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elenamagdalenaeva's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Moderate: Death of parent
toris_in_her_own_world's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, and Sexual content
_verena_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
I've never smoked, but it's the last day of my mothers shiva, so here we are...
- One Italian Summer, 00:00:01
🎧 listened to the audiobook
Short Review:
This was such a mess!
It's just too much!
Too overloaded!
More detailed Review:
I really, really, really, REALLY wanted to like this.
And I did! Right until Katy met Carol in Italy and everything went down the drain. But let's start from the beginning.
I was SO glad about Lauren Graham narrating this. Why you might ask? - Just because, obviously, she is Lauren Graham!
Plus: this book is giving major Gilmore Girls vibes from the start, with a quote from Lorelai in the epigraph and then mentioning Gilmore Girls right at the beginning.
However it is a devastating, heart shattering version of it, and I could hardly deal 😭😭😭
Didn't expect this book to be so sad, but at least it helped me realize that my heart is not made of stone and I can still be touched by books (which I suspected I couldn't be after dnfing The Pairing).
However, I was curious about the 'fantasy' part, which didn't sound especially appealing to me, but I liked the overall premise of a woman grieving and her life totally being derailed by the loss of her parent. So it might make some sense, to throw some delusion in there. I think loss and grief are some of the more taboo topics in mainstream literature, which was why I was happy to find it in a book, that seemed to be lightening up the whole thing with its location being Amalfi Coast.
BUT!
There were just tooooooooo many things cramped in there.
Why did there have to be so many additional storylines, which were so poorly executed?
Like:
The whole storyline about the hotel. Nobody cares!
Katy.
I did like her at the beginning. I liked how lovingly she thought about her mother, her family, how terrible the loss is. But at some point this just got old. We are in her thoughts all the time and of course, when grieving a human does repeat things a lot, to get over it, but still, I feel like Katy didn't get important parts, that were happening around her quite right. If she had though, I think that could have opened up a lot more of interesting thoughts. Example:
Adam.
Everything about Adam!
Katy + Adam.
Plus, she cheated on him around 30ish years ago, when she was traveling through time. She didn't know, she was in a different time and she knew she was still married, but separated. (THIS is why this book is such a mess to me btw.) So NO.
I really have no idea, why people write enraged reviews on her, because this book is "cheating apologetic" or something? These people are separated.
The more interesting question to me is, if she ever told him about any of this (the time traveling and the cheating).
Eric.
#justiceforEric.
the fantasy element.
Here is extraordinarily bad... She asks what year it is, and that's it.
How did she never notice, that people don't have any smartphones, only old cars are on the street, or any other technical inventions that have happened in the last 30 years? Did she simply not notice? Or worse, think, that this is Italy nowadays? If it's that, she really is the prototype of ignorant-classist-American-traveling-the-world.
Also she tells everybody to invest into Apple and Starbucks... omfg, this is just so stupid!
Conclusion:
Started out strong, became decreasingly weak to end in a complete and annoying mess...
As they say: Sometimes less is more.
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent
idesofmarch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Infidelity and Sexual content
kerrinikole's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Infidelity
keeganrb's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
lauren_shilling's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Infidelity, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Sexual content, and Terminal illness
Minor: Alcohol
jessicabearbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was the perfect summer read for sitting by the pool in the Italian sun. If you're looking for a quick, lighthearted read that's full of sunshine - read this. Rebecca Serle writes descriptions really well so I felt I was there with Katy the entire time. I was on the boat, I was in the hotel, I could feel the summer air (perhaps this is because I physically could but I believe Serle's writing had something to do with this also ;)
I wasn't a huge fan of Adam. I think he was a tad manipulative and clearly just wanted a summer fling. I didn't like the infidelity storyline but I understood why it was happening. That being said, Katy still made that choice and I don't like that it got swept under the rug and forgotten about.
The whole time travel plot was confusing. It was very clever but I think was a bit problematic and just difficult to understand.
Katy drinks so much wine oh my god. Every other page was her having a drink phaha. I tried not to judge but it was funny.
The plot twist was unexpected and a nice addition to the story - I felt the plot as a whole was potentially a little flat BUT I think the point of this story wasn't to have a heavy plot, but to make the reader feel something, and I did. I didn't sob like I thought as there really isn't as much Mother/Daughter heartbreak as is marketed I think. But the story and relationship is sweet none the less.
The quotes throughout are beautiful. This book was from the library but I'm for sure going to think about buying a copy to annotate next summer.
Majorie - Taylor Swift
Supermarket Flowers - Ed Sheeran
Graphic: Cancer, Infidelity, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
strawb3rrysugar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I understand why the MC is the way she is, to an extent (though it borders on emotional incest very often) - she's intentionally built up an image of her mother in her head and has a hard time looking at the world without Mom-tinted glasses. But her exploration of this dynamic and the characters' development is incredibly surface level, and it feels like you're admiring a Pinterest board more than a person who haunts the narrative. Not an atrocious read, just kind of meh.
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Moderate: Infidelity and Sexual content
Minor: Abandonment
There's two pretty brief sex scenes near the end of the book - descriptive, but not graphic. The central plot of the story has to do with the death of Katy's mother. A large subplot has to do with an affair Katy has with a man named Adam, but it's explained away by this weird time-travel mechanic.mamasuereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
2.5
Graphic: Cancer and Death of parent
Minor: Infidelity