When I first started this book I wasn’t sure it was for me. It is super character driven with a lot of side stories which isn’t always my personal favorite. However, Rebecca Serle did an absolutely stunning job of pulling these side stories in as memories and moving the plot forward through them. Her writing was amazing throughout, from the descriptions of the city to the fashion to the food. I could feel the ocean breeze and summer sun on my skin the entire time.
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One Italian Summer was beautiful in more ways than one as the storyline was so relatable as someone in their late twenties trying to find out who they are in a world full of change. Serle explored family & romantic relationships as well as the power of friendships and how all these things come together.
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Overall I really enjoyed this emotional roller coaster of a book that may or may not have had me up in the middle of the night to finish with tears in my eyes. I was pleasantly surprised with this one and hope if you decide to read it, you enjoy it as well.

Thanks Netgalley and Atria books for my ARC copy of this book!
Pub day is tomorrow, 3/1, so thought I should write my (spoiler free) review now!

I love Rebecca Serle. Her writing is always so rich and lush. Reading this novel immediately made me want to plan a trip to Positano to explore all of the places within. It felt like a perfect itinerary for a vacation! I found myself looking online to see if the hotels and restaurants and places our leading lady traveled to were real or not.

Now for the characters, I didn’t care for Katy all that much. She was slightly whiny and didn’t make decisions that I really agreed with (can’t get into detail without spoiling anything). The characters of Italy were so rich and full of life. I liked the character of Katy’s mother, I liked seeing how flawed and imperfect she was. It’s kind of beautiful when a daughter (or any child for that matter) can see her mother as an actual human being. I loved the mother/daughter themes throughout. It made me miss my own mother! And made me wonder about her life before me.

The book was short and sweet. Not a ton happened, mostly eating and drinking and eating and drinking and a little more eating and a little more drinking. Some lessons were learned along the way for sure. I don’t mind though, I could read about cheese and bread and olives forever! The magical realism was also beautifully done, you just have to suspend your disbelief and wholeheartedly go into it. Don’t expect it to make sense or have a reason behind it. But that’s magical realism for ya!!

The ending was sweet, I did shed a few tears. Overall, a beautiful written novel with a slightly annoying main character, but that was easy to get past.

A strong 4/5 stars! I liked it, I would definitely recommend it, but it’s not an all time favorite.

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

This book is like a love letter to Italy…the sights, the smells, the food…the imagery is so vivid I felt like I was there. In fact, it’s definitely on my list of places to visit now!

After Katy loses her mother, Carol, to cancer she feels lost. Her mother was her best (and possibly only) friend and a huge part of her life. She starts to question everything she knows now that her mother is gone, including her marriage to her husband Eric. Before Carol’s death, the women had a trip to Positano, Italy planned and Katy decides to go on the trip alone. Italy was very important to Carol and Katy needs to find a way to feel close to her again.

There is a lot to love about this book. The setting, as I’ve mentioned, is gorgeous. This trip is transformative for Katy, and seeing her character growth throughout the story was inspiring. I loved the way the author wove details of the past and present together to show Katy that her mother was not just the wife and mother that she knew…but that at one time she was also a vibrant woman trying to figure out her life.

There are also a few things that just didn’t resonate with me. I found Katy’s character hard to connect with. The story is told from a single POV and her inner monologue felt childish and immature at times. Katy was completely dependent on her mother to the point that she let Carol make life altering decisions for her. She called her mother the love of her life, which I thought was a bit much. Maybe it’s because I don’t have that kind of relationship with my own mother but I found their codependency to be really over the top.

I went into this book blind, like I do with most books, so the magical elements caught me off guard, but I really enjoyed them. Carol was definitely my favorite character. I think I connected with her more than I did with Katy.

Overall, this was not my favorite, but I’ve seen a lot of great reviews that disagree with me. If you can suspend your disbelief and go into this with an open mind, then you might really enjoy this one! Thanks so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC of this book to read and review.

This book was an emotional read focusing in on Katy as she spirals through the grief of losing her mother. Katy and Carol were more than just a mother-daughter pair, and with Carol’s passing Katy begins questioning everything.

Katy decides to take the mother-daughter trip they planned to Italy by herself. I truly felt like I traveled through Italy with this immersive read. It was deeply descriptive of the city along with food and restaurants she visited. I loved IN FIVE YEARS, and I wanted to love this one too but it ended up falling short for me.

