One Italian Summer

I needed more from this book. the plot was great but the execution fell a little short

I did really like the premise of this book but the writing was really subpar. I didn't think that it was gonna be revolutionary or anything. I just wanted something fun and I genuinely did enjoy the story. The idea of meeting your mom in the past after she's passed away and getting to know her not as your mother but as a human, I think that that's really endearing. That being said, so much of it felt like amateur writing.

2.3

This book was ok for what it is. I'm not exactly the biggest fan of these type of cheesy romance dramas but this one was breezy and Serle's descriptions on the overall nature and environment of Italy was pleasant to envision. That being said, this book is pretty frustrating. It's funny that Serle is putting Katy, the story's lead protagonist, on this pedestal for readers to feel all this sympathy for her because of her mother's passing... and it's funny because Katy sucks. I have no reason to root for her in any way because she can't make a decision on her own without including her mother's opinions and views. Katy worships her mother, Carol, so highly and passionately that it's extremely annoying, irritating, and borderline in a way that's very grossly romantic...? Like as if Katy has a thing for her mother? It's weird. Also Eric, Katy's husband, is just thrown in the trash metaphorically by Katy pretty much the whole time for literally no reason at all. He's kind, loving, and trustworthy and Katy treats him like a villain. It's pretty dumb. And as pleasant as the descriptions are of Italy to read, I could see Italians being offended and grossed out by the surface level and stereotypical descriptions, similar to that of French people seeing “Emily In Paris.” Overall it was decent and I liked the twist but there's too many annoying things to make this redeemable.

This was intensely moving, a great study on grief and the way we come to view our parents in a certain light without really examining it, due to their roles in our lives. With an incredible twist that you should 1000% NOT spoil yourself on, this book is a creative and charmingly written love letter to a mother-daughter dynamic and the journey to find oneself. Truly enjoyable.

The story itself was lackluster, but the audiobook was enjoyable because Lauren Graham was reading it, and it made my Gilmore Girls loving heart happy.

Consider this book solid travel fluff and not much else. The main character's relationship with her mom felt extremely unhealthy from the word go and the romance was messy in a bad, cringe kind of way. The magic elements were also weird and I'm not sure I'm the type of person who likes contemporary fiction diddling around with magic. That said, I do love Italy as a setting and that was the biggest saving grace for me here. I do have to assume this book is basically Eat, Pray, Love, but I've never read that one (and never will).

“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.

I see a lotta reviews that are like how is it possible that a thirty year old married woman is this attached to her husband or that say something like Katy's love for her mother is so selfish and weird—which I think isn't as anomalous as one might think. I don't know, I found the floundering between cheating and not cheating more disheartening than anything else in the novel, and I think daughters can love their mothers to the point of codependency, and it can be a selfish and short-sighted kind of love. Katy isn't likable, sure, but this isn't a romance novel. I think it's more of a meditation on grief, and even if it felt clumsy at points, I think it was written well enough that I could empathize with that raw and terrible feeling of losing a parent you love. To each their own :P

Such a stupid and nonsensical plot. This woman is obsessed with her mother, and she's being incredibly dramatic about losing her. Who calls their mother their “one true love” and acts like a child towards their literal husband cause he “couldn't ever understand the pain” and then decides to cheat on him for an entire summer because she's “figuring out the meaning of life without her mother”. So dramatic and stupid ugh

Full disclosure, this is the first time I've read a ‘woman goes on a journey to find herself' trope, so my opinion of this book may be slanted. I really struggled to relate to the characters, especially Katy. Yes she was grieving, and I get that, but while everyone around her is telling her she's a ‘wonderful person' I struggled to find something compelling about her. She came across as someone who'd had very little adversity in life, and significantly lacked fortitude and character. These characteristics in a person make them ‘wonderful' to me, so I struggled to relate... I struggled with how callous she was to her husband, that his feelings could matter so little to her. Their reunion at the end felt hollow. I was practically cheering for Eric to go find someone better for him. I particularly didn't like the Adam character, he felt quite slimy to me, and I really didn't like him and Katy together. I never quite got what he found so attractive about her, and he only seemed interested in getting her into bed—even if she was drunk and obviously emotionally distraught. The love scene between them made me nauseous.

That being said, in the end, I did love to see that the mother wasn't quite so perfect. The time travel element was neat, but come on, who doesn't realize almost immediately that they've slipped back THIRTY years in the past? Significantly had to suspend disbelief. I was tempted many times to DNF, but the scenery of Positano kept me going. The author made Italy come alive in my mind, and I'd very much love to visit the Amalfi coast and see it for myself one day.

