Book Review: One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

One Italian Summer

by Rebecca Serle (Serle)

 

I really enjoyed Rebecca Searle’s first book from the best seller list, In Five Years. A freak instance gives a young woman a glimpse of how different her life is going to be in five years — not at all how she anticipated. She spends the next five years warily anticipating how things can change so immensely. Loved the book. Loved the mystery of it and the big twist at the end.

 

So I tried her newest books, One Italian Summer. Once again Searle plays tricks with time. A thirty-something daughter (Katy) has just lost her mother to cancer. Katy and her mother Carol were extremely close. They were best friends. Feeling lost and unsure how she could possibly go on without her mom — even unsure if she can stay in her marriage–a week later Katy decides to go on the epic Italian vacation to the stunning Amalfi Coast that the two had planned to take together before the cancer.

 

But when Katy gets to Italy and starts on the itinerary they had planned, life takes an odd turn. Katy runs into a woman who frighteningly resembles her mother. But how could her mom be in Italy, back in her 30s?

 

To say much more of the plot would ruin the book for you. I spent several chapters trying to decipher if this was really Katy’s mother in her 30s. And suffice to say that Katy’s mother is not exactly the same person Katy thought she was. Can Katy cope with the realization that her mother wasn’t who she thought she was so soon after the loss? Can seeing her mother in a different light help Katy to realize that life really can go on without Carol in her life? Will Katy leave her husband for the attractive man she befriends at the hotel?

 

I enjoyed the story, and especially the little twist at the end of the book. It made me want to visit the Amalfi Coast in person. I recommend One Italian Summer as a great read for the summer.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try In Five Years by Rebecca Serle, or The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton.)

 

( official One Italian Summer page on the official Rebecca Serle web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

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