I really enjoyed In Five years and looked forward to this.. It was a quick read, a great beach read and certainly made me want to book a flight to the Amalfi Coast. I found myself looking up places that were mentioned to find out if they were real or fictional. There were parts of the books I liked and part that were a bit to convenient for my taste. But then again, its fiction... to get to a charming hotel where everyone knows your name, to meet a handsome prince who takes you on a day trip to Capri on a private boat... its like the unrealistic Carrie swiping once and finding a charming match.

3.5 STARS

I feel like I've been to Italy.

It was a virtual trip, but I enjoyed all the descriptions of the beautiful towns nestled into hillsides, cozy hotels, picture perfect sunsets, and yummy food. My mouth was watering after reading about bright fruits, breads, muffins, buttery croissants and more!

I went into this story blind, so I was a bit blindsided by the turn it took!

Katy and her mom, Carol had planned a trip to Italy together, but Carol dies before they get to go. She tells her husband, Eric that she still wants to take the mother-daughter trip solo and he agrees that she should. She plans to visit all her mother's favorite places.

Apparently, sh*t happens in Italy and I was thinking that Katy was having a mental crisis around the halfway mark. I realize she was grieving, but she was so obsessed with Carol that it felt unrealistic.

I don't want to say too much about the premise, in case others want to go in blind. The synopsis gives away more of the story than what I've mentioned.

I enjoy Serle's writing style and it was an easy read with the lovely immersion into Italy, although I had some huge eye rolls along the way. While I liked Katy, she also annoyed me with the way she treated her husband.

I'm going to round up because I still enjoyed picking this one up and all the travel and scenery.

Katy and her mother had a mother-daughter trip planned to Italy, but instead of them both going, Katy ends up on the trip alone. Before the trip happened, Katy had to upend her life and take care of her mother who was dying. While on the trip, Katy learns a lot about her mother, getting a whole new look at the woman she thought she knew.

The first thing I can tell you is to have a tissue ready…yes…early on, you will need it, One Italian Summer starts right off ripping your heart out and continues taking you on an emotional rollercoaster. Katy grieves, and you will grieve right along with her, especially, if like me, you know the feeling of losing a parent.

While One Italian Summer is sad, it is also magical, in a way you’d never expect it to be. Did you read In Five Years by Serle? Do you know how it had that tiny bit of magical twist to it? The author has also us the same twist in this book, taking you to an alternative universe that will surprise you. I will be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would like it when it happened, but Serle’s writing is beautiful and it fits the story perfectly, making it unique and one of my favorite parts of the book.

I liked In Five Years, but there were a few things in there that I didn’t care for, but reading One Italian Summer has definitely put her on my auto-buy list. Everything about this book was beautiful. In fact, I finished this book in two days, not an easy feat for me being what I often feel like is the slowest reader on Instagram, cause I know y’all and y’all are some speedy readers, but this book will keep you reading from the moment you pick it up until you reach the last page.

Also, I would be doing you wrong if I didn't mention Positano Italy. Serle will have you looking up travel agents wanting to book a trip, her descriptions of the area are exquisite, and will pull you into the sun-soaked Amalfi coast.

One Italian Summer is magical, and it is beautiful, and it is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I am absolutely buying it for our library, and going to tell everyone to read it. It’s emotional and perfect! I can’t wait for it to come out so everyone can enjoy it!!!

Thank you first to , NetGalley, Atria Books and Rebecca Serle for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Rebecca Serling for giving me two days in blustery cold winter and transporting me to the lovely, beautiful, romantique, picturesque Italy. This book was clearly written with love for Positano. Serle has now made me fall in love with Positano.

Time travel is tricky but when well executed can make for the most engaging read. Serle nailed it, and took me along with her.

This book is about love, parenting, parenting your parents, independence and finding yourself. . Knowing that our parents didn’t have all the answers but we’re doing the absolute best they could. Life is hard and beautiful And this book was a eloquent, delicate, excellent reminder of that. A pleasure to read and sad that I read it so fast.

I really enjoyed this book. I got major "Midnight in Paris" vibes with the unexplained time travel which I absolutely loved. I also thoroughly enjoyed that the author explored the complexities of marriage and the strains that happen during a difficult time.

The only drawback to the book was that I was amazed that it took her to the end of the novel to realize that she was stuck in the 1990s.

I'll start with what I loved: the writing style, the scenery, the food, the theme of the book in general.
I couldn't get behind the unexplained time travel and how selfish the main character felt in her grief
overall, I felt I wanted more. it's what always happens when I finish her books.

Thank you netgalley/Atria for this advanced readers copy!!!
Holy emotional rollercoaster batman! The feelings when Katy sees her mother again and gets to relieve her mothers Italian summer with her. Her grief and love is so powerful I was swept away immediately. I liked this more the the dinner list for sure and it definitely gave me in five years vibes.
Watching all these characters grow and life was a joy. This makes me want to hop a flight and go to Italy immediately. And once you read this you will too!
This title releases march 1st.

