#BlogTour: The Tuscan Girl by Angela Perch @Angela_Petch @bookouture @sarahhardy681 #TheTuscanPetch #AngelaPetch #hisfic #Bookouture #5Star

Book Synopsis:

She ran away through the pine trees when the soldiers came. Staggering into the hiding place, she felt a fluttering in her belly, like a butterfly grazing its wings, and knew instantly she had something to fight for.

Present day: When her fiancé is tragically killed in an accident, twenty-six-year-old Alba is convinced she’s to blame. Heavy with grief and guilt, she flees to her childhood home – the tiny village of Rofelle, nestled in a remote Tuscan valley. Out hiking one day to fill the long, lonely hours, she finds a mahogany box filled with silverware, hidden near the vine-covered ruins of an isolated house left abandoned after World War II. Could finding the rightful owner ease Alba’s heartache, and somehow make amends for her own wrongs?

In search of answers, Alba meets Massimo, an elderly man who wants to spend his final years pruning his fruit trees, alone with his painful memories. His face turns pale when Alba brings up the war, but she senses that their shared grief connects them. An unlikely friendship grows as little by little Massimo speaks of Lucia: a wild young girl with sparkling eyes who fell in love with an enemy soldier, bravely stole precious Italian treasures back from Nazi occupiers, and whose selfless courage and sacrifice altered the course of the war – and Massimo’s life.

With each visit, Alba gets closer to unravelling the mystery of the silver, and they both start putting their ghosts to rest. But there’s one part of Lucia’s story that Massimo might never be able to share – and he’s running out of time. Has Alba churned up emotions that are too painful to ever confront? Or, will unearthing a wartime secret that has lain buried for generations finally bring Massimo peace?

An absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking read that will sweep you away to the rugged mountains and lush olive groves of Tuscany. Fans of The Nightingale, Rhys Bowen and Julianne MacLean will be captivated.

The Tuscan Girl is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Wow this was a brilliant book which was incredibly powerful and heartbreaking at the same time.

The story is told in various different timelines following Alba as she tries to deal with her grief in the present day and Lucia and Florian in 1940’s Italy. Both storylines had a lot to offer and I found I enjoyed watching them both unfold. Lucia is an incredibly brave young lady and it was incredibly interesting to learn more about the Italian resistance which I didn’t know much about. Her life is full or unpredictability and danger as she tries to fight for her countries freedom. The present day timeline with the lovely relationship that Alba and Massimo develop was beautiful to read about and I really enjoyed watching them grow closer. It was nice to see that they were able to help each other deal with their grief.

I thought this was quite a fast paced story which I flew through as I was so enjoying the story. It was very poignant and humbling to realise how much people went through during the war and how much their lives changed forever. I thought it was very clever how the author managed to weave real historical events into the story and that, despite reading a lot of historical fiction, she managed to teach me something new.

Huge thanks to Sarah Hardy from Bookouture for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Bookouture for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

I live in the beautiful Italian Apennines for several months each year. Such an inspiring location.
My love affair with Italy was born at the age of seven when I moved with my family to Rome where we lived for six years. My father worked for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and he made sure we learned Italian and visited many places during that time.
Later on I studied Italian at the University of Kent at Canterbury and afterwards worked in Sicily, where I met my husband. His Italian mother and British father met in Urbino in 1944 and married after a war-time romance.
I wanted to write “The Tuscan Secret” not only for my amazing mother-in-law, Giuseppina, but also to make people aware of the courage of the resistance fighters and the generous hospitality shown by the poorest of families, including relatives of our Italian neighbours in our corner of war-torn Tuscany.
This is my first novel and is a story about ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times. (Please note it is a revised version of “Never Forget” and “Tuscan Roots”). I was signed by wonderful BOOKOUTURE for a two-book deal and one of these was a slight re-write of “Tuscan Roots”. The new title is “The Tuscan Secret” and has more tension and intrigue to the story. I am so proud to be a part of this publishing “family”, as they describe themselves, who have patiently helped me to polish the original. It is available on Amazon and has reached the bestseller slots.

A sequel to this original book was self-published way back, at the end of April 2017. “Now and then in Tuscany” features the same family that appeared in “The Tuscan Secret”. The background is the transhumance, a practice that started in Etruscan times and continued right up until the 1950’s.
Watch out for another Tuscan, war novel. “The Tuscan Girl” is available to pre-order right now and will be published on February 25th 2020, inspired by the many ruins I see on my walks in the Apennines. Each dilapidated house holds a story for me, whether true or invented. I’m delighted to announce that my publisher, Bookouture, has commissioned another two Italian novels from me for 2021 and 2022. Watch this space, as they say.
My research for all these novels has been greatly helped by my kind Italian, country friends, who have vivid memories of both the Second World War and the harsh times they endured in their childhoods.

Italy is a passion but my stories are not always set there. I have also written a novella about two fun-loving ladies of “a certain age” who live by the seaside in Sussex and get up to all kinds of adventures. “Mavis and Dot” were launched on December 1st 2018 at St Paul’s Centre, Worthing, West Sussex and have received fab reviews. I have a sequel in mind. All profits from sales go to research into cancer and I am pleased with the amounts that I’ve been able to deliver for this worthwhile charity. How many of us have lost friends and family through this vile disease?