Rebecca Serle is the queen of writing unlikable protagonists. But somehow she still gets me on board with the story and pulls some empathy out of me for the character.

It’s a risky gamble to make the star of your novel so unsympathetic, and I’m not certain it pays off for her. Many readers end up not liking her books because it’s difficult to enjoy the story when you don’t care for the character you’re reading about.

I’m able to look past my disdain, though, which allows Serle to sweep me away. And this time, in "One Italian Summer," she took me to Positano, Italy, and her gorgeous descriptions of scenery and food were enough to make me forget how little I liked Katy, a woman who, after losing her mother, Carol, travels solo to Positano on a trip that was meant to be mother-daughter.

Serle’s writing is as lovely as ever, and she adds a nice touch of magical realism to Katy’s tale, because upon Katy’s arrival in Italy, she is reunited with her very dead, and very young, mom. Katy is shocked by the encounter, but she seizes the opportunity to get to know Carol as the 30 year-old woman she was before marriage and motherhood.

It's an emotional story of a daughter’s grief while in the midst of self-discovery. Katy has much to figure out, and though I didn’t agree with a few of her choices, I appreciated her journey.


My sincerest appreciation to Rebecca Serle, Atria Books, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

After loving Serle's other novels, The Dinner List and In Five Years, I was looking forward to reading her newest novel. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed when I read it - here's why:

The main character had zero ability to be independent or on her own. She comes across as needy and extremely dependent which was very annoying to me. This continues throughout the story when the main character makes large statements that made her come across as insufferable and privileged.

There was an incorrect part about University of California Santa Barbara (the university where the main character and her husband met, which I also attended in real life) - the novel states that it is on a semester system, but it is on a quarter system and that small inaccuracy irked me since there clearly wasn't much research done for this novel.

It was lovely to have the novel set in Positano, Italy, but it felt as if this was targeted towards those who had never been there, and it was a romanticization of the whole place. The writing seemed to ignore the fact that people have their whole lives and homes based out of Positano and the surrounding areas and made it seem like it was only a place that people went to go visit.

Overall, the concept was there - a story about a mother and daughter relationship and dealing with the loss of a loved one - but this novel was executed in a way that I was put off by and I would not recommend.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the gifted e-book in exchange for an honest opinion!

While the setting was amazing and made me want to hop on a plan to Italy... this book fell a bit flat to me. I am usually a fan of magical realism stories, but this one barely felt like that. The main character's relationship with her mother was way too romantic and fanatical, and at times was almost uncomfortable to read about. I felt like there wasn't a lot of development or progress at all, from any person involved, which is something that I tend to expect in a read. That the character(s) will start in one place, ending up in another. I really enjoyed In Five Years and was looking forward to this one, but unfortunately I wasn't a fan.

Thank you to Atria books for the eARC of One Italian Summer! Rebecca Serle brought me straight to Positano, Italy with her descriptions of the beautiful Amalfi coast. While I loved the setting and the premise, the aspect of Katy leaving her husband to go to Italy alone (and some of the choices she makes there), and maybe just the character of Katy herself were hard to connect with.

After her mother dies, Katy takes a trip to the magical town Positano that her mother visited the summer before she met Katy's father. When she arrives on the Almafi Coast, Katy find her mother - alive and only 30 - and spends a magical summer getting to know Carol.

I really didn't like Rebecca Serle's In Five Years, so I was skeptical about One Italian Summer. However, I really enjoyed this!

✨BOOK REVIEW✨

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

Find me in Italy this summer living my best life 🇮🇹

I loved this book!! I was so surprised bc I’d seen mixed reviews and I’m starting to think you either love Serle’s books or you don’t. I see very mixed reviews for “In Five Years” as well and I also loved that one! I want to read “The Dinner List” soon to see if I feel the same about that one.

Everything worked in this story! The setting, the characters, the themes, I adored it! I thought the storyline was so unique and it had me all up in the my feels 🥲🥲

Read if you want:
•an Italian setting
•mother daughter relationship theme
•grief
•marriage/separation
•finding oneself

Go in blind! I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Also Lauren Graham narrated and I LOVE GG and therefore this audio experience was heaven 😂

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

I'm still not sure what genre this was, but I really loved this unique mother-daughter story. My daughter read it as well and we had just the loveliest discussion around what we thought were the themes and takeaways from the story. A little bit of time-travel....a little bit of grief....a little bit of love. Delightful.

This was a fantastic novel by Rebecca Serle and featured a unique and fascinating concept for the plot. I appreciated the characters and will happily read any of Serle's future books. I've been recommending this one and the setting was superb!

This was a heart-warming, life-affirming story with equal heart, romance, and healing—the speculative twist enhanced the theme in meaningful ways, and the arc of mother, daughter, and the mother-daughter relationship was beautiful.

I really liked the start of this but had to stop reading due to its subject matter being too emotionally raw for me at the moment.

