical Realism
Pub Date: 3.1.2022
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

“There is beauty to the run-down buildings, the laundry strung overhead, the rhythm and drawl of the daily life here. There is beauty, too, in the old Mediterranean architecture, buildings left over from centuries ago, before Naples became what is today. There is beauty in discrepancy — two things that seem oppositional, coming together.”

Any book that begins with one of my favorite Gilmore Girls quotes is one that I know I’ll love.

Rebecca Serle wrote with such ease and magic. Her transition between past and present were seamless and I found myself unable to put the book down as I didn’t want the magic to disappear.

The beginning of the story felt so painfully real. It will be difficult to get through for those of you who have lost someone who meant the world to you, but the story is worth every minute.

Serle wrote about the people of Positano, the town, the views — it was all mesmerizing. I kept wanting to look up places that she referenced to feel like I was there with the characters. I want to visit this town and Hotel Poseidon more than anything.

I adore a magical realism aspect to a book, and One Italian Summer is no exception. It was perfect. The entire novel was a reminder to seize the opportunities presented to you and love the ones you’re with, as you never know when it will be too late to take that trip or hear that story.

Thank you, Rebecca, for writing a story with a female protagonist that I admire.