Giulia Goes to War (Legacy of Honor Series) by Joan Leotta

Looking for a gift for a hyphenated Italian tween or teen? Or know an adult who enjoys clean historical fiction featuring hyphenated Italians? If yes, then this series of novellas may be for you. The author has four books in her Legacy of Honor Series, each featuring hyphenated Italians serving in a war effort for the United States of America.

Volume One: Giulia Goes to War is about a young first generation Italian-American during World War II. She wants to join in the war effort just like her two brothers who are in the military, and her parents who work on the home front collecting resources for the military equipment factories.

Giulia gets what she wants when she starts work at a plant near home, but then she gets much more than she bargained for with a love interest and an adventure that involves national security.

The love story between two people from very different backgrounds shows up the conservatism of the era (1943+) when like married like, and the twain did not mix. Other social elements of the era come through too, like the sexism, segregation, patriotism, entertainments, communication, and marriage traditions.

The book is rich with historical detail but it never bogs the story down. The author has a clear, clean and polished writing style. Her warmth and understanding of the immigrant experience shines through. She has a clear loves of Italian culture.

This book, and the others in the Legacy of Honor Series, should appeal to tweens, teens and adults who like clean romances set in the past, enlivened by some intrigue and adventure. If you are a hyphenated Italian, you should enjoy these books even more. I think they would make a great gift for young ladies who like to learn more about history through fiction.

Legacy of Honor Series:

• Volume One: Giulia Goes to War
• Volume Two: Letters from Korea
• Volume Three: A Bowl of Rice
• Volume Four: Secrets of the Heart

Volume One: Giulia Goes to War

From the book's description:

Wartime work draws Giulia DeBartolo out of her close Western Pennsylvania family into a world of intrigue, spies and new friends in Wilmington, North Carolina's shipyard building Liberty ships. Giulia soon discovers supporting the war effort can include fun evenings like dancing with young servicemen at the local USO. It is at one of these dances she meets John O'Shea, an unsuitable suitor according to her old-fashioned parents.

As they grapple with the problems of their own budding relationship, John and Giulia encounter a Nazi spy tasked with blowing up part of the Wilmington shipyard. Saving the shipyard from the spy may prove easier than convincing her parents to let her marry John. Giulia must decide what it means to be a good daughter while still following her own heart.

Volume Two: Letters From Korea

From the book's description:

Sal sends Gina (Giulia's sister) newsy letters from Korea and in turn, Gina's talk about Matt's daily flower gifts. Will her ploy make Sal realize he loves her, or backfire on her and discourage him?

The situation becomes more complex when Sal meets a Korean widow with a young child who offers to teach Sal, a pharmacist, the herbal cures of Korea. Of course, Gina is jealous. The relationship between Gina and Sal is about to take a turn for the worse when Sal loses his leg in a bombing attempt to free one of the North Korean prisoners.

At home, Gina finds that someone has made her the scapegoat for stolen files from the Salk polio research project where she works. Fortunately for the two of them, they have a Legacy of Honor in their families they can rely on to help them overcome their difficulties and maybe their own stubbornness about each other as well.

Volume Three: A Bowl of Rice

From the book's description:

Anna Maria O'Shea (Giulia's daughter) became a nurse to continue her family's Legacy of Honor.

In choosing to stick to her commitment to service she looses her long-time college love. The pain of war is stronger than her private heartache.

Is Mark, the handsome physician, the balm her soul needs? Or is it George who will claim heal her wounds with a love that transcends war and the pain she sees all around her?

Volume Four: Secrets of the Heart

From the book's description:

In the middle of the night in January, 1865, two Union soldiers set out on a reconnaissance mission just before the battle of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. Rinaldo DeBartolo wants to finish the mission and to return to Italy and his sweetheart, Emilia. When he and his partner, Walter discover hidden gold, a trail of secrets begins.

That trail winds through the Italian unification, two world wars and a tangle of immigration to reach into Rome Italy in the 1990s at the time of Desert Storm. There the descendants of the American De Bartolo family meet Rinaldo's descendants.

