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TOP FIVE SUMMER READS
Have you considered an Italian getaway for your next holiday? We’ve picked out a few of our favourite and unique locations that you will love this summer or the sunny seasons to come!
ONE ITALIAN SUMMER REBECCA SERLE
When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. To make matters worse, the mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer 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, healthy and sun-tanned... and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how - all she can focus on is that somehow, impossibly, she has her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman who came before.
UNDER ITALIAN SKIES NICKY PELLEGRINO
After Stella’s boss dies suddenly, she’s left with nothing to do apart from clear the studio. It seems as though the life she wanted has vanished. She is lost - until one day she finds a house swap website and sees a beautiful old villa in a southern Italian village. Could she really exchange her poky London flat for that? But what was just intended as a break becomes much more, as Stella finds herself trying on a stranger’s life. Can Stella overcome her grief and find her way into a new future?
AN ITALIAN HOLIDAY MAEVE HARAN
Springtime in glorious Southern Italy can go to your head. Especially if you are escaping an overbearing husband, the embarrassingly public loss of your company, an interfering mother who still tries to run your life or the pain of a husband’s affair with a girl young enough to be his daughter.
As the Italian sun ripens the lemons in the groves that tumble down the hillsides and the Mediterranean dazzles beneath them, assertive Angela, extrovert Sylvie, unconfident Claire and mousy Monica find burgeoning friendship and begin to blossom in quite unexpected ways.
Lucia has worked hard as a lawyer in Wales, aiming for a big promotion she hopes will shortly come her way. Finally taking a well-earned break at her grandparents’ house in southern Italy, the sunshine, lemon trees and her nonna’s mouth-watering cooking make her instantly feel at home.
But she’s shocked to learn that her grandfather is retiring from the beloved family pizzeria and will need to sell. Lucia can’t bear the thought of the place changing hands - especially when she discovers her not-quite-exhusband Giacomo wants to take it over!
AN ITALIAN SUMMER FANNY BLAKE
Sandy is in her fifties and at a crossroads in her life: she’s a teacher and respected by her pupils, but she feels she is being side-lined in favour of younger colleagues. So, when her mother dies, leaving her a sealed envelope addressed to an unknown woman living in Naples, Sandy decides to head to Italy to resolve the mystery by delivering the letter herself. She books herself on to a small sightseeing trip from Rome to Naples and the Amalfi Coast, hoping to meet some like-minded people along the way. Who is the mysterious woman she is searching for? And will Sandy find friendship, or even love, along the way...?
