Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Tuscany, 1944. Did she fight for the resistance or betray her people?
When the Nazis storm into northern Italy, Contessa Evelina Messina, the owner of the beautiful Villa Rosa, welcomes the Germans to her valley. In a dazzling rose silk dress, she entertains soldiers with priceless wine from her ancient cellars. Privately, she tells the townspeople this will keep the enemy at bay, but her disguise is so good, it is impossible to tell on which side her heart truly belongs…
Years later, American Annie Reynolds gazes up at the peach-coloured walls of the magnificent, empty house. Grieving deeply for her beloved father, Annie remembers his last words before he slipped away—he told her she was adopted and that the Villa Rosa was her birthright. Desperate for answers, Annie’s heart breaks when the locals tell her the Contessa had a child with a Nazi. She is devastated and ready to turn away from her dark past.
But everything changes when Annie uncovers a musty old diary from 1944 amongst the Contessa’s belongings. Pages have been meticulously cut out and Annie is sure these missing entries hold the clue to her past. As she frantically searches old papers, Annie sees how hard the Contessa worked to keep her people safe and wonders if the locals’ stories are wrong. Can Annie find the Contessa’s missing child, born at the end of the war? And will discovering the truth about what happened alter the course of her own life for good?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of An Italian Secret to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
An Italian Secret is the first in the Daughters of Italy series by Ella Carey. I love books set in Italy during World War Two as at times I feel I have become too accustomed to reading books set in Germany during this time so having a different setting is very refreshing. There is a superb sense of time and place throughout this book with such vivid descriptions and imagery that make you feel as if you have been transported to Tuscany. The valley and village of Cortona where the story is set come alive through the pages. You can visualise what beautiful area it is full of olive groves, cypress trees, hills and gardens but that during the war the residents lived in a constant state of fear under Mussolini’s rule and even more so when the Germans invaded their little oasis of peace and calm.
The story is told in a dual timeline format moving back and forth between the present day and 1944. Chapters alternate between Cara and Annie’s perspectives and whilst reading you are keen to discover what is the link between the pair, if any, and just what happened during the later stages of the war that led to the beautiful Villa Rosa being abandoned for so long. In the present day Annie lives in California where she is a chef. Her mother died several years ago and she has an older brother and sister. Her father’s health has been failing for quite some time and he has retreated into himself and the past. Annie is called to his bedside and he has the chance to tell her there is a letter in his desk for her. When he passes she discovers the letter with two keys, it details that she has inherited a property in Tuscany. She knew nothing of this nor that her parentage is not what she thought it was. With the one constant in her life gone Annie decides there is nothing for it but to travel to Italy and see what is there. She always thought she knew who she was but now she has to figure out who this new person is and why has she long felt a connection to Italy.
Annie arrives in Italy to find Luca, a landscape gardener, working at the beautiful but abandoned Villa Rosa. The gardens have been left to run wild but instantly Annie can see what beauty was once there but there is a shadow or sadness there too within the house. What secrets does it hold and how has she come to inherit it? Luca wonders who she is and claims that she is not the rightful heir that a man named Sandro is. Sandro soon arrives to the villa and it’s clear he feels very entitled and is not willing to share the exact truth with Annie. His grandfather was the son of the owners the Contessa Evelina Messina and her husband and he believes that he has a direct connection and the villa belongs to his family. He wants to turn the villa into a corporate business which is the complete opposite to Annie’s wishes. Even though she is just newly arrived in the area she feels at home there and she can envisage the gardens transformed to what they once were and she herself using the produce for cooking wonderful meals and entertaining.
As there is no firm evidence to suggest that Annie is the heir. A battle of sorts ensues between the pair but until there is something concrete Annie is not giving up. I admired this about her, that she didn’t lay down and accept what Sandro had said as she knew there had to be a firm reason as to why her father wrote that letter and she is in possession of the keys. She wasn’t going down without a fight and with Luca by her side who becomes more than just a source of help she was determined to dig deep and uncover who she was and why according to locals a source of shame surrounds the villa. I loved the element of mystery throughout the book but I felt there could have been a bit more searching and uncovering as things seemed to happen very quickly. A few more twists and turns throughout the book rather than very near the end would have been great. Instead of getting everything in one fell swoop.
In the past we follow Cara, who is secretary to the Contessa. A horrific incident which leads to the death of her father encourages to take part in partisan activities in the valley. The partisans and resistance are determined to rid the area of Germans and with the Allies approaching the sense of urgency increases. Cara has to be wary as the Contessa is on the German side and entertaining German officers. Her son Nicolas has long left the villa and her younger son Raf although not living in the villa is very much featured in the story. Raf is very much against what his mother stands for and can no longer contemplate living in the villa. Cara and Raf have a connection which has been thwarted by the Contessa and her personal views and actions. Coming from different backgrounds and social classes they should not be together but when one feels a spark and love developing really one should pursue this rather than quashing it.
I loved that Raf was the complete opposite to his mother and I wanted to know even more about his involvement in activities in the area. Cara spurred on by what has happened to her ventures down a dark and dangerous path but I was rooting for her all the way. She was brave and fearless and was well aware of the bigger picture and what the results of her and many others actions could potentially be. As I was reading through Cara’s chapters, I was constantly seeking clues that would perhaps reveal the connection to Annie’s story in the past. I had a slight inkling but wasn’t 100% correct which I was glad for as I do like to be surprised when the reveals in a book do finally come to the fore.
I really enjoyed the book as a whole but I felt the chapters were too short. That there was too much chopping and changing between the two timelines. I was equally invested in both strands of the story but this rapid movement from one viewpoint to another made the book feel slightly disjointed. I felt I was only getting into a chapter and then it ended suddenly. A lot of Annie’s chapters ended on cliff hangers which in one way was great because it kept you reading on and I was dying to know what would happen next but then on the other hand I found myself abruptly jerked back to the past or vice versa. If the chapters had been a bit longer this would have helped. At times, it read as if there were two separate stories and that I might have been better off reading all of Annie’s chapters and then Cara’s or else I was racing through chapters to get back to a character and not fully absorbing what I was reading. This makes it sound as if I didn’t enjoy the book but that’s not the case I loved the concept of the entire story and as I have said the setting was magnificent and the plot itself very strong. It’s just I would have preferred a bit more fleshing out of detail within chapters.
I found the book ended very abruptly at the 82% mark. I thought I had a fair bit to go and then all of a sudden that was it, there was no more and I could have read on. There was a rush of info given in order to tie things up and I struggled to digest the connections and family heritage so I reread the final chapters again to make sure I had everything right. I wanted to be sure that I knew how people connected and what their motivations were for doing certain things. Given this is book one, I hope the story will continue on with these characters as I feel there is more to come from them. If this doesn’t happen and we are introduced to new characters in book two I hope at least we get a paragraph or two detailing what happened next or even if they were background characters that would be great. An Italian Secret certainly lived up to the title and whilst reading all I was constantly wondering what are the connections? Will Anna discover the truth of her heritage or will shame reign upon the family forever? This is a very good read despite some of the issues I had with the structure and length of the book. I will definitely be back to read book two as the series shows enormous potential.
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