Kathy Ann, the youngest of the clan is working a gap year as a journalist. Her writing endeavors and the family's reunion become complicated by romance, stolen art, and the discovery that not all secrets, even family secrets, are good ones.

Please visit the author's website/blog.

For information on Italians in Pennsylvania. 

This book is available for those who want to know more about Italians of Northeastern Pennsylvania (by Stephanie Longo)

From the book's description:

Every Labor Day weekend, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Courthouse Square in Scranton for the largest ethnic festival in northeastern Pennsylvania: La Festa Italiana. The Italians of this region have been proudly celebrating their heritage since their arrival in this country with traditional festivals, including La Corsa dei Ceri in Jessup and Dunmore’s procession in honor of St. Rocco. Using vintage and recent photographs, Italians of Northeastern Pennsylvania shows how the Italian immigrants to this area, some of whom arrived with little more than the clothes on their back, became well-respected community leaders. Through hard work and dedication, they have made northeastern Pennsylvania into an area that defines the term “ethnic pride.”

The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith

This is probably one for readers who enjoy Raymond Chandler books and the film Casablanca. The author uses the hard-boiled style to present a tough-guy love story set in the era when Italy went truly, totally bonkers: the end of WWII. The spare style is best appreciated if you picture the text as a film playing in your mind.

Family, rivalry, friendship, loyalties, prejudice, politics, pop culture and military culture all mix together in this well-researched book. Through it all we are shown how the exhausted Italians just tried to keep their heads down and emotions doused so they could make it through to the end of the horrible nightmare. Clinging to daily rituals and pretending that the outside world was more fiction than reality, the inhabitants of Venice feel very real in this story.

Readers will get the most out of the story if they have a basic understanding of the history of the era. Briefly, after insanely embracing Mussolini, a megalomaniacal bully, criminal, misogynistic, pathological liar who promised the world and more to the poor country, Italy then came to its senses and switched sides in the war Mussolini signed them up to. Then they had to fight a war against Nazis while at the same time fighting a civil war between opposing Italian political sides.

To top up the insanity, an embattled and increasingly bonkers Mussolini established a fantasy Republic of Salo in northern Italy where he deluded himself into believing he could hang on to power. The author takes the reader into that crazy place at a certain point in the novel, and portrays the crackpot enablers of the dictator very ably, bringing to mind the evil, manipulative minions in the classic 1945 Rossellini film Roma, Citta Aperta.

The tough-guy with a broken heart protagonist of the book, the Venetian fisherman Cenzo, has shut himself down to make it through the war. He fishes, sleeps, eats and broods until he fishes up a young Venetian woman, Giulia, who escaped a purge of Jewish prisoners. She brings him back to life, and through the course of the book, she becomes the reason he reengages with the insanity around him, putting him in contact with the Republic of Salo and the forces fighting in Italy on all sides.

At first, refined Giulia is seen thus by jaded, coarse Cenzo:

The girl was a brief interruption in his life and the less he knew about her, the better.

Occasionally we see the story from Giulia's perspective, but mainly the narration is from Cenzo's perspective, which reflects the Italian perspective at that time.

Then you switch sides in the middle of a war, it gets very confusing.

The first part of the book is the reawakening of Cenzo that comes through his discussions with Giulia as he teaches her his fisherman's craft. Like therapy, describing what he loves most in life, what keeps him sane when the world around his is off its rocker, helps Cenzo open up to Giulia. He even comes to care about her troubles.

...he found his own miseries reduced in size when he focused on hers.

Acts Two and Three of the novel then move the reawakened Cenzo into the world of spying, the retreating German Nazis, the rival partisan factions, and the wacko Republic of Salo. There is some violence but this is not a gory book. There is some sex, but suggested only, not in scene. There are family rivalries that become explained as the story progresses, explaining some of Cenzo's resentments and his heartbreak. Cenzo is a tough-guy who falls for a waif and tries to protect her in the middle of a world gone crazy.

