Three for three for this author. She never fails to pull at your heartstrings but in such a unique way. I expected to lose my mind over the story having lost my own mother but managed to keep it all together. While I loved the moral of the story the suspension of belief may have been just a tad too much for me. I do think and wish I knew my mother before she was my mother so this unique story was something that touched my heart. In the end it just wrapped up a little too quickly for me. Still solid read from one of my favorite authors but not my favorite of hers.

When Katy's mom, who is also her best friend, passes away just shy of her 60th birthday, Katy' is left devastated. On her mother's 60th birthday, she and her mom had planned a trip of a lifetime to Positano for two weeks - a magical town where her mom had spent a magical time the summer just before she met her father. Katy decides to go on this trip solo, just after asking her husband for a separation. When she arrives in Positano, her mother appears - 30 something and suntanned - in the flesh. Rebecca Serle takes the reader on a trip down memory lane to tell us what Katy's mother was like back in the day. Story line was easy to follow and book was well written.

What a wonderful story. I loved the journey Katy goes on to discover herself after the death of her Mother. She learns to fall in love with herself again,

Adored this book. The setting of the story in Italy made me want to visit as soon as I finished the book. The way the author described all the different food and dishes had me drooling as I sat reading the lush descriptions of summer in wintery Canada. The twist at the end was fantastic too.

In Rebecca Serle’s newest novel, One Italian Summer, Katy experiences the loss of her mother, who is also her best friend and love of her life. As a result, her faith in her relationship with her husband falters and she decides she wants (needs) a break from her marriage.

In order to grieve and escape from the reality of her mother’s death, she takes the trip she and her mother were supposed to take together - to the coastal town of Positano, Italy. Here, she meets a real estate developer named Adam who she feels instantly drawn to. She also meets a young woman, Carol, who just so happens to be her very own mother, just 30 years younger. She spends time connecting with this younger version of her mother and feels a livelihood and freedom that she never felt before. However, a startling revelation leaves her questioning everything.

Rebecca Serle’s descriptions of Positano transported me to the Amalfi Coast of Italy. With each page, I felt more and more like I was actually there, and she has ignited in me a passion for travel I can’t necessarily say I had prior to reading this book.

Otherwise, I feel like this was an enjoyable book that left me compelled to read more. I was routing for Katy and hoping she would find what she was looking for. I did feel, however, that the characters were likable but a bit flat, and there was a depth to the story I felt was missing. Even so, I would definitely recommend this book!

This book was one of my most anticipated reads for 2022! Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book!

If you have already read In Five Years by Rebecca Serle, then you know she has a knack of creating emotional and powerful reads! This one, was definitely one of those!

Set in Italy, Rebecca did not miss a beat in describing the beautiful country. I literally felt like I was in Italy. All I had to do was close my eyes and I can feel the sun on my face, see the beautiful town of Positano, and I felt like I was living it myself.

Katy and her mom, Carol, had one of those mother daughter bonds that every little girl hopes to have with their mom. They weren't just mother/daughter, but best friends as well. Katy and her mom had always planned to visit Italy together, but unfortunately, Carol passes away before they get the chance to take the trip. When the tickets arrive, Katy decides to leave her husband behind and go on the trip alone. In Katy's immense state of grief, Katy meets a woman who she swears is her mother. And Katy becomes obsessed with everything about her. She realizes this woman cannot possibly be her mother, but she also wants so badly to believe it.

Serle's writing style is easy to read, spot on with descriptions and has a way of making you feel all the things!

One Italian Summer

3.5 ⭐️

One Italian Summer is a great mother/daughter story that immerses you into an Italian Summer. My favorite part about it was probably the setting. I love Italy and it took me right back to the food and the culture.

The drawback I had with this one was that the ending felt a bit rushed. It’s a short book and felt a little like you didn’t quite catch how Katy’s mind changed against what she’d done for most of the book. Still a good read and great setting.

I really had high hopes for this book but it ended up falling a little flat for me. the relationship between katy and her mom was like a case study on codependency, and I had a hard time with the magical realism aspect of this never being explained AT ALL. I also didn't really feel katy's grief as much as I wanted to, and had a hard time connecting to her as a character. however, this book is super easy to binge-read, and had lots of beautiful descriptions of Italy that felt very real and were wonderful to read. it was a transportive read with an interesting story and a lot of heart, but it just felt a little underdeveloped.

Our main character Katie is human, flawed, and in pain after the death of her mother. Relationships between mothers and daughters are always complicated, but this one was such an interesting take on the chasm between what we know about our parents and the whole lives they lived before we came into the picture.

The prose, characters, and plot were all so strong, and made this book a delight. Rebecca Serle knows how to write contemporary magical realism like no one else can, and her stories continue to surprise me. Though a quick read, this book will stay with me for a long time.

I wanted to love this one so badly, but it fell flat for me. The relationship between Katy and her mom get more than just close to me - I thought it was unhealthy. I also wasn’t a fan of how she treated her husband in the beginning. Also not a fan of the cheating trope. I know others loved this, but it’s not for me.

I feel very strongly that anyone who liked In Five Years will like this one. I feel the exact same about it as I do One Italian Summer. I liked them both overall with some small complaints. Super small. But still not a home run for me. If I had to pick one, I'd actually pick One Italian Summer because of the mother-daughter relationship between Katy and Carol — it was so relatable to me.

I am not sure where to start. Every page of this book was so engaging. I couldn't put it down! The concept was so fresh and different from everything out there now! I loved it! How amazing would it be to meet your Mom at your age now? To learn who they were as a person, not just Mom. For Katy to learn about Carol, helped her gain closure and also discover herself in the process. Positano, Italy is now on my bucket list. What an amazingly beautiful backdrop to this deeply beautiful story! Thank you for the advanced read.