I’m not a huge fan of magical realism, and the romance in this ended up ruining the book for me. Katy decides to leave her husband because of her mother’s death — and then ends up finding someone new in Italy. I would have loved this more if Katy had experienced more growth during her trip.

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) I first fell in love with Italy after watching Only You (Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr) as a kid. It seemed so beautiful and romantic, I’ve always been intrigued. Reading the descriptions of Positano in this book made me feel like I was experiencing it for myself. This was an experience. The writing was beautiful. I really did feel like I experienced part of this town. That if I went there one day, it would be familiar to me, not unknown.

I struggled a bit with Katy’s relationship with her mom. Maybe it’s because I lost my mom at a young age but I’ve never felt that connection to someone and just couldn’t relate. I really struggled with Adam and how that evolved. What does that mean? How am I supposed to feel about him? It was left unresolved.

While I adored the idea of Carol and the opportunity Katy had, I couldn’t wrap my brain around it. I couldn’t think about it too hard! If I didn’t, I enjoyed it, if I did, I felt frustrated.

It ended and I realized I didn’t get closure. I was still piecing together the story and trying to fill in gaps. I’m left feeling unfulfilled. Because of this, some of the magic of the book dissipated. The infidelity was brushed away like no big deal leaving me frustrated she didn’t confront those feelings or fess up to what she’d done.

The majority of this book was truly an experience that I adored. I’m newly obsessed with all things Positano and have added it to my bucket list destinations.


Thank you to Atria Books and Shelf Awareness for the gifted copies!

The book releases March 1, 2022.

Thank you to Net Galley and Atria Books for the ARC.

This is all about the mother-daughter love for me! I think Serle does such an amazing job of exploring the struggle with identity that some women feel after becoming a mother as well as reflecting on a mother's identity through the eyes of her daughter.

The magical realism and the beautiful Italian setting added just enough whimsy to keep this read fun and entertaining. It definitely brought back all of my memories from past trips to Italy and left me hungry for a good Italian meal and some wine🍷. All this while maintaining a short page count, you can read it in one sitting 🤩

I could not recommend this book enough!!

Rebecca Serle's One Italian Summer was the perfect book to read during the recent cold, gray, rainy weather in my part of the world. Serle transports not only her characters across time, but her readers across continents. The descriptions of the locale were so rich I felt like I was there. The book is engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable, a love story to Positano as much as to the mother-daughter bond. This was the first novel of Serle's that I've read, but I now want to go back and read others she's written. I did, at times, find Katy somewhat annoying. I don't have a lot of patience for women in their late 20s-early 30s being so "helpless" without their mother. The grief she felt was understandable and earned my compassion, but the fact that she never made her own decisions about anything infantilized her. I think that annoyance I felt toward her also helped me see her character grow, so perhaps that was Serle's intent.

Thank you so much @AtriaBooks & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 01 March 2022)

SYNOPSIS | Katy was supposed to take a mother-daughter trip to Positano, Italy however her mother sadly passes away before they are able to take the trip. Katy is reeling from grief & decides to take the trip alone. Whilst there she meets a younger version of her mother.

WHAT I LIKED:
- Italy as a setting (& the many food descriptions)
- this is ultimately a story about a woman grieving the loss of her mother & questioning what she wants out of life

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the entire Adam romantic subplot was unnecessary ESPECIALLY considering she is married
- the whole time travel / magical realism element wasn't flushed out enough for me to enjoy
- Katy was extremely co-dependant on her mother (it kind of just made me feel uncomfortable)
- I felt like I was told she was grieving but I didn't actually feel her grief

I LOVED this!

In this novel, we follow Katy, a married 28 year old who has an unbreakable bond with her mother. After her mother passes away, she is left feeling broken and incomplete. The trip she had planned with her mother to Positano seems like it might be too much to bear on her own, but she decides to go and see what it was about this Italian coastal town her mother loved so much. The town begins to seem even more magical than she expected, when she runs into the 30 year old embodiment of her mother…

Rebecca Serle does it again with a romance that is SO much more than a romance. This book shows a woman delving into herself and understanding who she is and what she wants from her life. The book explored the intimacies of mother daughter relationships, and the limits of those relationships as well. I greatly appreciated the conversation around motherhood and the loss of personal identity that can come with motherly expectations. Overall, the book took the characters grief, and created a message that was profound and yet lighthearted at the same time. With lyrical yet concise prose, this book is well written, hard hitting, and has a wonderful magical realism twist!