The author is a wonderful writer with a distinctive style that will appeal to his loyal fans. Some readers may find the spare, butch, hard-boiled style not to their liking. I suggest sticking with it, and being an active reader, visualizing the story as it is told, and empathizing with the characters to understand their feelings. The style is for perceptive, informed readers who don't need, or want, everything spelled out. The plot is unraveled at the end with a clear explanation for the reader.

For Italophiles, the book offers a look at an odd moment in Italy's history, but from a different, more personal angle than found in history books. Brush up on the history beforehand, then enjoy the details that come out from the author's in depth research, along with the tender tough-guy love story.

From the book's description:

The highly anticipated new standalone novel from Martin Cruz Smith, whom The Washington Post has declared “that uncommon phenomenon: a popular and well-regarded crime novelist who is also a writer of real distinction,” The Girl from Venice is a suspenseful World War II love story set against the beauty, mystery, and danger of occupied Venice.

Venice, 1945. The war may be waning, but the city known as La Serenissima is still occupied and the people of Italy fear the power of the Third Reich. One night, under a canopy of stars, a fisherman named Cenzo comes across a young woman’s body floating in the lagoon and soon discovers that she is still alive and in trouble.

Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Giulia is on the run from the SS. Cenzo chooses to protect Giulia rather than hand her over to the Nazis. This act of kindness leads them into the world of Partisans, random executions, the arts of forgery and high explosives, Mussolini’s broken promises, the black market and gold, and, everywhere, the enigmatic maze of the Venice Lagoon.

The Girl from Venice is a thriller, a mystery, and a retelling of Italian history that will take your breath away. Most of all it is a love story.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

The Bone Keepers (Mythmakers Trilogy) by James LePore and Carlos Davis

The Bone Keepers is book three in a historical conspiracy thriller trilogy.  There are no cliffhangers, so one can read each book and get a very satisfying story with each one, independent of the others.  Like many books in this genre, sometimes called the "Dan Brown" genre, the Catholic church plays a central role, as do long held secrets.

The story moves through time to recount the backstory to the main story that unfolds in and around Rome, Italy, in the year 1943.  The reader visits Judea in AD 13 and 60, Italy in the 1930s and then the 1950s, Galilee in the year 33, and Oxford, England, in 1943.  England is where the searchers of the secrets, two British spies, are recruited for their assignment.  In this trilogy, the spies are fictionalized versions of real people:  spies and later authors Ian Fleming and Tolkien.

Tolkien

The books in The Mythmakers Trilogy are:

1. No Dawn for Men
2. God's Formula
3. The Bone Keepers

Who was a bone keeper?  The reader learns that a bone keeper in the ancient world was someone who arranged a burial, then later collected the deceased's bones and put them in an ossuary, a bone box, inscribed with the person's name and family name.  The ossuary was then usually stored by the family.  I'm not giving anything away that isn't in the book's spoiler description, when I can say that the bone keepers of the title, are hereditary keepers of the bones of the Christ.

Yes, Christ rose from the dead, and doubting Thomas felt the proof that resurrected Jesus included his bones.  And the women by the tomb of Christ, that was borrowed from Joseph of Aramathea, attested to the fact that the resurrected Christ left nothing behind in the tomb.  That means that the religious grounding of the book could be considered blasphemy by some, or just a bit weak by others.  Most readers of these books, however, read them with a wink and a nod, forgiving those things in the name of entertainment.

Ian Fleming

The authors have done their research on the real people who are the inspiration for their fictionalized spies, Tolkien and Fleming.  They use the truth to bring entertaining verisimilitude to the fiction.  They also use the men's fiction to add familiar elements to The Bone Keepers relating to the two men.

There are sexual scenes in the book, which is for adult readers.  The female character reads at times realistically, but also at times she stretched my credulity as a female reader.  The writing is fluid, and the editing is well done.

