Book Review - One Italian Summer; Rebecca Serle

 

One Italian Summer; Rebecca Serle

Simon & Schuster Audio - 2022)

(narrator - Lauren Graham - not bad)

After a few heavier reads I needed something nice and light and, One Italian Summer seemed to fit the bill.  

Katy, age 30, and her mother Carol had a special closeness. Even when Katy married, Eric it was her mother who she called with any issue she had to deal with.  So when Carol dies after an illness Katy, who had spent the last month caring for her mother, is devastated. She is forced to examine her life and even whether she still wants to be married.  She takes a bold step, leaving her husband Eric at home and, heading to Positano, Italy.  It is the vacation that Katy and her mother were planning to take together.

In Positano, it is overwhelmingly beautiful: the sea, the sunsets,  the slower pace and the kindness of each stranger she meets.  Then something unexpected happens at the Hotel Positano, the receptionist is Carol, Katy's mother at age 30.  It is this awakening in which Katy gets a glimpse at a very different woman from the mother she recently lost.  Watching Carol at 30 makes Katy realize that even mothers aren't perfect and don't always have everything figured out.  

Initially, I thought Katy was immature and self-centered when she told her husband that "her mother was the love of her life," and she wasn't sure she wanted to be married anymore.  I was happy to see Katy developing a new sense of self separate from her mother. I thought the ending was satisfying as well.  Not perfect but, if you are looking for a lighter read that is a bit different this might be a good one to try.

Rating - 4/5 stars

(This audio download was made available to me by the publisher at no cost in exchange for my unbiased review.)