Emma's Review: Child of the Ruins by Kate Furnivall

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Two families divided by war.
An entire city on the edge of disaster.

1948, Berlin. World War II has ended and there is supposed to be peace; but Russian troops have closed all access to the city. Roads, railway lines and waterways are blocked and two million people are trapped, relying on airlifts of food, water and medicine to survive. The sharp eyes of the Russian state police watch everything; no one can be trusted.

Anna and Ingrid are both searching for answers - and revenge - in the messy aftermath of war. They understand that survival comes only by knowing what to trade: food; medicine; heirlooms; secrets. Both are living in the shadows of a city where the line between right and wrong has become dangerously blurred.

But they cannot give up in the search for a lost child ... 

Book Links: Kindle or Hardcover

Emma's Review: The Guardian of Lies by Kate Furnivall

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

1953, the South of France. The fragile peace between the West and Soviet Russia hangs on a knife edge. And one family has been torn apart by secrets and conflicting allegiances.

Eloïse Caussade is a courageous young Frenchwoman, raised on a bull farm near Arles in the Camargue. She idolises her older brother, André, and when he leaves to become an Intelligence Officer working for the CIA in Paris to help protect France, she soon follows him. Having exchanged the strict confines of her father's farm for a life of freedom in Paris, her world comes alive. 

But everything changes when André is injured - a direct result of Eloise's actions. Unable to work, André returns to his father’s farm, but Eloïse’s sense of guilt and responsibility for his injuries sets her on the trail of the person who attempted to kill him.

Eloïse finds her hometown in a state of unrest and conflict. Those who are angry at the construction of the American airbase nearby, with its lethal nuclear armaments, confront those who support it, and anger flares into violence, stirred up by Soviet agents. Throughout all this unrest, Eloïse is still relentlessly hunting down the man who betrayed her brother and his country, and she is learning to look at those she loves and at herself with different eyes. She no longer knows who she can trust. Who is working for Soviet Intelligence and who is not? And what side do her own family lie on?

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Survivors by Kate Furnivall

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

'Directly I saw him, I knew he had to die.’

Germany, 1945. Klara Janowska and her daughter Alicja have walked for weeks to get to Graufeld Displaced Persons camp. In the cramped, dirty, dangerous conditions they, along with 3,200 others, are the lucky ones. They have survived and will do anything to find a way back home.

But when Klara recognises a man in the camp from her past, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins.

He knows exactly what she did during the war to save her daughter.

She knows his real identity.

What will be the price of silence? And will either make it out of the camp alive?

Amazon Affiliate Link: Kindle 

Emma's Review: The Betrayal by Kate Furnivall

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Could you kill someone? Someone you love?

Paris, 1938. Twin sisters are divided by fierce loyalties and by a terrible secret. The drums of war are beating and France is poised, ready to fall. One sister is an aviatrix, the other is a socialite and they both have something to prove and something to hide. 

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Liberation by Kate Furnivall

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

The Liberation is set in Italy in 1945 as British and American troops attempt to bring order to the devastated country and Italy’s population fights to survive. Caterina Lombardi is desperate – her father is dead, her mother has disappeared and her brother is being drawn towards danger. 

One morning, among the ruins of the bombed Naples streets, Caterina is forced to go to extreme lengths to protect her own life and in doing so forges a future in which she must clear her father's name. An Allied Army officer accuses him of treason and Caterina discovers a plot against her family. 

Who can she trust and who is the real enemy now? And will the secrets of the past be her downfall?

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Author Interview: Kate Furnviall

When we were asked to be part of The Italian Wife blog tour it was a no brainer for me as to who to ask for some questions for Kate Furnivall, and that was Emma as she's read all of Kate's previous books and loved The Italian Wife which she reviewed last week. 

Hi Shaz and Emma, thanks for inviting me here today.

Your new book The Italian Wife is set during Mussolini’s time in power and the race to make Italy a self-sufficient country. What drew you to this point in history and did you make any surprising discoveries during your research?
I have always loved Italy. But it wasn’t until I heard about Mussolini’s extraordinary feat in the 1930s when he drained the Pontine Marshes, a huge malarial swamp, that it triggered a thrilling story in my mind. The reclamation was a massive undertaking and sparked fierce political power struggles, and into this cauldron of Fascist danger, I decided to place an idealistic but ambitious young woman. She is the only female architect working on the new town they are building on the drained land. I knew I had a dramatic and emotional story to tell as Isabella struggles to fight corruption. With the help of the official photographer, Roberto, she works to discover the truth about what happened ten years earlier to her husband who was one of Mussolini’s Blackshirt militia. It was an important and tense period of history that I feel deserves to be better known.

As for surprises, oh yes! It is one of the joys of research. I had no idea that under Mussolini’s dictatorship Italian men were excused from paying tax if they had ten or more children. Those poor wives!

Did you know how the book was going to go before you started the writing process or did the characters take over and change the direction of the novel? 
I always start a book with a skeleton plot in my mind, but it has to have big holes in it to allow the characters to climb out and drag me off in unexpected directions. I had no idea that Isabella would get herself arrested and interrogated! Or that Roberto would risk everything by helping a farming family escape to the mountains in the dead of night. That’s what makes it exciting for me. I never know exactly what is coming next. But I always make sure that I know how a book will end before I start it.

I thought Isabella was a fantastically written character. Powerful and strong despite all she had been through. Do you think she would have been a rarity for that time?
1932 was a bad time for women in Italy. Mussolini had launched his Battle for Births scheme to increase the country’s workforce, so women were expected to stay at home and make bambini and cook pasta. Isabella is the only female architect working on the project and has to prove herself time and again to be better than her male colleagues if she is to survive. So yes, she is a rarity, pushing doors open for the first time. And it is this that makes her clash with Mussolini himself.

Guest Book Review: Kate Furnivall - The Italian Wife

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Italy, 1932 -- Mussolini's Italy is growing from strength to strength, but at what cost? 

One bright autumn morning, architect Isabella Berotti sits at a café in the vibrant centre of Bellina, when a woman she's never met asks her to watch her ten-year-old daughter, just for a moment. Reluctantly, Isabella agrees -- and then watches in horror as the woman climbs to the top of the town's clock tower and steps over the edge. 

This tragic encounter draws vivid memories to the surface, forcing Isabella to probe deeper into the secrets of her own past as she tries to protect the young girl from the authorities. Together with charismatic photographer Roberto Falco, Isabella is about to discover that secrets run deeper, and are more dangerous, than either of them could have possibly imagined...

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Books Read: Kate Furnivall - Shadows on the Nile

'I'll find him. I will.'

It's 1932 and 27-year-old Jessica is living London life to the full when her younger brother Tim, an ancient Egyptian archaeology expert, goes missing. Teaming up with Sir Montague Chamford - who can resist neither a damsel in distress nor the chance of adventure - Jessie vows to find her beloved brother.

Following the clues Tim has left in his wake, Jessie and Monty head to Egypt. In the relentless heat of the desert, romance is kindled between them, but danger also lurks in every shadow. And then Jessie starts to wonder how much Monty really knows about her brother's disappearance...