There is much invention and entertaining suspense in the book, which will surely please lovers of this genre.  The use of Tolkien and Fleming as characters in the book(s) is something that fans of those men's fiction might enjoy.  The authors provide a satisfying ending to this spy, buddy adventure, romance and religious story, all wrapped up in the historical conspiracy genre.

Jerusalem Mount of Olives burial cave with ossuaries

From the book's description:

It is Rome, 1943. The war in Europe is at a tipping point, but the direction in which it will tip is terrifyingly unclear. For either side, one dramatic initiative could change everything. It is under these conditions that the Nazis discover a secret that has been maintained for nearly two millennia – that the bones of Christ have been guarded in a cave in Italy by a small, secret group. If the bones can be uncovered, Hitler believes he will be able to use them to topple Christianity and turn the war irreversibly in his favor.

The clues to the location of the bones or the people protecting them are scarce. MI-6 agent Ian Fleming and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien – working in tandem once again at the behest of the British government – must spearhead a hastily assembled team, including an alluring prostitute, to piece the clues together before the Nazis try to turn humanity on its head.

The conclusion of the stunning trilogy that began with the national bestseller NO DAWN FOR MEN and continued with GOD'S FORMULA, THE BONE KEEPERS is literary entertainment of the first order.

Ossuary of Caiaphas the high priest who presided over the trial of Jesus of Nazareth

Here are direct links to the books at Amazon.com:

Please visit author James Lepore's website.

The 45th Nail by Michael Lahey and Ian Lahey

This original noir novel draws the reader in with a light, humorous first-person narration, by Bob, an American in Italy looking for a long lost relative.  A stay in Rome, followed by a road-trip around Italy with an Etruscan fanatic for tour guide makes up much of the action in the book. 

But like the dark comedy film "Shallow Grave", the progression under the skin of the protagonist is the biggest journey in the story.  We start with a flawed protagonist, Bob, someone we know is deceitful, unloving and mercenary, and through his unusual events and encounters in the story, his flawed character develops to a higher level of awfulness. 

The first hint that he is truly twisted down below is when he drops a joke about rape.  His lack of moral compass becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses, so that his actions at the end come as not much of a surprise.

This is a book for people who do not need to like the protagonist of the stories they read.  It is a well-written book, full of original touches, and much Italian lore, landscape and language.  WWII is the backdrop of the story, and it comes more to the fore as the story progresses.

For those who believe a person can inherit character weaknesses via DNA, this story will hold especial interest, as the similarities between Bob's flaws and the flaws of his long lost relative emerge in the course of the story. 

That was when I thought not of "Shallow Grave" but of Robert Duvall and John Savage as relatives in the 1987 noir drama "Hotel Colonial", in which a brother discovers how evil his elder brother is, and then finds that he too is capable of great violence when he judges it necessary.

The 45th Nail is a fascinating book for a discerning reader, but probably not to everyone's taste. 

From the book's description:

A Christmas card from Italy arrived on Robert Svenson’s desk. There was no return address, but when Bob opened the card, it was signed by his uncle, James Savorski. Nice, except for the fact that Uncle Jim was declared MIA back in ’44. Forty years later he’s sending solid gold Etruscan amulets for Christmas presents? Bob resolved to travel to Italy to see if he could find his long lost uncle.

How does one find a dead man in Italy without knowing the language or having an address? All Bob knew was that losing his luggage and his money the first night in Rome didn’t help. Then he found himself picking his way through a minefield of old scars and memories of war.
Along the way he journeys through Italy’s art and its incredible archaeological treasures, its history and people. A tale of war and mines and other things buried underground and even deeper—in the hearts of those who lived those years.

Here is the book's trailer:

 

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the book's official website.  This is the author's Facebook page.

Francesco's Song by C. M. Furio

Ever wonder what it was like to live in Italy before and during WWII?  This book gives the best idea I've come across, probably because the author based it all on her own family's experiences and accounts of other people they knew personally. 

