The Sicilian Secret

Completely Gripping and Heartbreaking WW2 Fiction

De: Angela Petch

Narrado por: Ashley Tucker

Italy, 1943. With war raging across the rugged cliffs and turquoise waters of his beloved Sicily, Savio’s pen scrawls desperately across the page. His letter must be sent in secret–or his life will be in terrible danger…

England, present day. Paige is devastated when her reclusive but beloved Aunt Florence dies–the only family she’s ever known. Inheriting her crumbling cottage, Paige finds an unfinished note. ‘I am sorry, Paige. It’s time to tell you everything. It all began in Sicily…’

Beside the note is a faded envelope–addressed to a woman called Joy–with an Italian postage stamp from 1943. The letter inside is made up of Roman numerals and snippets of sentences written in Italian. But who is Joy? Was someone sending a coded message? Paige is desperate to piece together the truth. But she soon discovers it will change everything she’s ever believed about her aunt, and her family history.

1943. Lady Joy Harrison may have grown up in a manor house, but she’s determined to fight for what’s right and use her fluent Italian to help the Allies. Breaking code on a long night shift, Joy reads a secret message that makes her whole body shake. A dark-eyed young man she once loved is in terrible danger on the shores of Sicily. Was the message sent by him? And will she ever see him again–or will the war tear them apart for good?

An absolutely heartbreaking and stunning timesplit historical novel about how wartime secrets can stretch across the generations, and the incredible bravery of ordinary people in the darkest of times. Fans of The Nightingale, Fiona Valpy and Lucinda Riley will be captivated.

©2024 Angela Petch (P)2024 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Good story, but slow and uneven.

There were some interesting historical stretches.

The characters other than the main couple (Joy and Savio) were likable and seemed more real than Joy and Savio, who labor throughout the book under the burden of uneven character development. Joy comes across as rather pathetic, especially when she is tritely and repeatedly telling herself not to be pathetic. Savio is somewhat pathetic in the scenes with Joy, but is better in the scenes without her.

The author adheres to the writing model of, “If an emotion or plot line can be inferred, make every effort to spell it out, repeatedly, in several redundant ways at the time, and then be sure to hearken back unnecessarily and regurgitate the same spelling-out, from time to time, as the story tries to proceed.” The sex scenes are awkward and out of character — the awkward insecure English girl “poses naked, smiling languorously with arms raised to display her full breasts” after the couple’s one night? I don’t think so. Savio goes from being a list and confused teenager missing his parents and home but then suddenly out of nowhere (aka, an internment camp) is revealed to be a masterful lover? I don’t think so. <bra />
The author also has a lot of stereotypes about Italians. Every single “nice” Italian (vs the Fascist soldiers) is gorgeous and has “thick dark hair and sun-kissed skin.” Presumably all the mean Italians are ugly, bald, and don’t tan well. We don’t actually hear anything about their looks.

in summary, though, this would not be a bad book if you start it around Chapter 29. Nothing happens in the first 28 chapters that couldn’t be summarized in a sentence or two of catch-me-up dialogue, after Chapter 28, and I would probably have had more patience and affection for the lead characters if the first 28 chapters were not so slow.