Rebecca Serle does it again. I think she is one of my absolute top authors. As a primarily thriller reader, I so look forward to her books as a beautiful escape! Her way of writing suspended reality is like nobody else. As I have an extremely close relationship with my mother, this story connected with me on so many levels. First of all, it had me researching a trip to Italy in my near future. The way she described the culture and landscape, it left me feeling like I was there! I loved how she had the story unfold. Without giving many spoilers, all I can say is get this book, carve out a few hours, with a glass of wine and some tissues. You’re welcome.

Serle's latest novel takes readers on a journey through grief and self discovery. Against the beautiful Italian backdrop, this well-paced and character driven novel is sure to please Serle fans and new readers alike.

🍋🇮🇹

This was an emotional journey for me personally as the fifth anniversary of the death of grandmother is mere weeks away. Just like Katy, I lost my person, and I could identify with her difficulty to grapple with her feelings of grief and discovering how she should best express them. Grief is an emotion, mourning is the expression of the emotion and the only way to reach a place of healing. This was a story of self discovery and acknowledging your own resilience in the midst of absolute brokenness and I believe that the author communicated that very well. Additionally, any time there's an element of time bending magic weaved into a book, I AM HERE FOR IT!

🌀🌀🌀

The reason I am landing on a four star review instead of five - because I highly recommend this book! - has to do with the slow burn of a couple of elements that I struggled to reconcile as I was reading. First of all, there was Katy's perception of her relationship with her mother. For me, it was just improbable. She often referred to her mother as her best friend, soul mate, and the center of her world - and the feeling was mutual. Now, this is coming form someone who absolutely can say that I had a soul mate in my grandmother. She was my person, my biggest fan, my person, but I could make decisions and choices without her. Katy's utter dependence on her mother seemed unhealthy at times and as a mental healthcare professional, I really struggled to feel okay about that as I got deeper into the story. I also reached a point of feeling like Katy herself was becoming less and less relatable with the life altering choices she was making in direct response to her grief.

Another personal issue I had with this story was how long it takes for the author to reveal how and why Katy is interacting with the 30 year old version of her mother. I found myself thinking "Wouldn't this seem weird to Carol?" or "Doesn't this particular detail seem off to one or both of them?" more than once. Once all of the details begin to unravel, all of my questions were sufficiently answered, but geez that happened very late in the story.

Fortunately, the concerns I was having with this story fell away when Rebecca Serle turned everything we thought we knew up until a point completely on its head! My reservations were addressed in an unexpected and beautiful way that left me in tears, reading the last page of this book. I only worry that some readers will give up long before reaching the pay off in the end. So, that's why I was to take this opportunity to say to anyone who may soon read or is currently reading this book with the same roller coaster of emotions that I was experiencing: KEEP READING! It will all make sense. It will all be dealt with. IT WILL BE WORTH IT!

A huge thank you 🙏🏻 to the author along with Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I predict this will be one of my favorite books of this year 💜

ONE ITALIAN SUMMER is one of my most anticipated books this year and I'm happy to say that it did not disappoint - this might be Serle's best book yet! Serle's books are on the shorter side, but boy do they pack a punch. In true Serle fashion, the book is emotional and heartbreaking. At first glance, one would think the book is all about grief, but it is really a love story and the incredible bond between a mother and a daughter.

Los Angeles-based Katy Silver has just lost her mother and best friend, Carol to cancer. Her mother was her everything and always had all the answers. Now her mother is gone and Katy is deeply grieving and doesn't know how to move on with her life. What's worse is that her and her mom's one-in-a-lifetime mother-daughter trip to Positano is looming. Positano was where her mother spent a summer before she met Katy's father and has always had a special place in her heart. Feeling lost and questioning all her life choices (including her marriage), Katy decides to go on the trip alone.

Once Katy sets foot on the Amalfi Coast, she begins to feel her mother's spirit all around her. Magically her mother appears before her - thirty years old (to Katy's 29 years) and young, healthy and vibrant. Katy is bewildered but she embraces this version of her mother and wants to spend as much time as she can with her. But this time she gets the chance to know her mother as a young woman and friend - as Carol.

Katy soon realizes that this version of mother is not the self-assured and maternal woman that she's known all her life. Feeling conflicted, Katy must reconcile the mother that she knew and loved so much with this version of her mother - who ironically seems lost and is going through a (somewhat) quarter-life crisis much like herself.

The Amalfi Coast is one of my favorite places in the whole world. I visited Amalfi the spring before the pandemic began and this book really took me back. Serle writes about the Amalfi Coast / Positano with such vivid detail that I felt like I was actually there. The book is super atmospheric and is the perfect escape - it made me miss Amalfi so much!

One of the biggest themes of ONE ITALIAN SUMMER is grief but that is not what the book is really about - it's about self-discovery and the relationship and dynamic between a mother and a daughter, their bond. It's really a love story between them. Serle is masterful of injecting a bit of magical realism into her stories and it was truly perfection in this book. The book is emotionally-charged, yet sweet and heartwarming - I know it will stay with me for a long time. I can easily say that this is one of my favorite books this year.

