Whimsical, moving, inventive! I adored this unique story—the elegant pacing, the vibrant descriptions of Positano, the bond of a mother and daughter. Love, loss, and magical realism. Classic Rebecca Serle. She’s simply wonderful. Now get me to Italy and prepare me a feast! Thank you, NetGalley and Atria, for the advance review copy.

I loved In Five Years and the author’s new book did not disappoint! It was heartwarming and sweet without being cliche. The characters are realistically flawed but likeable. I’ll look forward to reading more by Rebecca Serle in the future!

I absolutely loved Rebecca Serle’s book In Five Years, and this one definitely lived up to expectations. I am a sucker for any story involving time travel or something similar (alternate realities, Groundhog Day loops, etc.) So, so good. I do NOT give five star reviews easily or frequently, but this title has earned five stars from me!

Once again Rebecca Serle wrote a book with a magical and emotional premise. Katy’s soulmate is her mother, so when Carol dies, she feels totally lost. Hoping help to her grieve, Katy sets off for Italy, to the town where Carol lived for one life-changing summer before she became a wife and mother.

However when Katy arrives, she is shocked to find a 30-year-old version of Carol living there. She jumps at the chance to spend time with her mother again, but quickly discovers a side of Carol she never knew.

The descriptions in this book of the scenery and food were breathtaking. I seriously felt like I had traveled to Italy. The plot moved a bit slowly for me at the beginning, but by the end I was completely invested

One Italian Summer is out now, and it’s the perfect thing to read if you’re looking to travel via book or for a story to share with your own mother. Thank you to Atria for my gifted copy!

"For thirty years I have been tied to the best person alive, the best mother, the best friend, the best wife—the best one. The best one was mine, and now she’s gone. The string that tethered us has been snipped, and I am overcome with how little I have left, how second-best every single other thing is."
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Happy Pub Day to One Italian Summer! Rebecca Serle took me on a wild ride with this one. Having lost my mom a few years ago there were parts of this book I felt were so reflective of losing my own mom.
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The 411:
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Katy has recently lost her mother, her best friend. Katy is left reeling and she's also left with a ticket to Positano, Italy for the trip of a lifetime. A trip she and her mother had spent years planning.
Katy embarks on the trip and isn't in Positano long before her mother appears. She doesn't appear though as the woman Katy knows but as the 30-year-old version of that woman at a crossroads in her own life.
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The honest truth:
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I thought for sure going into this book that it would lose me with the supernatural element but that couldn't have been further from the truth. This mother-daughter relationship was so authentic and genuine. My heart truly hurt for Katy losing her mom. This book brought such honesty about grief and loss. I have yet to read a Rebecca Serle book that hasn't left me in tears.
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Thank you @netgalley for the e-arc of this book.
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TW: Grief

⚠️ grief, death of a parent

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle is an emotional journey through grief. It was raw, poignant, hopeful, and completely and utterly immersive. As most of you know, I immediately gravitate towards stories that tackle loss and grief. I could relate to the protagonist, Katy, and the pain she felt having lost her mother from cancer. The experiences I felt having lost my mom the same way and around the same age really resonated with me. I believe even if I haven’t had gone through a similar loss, Rebecca Serle did and incredible job conveying the magnitude of that kind of loss.

My only hang up with this story was the romance. Katy is questioning her marriage and is on a break, not completely separated, taking time time apart situation with her husband. It gave me major Ross, Rachel, and Copy Girl vibes which I didn’t really care for. Despite this, I enjoyed the escape this book provided and would still recommend it!

Katy’s mother, Carol, has always spoken fondly of the summer that she spent in Positano, Italy, before Katy was born. Buoyed by stories, and the hope of making memories on the Amalfi Coast together, Katy and Carol plan a trip for Carol’s 60th birthday. When Carol dies shortly before the trip, Katy makes the difficult decision to go anyway, planning to grieve the loss of her mother in a place she held so dearly. Except, inexplicably, Katy finds more than just her mother’s presence in Positano: she finds her mother. Alive, well, and thirty years old. As Katy begins to spend more time with Carol, she begins to grapple with the concept that who our parents were before us may not be the same as who we knew them to be.

I adored this book. My favorite books are ones that make the reader feel so entirely immersed in a place that the place becomes a character itself, and Serle did that here. Positano is so alive on the page here that I often stopped to look at pictures, research the (real!) places mentioned, and fantasize about planning my own trip there. Serle’s descriptions of food made my mouth water, and the quiet way that this moved through time brought me so much joy.

I stopped to ask a friend a logistical question mid-way through, and while my instincts were right, I don’t want to spoil any of the nuance. I’ll just say that I had fun picking up the breadcrumbs that Serle left along the way for readers.

I really enjoyed In Five Years, but haven’t read anything else in Serle’s backlist (yet!). I think readers who went into this one expecting the kind of puzzle Serle served us in In Five Years may be disappointed, but I preferred this atmospheric journey through grief and longing.