Francesco's Song is only lightly fictionalized, so the truth shines through about the author's father, Francesco, and her mother, Francesca.  They were children near Bari in Italy's south when Mussolini and his black shirted Fascists came to power.

The brainwashing of the children began early, and the Fascists worked hard to build a cult around their leader, Benito Mussolini.  It is interesting to see that the older people were often more skeptical of the political bombast.

By 1929, when Italy was having its love affair with Il Duce, Francesco was eight years old.

Because the story follows her parents, and Italy, from 1928 through to the post war era, we get to see how the children grew up to see the harsh reality of their leaders' militarism.  They were left with great skepticism of any political leadership and any -ism.

Francesco is the main person we follow from a Fascism inculcated childhood in a household run most of the time by his mother, a white widow, as the neighbors called a woman whose husband spent most of the year abroad to earn a living.

So many men in town had left.  Some had gone to South America, to cities in Argentina and Brazil, but Francesco's father had gone, like so many others, to New York City.

We go with Francesco to young adulthood when he falls in love with Francesca.  That is when we pick up her story, and learn that she struggles more under the paternalistic traditions of Italy, and especially of southern Italy.  As her mother says:

You'll get married and you'll have a family.  What do you need school for?

Marriage comes young for a woman in that sort of society.

At eighteen years of age, Francesca had already received marriage proposals from several suitors who had sent go-betweens to her mother's house.

Then comes Francesco's required military service.  Like all clever young men, he chose his branch of the military just before getting drafted, so he served in the prestigious Carabinieri Reali. 

That brought him to Dobrovna, Yugoslavia, where fought and suffered from the violence, with traces of that suffering trailing him all his life long.  The life of the soldier is well described.  The author makes good use of her father's letters to his fidanzata in this section of the book.

The post war period is interesting for the cultural frustration Francesco suffered when he returned to the very socially and religiously repressive south of Italy.  Like all people who've spent time away from a repressive society, or who enjoyed some relief from it, like Francesca during the difficult war years, it was impossible to be happy back in that environment.

Once away from the small universe of his childhood, his eyes had been opened and now he was not so quick to accept what had once seemed carved in stone.  This was true especially regarding the church...

That's when the choice came to go either to the north of Italy, or abroad.  Since both of them had fathers and even a sibling in the United States already for years, their emigration to America was simpler than trying to find a good job anywhere in Italy. 

The description of how looking for work in Italy operated in the 1950s  rings true with my experiences when living there in the 1980s.  Exams, competitions, recommendations, friends of friends needed, political juice...  What I hear from friends in Italy, the situation has still not improved much, and it still pushes talented young Italian to emigrate.

The story is told in the classic omniscient narrative style, but it is done with a light touch, and at times the author limits the point of view of the narration to just one character.  It is a wonderful choice for this story.  It lets us get to know so many interesting people intimately.

Don't worry if you are not up on your WWII history.  The author fills the reader in on what he needs to know along the way.  The result is a very personal story that also has a wide appeal. 

Francesco and Francesca's story is theirs, and it is also the story of thousands of other Italians who chose to leave Italy after WWII.  If you have relatives among the Italian diaspora of that era and age, reading this book is a good way of connecting with their experiences.

 

From the book's description:

Set amidst the drama of Fascist Italy, Francesco’s Song is the gripping story of one man’s struggle to survive.  Based on family history, C.M. Furio tells the poignant story of young Francesco as he grows up in the small seaside town of Mola di Bari.  The saga of birth, love and death in rural southern Italy unfolds as Italy becomes involved in the cataclysm of world events.  

Francesco’s carefree youth ends when the oratory of Mussolini and the false sense of patriotism seduces him and he joins the military police of the Italian armed forces, the Carabinieri Reali.  Stationed in Yugoslavia and later in Milan, everything he treasures is threatened as he confronts events during the war and witnesses firsthand the destruction of his homeland.  

Fleeing from the occupying Nazi, Francesco is sheltered by sympathizers of a growing resistance movement.  He enters the darkest period of his life where his only dream is to be reunited with his family and the love of his life, Francesca.