Thank you so much to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

{3.5 stars}

Ok, Rebecca Serle is entering Jodi Picoult territory with the emotional punches she's pulled in her last two books. Like In Five Years, One Italian Summer focuses on recovering from grief and finding your happiness. Katy has just lost her mother, her absolute soul mate in life. It has impacted every aspect of her life. She can't imagine going back to her old self and that has her questioning everything, including her marriage. Before her death, Katy and her mother had planned a trip to Positano to visit one of her mother's favorite places. Katy decides to go alone to find herself and recapture the joy her mother brought to her life. The book synopsis gives away what happens, so this is not a spoiler, she somehow (please suspend reality) encounters her mother there in the past. She is able to not only capture a few more moments with her but to understand that maybe her mother wasn't always the polished, put together person she knew.

This book is a cute read but holds a nice message. It's not forced upon you but it is certainly one that makes you think about the people in your life and what you may not know about them. I found Katy a little annoying and self absorbed from the start but I think she got there in the end. Her mother is lovely and charming and fun to read. The setting of Positano is lovely to experience through the pages of this book, it is almost as beautiful as in real life.

Thanks to Netgalley for advanced access to this novel. All opinions above are my own.

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One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
A special thanks to Atria and NetGalley for the arc of this book. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book all thoughts and opinions are my own.
When Katy’s mom Carol dies she feels like she’s lost in the wind, ungrounded by anything or anyone. They had been planning a trip to Positano Italy for Carol’s 60th birthday but she got sick before they had the chance to go. Katy, deep in her grief makes the choice to travel alone and see the sights that her mother had spent a life time telling her about.
Before Carol was married and had Katy, she had spent time in this magical town and Katy is hoping to feel her mom is still there something she thought she couldn’t do if her husband Eric goes with her.
However after she arrives she spends all her time with Adam a hotel developer that is nothing like her husband and Carol a woman she is convinced is her mother from 30 years ago. How is this happening?!?
This story is incredible in regards to the food, the sites and sounds of this incredibly gorgeous town on the Amalfi Coast. I love how she works to understand her mom and the life she had before she was a mom. This book comes out today 3/1/2022!

This book should be used as an Italian tourism guide. Serle brought the Italian coastline to life and it was the best thing about the book.
I struggled with Katy as a character. Her relationship with her mother seemed so weird and wrong, overly intense and a little controlling. It made Katy seem weak and unable to make decisions or cope with life without her mum. I liked how she thrived in Italy but you always wonder is she really there or has she had a psychotic break and is still in the US. I liked the tension and the end was great, didn’t see it coming,
Regardless of whether I liked the main character, I did enjoy the setting and other characters and would recommend to all my friends.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

Well finally!! It’s here. It came on the last day of the month, but my fave read of February has arrived. I never read In Five Years, but was interested to see what Rebecca Serle’s second novel was all about. It lived up to the author hype.

Something about this novel just made me have all the feels. After reading the synopsis, I was actually reluctant to read it. Her mom dies and then she goes to Italy and sees her there?? Umm no, that will never work, but omg it does!!! It totally does!!!

Katy Silver’s mom has died and Katy feels lost. They were due to take a trip to her mom’s favorite place- Positano, Italy but then her mom passes away and Katy decides to head there alone. She’s feeling lost without her mom,her best friend, and is also feeling like her marriage to Eric isn’t what it needs to be. She will learn so much about herself and her mother on the trip.

The ambiance in Positano, everything about it, picturesque Amalfi coast cliffsides, hotel lobbies, beachside cafes - the whole scene, made me want to go there and eat fine food, drink all the wine and maybe sail under the archway to ensure a lifetime of love.

This book to me was a true romance, yet so much more. It’s about overcoming grief and finding one’s true self. It’s about mothers and daughters and as both, it pulled on all my heartstrings. It had me near tears at times and smiling ear to ear at others. To do all that in only 267 is masterful on Rebecca Serles part.

Now excuse me while I go hug my mom and book the next flight to Italy.

Ok. I’m gonna do it. First five star read of 2022. 😊

One has to be careful starting a book right during or immediately after an emotion event - in this case, the death of Katy Silver's mother. Katy's reaction was so overwrought I just didn't connect to it at all. That was unfortunately true for much of the book. I feel there was too much telling and now enough showing of her grief.

