Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Claire arrives at her new job as researcher at a grand English country house, nursing a broken heart. But tucked into the back of a long-forgotten drawer she finds a letter written in an elegant hand. It tells of a wartime secret about the beautiful Lady Violet – whose passionate affair with an Italian prisoner of war scandalised the village and ended in tragedy.
Captivated, Claire promises to find Violet’s daughter, Tabitha, and reunite her with a priceless piece of her mother’s jewellery. With only the name of an Italian bakery, Pasticceria Mancini, to guide her, and the help of her handsome neighbour Jim, Claire travels to Tabitha’s last known location – Florence.
Winding through the colourful streets, the sun warm on her bare shoulders, a tantalising scent of freshly baked bread floats on the air and Claire’s heart leaps at the sight of an ageing bakery sign: Mancini. Although she learns that Tabitha hasn’t been there for many years, Claire refuses to give up. And as she and Jim talk late into the night over glasses of local chianti, Claire looks into his piercing blue eyes and finds herself growing closer to him…
But when they finally track Tabitha down, it isn’t the happy reunion she expected and Claire is left reeling in the wake of discovering a devastating family secret.
Violet’s story has an ending – but will the truth lead to forgiveness, or will it only bring more pain? And will Claire be forced to walk away from a chance of happiness with Jim at last?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Florence Letter to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Florence Letter is the first book that I have read by Anita Chapman but it certainly won’t be my last. As soon as I started reading I quickly became engrossed in the dual timeline story that was unfolding which was full of twists and turns right until the very end. The comparisons to the writing of Lucinda Riley are very worthy and I could see echoes of this throughout and dare I say it Anita Chapman might just be the author that I have been searching for ever since I knew we would no longer have any books from one of my favourite ever authors. The title suggests that a lot of the story would be set in Florence but that wasn’t the case. This occurred more so towards the end but that didn’t disappoint me in the slightest as the story within the pages was strong enough that I wasn’t overly focused on the Italian aspect of the story as what was occurring was holding my attention and it had me rapidly turning the pages.
The book opens with a brief prologue. It’s March 2013 and Margaret is making one last effort to write a letter in order to fulfil a request to a friend. She has tried unsuccessfully several times before to complete this bequest. She is looking for someone called Tabitha who lived in Rose Cottage at Gately Hall during World War Two. Instantly, my interest was piqued. Who is Margaret and why is she so insistent that she must find this woman named Tabitha? What happened during the war and would this one final chance prove fruitful? These questions stayed with me as I delved deeper into the story and I was hoping to find firm and solid answers for them all.
The book then focuses on Claire and it’s January 2015 and she has just started a new job at Gately Hall which is in Surrey. She will live at Rose Cottage and work as a research and exhibition officer. She had worked as a curator in an art gallery but she needed a change following upheaval and stress in her life. Her father has passed away and the day after the funeral she had broken up with her partner Miles. She has no ties now and is eager to throw herself into her new job and curate her first exhibition once she can decide on a subject matter. Coming to Gately Hall was a means of escape for Claire. A chance to reset, reassess and process the grief and the hall offers that peace and comfort that she has been seeking
Claire discovers a book called Mrs. Field’s Diary, a book written as part of the mass observations of the war. This gives her an idea for the exhibition and whilst sorting through documents at the hall she falls upon a letter from Margaret looking for Tabitha. A spark is ignited within Claire and she is determined to help fulfil her quest before it’s too late. Finding the letter gives her a focus and I loved how determined she became. The words within the letter struck a cord within her and she also felt that it would make a good story and promote the hall and attract more visitors.
From this point on the chapters effortlessly move back and forth between the present and the war years and to be honest I found the chapters set in the past were really holding my attention more so that Claire’s developing story in the present. It’s not that Claire’s aspect of the plot wasn’t interesting. It was. I just felt completely caught up in the events of the past and there were so many twists and turns there that had my jaw dropping at some points. I loved Claire as a character for her determination and fortitude. The letter ignited something in her and she wouldn’t rest until she had all the answers even if some of the revelations were very surprising and a bit closer to home which she never would have contemplated in the first place. Claire was the one piecing together the pieces of the jigsaw and she needed to be present in the story to bind together the past and the present but Margaret’s story in the past and how she slotted into the overall picture was fascinating.
At the halfway point if felt to me that potentially the book could have been wrapped up pretty quickly. It needed a big twist but for me it came too early. I would have much rather been kept in suspense for much longer. Therefore the second half felt very different to the first in that it had more of a modern feel to it as Claire ventures to Italy in order to potentially find Tabitha. But the last quarter or so of the book had me falling in love with the story all over again and I realised my assumptions regrading the halfway point weren’t fully correct and that in fact the author had everything so carefully and expertly plotted and it reminded me of dual timeline books that had kept me riveted in the past. I love the element of surprise in that you firmly believe one thing because the writing has made you think and feel that way and then within a turn of the page a curveball is thrown and all you have thought to be correct is thrown out the window and the wool has been pulled over your eyes but in the best of ways.
So, what of the aspect of the story that focuses on World War Two. Well here is where we come to learn of Margaret. A city girl who finds herself jobless thanks to the bombings in London. She is given no choice but to leave London and travel to Surrey where her Aunt Edith resides but adjusting to country life after the hustle and bustle of the city will prove challenging. She soon gets a job as ladies maid to Lady Violet at Gately Hall and Edith urges her to keep her own diary observing what is going on in a wealthy family during the war years. Margaret is like a fish out of water in her new setting and feels that working as a servant is a step backwards for her after all she had achieved as a shop girl. But she soon comes to realise that life is not dull and boring in the country especially with Lady Violet around. A tentative but at times distant friendship is struck between the pair as Lady Violet’s husband is away in London. Margaret becomes accustomed to the rules and regulations of the hall and comes to understand that she will observe things that perhaps some people want secret.
Margaret meets Luca, an Italian prisoner of war, who is working on the farm run by the estate. She falls very quickly for him, hard and fast which seemed a bit unrealistic as they barely knew each other. But the author had a lot in store regarding this aspect of the storyline and to say things took a very surprising turn would be an understatement. I felt Margaret had to bottle up her own feelings and over time she became the conduit to the telling of another story. That she perhaps took a back seat and here is where her observations took over. She had to hide things and sacrifice her own feelings and come to comprehend that this wasn’t about her but rather someone else. The actions of these other person would reverberate for many years right down to Claire. Margaret’s journey goes on a different trajectory to what I would have initially thought it would have paned out to be. There are many layers that are peeled back as Claire ventures deeper into discovering what went on in the past as she tries to complete a quest that was issued during the war.The story started to span several generations and there were numerous unexpected reveals that had me thinking oh this really is a brilliant story and it reignited my passion for reading this genre of books which I had found myself becoming a bit jaded by.
The Florence Letter is a brilliant read and one which I really enjoyed from beginning to end. It’s easy to escape into Claire and Margaret’s worlds and see how they collide. There is a lot of pain for the characters and forgiveness will need to occur before any final resolution will be played out. Overall, this book was very well written but as previously mentioned don’t expect a full blown story set in Italy because this is not the case despite the title. None the less, it is a real page turner and I very much look forward to reading more from Anita Chapman in the future.
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