Based on letters and war-time documents found in the author’s family home Francesco’s Song is a moving portrayal of the struggles of the Italian people during the war years and the customs that bound them.  It is the story of an immigrant who never lost the love for his homeland and who valued family above all else.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

 

Mola di Bari, Francesco's hometown is seen here from above, today:

 

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen

This novel has elements of family drama, bloody horror, mystery and history.  Half of the novel is set in the past, during WWII in Venice, Italy.  What starts the story off is the purchase of a piece of hand-written sheet music for a waltz, in a store in Rome, Italy, by the musician protagonist, Julia, in the present day.  Her present day life becomes altered, and she is certain the sheet music is to blame.

We then switch to the past, and meet the man who will ultimately compose the musical piece.  Lorenzo lives in Venice, Italy, and he is Jewish.  The reader sees the progressive exclusion of Italy's Jews through ever more horrible laws.  Boiling a frog comes to mind, with the local residents adapting to each progressive step, without seeing that it would lead to the Holocaust for Italy's Jews.

This is a novel written with a specific purpose in mind, to document the fate of almost every last members of Venice's Jewish community during World War Two, death.  The author provides an Afterword that explains her intentions, and that she wished to recall the suffering of people at the hands of really evil people, and to honor the good people too.  Another reason was to show the power of music to inspire and to change lives.

The novel alternates the narrative between the point of view of Julia in the present, and Lorenzo in the past, using the present tense for the modern day events, and the past tense for the historical events.  Present tense use is very popular these days since it gives an immediacy to a story.  I feel I must give a warning about a scene when a cat is killed in a horrific way, just off scene.

As Julia's horrors progress in the present, Lorenzo's horrors progress in the past.  If you dislike horrors, this is not the book for you!  I found the book creepy, sad, very depressing, and the plot a bit too thin.  The plot felt more like a construction made solely for the purpose of writing a Holocaust novel. 

Personally, I prefer to read non-fiction about that time, since the truth of that era is more twisted and horrible than any fiction writer can ever possibly imagine.  But if you enjoy Holocaust fiction, and Tess Gerritsen's writing style and penchant for horror, then you should enjoy this book.  If you happen to be a musician, too, you will enjoy it even more.

From the book's description:

Tess Gerritsen, the New York Times bestselling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series, now gives us a gripping stand-alone thriller.

In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music—the Incendio waltz—and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. The mournful minor key and complex feverish arpeggios appear to dance with a strange life of their own.

Back in Boston, when Julia plays the notes for the first time, the music has a terrifying and unexplainable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed.

Determined to track down the music score's origins, Julia travels to Venice—and uncovers a dark secret that not only dates back to the Second World War, but also directly involves a dangerously powerful family who will stop at nothing to keep Julia from bringing the truth to light.

Here is a direct link to the book's Amazon.com page.  Beware of different covers for this same book, so you don't accidentally order the book twice!

Please visit the author's website.

Port of No Return by Michelle Saftich

This heartfelt historical novel recounts events during World War II in the northeastern Italian city of Fiume, which is now part of Croatia.  By following the ripples of those events through the members of two extended families and various others across northern Italy and then further north, the reader gets a feeling for what life in a war zone was/is really like.

The book recounts scenes that, sadly, play themselves out every day somewhere in the world in war zones:  displacing people from their homes, forcing them to witness and sometimes suffer horrible acts of cruelty, suffering starvation and malnutrition, resorting to emigration hoping other countries will recognize their plight and accept their refugee claims.

Besides human depravity, the author is careful to show us also how valuable simple acts of kindness and courage and solace can be when it seems like the whole world is disintegrating.

The main characters in the book are a loving couple, Ettore and Contessa, Italians from Fiume.  As the book progresses, we see the wear and tear the war takes on them and their children.  Others don't fair as well as they do, and we are allowed to see many of those scenes too.  There is violence in the book, but it is never gratuitous or drawn out for effect.  There are a handful of vulgarities.