The descriptions, location, and metaphysical mystery carried this one for me. Both Katy and Carol are flawed in ways that some readers may find upsetting, and the character growth is subtle. There were a few things that suspending my disbelief a little challenging. Readers who prefer plot-driven novels or ones disinterested by armchair travel might not get the same thing from this book that I did. Readers who are sensitive to content about cheating may want to investigate this one further before picking it up.

Many thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an ARC of One Italian Summer to review. All opinions are my own.

After reading Rebecca Serle's In Five Years, I knew that you can't take what she writes in her books for granted. You should always expect the unexpected. One Italian Summer was no different. She stunned me again with her ability to give the reader an adventure.

The main character, Katy is grieving her mother who recently passed away. It has thrown her entire perspective of life out of balance. She's doubting everything about her life, including her marriage. Deciding she needs time to clear her mind, Katy goes by herself to Positano on the Amalfi coast of Italy. It was the trip she had planned to take her mother on if she'd lived. It was also where her mother had spent time prior to meeting Katy's father.

The book was beautifully written. The scenery and descriptions of food and wine were spectacular. Ms. Serle does a wonderful job at helping Katy find herself while spending time in Positano. She highlights the importance of the relationship between a mother and daughter and how Katy is left feeling very lost after her mother's passing. It's beautifully written.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

When it comes to books with magical realism, often it can be hit or miss for me, but Rebecca Serle has consistently been the exception. I was a fan of The Dinner List and In Five Years, and while I enjoyed the setting and the leisurely pace of this one, I have to admit, I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as her two previous books. But, once again, Serle has written something beautifully different.

Set mostly in Positano, Italy, this story features a setting to get lost in. Honestly, I think the plot could have been about almost anything. The descriptions of the seaside, the mouth-watering dishes, the textures and sensations of the place are what kept me turning pages.

But I did care about Katy and her story—eventually. It took some time for me to warm up to her. In the beginning, of course I felt for her situation, the loss of her mother. But, initially, she came across as somewhat self-centered. It didn’t help that she declared her mother the great love of her life—when she had a husband. While I felt for her, it didn’t seem to be a healthy attitude. But I hoped this would be a plot point in the book, and to some extent it was.

It’s impossible to discuss much of this book without giving away spoilers, which is the case for most of Serle’s books. While I didn’t always agree with some of Katy’s choices and words, I did understand that it was coming from a place of deep grief. She was searching for a way through her sadness, as well as finding who she would be without her mother.

It was fascinating going along with Katy as she met a much younger version of her mother in this new place. It’s something we all have to come to terms with—that our parents existed before us. That they lived lives we can never know everything about. Except Katy gets to experience a glimpse of that, and what a remarkable thing to contemplate.

Like most of Serles’s books, it’s hard to place this one in a specific genre. It includes romance, but at its heart, it’s about family, especially daughters and mothers. It’s brave and it’s different, and while it may have taken me some time to settle into One Italian Summer, by the end I was enthralled and wholly satisfied.

Pros: Just like in her book In Five Years, I appreciate how the author plays with time in this book. It added a unique take on a mother-daughter relationship where the daughter was able to know her mother as a young woman. My favorite part about this book was its strong sense of place in Positano, Italy—especially the food descriptions. It was wonderful to mentally travel through this book.

Cons: I do not like when a book tries to justify infidelity. I understand that sometimes it makes sense for the character and the plot, but it takes away from my enjoyment of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read this book.

I’ve shared this review on Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Amazon.

Katy and her mom, Carol, are absolute best friends and the best parts of each other. They plan a trip to Positano/the Amalfi coast together, but before they can go, Carol passes away. Katy goes anyway- and when she does, she meets her mom at thirty years old.

This was my first book like this, and also my first book by Rebecca Serle. I expected it to be unlike anything I’ve read- and it was. Katy and her mom have a very close relationship. It’s actually almost strange at times. While that seemed to bother some readers, I was able to look past that some. I’m close to my mom, so some of those pieces were relatable to me. Katy also leaves her husband behind, and while some readers were bothered by this, I understood the point. There was a line early on where it stated she was debating about things in her marriage for a long time- catching this one sentence made me be able to move past the “she just left her husband behind.” The trip becomes about Katy finding herself, and also learning to love herself, her life, and where she’s is in her life.

Rebecca is also an incredible writer. I probably would’ve rated 3 or 3.5, but Rebecca writes SO detailed. I truly don’t know the last time I read a book that was SO descriptive in less than 300 pages. She drops you right into Positano with Katy, to the point that you can picture them swimming, dining, and shopping. It was a cute read that has a bigger life meaning, but portrayed a way that made it light. Overall, I’d recommend for a cute/easy read.

