Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book. I have other books to get through but the minute I seen Dinah Jefferies has written this book I couldn’t wait to start reading. And as usual she didn’t disappoint, this book was brilliant. This story has a good storyline, plot, great characters too. I didn’t want this book to end. Absolutely brilliant writing. 5star worthy.

I love Dinah Jefferies’ writing and did a lot of research on this period for my own book so was thrilled to be offered the chance to read this. As I’d hoped, it’s beautifully written with gorgeous descriptions and I love the cover. I was impressed by how the author managed to place her characters into the main historic events and found myself engrossed in the story

I enjoy Dinah Jefferies books.
This was an insight into Tuscany in WW2. This was quite a slow book to read but I found it interesting and I love the Tuscany is described.
Dinah Jefferies always manages to make me feel like I’m right there in the book

I love Dinah Jefferies use of descriptive language. This was a good story, but I did feel rather overwhelmed at times by too much intricate minutiae of Italian places and street names.

I found this rather disappointing. It is such a typical war story. I felt reluctant to pick it up and continue - almost knowing that yet another bad thing was about to happen. I am sorry to day that I felt that the love or the violent scenes were a little repetitive.
I am sorry but it wasn't for me

Having read other titles by this author, I was delighted to receive a review copy. However I still hadn’t engaged with the characters half way through and I ended up not really caring much about them. I have been lucky enough to visit Tuscany a few times and felt the author failed to evoke its unique beauty. The characters were all stereotypes and the cliches just kept coming. I won’t give up on the author just yet, but I hope to see a return to form with her next book.

I enjoyed the book but did find it rather drawn out at times and was waiting for it to really get going. It is the story of an Italian Contessa and an American-Italian resistance worker, set in WWll, when the Nazis were invading Italy. The novel has been well researched, and the book contained a lot of detail, which Dinah Jefferies always does. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me have a preview of this book by Dinah Jefferies.

This is the first time I have read about WW2 from the Italian perspective. I was enthralled by their resilience and what they had to endure. This has bought a new dimension to the Tuscany I know. A masterpiece and Dinah Jeffries at her best

A other fabulous book by Dinah.I love how she sets her books in history.This book is totally the kind of book I love to read.Historical references with love stories intertwined.A great read looking forward to her next novel!

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I enjoyed this book, the characters and the location but would not say it was the best one that this author has written but it is worth a read.

Contessa Sofia de' Corsi's peaceful Tuscan home has been upturned by the arrival of German soldiers. Desperate to fight back, she provides shelter, medical aid and any help she can, keeping her efforts secret from husband Lorenzo - who is also passing information to the Allies. When Maxine, an Italian-American working for the resistance, arrives on Sofia's doorstep, the pair forge an uneasy alliance. Practical, no-nonsense Maxine promised herself never to fall in love. But when she meets a young partisan named Marco, she realizes it's a promise she can't keep. Before long, the two women find themselves entangled in a dangerous game with the Nazis. Will they be discovered? And will they both be able to save the ones they love?

Jefferies has spoilt us with her previous books taking us to Ceylon and Sri Lanka, sadly, Italy just was not the same for me. Still beautiful but this book does not have the exotic, far away feel of her other books. This is set during the Second World War and we follow Sofia and Maxine through their wartime efforts. Jefferies captures the war time atmosphere perfectly however it is about the only thing I did like about this read.

I found the beginning of this to be really disjointed. I was confused who was who and how they all connected to each other and struggled to understand what was happening. It felt like Jefferies jumped straight into the plot without enough of an explanation or background to events. As the book progressed, of course my understanding increased but my enjoyment did not. There was just something lacking the whole way through this and I never fully got into the plot or developed a liking for the characters.

Which brings me nicely onto the characters. Sofia and Maxine are okay but easily forgettable. I struggled with Maxine the most at the beginning as it really did not feel like I knew who she was she just appeared in the book. I did enjoy her plot thread with Marco; it was my favourite thread throughout.

'The Tuscan Contessa' was just a disappointment. Jefferies details well the struggles of war and love but I felt no connection to the characters and thought the plot was forgettable.

Thank you to NetGalley Penguin Books UK for an advance copy.

A heart-wrenching look into the lives of the Italian people towards the end of the war. To be honest, I knew nothing much about what had gone on in Italy during that time, but thanks to this book, I will be finding out more.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash plot details here. It's a good plot, with some excellently drawn characters whose traits one could recognise in real life.

Dinah Jefferies is an accomplished writer who paints detailed pictures with her words - descriptions of beautiful landscapes as well as the horrors of war. I stayed up late to finish this book - which is always a sign of a good read.