The husband, Ettore, is a skilled mechanic, which turns out to be the family's salvation.

For Ettore, it meant having to work for the Germans who had taken over their city in Italy's north-east.

The author tries to lighten the war scenes with the humanity of the family members and their friends, which is indeed touching.  There is a strong sentimentality in the book, a touching sweetness that the omniscient narrator spreads across several of the characters.  Toward the end of the book, many of those characters are the children who have grown up too quickly in their dire circumstances.

We get glimpses at bombed out cities, bands of bandits, refugee camps for displaced persons, military order amid chaos, evil taking hold in the hearts of the morally weak, traumatized people, survivor's guilt, and mob violence.  The latter is shown in Milan when the bodies of Mussolini, his mistress, and their cohorts are on display.

The country's gone mad...So much anger.

The author has carefully researched her subject, and focused as much as possible on the human level of war.  The book, by its nature, is episodic, following the difficult paths of various persons until they finally come to light at the end of the tunnel of war.  The war ends, and emigration offers hope for a safe future and peace so they can recover as much as possible from their war wounds, which are both physical and mental. 

While the book is about the Italian experience, I had a strong feeling that certain subjects were addressed for certain reasons that had little to do with WWII Italians.  The author touches on frequent complaints against refugees and emigrants, certainly hoping to make their road smoother in future.  That is an honorable message to send, a reminder to the residents of many countries asked to accept refugees that they are likely descended from refugees and emigrants.

From the book's description (full of spoilers):

Contessa and Ettore Saforo awake to a normal day in war-stricken, occupied Italy. By the end of the day, however, their house is in ruins and they must seek shelter and protection wherever they can.  But the turbulent politics of 1944 refuses to let them be.

As Tito and his Yugoslav Army threaten their German-held town of Fiume, Ettore finds himself running for his life, knowing that neither side is forgiving of those who have assisted the enemy.  His wife and children must also flee the meagre life their town can offer, searching for a better life as displaced persons.

Ettore and Contessa’s battle to find each other, and the struggle of their family and friends to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of a devastating war, provide a rich and varied account of Italian migration to Australia after World War II.

What can you do when you have nowhere left to call home?  Port of No Return considers this question and more in a novel that is full of action, pain and laughter—a journey you will want to see through to the very end.

The city of Fiume has a very complex history, which you can read about on its excellent Wikipedia page.

History of Fiume (Rijeka)

The images I've used on this page are of Trieste, the city where the book's characters find refuge.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, the author of the crime-romance novel THE HAGUE, a traditional murder mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Voices in the Dark by Lindsay Townsend

This romantic suspense novel draws on Italy's World War II past to explain some mysteries in the present.  The two main protagonists, the man and woman who come to find they are a perfect match, are opera singers:  a bass, and a mezzo-soprano.

There are other interesting characters, all in Italy, where the woman goes to compete in a voice competition that she hopes will launch her career.  Florence and Milan play major parts in the story, one being where the woman's ancestors live, and the latter being where the man lives near his family.

The book is written in British-English and the female protagonist is Anglo-Italian.  There are some scanning errors that are sure to be weeded out soon, as the e-book was created from the print edition that was first released in 1995.  The narrative voice is 3rd person limited, putting us in the head of only one character per section.

The story moves back and forth between 1944 and 1995 with ease and skill.  And the author expertly weaves together the various strands of the story, and all her characters, to unravel a mystery from the past, that helps bring two lonely people together in the present. There is one heated sex scene, but nothing explicit.

This is a romantic suspense novel, so expect an investigation of a mystery, danger and romance.  There are bad guys and good guys, and it is not really clear until the end which are which.  The Italian characters and Italian setting should appeal to Italophiles, and both ring true.  