Katy and her mother had planned a mother/daughter trip to Positano Italy (where her mother Carol spent a wonderful summer in her youth). But Carol dies before that can happen. So Katy goes by herself, as she has told her husband she isn't sure she still wants to be married to him. Once in Italy, Katy somehow runs into a young version of Carol. (This element of the book is very woo woo and not at all addressed, a mild annoyance of mine.) Katy also immediately strikes up a friendship with a single man staying at her hotel.

I don't want to give away too much about this book, except I'll say there were things I enjoyed about it, and things I really didn't. Italy is my bucket list trip, the one I'll probably take the week after I retire. So the parts of the book where she talks about the views and the food and wine and the glorious weather (and there was a lot of that, so beware if that isn't your thing) I liked.

It was the stuff relating to her relationship with her mother that honestly drove me crazy. Katy come across as incredibly spoiled and self-centered. She refuses to see her mother as a person in her own right - everything she think about her mother is about what her mother did for her. She gives her mother grief for making a decision that was good for Carol (and actually calls her a monster, which was completely undeserved). Katy constantly talks about how her mother was her best friend, and she was even mad she had to buy a house 15 minutes away from her mother because that was too far to walk to her house. When Katy's husband wants to have a baby, Katy goes to her mother and asks what she should do, and when Carol says it's too soon, Katy immediately says no to Kyle. This is not a healthy mother-daughter relationship. Parents are not supposed to be their kids' best friends. In fact, Katy only mentions one person not her mother who is a friend, and that's as a throw away line 60% into the book. The other thing that bothered me is that Katy has never been alone. She immediately starts spending time with other people once she arrives in Italy. I really didn't buy her revelations at the end, because honestly when did she actually have any time to reflect on her situation and what she wants?

Still, for some people who would like an easy to read summer beach type read, I think this would fit that bill.

I read Rebecca Serle's IN FIVE YEARS when it was published in 2020 and appreciated Serle's ability to tell emotionally complex stories exploring love in its various forms in a short amount of time (under 300 pages).

ONE ITALIAN SUMMER immediately appealed to me. Italy is one of my top bucket list countries to visit and I enjoy stories about mother-daughter relationships. I expected this story to be emotional, but I don't think I expected to feel the range of emotions evoked while reading. Katy has never felt so untethered as she does in the wake of her mother, Carol's death. Her mother's death feels like her life's compass stopped working -- she doesn't know which way is up or how to navigate life without her mother's knowing influence. Katy relied on her mother for everything and relied so heavily on her mother that she never really figured out what she wants or she is without her mother. In an attempt to feel closer to her mother and discover what she does want, Katy goes to Italy on a trip that the two women planned to take together before her mom got sick.

Arriving in Positano, Katy begins to understand why her mom's summer in the area had such a profound impact on her life. As with Serle's novels, there is an element of magic -- upon arrival, Katy finds her mother, a 30-year-old version of her that she feels at once familiar and foreign to Katy. The encounters between Katy and the young version of Carol remind me of a book I read recently that said something along the lines of "mothers before motherhood are at once unknowable and deeply interesting to their children." Katy finds her mom at a time in her mom's life when she was dealing with the same lost feelings. But this revelation isn't comforting, it's jarring. Katy doesn't understand how the woman who has taught her everything, formed her in her image, could be so carefree, so boyount.

I had a lot of emotions while reading this. I identified with Katy struggling to recognize her mother as fallible, as a human apart from their relationship. I was irritated she was so judgmental of her mother's younger self. But ultimately, I think what I felt was overwhelming the urge to call my own mom. Ask her questions about her life. Tell her I love her. Relationships with parents can be contentious or close or a bit of both, and it can be difficult for children to recognize that parents lived whole lives before they had children. That being said, I think Katy's descriptions of her relationship with her mom sound codependent (and I say this as someone who is very close to their mother). This was illustrated by her early decision to ask for a separation from her husband, which felt like a direct reaction to her inability to grieve her mother. Given the way the mother-daughter relationship was portrayed, I did feel was some of the resolutions were a bit quick. Still, Serle's writing is deeply heartfelt, messy in its inability to shy away from human error, and honest.

Highly recommend if you enjoy Italy, descriptive writing, and books that explore mother-daughter relationships.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫 2.5 rounded up to 3
🧡Thank you Atria Books & NetGalley for my eARC🧡

SHORT SYNOPSIS:
Katy and her mother always dreamed of going to Italy together. When her mother passes away, Katy decides to take the trip on her own. She and her husband have been having marriage issues, so why not? When she arrives in Italy, she unexpectedly and unbelievably encounters her mother's spirit, like she is right there with her in this Positano experience.

