One Italian Summer: 'Gentle and romantic. A holiday in itself' Rainbow Rowell Paperback

Lovely gentle YA romance - and set in one of the most gorgeous cities in the world, Rome - plus a side trip to Positano which was great too. The descriptions of food had me salivating. The characters are well drawn, and each has their own personality and depth. I read this book in the heat of a Spanish beach - and it was perfect - just like the title says 'a perfect summer read'.

I read this book between July 2nd and July 5th, 2020 and gave it four stars, but it was more like 4.5. At the beginning I thought it was a shorter and easier read than I'd anticipated, but it deals with heavy topics, so I took my time. The main character's dad recently died and she's had a very hard time with that, which is totally understandable. Milly, the main character, and her family, are flying from London, where they live, to Italy for Milly's aunt's wedding, and it all feels to weird without her dad around. Luke, who is Milly's cousin's best friend, will be joining them, and of course we know what that means, right?Turns out that Milly and Luke have some sort of a past, but things are not as cute and pretty as you'd expect from your typical YA book, because this isn't your typical YA book. And because it isn't, there is a conversation about Milly's sex drive and sexual desire, which I'd never read in YA before, or at least not normalizing women having a sexual desire in such an open and no-nonsense way before. That being said, I feel like this is a quieter book in terms of the hype that it got when it was released. If I hadn't found it via NetGalley, I don't think I would've found it at all. I would say it reminds me of Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson, although I read that book a while ago and I'm not sure if I feel the same way about it as I did when I first read it.

One Italian Summer was a breath of fresh air in YA. I read quite a bit of young adult novels and this one was definitely a fresh take on grieving the loss of a parent. This book brings us face-to-face with three sisters, the middle one, Milly, being the main character. When their aunt is getting married in Italy, they take a trip with their mother. But even though they are hoping it will somehow help heal the damage that the death of their father has taken on their family, reminders of time spent in Italy with him abound. A distraction never hurts though, and Milly definitely has one in her forever crush, her cousin's best friend, Luke.I love that this book was a beautiful blend of teen angst, the emotional aspect of grief, and love. It was sort of women's fiction meets young adult. I loved every bit of it and I absolutely adored the sisters. In fact, I would even go onto read another book with these characters. Definitely give this book a try!I was given this book via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

In One Italian Summer we meet Milly and her sisters, Elyse and Leonie. They have a really close relationship, even more after their dad's death a year go. As you can imagine, their grief is palpable during the whole story and the fact that their mother has chosen to hide in her work as her coping mechanism doesn't help the situation. This though makes you, as a reader, really care about these girls.I always enjoy reading about siblings and how they interact with each other. In this story, Milly and her sisters are a lot of fun to follow around, with their teasing, but it's also very warming to read how they support each other. I had really great expectations about this story after reading the first few chapters and I couldn't way to go to Rome with them.Rome is a place they have always shared with their father so there some tough moments for them, being back without him. Reading about him, as they reminisce, you feel even closer to them, as he really seemed like a great dad. And I think the author makes a good job of writing about grief and how it affects their day to day life.But as we discover Rome with them, a few more characters are introduced to the plot, including Luke, who had some kind of history with Milly but seems to be completely over her, kissing girls right and left. This is the part I enjoyed less, as I felt like some of the plots twits involving their relationship were a bit rushed and didn't fit with the whole tone of the story.When I first picked this book, I thought it would be a light cute summer read but I soon discovered that it has so much more. In depth emotions, especially grief and love, play big roles in this story and even if I didn't like all the plot lines as much as I had hoped, I did have a really nice time reading about these siblings. Although this is only my first book by Keris Stainton, I'm sure it won't be my last one.