Rating: 5 stars

Thank you, NetGalley, Atria Books and Rebecca Serle for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5/5 ⭐️

Wow! This novel by Rebecca Searle beat all expectations for me, I absolutely LOVED it. Whatever you want from a book, it basically has: beautiful & deep emotional relationships, descriptions of heart-wrenching loss (if anyone has lost someone close to them they will understand what the main character is going through), heart beating romance, stunning descriptions of the Amalfi Coast in Italy.. (I genuinely felt like I was there experiencing this adventure with the main character), mouth-watering food in every chapter… and so much more.

I think unless you don’t have a close relationship with your mom, you might not understand the co-dependent relationship our main character has with her mom who recently passed. I completely understand and have this kind of relationship with my mom so it was beautiful. It made me sad and introspective, which is what I want a book like this to do. 📚

It was an overall beautiful read, amazing writing, stunning setting.. what more could you want? ❤️‍🩹
This was a 5/5 read for me, and a book under 300 pages that captures my heart this quickly is worth that rating. When this book comes out on March 1, run - don’t walk!

Thank you to Atria Books & NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a love letter to Italy. Though the timeline and concept were tricky to wrap my ever-logical head around, the writing is lovely. The author's descriptions of Positano - the food, the wine, the people, the places - are truly immersive.

I only have positive things to say about this book. I laughed, I cried... in the best way possible. I honestly didn't think I would find something I loved more by this author than Five Years, but she outdid herself. Excellent characterization, good flow, loved the dialog... this is a winner.

"One Italian Summer" is a story that will change you. It's so many different loves woven into a single love story--weathered, familiar love; tempting, new love; self-love; and most of all, the love between a mom and her daughter. Rebecca Serle writes an achingly beautiful story that's simple, sweet, and almost unexpectedly deep; in the midst of the gorgeous Italian backdrop and light-hearted dialogue of the story, you'll also find profound commentary on womanhood, motherhood, and especially how we find our way forward when we lose a part of ourselves in grief. Simply perfect; a must-read.

*Thank you to NetGalley & Atria Books for my advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review*

“If you’d have asked my mother, Who do you belong to, the answer would have been Katy. “You’re my everything,” she’d tell me. “You’re my whole world.”

Not everyone has that closeness to their mother. But taking that as a jumping off point, after Carol dies, Katy is bereft, adrift without the person she considered her soulmate, the one she turned to and depended on to help her through life. She has also begun to question her commitment to her husband, so on an impulse, she decides to take the trip to Italy she and her mother had planned before her death. Before we know it, Katy’s moved into a quaint, family-run hotel in the heart of Positano, a village where her mother once spent a summer, in hopes of rebooting her life and also getting a better understanding of what her mother had been like as a young woman like herself.

And that’s when things get interesting. Because through the narrative device of magical realism, Serle imagines a scenario in which Carol is magically alive, 30 and carefree, and the mother and daughter can meet again, this time as new friends and companions. Heartfelt, sad in places, yet ultimately life-affirming like the author’s well-beloved In Five Years, this novel also offers vivid, rich descriptions of both the sights and tastes of Positano and Capri, making you long to take your own Amalfi coast vacation.

At time, I found Katy’s helplessness frustrating. It made her seem much more naïve and clueless than I would expect of someone her age. It takes her forever to catch on to what’s really going on and the romance she embarks on with a handsome hotel developer detracted from the story. Instead I longed for more scenes between the mother and daughter and was disappointed whenever that relationship was put on the back burner in favor of less-interesting subplots. But I liked the over-all concept, being a sucker for time-travel stories and endlessly fascinated by the question of “what if” so if you’re in the mood for a light summer read, I’d recommend adding this to your beach bag.

My thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book.

Five stars doesn’t even begin to do this book justice. I finished it over the weekend and I’m still suffering from a book hangover. You’ll be wanting to plan a trip to Positano and eat all the Italian food after this one. One Italian Summer is for anyone who’s mom is the best friend, anyone who needs to escape to the coast of Italy for a little while, and lastly, anyone who is looking for a masterpiece of a book.
Thank you @rebecca_serle, @atriabooks, and @netgalley for this ARC of One Italian Summer.

This was a beautiful story about love, loss and grief. If you have lost a parent then you can definitely relate to Katy and her grief. I was enchanted by Positano and makes me want to visit Italy even more.

A magical journey of what would it be like to know our mothers at the age we are now.

This book checked all of the right boxes for me: the Positano setting making me feel like I was far from my couch, a believable romance, and most importantly had me thinking so deeply about my own relationship with me mother when I put it down.

Katy, like me, is an only child. After putting her life on hold to take care of her dying mother, and best friend, she is utterly lost and devastated. She decides to still take the trip to Positano they had planned to take so her mother could show her how the Italian place changed her life before having a daughter.

While there, Katy learns who her mother was when she was her age, causing her to reflect on their relationship and challenge all that she knew. We’re left wondering, what if we could know our mothers not just as mothers but as the women they were before us?