Well color me pleasantly surprised!
For a while I thought this would be an average 3 star read for me, since some truly insufferable characters were being pretty evenly balanced with how well this book made me feel absolutely transported to Italy 🇮🇹🍝🌊☀️
But then, lo! The story includes the protagonist recognizing what about her life is problematic, and then her decision to address it, making it a more satisfying read.
Katy is 30 years old when her mother, Carol, dies. She is lost without “the love of her life”, the woman who had all the answers, the person she defined herself in relation to. She decides to go by herself to Italy on the trip she and her mother were supposed to take together. While there she meets, among other people…her mother, 30 years ago!
Katy is emotionally stunted, has dysfunctional family relationships, and makes some poor choices while grieving. But by whatever magic her trip to Positano has created to allow her to see a past version of her mother, Katy begins to see that Carol was also only human. She learns that she’ll need to work on herself and learn who she is now that her mother is gone before moving forward.
“She made me in her image, but she forgot the most important part. She forgot that one day she’d leave, that she already had, and then I’d be left with nothing. When you’re just a reflection, what happens when the image vanishes?”
This was a touching story featuring personal growth, set against the flavors of the Amalfi Coast. A great summer read!
Jessica Crawford 