Sunflower Publishing Book Reviews

  A Chance in A Million   By TA Williams SUMMARY Having left the army to recover from a traumatic experience,  Captain Jane Reed  is on her way to Venice to assist  Lady Veronica Cooper , a world-famous writer who has lost her mojo. Plagued by grief and sleepless nights, Jane soon finds a kindred spirit in Veronica, coping with her own loss after the death of her husband. When the two relocate to Veronica’s villa in the countryside to escape the summer tourists, Jane meets the rest of the Cooper family – including Veronica’s brooding son,  David . With his own tragic past, David has resigned himself to a life of solitude. Jane finds herself determined to bring joy back into his life, even if it means finally spilling her secrets. Can Jane and David help each other heal, and find love in the process, or are some scars too deep to treat?   MY REVIEW: Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate is a predetermined course of events or is it? I re...

    Lest We Forget (Per Non Dimenticare) By Dr Allison Buck SUMMARY: Italy is full of idyllic hilltop towns teeming with centuries of history. Soriano nel Cimino, located in the Tuscia region of Lazio is one of those. On June 5, 1944, the day after Rome was liberated, this small town was nearly destroyed by Allied bombing. In 1994 for the 50th anniversary of the bombing, first-hand testimonies were collected and printed by some of the survivors and made available in Italian. This book contains those same testimonies of devastation, resilience, strength, and re-birth translated into English. It includes testimonies from fascists, antifascists, and partisans. Cold-blooded murder by the hands of the Nazis as they retreated to the north and scavenged to find enough wood and nails in the rubble to build the coffins to bury the almost 200 victims of the bombing. Soriano nel Cimino has now been rebuilt, but scars still run deep in the generations which followed. Every day the...

    Lorenzo’s Vest  by Graham Hofmann SUMMARY Lorenzo's Vest offers an entertaining understanding of Italy and Italians as observed through the eyes of a straniero. (foreigner) It gives the reader, in just a few pages, a real insight into the Italy of the past, its history, its politics and its struggle to become a modern nation; questioning those who still suggest that true Italian nationhood has yet to be achieved. This insight extends to painting a vivid picture of life in Italy today, the exquisite joys to be absorbed, alongside the frustrations of experiencing life in the Green Heart of Italy, a truly wonderful part of the country. Graham takes you by the hand as you join him on his journey as a Brit into the everyday world of Umbria. The journey vividly shows his day-to-day life as a part-time visitor, immersion into the local community, his experiences and the colourful characters that become friends on the way.   MY REVIEW: I enjoyed this book. ...

                                                              The Tuscan Secret By Angela Petch SUMMARY: ll Mulino. An old crumbling mill, by a winding river, nestled in the Tuscan mountains. An empty home that holds memories of homemade pasta and Nonna’s stories by the fire, and later: the Nazi invasion, and a family torn apart by a heartbreaking betrayal. Anna is distraught when her beloved mother, Ines, passes away. She inherits a box of papers, handwritten in Italian and yellowed with age, and a tantalizing promise that the truth about what happened during the war lies within.  The diaries lead Anna to the small village of Rofelle, where she slowly starts to heal as she explores sun-kissed olive groves, and pieces together her mother’s past: happy days spent herding sheep across Tuscan meadows cruelly interrupted ...

    A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio ( translated by Anne Goldstein)   SUMMARY: Set against the stark, beautiful landscape of Abruzzo in central Italy, this is a compelling story about mothers and daughters, about responsibility, siblings, and caregiving. Without warning or explanation, an unnamed 13-year-old girl is sent away from the family she has always thought of as hers to live with her birth family: a large, chaotic assortment of individuals whom she has never met and who seem anything but welcoming. Thus begins a new life, one of struggle, tension, and conflict, especially between the young girl and her mother. But in her relationship with Adriana and Vincenzo, two of her newly acquired siblings, she will find the strength to start again and to build a new and enduring sense of self.     MY REVIEW: This is a complex portrait of Italy that you do not see in the guidebooks. It is a powerful story and digs deep into the meaning...

                                 The Fashion Lovers Guide to Milan By Rachael Martin SUMMARY Milan is the European fashion capital with one of the world's most unique luxury fashion districts where the leaders of some of the most exclusive fashion houses are still living and working today. It's the Italian city whose skyline has changed more than any, and whose fashion industry has extended to encompass the worlds of design, restaurants, bars, exhibition spaces, hotels and more. Whether you're looking for designer labels within the city's luxury fashion district, prefer to browse the city's boutiques or pick up some quality vintage at the city's vintage shops and markets, this is the guide that will tell you where to go. Split into geographical sections along with relevant maps, cultural highlights and suggestions for where to eat and drink, it places Milan as the city of fashion within the contex...

  Two Women in Rome By Elizabeth Buchan SUMMARY: Lottie Archer arrives in Rome excited to begin her new job as an archivist. When she discovers a valuable fifteenth-century painting, she is drawn to find out more about the woman who left it behind, Nina Lawrence. Nina seems to have led a rewarding and useful life, restoring Italian gardens to their full glory following the destruction of World War Two. So why did no one attend her funeral in 1978? In exploring Nina's past, Lottie unravels a tragic love story beset by the political turmoil of post-war Italy. And as she edges closer to understanding Nina, she begins to confront the losses in her own life. MY REVIEW: T his is a powerful read and I almost feel that the understated and minimal title ‘Two Women in Rome’ belies a weighty and intricate storyline about Lottie and Nina. Two stories run in conjunction and are self-perpetuating. The more Lottie reads from Nina’s private journal, the more we discover about the lives of each...