One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

My kids have been sick the past week. Nights of caregiving and days of home tending made me crave an easy, light read to turn to in the sparse free moments. “One Italian Summer” by Rebecca Serle is the perfect love story: a romance between a grieving daughter and her recently deceased mother as she finds herself in her mother’s beloved Italian seaside town of Postiano.

Serle does some things really well here: the overwhelm of caregiving putting the dying person first and their loved ones after, was depicted perfectly. The confusion and despair of the loved one sized hole dominating the life of the griever was also startlingly true. And the gradual returning to … to food, to sunshine, to pleasure, to yourself, to the world, that eases in as grief expands the heart was also well articulated.

I flipped between audio and kindle for this book and loved the narration by Gilmore Girls Lauren Graham. The main character, Katy Silver, felt like a sister to Rory Gilmore losing her mother and every page of this mother-daughter love story left me aching. Motherless daughters will especially find comfort in this book but anyone who craves a break from the daily grind can relax into the vivid characters, atmospheric ambiance and rich storylines along the cobblestone streets, winding stone steps and glimmering water of the Italian coast.