After her mother's sudden death, Katy takes the Italian trip they'd planned together alone -- and finds a thirty-year-old version of her mother, Carol, staying in the same Positano hotel, decades before Katy was born. Rebecca Serle's novel blends grief and magical realism, and Publishers Weekly specifically praised how the mother-daughter bond comes through Katy's grief. It's also drawn real, sourced criticism about how Katy actually treats the people around her. This review covers both.
What the Book Actually Is
Katy arrives in Positano still raw from her mother's death, only to encounter a young Carol -- decades before marriage, before Katy's birth, still deciding who she wants to become. The two form a friendship without Katy revealing who she really is, giving Katy a version of her mother she never got to know: flawed, uncertain, and independent rather than only 'Mom.'
About Rebecca Serle and Why She Wrote This
Serle grew up between Maui and Los Angeles, earned her undergraduate degree at USC, and holds an MFA in creative writing from The New School in New York. She started out writing young-adult fiction -- including When You Were Mine and the Famous in Love series, which she co-developed into a Freeform TV series starring Bella Thorne -- before moving into adult fiction with The Dinner List, followed by the New York Times bestseller In Five Years, then One Italian Summer, Once and Again, and Expiration Dates. Magical realism runs through nearly all of her adult novels, and she's said she reaches for it because it lets her get at the emotional truth of a story faster and with more intensity than straight realism allows. The idea for this specific book came from her own life: Serle and her mother have taken real mother-daughter trips together, and her mother spent a summer in Italy in her early twenties that she talked about for years afterward. On a later trip the two took to Rome and Positano, Serle found herself thinking about the life her mother lived before she existed -- a person, not just a parent -- and that thought became the engine of Katy and Carol's story.
What Critics Actually Said
Publishers Weekly called it 'a touching story' where 'the mother-daughter bond is made palpable through Katy's grief and desire for connection' -- a specific, sourced endorsement of the book's central emotional mechanism working as intended. Seattle Book Review described it more broadly: 'Be prepared for deep emotions, a few laughs, and possibly a few tears as well.'
Where Real Reviews Pushed Back
The most specific, recurring reader criticism concerns Katy herself: one review noted 'there is so much hypocrisy and selfishness in Katy's behavior and her treatment of everyone around her, it really detracts from the story's emotional impact.' Other readers flagged that Katy's relationship with her mother, even in memory, reads as 'deeply unhealthy' in ways the novel doesn't fully interrogate. This is a real, recurring critique from engaged readers, not a hostile outlier -- worth knowing before a book sold largely on its emotional catharsis.
The Real Trip Behind the Novel
In the summer of 2019, Serle traveled through Italy with her own mother, and that trip is where the specifics of the book come from more directly than the premise alone suggests. Serle has told interviewers about one particular memory from a Rome trip with her mother that stuck with her: running into a man her mother had once dated, decades earlier, as though her mom's past were suddenly walking around in the present. That collision -- a parent's private, pre-you life becoming briefly visible -- is the exact mechanic the novel builds its entire plot around, just pushed further into magical-realist territory. In the book, Positano is the town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy's father, which is why Katy retraces that same route rather than picking a new destination entirely.
Grief as the Engine, Not Just the Backdrop
Serle has described her own approach to the material bluntly: she writes love stories, and grief shows up in love stories because it has to. Readers and book clubs have mapped the novel onto the "dual process model" of grief that psychologists use, which describes people oscillating between loss-orientation (dwelling on what's gone) and restoration-orientation (rebuilding a life, trying new things). Katy's decision to take the trip alone rather than cancel it reads as a textbook restoration-oriented choice, and the fantastical reunion with a young Carol gives the novel a way to let Katy keep talking to her mother without pretending the death didn't happen. It's a structural choice as much as an emotional one: the magical realism exists to serve the grief, not to distract from it.
Positano as Its Own Character
Book club guides built around the novel consistently return to how much work the setting itself is doing -- Positano is treated as "full of very real magic" rather than simple scenery, and discussion questions built around the book ask readers to consider what draws both locals and visitors to that specific stretch of coastline. The novel also leans on the Amalfi Coast's own local mythmaking, including the legends tied to Capri's Faraglioni rock formations and the cliffside Path of the Gods trail, threading them into Katy's growing understanding of her mother. The effect is that the setting isn't just where the story happens; it's part of how the book explains why a place can hold onto someone's younger self so vividly that a grieving daughter might, in fiction at least, walk right into her.
Key Takeaways
- The novel's central premise traces back to a real 2019 trip Serle took to Italy with her own mother, including a real memory of encountering a man her mother had once dated in Rome
- Serle uses magical realism deliberately across her adult novels as a way to reach emotional truth faster than straightforward realism, not as a genre gimmick
- The grief in the book maps onto the psychological "dual process model," with Katy's trip functioning as a restoration-oriented response rather than simple avoidance
- Positano functions as a character in its own right in reader and book-club discussions, tied to real Amalfi Coast landmarks like the Faraglioni rocks and the Path of the Gods
- Read the sourced criticism about Katy's selfishness alongside the sourced praise for the mother-daughter bond -- both come from real reviews, not just the marketing copy
Who This Book Is Actually For
Readers who want an atmospheric, Italy-set exploration of grief and mother-daughter relationships with a magical-realist premise, and who don't need every character to be fully likable to stay invested in their arc.
Who Should Read Something Else Instead
If unlikable or self-absorbed narrators are a dealbreaker for you, the sourced criticism above about Katy's behavior is worth taking seriously before starting.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Specific, sourced Publishers Weekly praise for how the central mother-daughter bond is rendered
- Vivid Positano setting that multiple reviewers say functions almost as its own character
- Genuinely original premise -- meeting a parent as a peer rather than only as 'Mom' -- explored with real emotional stakes
- Solid 3.55 out of 5 rating across more than 243,000 Goodreads ratings for the hardcover edition
- Accessible, fast-paced read well suited to a single vacation or a few sittings
Cons:
- Reader reviews specifically flag Katy's selfishness and hypocrisy as detracting from the emotional payoff
- Some readers find the underlying mother-daughter relationship 'deeply unhealthy' in ways the book doesn't fully examine
- The magical-realism premise requires suspending some logical questions about how the encounter actually works
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a true story?
No -- it's fiction, though Serle has said her own real trip to Positano after a personal loss inspired the setting and emotional core.
What's the actual Goodreads rating?
3.55 out of 5 for the hardcover edition from roughly 243,000 ratings as of this writing; the Kindle edition shows a higher 3.81 from a smaller pool.
Is the main character likable?
This is genuinely contested -- multiple reader reviews specifically criticize Katy's selfishness and hypocrisy toward people around her.
Does it require believing in magical realism?
Yes -- the entire plot depends on accepting the fantastical premise of meeting a parent as a young, pre-parenthood adult.
Sources & Further Reading
- Goodreads -- One Italian Summer (aggregate rating, reader reviews)
- Publishers Weekly
- Rebecca Serle -- "The Story of One Italian Summer" (author's own account, via her newsletter)
- ReadingGroupGuides.com -- book club discussion guide
- PositiveLifes.com — free inspirational and life-changing PDF books
Final Verdict
One Italian Summer delivers exactly what Publishers Weekly praised -- a palpable, grief-driven mother-daughter bond set against a vivid Italian backdrop. The sourced reader criticism about Katy's selfishness is real and fair, and it's worth knowing going in that the protagonist isn't uniformly sympathetic. If atmospheric grief fiction with a magical-realist hook appeals to you, this delivers it, flaws and all.
Buy Day rating: 7.6/10