After the death of her mother, Katy decides to go on their preplanned trip to Positano. Katy’s mom Carol had gone there the summer before she met Katy’s dad, and her stories had made this a place they always wanted to go together. Arriving in Italy, Katy goes from feeling surrounded by her mother’s ghost to meeting Carol in the summer she had always talked about. Now that Katy has this unexpected time with her mom, she gets to see who her mom was before she was just mom.
I have been waiting to read this book since it was announced. I loved The Dinner List and In Five Years, and the idea of spending time with our parents before they became our parents is intriguing. This is another great love story from Rebeca Serle, and I raced through the pages as much as I wanted to savor it. This book is as wonderful as I expected, and I immediately wanted to call my mom, and it’s got that subtle look-at-your-life energy that everyone has right now. Plus, the descriptions of Italy made this winter a little brighter!
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC!

When Katy's mom dies, she has no idea where to go from there. Her mom was the most important part of her life. To grieve on her own, she decides to take the trip to Italy they had planned before her death. Italy becomes even more magical when she runs into her mother. But not her mother as she knew her. Instead, she finds her mother at her own age.

If you've ever read a Rebecca Serle book, you know crying is very possible. You also know what is billed as a romance is an entirely different type of romance. Sure enough, I was tearing up while reading the first chapter. As someone who is very close to her own mother, it is so hard to read about Katy's mother being the love of her life and no longer having her there.

Rebecca Serle has a way of writing magical realism that feels truly magical. It is otherworldly in a way that somehow feels entirely plausible. She also has this special way of making me consider and question life. Who were our parents before we came along? What were the lives they lived that we know very little about? Who are we as women after becoming mothers? Who are we after loss? And then there's the look at relationships. Between husband and wife, parent and child, old love and new, even strangers.

But, of course, there's also the beautiful picture painted of Italy. The food, the hotels, the scenery, the timelessness. If you've ever been to Italy, you feel like you're right back in it. And if you haven't, you can still imagine it so vividly.

This book truly has something for everyone and fans of Rebecca Serle will be dazzled once again.

I wanted to like this book, I wanted to be sucked in as I had in the past with the author's books, and that just didn't happen here. I found myself almost DNFing it more times than I can count but wanted to finish because the publisher was kind enough to give me an ARC for my honest review.

I did not like Katy as a character, I understand she was meant to be grieving but her whole identity seemed to hinge on the fact that she was a daughter, and at almost 30 I found that a bit unrealistic or relatable. While yes I still go to my mother for a lot of things, she is not my only source of support or information when I don't know something, and it felt like without Carol, Katy was just floating unsure of how to even breathe, but I didn't feel the grief in her, it felt numb.

The dissolution of her marriage because of her mom's death just felt forced? It's mentioned she has had these thoughts before but there is no explanation given on where they stem from other than her mother's death and wanting to go and take the mother-daughter trip to Italy they are planned together.

I will say the depiction of Italy within the novel was beautiful, and really well done.

Having gone through an immense loss myself recently, this was such a whimsical look into the expanse of grief. This was such a beautiful look at a planned trip to Italy after the death of Katie's mother. I found this to be light, but heartbreaking as well as uplifting and sad. It weaved itself together very nicely and had me on the brink of tears several times. Sometimes in a great way.

Liked, not loved. Sometimes you just don’t have a lot to say about a book. I enjoyed it fine enough, but it didn’t wow me. Felt very surface-level and didn’t give me a whole lot of feelings. Also wondering a little if Rebecca Serle is a one-trick pony… which is fine I guess because the trick is good. The one thing this book definitely did was make me want to go back to Italy and eat all the wine and pasta and bread and pizza.

Thank you for the gifted copy!!

If you are looking for a quick read that helps you escape to thoughts of pasta and summer time. This book is a must!! Such a cute read following Katy’s journey through the grief of losing her mother and her trip to Italy. There were quite a few twists to the plot that making you want to finish the book in one sitting.

I love a good book that teaches you a life lesson through a cute story.

“Every day the world is born again. Every day the sun rises. It is a miracle, I think. A simple, everyday miracle. Life.”

Thank you Rebecca Serle for another great book!!

This book cut deep. The beginning is so painful and heartbreaking and it had me crying so much. I loved every second of this book, even the gut wrenchingly sad parts.

Katy loses her mother at the beginning of the book and decides to take the trip to Italy they had planned before her death. Katy’s mother said that her trip to Italy when she was younger changed her life, and so Katy feels she needs to go see what her mom saw. With some old Positano magic, she finds her mother again in Italy though she is 30 years younger and has no idea who Katy is. Katy gets to spend time with her mother again and uncovers some truths about her she never knew before.

Honestly just please give this book a read. It made my heart ache, but it was also such a beautiful story. It was written so well, you really feel all the emotions Katy is feeling. I highly recommend it.

This was way too cheesy for me - a perfect family with a perfect mother-daughter relationship. Reminded me more of The Dinner List (which I didn't care for) than In Five Years (which I enjoyed).

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I knew from the first two chapters that I would love this book. I adore Rebecca Serle's writing style and she knows how to pull you in. I felt like I just came back from a vacation in Positano. How does one fall in love with a place that they've never been to before? And the magical realism in her books is so well done. This book gave me all the feels. Even with the tough subject of death, I somehow still feel warm and fuzzy.