Book Review: One Italian Summer

Every time I read a book set in Italy, I think of my Italian blogging friend Maria Novajosky, author of An Ocean, an Airplane, and Two Countries Full of Kisses. Rebecca Serle's One Italian Summer is a highly entertaining Instant New York Times Bestseller. I loved dropping into Positano, Italy, and reading descriptions of the Amalfi Coast. What's more, I adored the characters in this book. The intensity of this mother-daughter bond was reminiscent of the beloved pair in The Gilmore Girls. Although I was close to my mother, and felt the mother-loss keenly as I read, ours was never as tight as these fictional relationships.

Katy Silver is utterly bereft upon losing her best friend and mother, Carol. Their bond was intense and her grief knows no bounds. Thus, Katy embarks alone on the trip to Italy that the two had planned to take together. Just as in Rebecca Serle's previous bestseller, In Five Years, magic is afoot. Katy bumps into 30-year-old Carol in the town of Positano. Katy is eager to spend as much time as possible with this younger version of her mother. She is learning unknown things from the past, but it brings conflict in her present.

I really enjoyed this book. It held me spellbound for over an hour. I couldn't tear my eyes away. That's saying something, given my current challenges in reading (lots going on and difficult to focus). Thankfully, I read this in hardcover, so I skipped through the brief sex scenes (2 - unnecessary and 1 adulterous). Overlooking that cautionary content, the book is a great exploration into the power of a strong mother-daughter bond. There's a tension in finding your place in the world when motherhood defines you. It may have been more difficult to read about such a loss if my mother had not already passed from Alzheimer's. So, know that up front, if this might be a trigger-warning for you. 

📒 Content Caution: brief sex scenes toward the end of the book