From the book's description:

There has always been a mystery in Julia Rochfort's family.  Who killed her grandfather Guy, a member of the Italian resistance movement in World War Two?  When Julia travels to Florence to compete in a singing competition, she meets Roberto Padovano, already an established opera star, and they discover that they have a lot more in common than simple attraction.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, the author of the crime-romance novel THE HAGUE, a traditional murder mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

A Daughter's Promise by Christine Clemetson

A Daughter's Promise is set in Rome, Italy, mostly during the final year of WWII.  A twenty-year-old Italian woman, Serene, is faced with some very difficult decisions, and the split-second choices she makes lead to surprising, life-changing outcomes. 

Like much historical romantic fiction, the story focuses primarily on the protagonist's romantic feelings, unashamedly treading into melodrama at times.  The cinematic storyline, delivered in clear, easy-to-read prose, provides a satisfying tale for fans of this genre.

Serene's life has not been easy, and the war only adds to her difficulties, but she is fortunate that her family is among the better-off Italians.  It is actually her family's wealth that attracts one of her biggest problems, a fiancé who, we quickly learn, is both brutal and a gold-digger.

A U.S. American soldier, Miles, enters Serene's life, making her question her decisions, convictions and life choices.  Actually, many of Serene's life choices have been made by others.

Like a spider web; the threads of her life had been woven since she was young, but she had no part in the loom's process.

The story of Miles and Serene is the main story in this romance novel, and it develops convincingly.  The author uses the 3rd person limited narrative style, letting us into one main character's mind at a time.  This way we can see what Serene is thinking, along with Miles, and Serene's fiancé.

The author makes the odd decision to translate her Italian characters' names into English (Anthony, Harry, Jack...).  Perhaps that is so readers find them more relatable?  Some of the story feels less than convincing if you have ever lived in Italy, but if you haven't, then you shouldn't notice anything. 

The author is not writing a travel book, but a romance, so she rightly focuses on Miles and Serene and their story, and provides the reader with a highly romantic conclusion to the story.

I've been trying to find you my entire life.

Most of Italy is nominally Catholic, and in 1944, most Italians were practicing Catholics, so the author is right to have that a part of Serene's daily life.  Her faith brings her comfort in the difficult times, and blesses the joyous moments.

Since the book is set during wartime, I think the author is right to include the loss and trauma of war, which affects not just those who fight, but those who lose loved ones to the fighting.  Some of the most touching moments in A Daughter's Promise come from the soldiers and the soldiers' families.

Serene is the protagonist, so we spend a lot of time "listening" to her thoughts, fears and feelings.  The writing style and content make this book suitable not just for adults, but for young-adults, too.  There are no explicit sex scenes, only suggested ones.  There are unplanned pregnancies, and pre-marital sex, but I don't recall encountering any vulgarities.

Because Serene is forced to make decisions for herself, for the first time, and for her family members, and strangers too, you could call this a coming-of-age novel.

She remembered her mother saying that strength came from deep within, from a place discovered only when times seem unbearable.  Serene realized she had found that place.

The young woman has to reach deep within herself to get through this difficult time in her life.  She succeeds in the end, and finds true love, and does not let her family down. 

From the book's description:

Embroiled in a bitter fight to liberate Rome during WWII, American soldier Miles Coulson is stranded on the cold beaches of Italy, alone, bleeding out, and not knowing the lay of the land. This leaves him with one choice: Live or die. Until Serene Moneto risks her family and her freedom to give him shelter. But as he recuperates, Miles finds himself fighting to liberate Serene from a life worse than any death. As the world crumbles around them, can the strength of their forbidden love be enough to win the biggest battle of all? 

A Daughter's Promise is published by The Wild Rose Press, a publishing house that specializes in romance, erotica, and beyond.  The heat level of the stories are indicated by a coding system:  Sweet=Clean, Sensual=Suggestive, Spicy=Erotica, Hot and GLV=Porn which are listed in a separate catalog.

Direct link to A Daughter's Promise at TWRP

Here are direct links to A Daughter's Promise at Amazon.com:

Here are links to several books from The Wild Rose Press (Suggestive and Erotica) that are set in Italy:

Please visit the author's website.



This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.