The Cypress Maze by Fiona Valpy

Set in beautiful Tuscany, Italy and sharing the lives and stories of two women from two different times - during the second world war and in 2015.

1943. Beatrice has escaped Scotland to teach English in Italy but the war forces her Italian host family to let her go. After some time in police cells and prisons she is granted shelter at the Villa delle Colombe, run by Francesca and Edoardo. The estate is almost completely self sufficient with everyone working together to ensure survival during testing times.

2015. Struggling to come to terms with the medical struggles of her husband and his decision to take his own life at a clinic in Switzerland, Tess arrives in Tuscany to be the companion to Beatrice, an old friend of her grandmother's. Beatrice helps Tess find calm and healing with the help of the amazing gardens at the villa. Unfortunately all comes crashing down when the real owner of the villa appears - and it's not the one Beatrice expects, but rather his son who's already planned the destruction of the estate to build a golf course.

Realising that time is running out, Beatrice starts telling Tess the story of Villa delle Colombe and what happened there during the war. The struggles, they joy, the deception, the challenge of not taking sides, the impact of the war and the many personal struggles for Beatrice and the other living there.

A beautiful, gripping story, historically well researched and thoroughly enjoyable read.

Release date is currently set to 18 July 2023
Pre-order your copy now - link to Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/400G5mZ

I received an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for a review.

#TheCypressMaze #NetGalley

Comments

Beginning of Forever Catherine Bybee

Bybee has written another fab book in the D'Angelos series - great holiday read, perhaps even more so if you're heading to Italy and love wine! Amazing combination of romance, travel, independence, life experience and wine. Oh, and not to forget the Golden Girls!! This is the third book in the D'Angelos series - you really ought to read them all!! - and it'll be available at the end of June 2023. My review of the second book in the series, Be your everything , can be found ## here ##. #BeginningofForever #NetGalley

More Than Just Mum by Rebecca Smith

I'll happily pay for a 'mum breakdown service' Title: More Than Just Mum (More Than Just Mum, Book 1) Author: Rebecca Smith In the reviews by others, this book is described as an "absolutely hilarious, laugh out loud novel of family chaos and reinvention". I wasn't that enamoured with it. Sure, it made me smile from time to time, but it wasn't incredible. Hannah is the mum of Dylan, Scarlet and Benji. She's tired of being 'the mum of...'. and she's longingly looking back at a time when she was Hannah, not the MUM. She decides she needs to find a job she loves and earn a lot of money. To earn lots of money she decides she should become a writer, because they apparently all earn a lot of dosh. She has a particular niche in mind... "... might ask for advice about how to handle being forty-three years old, permanently strapped for cash and doing a job I hate while trying to deal with three exhausting kids. That’s the kind of breakdown ...

Dark Secrets on Dressmakers' Alley by Rosie Clarke

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NetGalley Reviewer nix21230

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