The Italian Girl’s Secret (Evans)-BoT-Historical Fiction-Available now

I am a huge fan of this author’s work (see links to my reviews for previous books at the end of this review). She always manages to create wholly realized scenes that make it seem as if the reader is watching a movie. She also has a unique writing style that makes it possible to smell and feel the same things as the characters.

Or maybe that’s just my imagination. But I know I have mentioned it in past reviews, and it still occurs in this book.

Anyway, the main character in this book (Carmela) is the “Italian Girl” of the title (or is she – more on that later). She and her grandmother live relatively simple on a farm above Naples Bay. Sounds picturesque (and the descriptions of it absolutely are) …until you note that the time is September 1943, and Italy is pretty much anything BUT picturesque.

Their simplicity is uprooted by an old friend asking for a favor, and that favor completely disrupts Carmela’s life. Because the secret in the title isn’t exactly what you think it is. Or rather, it is, in addition to the new one.

I know that sounds convoluted, but I don’t want to give away any major plot points – even though the blurbs can explain what I mean.

I thought the story was a good one. It captured the urgency of the time (and the mission) but also allowed the reader to fully embrace the Italian countryside. Let me try to explain.

I think therein lies the author’s real talents. Descriptions like that of a bubbling pot of tomato sauce that fills a kitchen with the scents of garlic and basil are easy for readers to imagine which in turn makes it easy to put themselves right in the action. It also conveys the simplicity of life that did continue even during the fraught days of 1943 WWII Italy.  

But the urgency of the stranger’s mission is also conveyed smartly without it being overly dramatic. The author wisely lets the reader come to their own conclusions about what is important (although it should be obvious).

I keep wandering in this review, but the author doesn’t in the plot. Once Carmela is fully aware of the stranger’s mission and what needs to be done, she finds the courage to help him because she knows that it could mean the difference between living under occupation or helping to fight for freedom.

I mentioned earlier that Carmela may or may not be the Italian girl of the title. I think it does fit her, but there are other characters who could be that character – a fact that the author reveals nicely toward the end.

The juxtaposition of the idyllic and the urgent, the beautiful and the ugly made for a dynamic read. And, as the action takes place over the course of less than a month, it moves along quickly.

I would highly recommend this historical fiction novel to anyone interested in the genre. But especially if you are someone who wants the background of WWII without the emotional drain of the concentration camps that are so often the center of this genre.

The author makes it a habit to set her novels in other arenas of the war, and that alone makes them intriguing reads.

Previous reviews: The Paris Girl, Into the Burning Dawn

Author Bio

Natalie Meg Evans has been an art student, actor, PR copywriter, book-keeper and bar tender but always wanted to write. A USA Today best-seller and RITA nominee, she is author of four published novels which follow the fortunes of strong-minded women during the 1930s and 40s. Fashion, manners and art are the glass through which her characters’ lives are viewed. Each novel is laced with passion, romance and desire. Mystery is never far away.

An avid absorber of history – for her sixth birthday she got a toy Arthurian castle with plastic knights – Natalie views historical fiction as theatre for the imagination. Her novels delve behind the scenes of a prestige industry: high fashion, millinery, theatre, wine making. Rich arenas for love and conflict. Most at home in the English countryside, Natalie lives in rural Suffolk. She has one son.