Realism in speech and action is an unusual element in this coming-of-age and overcoming-grief novel set mainly in Rome, Italy. So often life gets sanitized in fiction.In this book, three English daughters and their mother take their yearly vacation to Italy after the death of the husband. All the women finally get a chance to deal with their grief, in different ways.The eighteen-year-old narrator (first person, present tense) finds that the loss of her father has put her life on hold. The summer in Italy jump starts it again. She encounters a crush, and deals with many stifled feelings with his help.There are sexual references and many vulgarities along the way, probably a very realistic depiction of most modern, young, English women. The acceptance by all of a gay character is lovely, and I truly hope it is realistic. Some of the English terms and expressions may not be familiar to all non-English readers.I received a review-copy of this book. This is my honest review.

Milly, Elyse and Leonie are sisters. They're preparing to go on holiday with their Mum for the first time since their Dad died. Their Mum isn't coping well - she's using work as a distraction, and the girls all have their own issues that they need to work through. Elyse is supposed to be moving in with her boyfriend, Milly is unsure whether or not to take her place at college, and Leonie is dealing with some personal changes. This is the holiday that will either make them or break them - can they learn to move on and deal with their grief? Or are they really broken as a family?This was a lovely book, it was somewhat of a surprise - I bought it as a Kindle Daily Deal because upon quick glance, it looked like a fluffy holiday summer thing and I thought it'd fit well into a blog post I'm doing. It turned out to be much deeper - I probably wouldn't have picked it up around my Dad's anniversary had I known it would be mainly about grieving - but I felt that it was a hopeful, comforting read. It's sad, very sad in places, but almost cathartic in a way too. There is a romance in here that's a little heavy on the "he's standing there and I want to lick his neck" stuff, but putting that aside I think there's a good story here.I will read more from this author, I liked her writing style, her sense of humour and the way that all her female characters were strong and feisty, but not bitchy.

So many people I know have read this book and loved it - and it IS really well written with a really good plot and likeable characters. BUT - I couldn't give this more stars because I found it incredibly depressing. The book deals with grief after the loss of a parent and the whole time I was reading it I had a sort of sick, worried feeling that was not pleasant. I read for pleasure and so this was too painful to be truly enjoyable. I found myself skimming over the more detailed descriptions of the main character's feelings of grief. I guess you could say this is a compliment to the author for writing a book that actually makes you FEEL things, but if anything she did her job too well.

Giving this book a 5* review based purely on the fact that it made me cry and books don't make me cry very often! As well as making me cry this book was so wonderfully written that it made me laugh and feel a whirlwind of emotions all at once. I honestly felt I was living this book as I was reading. One Italian Summer is an amazing YA that features loss, friendship, romance, drama and I only wish this book was longer - I loved it so much.The main characters are a trio of sisters I only wished I had; they're portrayed as best friends, believing they tell each other everything and supporting one another in a way only sisters can. The book is based in Italy, a place very dear to their hearts and they go away for what feels like could be their last summer as a complete family - before the sisters go their separate pathways in life. But they go in honour of their late father, as Italy is a place where they find parts of his soul/life everywhere they go.As they story plays out their is a love that unfolds that I'm sure we can all relate to, a "I want him, but does he want me too?" kind of tale; that makes you both happy and scream wishing that you could make the characters do as you want them to!Along side this, there is another romance. A secret romance. One that leads to drama and big decisions; one that is played out in the background of the book but soon becomes a major part of the story line.Although the book feels like it is set around typical teenage romance, the love feels pure and something much older than a first love. It is written so purely and portrayed in different ways - something for everyone to relate to and that's maybe why I like this book so much.But mostly, this book is about loss and letting go - how do you carry on when such a big part of you, your life and your soul has gone? How do you keep your family together when the foundations have cracked and the main component is no longer there to support?This book is heart breaking and relate-able. Touching. I honestly felt connected with the characters in a way you don't always get when reading a book. A wonderful summer read that covers so many important topics throughout.I wish everyone would read this book!

"Dad's Heart killed him and broke all of ours"One Italian Summer was a likeable characters and a quick read that held my attention in parts. Unfortunately I didn't love it, I could relate to Milly and her grief but the rest of the story was a bit blah!!!

This is a fun, enjoyable and light-hearted book. One that is thought-provoking and funny. The main character Izzy finds herself on a developmental journey which is relatable and fascinating. A really fun read.