Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜
Title: One Italian Summer
Author: Rebecca Serle
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Romance
Setting: Positano, Italy
Month Read: March 2022
Book Type: Hardcover
Publication: 2022
Publisher: Atria Books
Pages: 245
*March Book of the Month Pick
TRIGGER WARNING-
Cheating / Death of Parent / Grief / Alcohol / Sexual Themes
"What got you here won't get you there"
No Spoiler Summary:
One Italian Summer is the latest novel by Rebecca Serle, and is about a woman named Katy who has just lost the one true love of her life, her mother. Before her Mom passed, they had planned a two week long getaway for the two of them to Positano, where her mother had spent a wild summer before she got married and had Katy. Katy decides that she needs to take the trip alone as she is left reeling, unsure of her marriage, unsure of herself, and unsure how to go on when the one person she truly lived for is no longer there.
As soon as Katy arrives in Italy, she experiences what her mother used to talk about. The people, the food, the experiences, but what happens when Katy sees her mother, Carol, as a thirty year old woman, while on the vacation? Katy gets the opportunity to get to know her Mother as a friend, and they spend an entire glorious, beautiful summer together.
Why is Carol here? Why is she so young? This is something for Katy to figure out, and at the same time she needs to realize the woman who was her Mom, is not the same woman who she is spending time with in Positano. It's something Katy will need to reconcile with herself, how your Mom has a whole other woman inside of her, with wants and passions and drive that you may never know as a child.
Review:
I'm so glad I thew this book into my Book of the Month box this month, because as similar as it was to The Unsinkable Greta James, it was also so different and I appreciate being able to hold them against each other. I am a sucker for a book set in Italy, and as of late I guess another genre I love is books with dead Moms. I'm not sure what that says about me, but lately the literature I've been digesting has been full of them.
The characters in this book are fantastic, and I loved getting to know Katy's family, and also everyone in Positano and at the Hotel Poseidon, specifically. I think there could have been more work done on Katy's dad, and also with Eric, her husband- but it's a minor complaint because I feel like I don't really get to know these characters, and it makes it a bit weird when Katy is just sort of meh about them. I also think Katy relies a lot on her mom, and as someone a similar age it just felt a bit strange to me--- but everyone is different.
The twist was unexpected, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I wish we sort of had a reason for why the twist happened. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't say anything else about it, but it left the novel feeling a bit unfinished for me because a lot of loose ends didn't really get fixed.
Slight Spoiler-----------
I am not a fan of cheating, and in this book in particular I really just felt icky about it. I really didn't enjoy how Katy treated Eric, and how she went about her vacation--- and I felt like this entire relationship in the book just felt weird. I didn't feel like there were big conversations about their marriage and it just all seemed really forced to be a catalyst for her going to Positano alone. Minor complaint, and not a huge deal, but this book maybe could have used about 50 more pages to really flesh some subplots out.
I ended up really enjoying the book, and it was the perfect sunny day read on a slightly warmer than normal March day in Connecticut. Someone book me a flight to Positano, stat! :)
Recommendation:
Grieving Your Mom (or someone close):
Yolk by Mary H.K Choi (YA)
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
The Star Crossed Sisters of Tuscany by Lori Nelson Spielman
"History, memory is by definition fiction. Once an event is no longer present, but remembered, it is narrative. And we can choose the narratives we tell—about our own lives, our own stories, our own relationships. We can choose the chapters we give meaning."
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