It’s a real pleasure, as always, to be joining Bookouture‘s Books-on-tour – and today I’m sharing my review of A Letter from Italy by Rose Alexander. Published today (25th March), it’s now available via Amazon for kindle and in paperback, and also as an audiobook in the UK and US (if you’d like to listen to a sample, you can do that here). My thanks to Bookouture for inviting me to join the tour and for my advance reading e-copy (provided via netgalley), and to Sarah Hardy for her ongoing support.
Over the years, I’ve grown to really love Rose’s wonderful storytelling. I first discovered her books through her second, Under an Amber Sky, back in 2017 – a compelling dual time story, a slice of Montenegran wartime history, and a fantastic read (you’ll find my review here). Her next book, Along the Endless River (published by Canelo) was totally stunning – set in the Victorian era against a vividly drawn Amazon rainforest backdrop, with such strong female characters (you’ll find my review of that one here). And then, in June 2021, came Out of the Mountain’s Shadow – Albania this time, an extraordinary story of courage, passion and loyalty, and the same excellent storytelling I’d come to expect (you’ll find my review of that one here). And then she joined Bookouture, and her first book with them, The Lost Diary, was better than ever, a book I’d thoroughly recommend to anyone who enjoys an emotional and unforgettable wartime story – it was one of my 2023 Books of the Year, and you can read my review again here.
And now we have another – let’s take a closer look…
A heartbreaking wartime promise. A family torn apart. A letter that could change everything.
1945. The tiny bundle in her arms barely stirs as she hurries out into the dark street. Remembering Villa Teresa, a thousand miles away in sun-soaked Italy, Betty thinks of the letter she had to write to stop the bombing and save Gianni. Instead it cost her everything… And she will never see her beloved again. Now, letting her little baby go will tear her apart, but she knows it is the only way to keep her child safe…
Naples, present day. With nothing but the name of crumbling palazzo Villa Teresa scribbled on the page, Sadie clutches the scrap of a letter she desperately hopes will help her find her birth mother. It’s her only clue to go on. But with the heady scent of fresh lemons carrying on the breeze, and handsome local guide Luca by her side, she knows in her bones this is the right place.
Then, lost in the local newspaper archives, the pair makes a shocking discovery about the woman Sadie believes is her mother… How she did something terrible during the war. Shattered, Sadie must ask herself if she should continue searching for a woman who did her best to disappear.
Deep down, Sadie knows she can’t give up. But what really happened in that beautiful palazzo all those years ago? What led a mother to give away her baby? And will uncovering this devastating secret destroy Sadie’s heart for good?
A Letter from Italy is an emotional and gripping tale about a tragic love affair in World War Two and how a daughter lost for decades finally follows her heart home. Perfect for fans of The Letter, Fiona Valpy and Angela Petch.
An intriguing prologue to this one, set in 1945 London, as a young mother – with increasing desperation – knocks on a door, thrusts her baby into the arms of the woman who answers, and disappears into the night.
What follows is a beautifully told dual timeline story. The first thread finds Sadie in 1970s Broadstairs, clearing out the attic at the home of the woman she always believed to be her mother, uncovering the fact that she was adopted, and embarking on a search that ultimately takes her to Italy. The second follows the life of Betty Bean from Malton in Yorkshire, called up in wartime, torn away from Italian prisoner-of-war Gianni at Eden Camp to whom she was becoming increasingly close – despite the expectations of her family that she will marry her childhood friend – finding herself living a very different life in a palazzo near Naples working with codes and cyphers with the ATS.
Both stories have that perfect emotional touch the author always has, and an Italian backdrop vividly drawn in both the slowly converging timelines. We share Betty’s wartime experiences, with plenty of drama from the moment the HMS Arcadia nears the Italian coast, and more to come when it becomes clear that there is a traitor in their midst who she must help uncover. But there’s also a moving and convincing romance when her path crosses Gianni’s once more, now returned to Italy, in constant danger while living and working with the partisans. And, back at the palazzo, there’s a particularly strong focus on female friendship – young women far from home, developing strong bonds despite their very different backgrounds, looking after each other.
Romance features strongly in Sadie’s story too, as she grows ever closer to Lucas, the journalist helping her find the clues that will help her find her birth parents. And as the time periods alternate, the details they’ve been searching for slowly begin to emerge, some of them wholly unexpected – a gripping story of wartime bravery and self-sacrifice, as Sadie draws ever closer to understanding why her mother was forced to give her away.
Both women are beautifully drawn and well-rounded characters, easy to take to your heart – and their shared story constantly intriguing and compelling, hooking me in from the beginning and keeping the pages turning through to its perfect ending. And I really must mention again the way the author brings the Italian landscape to life – the zest of the lemon groves, the brightness and warmth of the sunshine, but also the impact of wartime, the seedier Naples back streets, and the dangers of living in the shadow of Vesuvius.
If you’re a fan of wartime fiction with plenty of intrigue and more than a touch of romance, you’ll love this one as much as I did. It’s a little more gentle than the author’s previous books, and perhaps without quite the emotional impact I was expecting (and I’ll happily admit to rather high expectations…) – but this was a thoroughly enjoyable read I’d most certainly recommend to others.
About the author
Rose Alexander has had more careers than she cares to mention and is currently a secondary school English teacher. She writes in the holidays, weekends and evenings, whenever she has a chance, although with three children, a husband, a lodger and a cat, this isn’t always as often as she’d like. She’s a keen sewist and is on a mission to make all her own clothes.
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