Women’s Fiction published by Atria Books 01 Mar 22
I discovered Rebecca Serle just about two years ago when I read In Five Years. That book was an absolute delight, surprised the hell out of me as I read, and I still remember a lot of it to this day. I believed then that Ms. Serle had outdone herself with that story. I wasn’t totally wrong, although this latest release comes very, very close to proving perhaps I was full of hot air back then. Very close. But IFY is still one of my favorite reads, and OIS is not too far behind.
Katy has come to Positano, Italy after her mother’s death – a trip they had planned together, hoping they had time before illness claimed Carol. That didn’t happen, and Katy’s devastation has caused her to question everything, including her marriage. At first being in this beautiful, historical village may not be what she needs, seeing all the places and things her mother saw on her trip when she was a young woman. It’s painful to experience it all without the one person who loved and understood her more than anyone else.
But after a few days of sightseeing and enjoying real Italian food, Katy has to be having a hallucination – her mother is standing in the lobby of Hotel Poseidon. But this Carol is thirty years younger, just starting the happiest time of her life. It can’t be. But it is. As the two women become friends and get to know one another, Katy begins to see Carol as not just her mother but a carefree woman who has yet to come into her own. Of course, there are always secrets and Katy has to come to grips with her mom’s as they are revealed. This second chance of having her mother with her once again is not exactly as she’d originally envisioned.
In between all of this, Katy also meets Adam, a young American man in Positano on business. Adam wants more than friendship from her, but Katy has to slow down when she thinks of her husband thousands of miles away at home, patiently waiting for her to find herself after excruciating grief. Then we’re thrown for a loop when Katy discovers this miracle of having her mom with her again is not what it seems. I enjoyed that unexpected loop after thinking it was something else through the entire book, something I’ve to expect in Ms. Serle’s books to this point.
Mothers and daughters, unrelenting loss, finding yourself again, realizing like Dorothy you have everything right in your own backyard, this book will pull you in with all the emotions and feels to keep you reading until all is out in the open and life begins again. I highly recommend this story, along with In Five Years. Both stellar reads.
Grade: A
Summary:
When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.
But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and, of course, delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.
And then Carol appears—in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned, and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how—all she can focus on is that she has somehow, impossibly, gotten her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. She is not exactly who Katy imagined she might be, however, and soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.
Rebecca Serle’s next great love story is here, and this time it’s between a mother and a daughter. With her signature “heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic” (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) prose, Serle has crafted a transcendent novel about how we move on after loss, and how the people we love never truly leave us.
No excerpt available.
