Finished: One Italian Summer (Serle) A very moving book about a thirty year old woman who goes into an emotional tailspin when she loses her mother, who is her everything. Katy is happily married to Eric, but she has counted on her mother her entire life for advice, companionship, wisdom, how to everything from cooking to party planning to interior design. An only child, Katy and her mother are extremely close. So, when her mother dies after a lengthy illness, Katy decides to go on the final trip they had planned together to Positano, Italy, her mother's dream spot. Her mother, Carol, had spent time there before meeting her father, and it had been the most magical place and magical time of her life. Carol had planned the entire itinerary (of course) and planned to show Katy around and tell her about all her memories. Katy, in her tailspin, tells her husband before she goes that she's not even sure she wants to be married to him any more. It's only been five years, but Katy is suddenly questioning everything. When she gets to Positano, she falls in love with the town, the beauty, and mostly the feeling she gets of how the old world has come crashing into her life. She is enamored, but still heavily grieving. She meets a very charming man, Adam, who is there to possibly buy the Poseidon Hotel, the family owned hotel her mother had fallen in love with, and where she is staying. They have a pretty instant chemistry, but Katy does have Eric on her mind and still isn't sure where her marriage is going. As Katy begins to explore, with plans to follow her mother's itinerary, she can't believe it when she comes face to face with her own mother...her mother thirty years ago, when she herself was thirty!! Katy can't believe it, but it is definitely Carol and Katy is mesmerized. They become friends quickly as Katy gets to know this incarnation of her mother. As different facts come to light about Carol and her future desires, and as Katy grows closer to both Carol and Adam, things come to an emotional head and take a very surprising turn. In the end, Katy at last figures out who she wants to be as a woman and realizes she actually CAN do that and make a path forward for herself without her mother there to guide her. Is that path with Eric or Adam? It's a great story and beautifully written!