Rebecca Serle follows the same overall structure as her previous novel “In Five Years.” The main character, Katy, experiences the heartbreaking loss of her mother. In an attempt to cope with her loss Katy travels to Positano, Italy. The same coastal town that her mother had visited some 30 years prior. Along the way Katy learns to cope with her grief and even finds herself.

I felt that this book was just a repeat of “In Five Years.” The main character suffers a great loss, something extraordinary happens, and there’s a complicated romantic plot woven in. This doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good story, because it was. It just means that the author found an outline that works for her and has stuck with it.

I loved the fact that this story was at least set somewhere other than New York City, and that the main character didn’t blow up her entire life while trying to find herself.

I absolutely devoured this book. I feel like I just came back from Italy. Mother- daughter relationships, grief,, written as only this author can write!

I feel like I'm maybe too cold-hearted for this book because I thought the main character was really annoying and I couldn't get past that, really. I'm obviously part of the minority here so I would say if you're interested, give it a shot. There's nothing horrendously wrong with it, just not my cup of tea.

I know it’s not quite summer and the Midwest is getting bad snowstorms, but this novel will make you wish you were on the beach, soaking up the sun even more.

First thing I’d like to say is—not every book deserves a 5-star rating, but this one? Absolutely. As I kept on reading, I felt like I too was growing and figuring out life with the main character, Katy. She loses her mother, and she loses all grip on life that she had remaining. She doesn’t know how to live without her mother, and she thinks that her relationship with her husband may be over, but then she receives the tickets to Italy that she was supposed to take with her mother before she passed. She goes, as one does—to escape from reality and figure out the next step. Once she gets there she makes a friend…who happens to be her mother 30 years from the past. This story is moving and emotional, you will enjoy each chapter, character, and even Positano as Katy and others do! Rebecca Serle described the food, the scenery, and the people in the book so well—I felt like I was there.

When Katy’s mother passed away, she decided to take their planned trip to Italy by herself. She’s not sure what she will find; all she knows is that she is beyond lost without her mother. While in Italy, she discovers so much about life - her own and the life her mother led before she knew her. This was such a beautiful story! Not only did it show how beautifully complex a mother-daughter relationship is, but the imagery of Italy was stunning. I felt like I could see the places Katy was visiting and it made me want to pack up my own family and travel there - maybe someday! Time lapse/travel can be tricky to get right, but in this story it came together so perfectly. I was crying by the end, but I wasn’t exactly sad - it was more of bittersweet tears. There are so many messages in this book that will stay with me. For example: you already know what to hold onto and what to let go of; how the little things are more than enough, and your mother is always with you because “she is everywhere” 💖

Thanks to Netgalley, Rebecca Serle, Simon and Schuster and Atria Books for the ARC! One Italian Summer releases March 1st!

This review will be posted to my Instagram blog (books_by_the_bottle) shortly

3 Armchair Traveler Stars

Katy has a unique relationship with her mother, she’s her best friend and she relies on her mom to do just about everything for her. Her mom picks out her furniture and decorates her house, makes recommendations on every life choice. Katy never learned to cook from her mom. So, it’s a huge tragedy when her mother gets sick and dies just before her 60th birthday. Katy is devastated and decides to take the planned mother-daughter trip to Italy by herself. Her husband is very supportive, but Katy doesn’t seem to appreciate him.

Katy starts to follow their planned itinerary and along the way she spends a great deal of time with Adam. I was disappointed as she seemed to mostly conveniently forget that she was married.

As Katy continues to grieve the loss of her mother, strange things happen in Italy. I really wanted to love this one, but I just didn’t connect to this relationship or characters.

I tend to like this author, so I was excited to read this one mostly set in Italy. I loved all the descriptions of the food and scenery of Positano, the Amalfi Coast, etc.

However, I must say that I didn’t care for either of the female characters in this one. I also didn’t care to read so much about the clothes that everyone was wearing. Once I noticed that, it just became too much!

Others have loved it, so might just be it wasn’t my cup of tea, but it might be yours!

I absolutely love this book. It was so detailed and you literally felt everything all the grief and happiness.

I am forever a fan of Rebecca Serle, the way she writes just sucks you in. The way Kathy gets to glance at her mother before she was a mother is just amazing. This book will make you want to experience the beauty of Italy, will make you yearn to learn more about your parents' past and will help you look at your relationships with new eyes.

After Katy’s mother dies from cancer, she decides to go alone on the trip they’d been planning together to Positano, Italy. In her late 20s, Katy has relied on her mother’s friendship and guidance for everything and without her she is utterly lost and at the brink of divorce to her college sweetheart. Her mom Carol spent a summer at 30 in Italy before marriage and under the magical spell of the Italian sun — Katy encounters her mother as a young woman and the two spend a dazzling two weeks as Katy gets to know Carol before she was her mom.

•••

This was such a sweet and special book!! I adored Katy’s relationship with her mom, and it was such an emotional read imagining how it would be to meet my own mom at the same age as I am now. The book made me want to book a trip to Italy ASAP ✈️

What to expect:
• This is magical realism so you *must* suspend a lot of reality while reading and should know that going in
• lots of food and wine references!! This pairs best with a glass of white wine or limoncello 🍋 a big sun hat 👒 and maybe a snack 🥖🍝
• Easy to read and light but with depth and heart ❣️
• This made me cryyyy, get some tissues ready while reading 🤧 especially in the last couple pages
• Both Katy and Carol were very flawed women, but that’s what made me feel so connected to them
• There is a romance plotline I felt a little iffy about, I’m curious what other readers thought!

This is published March 1, 2022 and will make such a great summer read. Thank you to @netgalley and @atriabooks for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

📕 272 pages
✨ my rating: 4.5⭐️