4/5
This was a great summer read (I read this one in the summer of 2022) for wanting to feel transported! Very different from anything I’ve read before — in a good way!
"The Amalfi Cost is not so much splayed out before us as beckoning us closer."
The author, Serle, did an excellent job describing Positano and everything the main character was experiencing — I could not only clearly picture everything but I could feel, taste, and hear everything too.
The mother-daughter relationship in this book is so beautiful and perfectly told. Just a few pages in and you really grasp the importance of their relationship and the immense love they have for each other.
The only reasons I didn’t give it a 5 out of 5 was because:
1. The Italian characters sometimes felt like stereotypes and
2. There’s a small, “magic” element in the book that’s not explained super well and is just kinda weird. The magic element isn’t bad and does add to the escapism of the book, but I kept waiting for an explanation and never got one.
Just finished this!! I loved it!!