One Italian Summer was a light, breezy read perfect for a lazy day and easily finished in one sitting. I enjoyed living vicariously through Katy while she was exploring beautiful Positano and now want to visit the Amalfi coast even more than before!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing a free digital copy in return for an honest, unbiased review.

Rebecca Serle nailed it! LOVED this book and could not put it down. Wonderful setting and does such a great job of exploring grief, anxiety, and finding yourself. Beautiful character development and a remarkable way with words. A must read for anyone going through grief.

This was enjoyable but had a “gimmick,” which I’m not a fan of, spoilers below.

When I realized this was a version of a time travel book I almost DNF’d but the writing and atmosphere were good enough, it just was short enough, and I enjoyed Lauren Graham’s narration enough that I stuck it out. I loved the descriptions of Positano and Italy, and there was some good advice dispensed between characters.

Thanks to @netgalley and @atriabooks for my gifted copy of One Italian Summer, by Rebecca Serle. This book is out now, and is quite the interesting take on what would happen if you met a parent in a different time.

I loved so much about this book - the scenery (can I visit Italy now?!), the descriptions, the bonds between the characters, and more. Serle has a way of writing that absolutely captivates me, and always leaves me in such a happy place, even when the subject matter is tender.

This would be a great beach or poolside read for the summer! Be sure to check this one out.

A heartwarming exploration of mother-daughter relationships, coping after grief, and the healing that comes from travel/getting out of your comfort zone (even if you can't escape the life and emotions you might be running from).

A great escapist read to the Italian coast!

A quick and easy breezy book by Serle, who transports you to Italy and makes you want to pack your bags and book that plane ticket immediately. But the story of grief and self-discovery is what you'll find in the pages of this one.

The mother/daughter dynamic was what kept me going even though I was highly confused at first with Katy actually seeing and spending time with her mother, Carol, when she was in Positano in her young age. I'm more of a realistic person so I think that is why I didn't connect completely with the story, but I can see it being a wonderful fit for some readers. Especially those who are going through the same grieving process and coping with their mother's passing.

Thank you for my e-galley in exchange for a review! Looking forward to reading more by Rebecca Serle!

I’ll start by saying that One Italian Summer is a tough book for me to review! On the one hand, I’m seeking to be fair and giving credit where credit is due to the author, but on the other there were ways I just really struggled to come to terms with some elements to the book.

Let me say, I absolutely loved being transported to Italy! It was so atmospheric and I highly enjoyed that setting. I think this author has strong writing and regardless of my critiques which I’ll go into next, I can see the skill with which this story was crafted. The storytelling was there, the characters were well-developed, and the setting was absolutely stellar. As far as all the basic fundamentals that make for a good read, this book checked all the boxes. However…

Here’s what didn’t work for me. I found the infidelity/adultery difficult to stomach, especially as I felt there could have been much better “problem solving”/resolution on behalf of the main characters. This alone made it a big struggle for me to be fully invested in the story and dare I say to even find myself caring through most of it, and I still don’t clearly understand why the author went “there” in such a seemingly comfortable way. It just felt yucky! Another big struggle I had was with our main characters. To be completely honest, I found both Katy and Adam to be completely unlikeable. Their choices were tough to look past and there wasn’t enough redeeming material here in either of them. And then there was that highly strange mother obsession thing going on with Katy and her mother. I found that whole thing to be odd and ok, creepy. It just didn’t have to be part of the story at all. One more thing worth mentioning was that the time traveling element took me by surprise and was a miss for me. However, I do feel that if time travel is your sort of thing you’ll find that it was very much well done here and it was simply my own fault for not reading reviews ahead of time.

To wrap up, I understand that not all of my critiques here are at fault to the author, and I believe a big piece of the puzzle here was simply a case of “not the right book for the right reader” rather than bad writing. So in that, I will definitely give this author another chance with any past and future novels. It just didn’t click with me as a whole within my own personal reading taste.

Many thanks to Atria and NetGalley for the gifted e-copy.

Another lovely boom by this author. I love how she twists reality, allowing us to imagine what ifs. The characters were real, although the main one was a bit unlikable.

I really tried to like this one but I could not buy into the twist, nor did I believe the relationship with the main character and her husband. It just seemed so unrealistic.

I loved Rebecca Serle's previous book, In Five Years, so I was looking forward to reading this book, but the main character of Katie was almost unbearable. I doubt I would have finished the book if not for the beautiful descriptions of Positano, Italy. Katie is a married, late-twenties woman whose mother has just died. She describes her mother as her one, her person, the love of her life! She isn't sure she can be married any longer since her one great love has died, so she leaves on a 2 week vacation to Italy that she had planned to go on with her mother. While an Italian vacation sounds wonderful, all the talk of lost love (her mother) is just bizarre and off-putting. Positano saved this book.