Took wayyyy too long for character growth. Writing is strong but this authors stories are just not for me

Annoying woman, annoying mother.

Well, this will definitely be an unpopular opinion. I am beginning to feel like maybe this author just isn't for me. This is 3 for 3 duds and unloves (the previous books being In Five Years and The Dinner List). I feel the same with this one that I did with those two, I couldn't connect, let alone even liked, the main character.

Within the very first chapter I had my qualms about where this was going and had an inkling that I may not like this one. This is the quote that started the hesitation: “If your mother is the love of your life, what does that make your husband?”

That statement isn't even the totality of Katy's near obsession and seemingly unhealthy attachment to her mother. She is 30 years old, her mother passes which is traumatic, but then she continues to “float” through her days, suddenly deciding she no longer wants to be married, decides her mother has abandoned her without giving her the tools to live life competently, and flies off to Italy to “find” herself. I can completely understand that people need to grieve in different ways but this seems a tad extreme to me.

Upon arriving in Italy, she continues to be adrift, not even thinking of her husband Eric. The way she treats him is atrocious to me. He stood by her, comforted her, held her up and has continually been there for her. Katy does not appreciate this, nor respect him as she jaunts around Italy like she is a single woman. This REALLY irked me and I almost didn't finish this. If it wasn't for this being a buddy read, I would have stopped about halfway through.

One of things I did love is the way Carol (Katy's mom) appears to Katy while she is in Italy. This was a fun and unique addition to this story, and one of the only elements I really loved. The other element being the descriptions of Italy ... the scenery, the food, and the atmosphere.

That being said....another WTH am I reading moment came when Katy and Carol have been spending a lot of time together, and Katy finds out something that essentially puts her in a panic, and she blows up at her mom. She is seemingly in shock that her mother had a life and feelings outside of her. She is after the only love of her mother's life, the same as her mother is hers....right? SMH

While this isn't one I loved, or would even recommend, I know a lot of readers are enjoying this one and I am glad they are. This author definitely isn't my cup of coffee but readers are vast and different so if you have had your eye on this one, try it out and see where you land.

I totally loved the vibes of this book. I do think there were some questionable decision making on the main characters part but aside from that the book was enjoyable

this was so beautiful !!!

I'm rating this a little higher than I should because my experience reading this was no doubt enhanced by the audiobook narrated by the wonderful Lauren Graham, but I had a hard time connecting with the main character and the story in general.

This book left me with mixed feelings. I loved the imagery of being in Italy. We visit many different towns, eat lots of delicious food, and spend time admiring the beauty and this is felt in the pages. After discovering that Hotel Poseidon is a real place upon finishing the book, I found that the photos on Google are exactly what I was picturing when I was reading, which was pretty magical. I did expect it to be a bit more emotional than it was. At times I felt it was more of a love story between Adam and Katy rather than a love story between Katy and her mother. I didn't particularly feel chemistry between Katy and Adam and at the very end it seemed like Katy and Eric's relationship was resolved too easily, yet unrealistic. The ending as a whole felt very rushed.  I enjoyed the magical-realism of Carol coming to life, but I found it obvious that Katy was really in the past, and the fact that she didn't realize it, along with the idea that this was some sort of twist in the book felt poorly executed and did not pack the emotional punch I had expected.

Where do I even begin...this book is terrible.

I'm glad that I won an advanced copy of One Italian Summer on a Goodreads giveaway. I don't regret reading it before the book got officially published and I thought it was a whimsical and lighthearted read with a romance with the main characters. Having the setting in Italy takes me back to when I went to Rome in the summer of 2018. Thank you for the well-spent time on this book.

Katy's mom dies, and Katy can't cope. Carol was not only her mom but Katy's best friend, and life has lost its meaning.

Spontaneously Katy decides to go ahead and take the trip to Italy that she and her mother had planned before her mother died. And what a trip! It's two weeks in Positano, the most beautiful place on earth, Katy thinks, and she understands why her mom always wanted to return to this spot in Italy that Carol had visited and loved so much before Katy was born.

And then the most amazing thing happens...Carol is there, in Positano, and she's young and alive and happy. Katy is jubilant.

I enjoyed this wonderful story of life and love and joy, all set in amazing Italy. A delight.