MY THOUGHTS:
What I liked:
🧡THE GILMORE GIRLS QUOTE
🧡THAT LAUREN GRAHAM IS NARRATING THE AUDIOBOOK (I may listen just to hear her sweet voice)
🧡The summer and Positano vibes - A DREAM 😍
🧡The cover

What didn't do it for me:
I REALLY wanted to love this one. It wasn't "bad," I didn't hate it. But it was under-developed and unmemorable for me overall. To the point where I just finished it two days before writing this review, and I have already forgotten the majority of what I read. Although that could be because I was generally confused about the plot.

I do believe this part is completely my fault for going into it blind, but I was expecting way more romance in this one. I was very unaware that there was an overarching element of magical realism that this plot centered around. I don't enjoy or do well with the "time travel" vibes.

I enjoyed the storyline of Katy missing + wanting to know more about her mom... But I feel like that whole storyline was not fully developed and I finished still hardly knowing anything about her mom? I really felt no emotional connection at all😔

The book was really short, and honestly throughout the whole thing I just wasn't really sure where it was going. I was waiting for something interesting to happen throughout, and it just didn't really get there. I also didn't enjoy the main character, and it is told fully from her perspective. 😬

I know In Five Years is very well-loved, so I am hopeful I will enjoy that one more!

READ IF YOU LIKE:
☀️Italy
☀️Books that inspire you to travel
☀️Have a strong bond with your mom
☀️Time-travel
☀️Magical realism

This was an interesting take on second chances and understanding our loved ones as they were before we knew them. At times the story was a bit disjointed and the main character was very wishy washy but overall an easy read. Loved the descriptive setting and the Italian meals mentioned throughout!

A heady, atmospheric read! Many stories require a suspension of belief and this is one of them given the time travel element. Sit down with a glass of Prosecco, Aperol Spritz, or other Italian drink of your choice and enjoy as you read, embracing the quirky plot as you are transported to a sunny day on the Amalfi Coast.

One Italian Summer follows Katy dealing with the aftermath of a personal tragedy. The death of Katy’s mother (who she also considered her best friend) has her questioning everything in her life, including her marriage to her college sweetheart, Eric. Buried in grief and uncertainty, Katy decides to take the trip to Positano she planned to go on with her mother. Positano is a place her mother loved and remembered fondly and might just be the perfect place for Katy to heal.

Rebecca Serle did a beautiful job of portraying the close mother-daughter bond Carol and Katy had. The vivid descriptions of the Amalfi Coast’s beauty and delicious cuisine really increased my desire to one day visit this part of Italy. Despite the heavy subject matter, I found this to be a lighthearted, energetic read.

I recommend this to fans of Rebecca Serle’s other works, and anyone who appreciates a story of self (re)discovery with a dash of magical realism.

Thank you very much to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

One Italian Summer is my third Rebecca Serle read, and in the same vein as In Five Years and The Dinner List, there is definitely an element of magical realism (or at least a plot point that requires suspended belief). While I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as In Five Years, it was an easy read that made me want to drop everything and go to Positano. Serle does an amazing job bringing the coast of Italy to life in this book, and descriptions of the food alone had me daydreaming. I loved the emphasis on the mother daughter bond, and without giving away any spoilers , I’m pleased with how the romantic aspect of the story turned out. I just don’t think the supernatural (ish?) element was handled as well in this book as in The Dinner List and In Five Years, but that may be partially due to my overall lack of interest in the characters.

This is a really sweet book, the kind I can envision being passed between mothers and daughters to think about their own relationships with each other. Katy is absolutely devastated by Carol's death, reeling from the double loss of her mother and her best friend. I think this makes her kind of a weak character to some, as she does seem incredibly paralyzed by grief, but to me it seems realistic. When a parent dies, the child often has to mourn them twice, once for them as a parent and once for them as a human with their own interests and motivations, and that seemed very present. The character of Adam irked me, but only because as a voracious romance reader I wasn't interested in any threat to Katy's husband Eric, who had already been set up as a good guy.

Although the prose was occasionally a bit over the top, One Italian Summer was a really nice pretend vacation after a few days of being iced into my apartment in the cold Midwest. If you're looking to think through some grief, or to escape to the Italian coast, this is a must-read.