Rebecca Serle’s “One Italian Summer”

Okay. I admit. I cried at this one.

I can only defend myself by describing my environment while I was reading: South Carolina, my mom’s house, the holidays. To say I have a complicated relationship with my parents, family, and heritage is probably the only time I won’t speak with flamboyantly flourished— do you know I couldn’t find a single word meaning language that starts with an F (words)? Anyway, when reading a book about complicated relationships while engaging with complicated relationships, even the best fall.

Katy begins the books with loss. Her mother, Carol— who she considers her soulmate and true love beyond all other relationships— has died. This leaves her bereft, to the point that she leaves her lukewarm husband to go on the Italy trip they planned before Carol’s death by cancer. 

Katy’s mother had taken this trip to Italy in her own youth, and Katy plans to visit locations her mother described from her trips. Somehow, she finds out she’s not quite sure when she is, as she sees her mother as a young woman, recognizing her from old photographs. From there, it deals with things like loss, changing views of those we love and put on a pedestal, and charting a life worth living for oneself.

I wouldn’t call this a light read, despite being a romance. It’s not the deepest and darkest topic ever, but it deals with common ones that hit close to home. It requires a modest amount of reading comprehension, but delivers a cathartic cry if you even remotely had a maternal figure.

Would I Read it Again?: Nah. It’s at a high school level, reading  smoothly even when dealing with the previous generation’s issues. I also disliked the ending because it seemed a little too regressive based on what I previously read about the character.

Rating: A 3. A solid, if not entirely innovative, story that delivers on the feels. Add a +.5 if that type of romance is your jam or don’t, because the ending is kind of frustrating if you thought the whole book was supposed to be an invitation to adventure.