Looking forward to my next read by this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

I have read other books by Dinah Jefferies and she aways impresses me with the amount of detail they contain, a good thing I think, as it allows you to to really immerse yourself in the pages. This novel is set in Italy during WW2. The story is about two women and the struggles they are facing, as before long they are playing a game with the Nazis. The pair forge an uneasy friendship which somehow manages to open up the story. The two women become involved with the resistance, yet it is the everyday lives of them and the local people that absorbed me.
Dinah Jefferies makes me live her stories and somehow be part of them. I cant wait to read more.

I love this author's books. It is set in Ww2 in Italy in the war. The main characters are Sofia and Maxine who both help the resistance. It is a sad book in parts due to resistance deaths, but uplifting to read how the resistance worked. Highly recommended to read.
Thanks to Netgalley for an Arc

This is the sixth novel I have read by Dinah Jefferies and the first which is not set in the Far East. I don't think that it is just the setting which makes this book seem different from the rest; there seems to be more historical background and it is set in the 20th century. Despite the Tuscan location things are not as lush and peaceful as we would hope since this is 1944. Even the more remote rural areas were affected by the war and the cities were devastated.. There are 2 strong women at the heart of the narrative; one a native Italian contessa and the other an Italian American SOE agent.
This is a story of conflict, love, hate, friendship and betrayal. An interesting and entertaining page-turner.

The novel, which is set in Italy during the second world war, tells the story of two women: Sofia, who’s the Tuscan Contessa of the title, and Maxine, an SOE operative, who was half American, half Italian. Together they work with local partisans, fighting in divers ways to thwart the Nazi invasion.

As this was a period of history about which readers might know little, the book opens with a timeline of key events before the book was set, and after. But I thought that the reader was expected to absorb too much, and found it a leaden, off-putting start to a novel which I’d hoped was going to prove a page-turner. I thought most history unnecessary, as the story of local resistance against an invader is not hard to grasp, and the dangers can be appreciated without a detailed understanding of the history.

With a novel focusing mainly on two central characters, it is important that the characters step off the page and become real people. Neither Sofia nor Maxine were this for me, I’m afraid, and I was never able to believe in either character. The reader is told that they deeply love another person, but the reader doesn’t feel that love, and despite there being instances of loss and death, the telling of the story lacked genuine emotion, or at least it did for me. I found all the characters, male and female, clichéd composites of characters that have appeared on the pages of many different novels.

I thought, too, that the plot lacked originality, and the events, therefore, were highly predictable. Nevertheless, I kept reading, and I was rewarded in that there were places in which there really was a build-up of tension.

I’m afraid that I felt also that this novel lacked a feature of Dinah Jefferies’ earlier novels – an attention to detail when descriibing the surrounding countryside. The descriptions felt as if Jefferies was going through the motions, and Italy never came alive for me, which it should have done as I know Italy well. This lack of a true sense of environment was surprising as Dinah Jefferies, from her Author’s Note, clearly loves the country and has often been there.

Despite my comments above, this makes an easy, not very demanding, read, and in times of stress, that’s just what a person needs, and I’d recommend it as such.

I’m grateful to NetGalley and Penguin Books for a free copy in return for an honest review.

A wartime story of two women, Sofia and Maxine. Set in Tuscany in the home of Sofia, the contessa. As the German occupation rolls in she determines to do her bit to fight against suppression. She provides shelter, keeping men hidden in the caves under the castle. She gives medical help where she can.
Maxine arrives. Partly Italian she has been conscripted to work for the Resistance.
Together these women, so unalike, forge a unity against the horrors of the occupation.
I had to turn back a few pages now and then to recall people and events, but other than that found this a well written book full of information.
Thanks to NetGalley for a review copy.

a wonderful novel as ever from Dinah Jefferies. Keen sense of place and time and a fictional account of a side of history I knew little about.

Full review to come

A sweeping historical novel set in World War Two Italy and focusing around Sofia, the eponymous Tuscan Contessa, who begins to work with SOE Operative, Maxine and the local partisans to resist the Nazi invasion. Maxine is an American journalist turned undercover agent. Whilst she is of Italian descent the relationship between these two women is at times fractious as they approach adversity in their own very individual ways. Meanwhile, Sofie is also striving to keep her activities secret from her noble, traditional husband, Lorenzo who does not approve of his wife involving herself in the wartime effort to liberate their beloved country from Nazi invasion. This novel really reminded me of the film 'Tea with Mussolini' and if you have watched and enjoyed this film it will appeal to you, as parts of this plot are reminiscent of that story. I enjoyed this book as a light, escapist read but for me it did not quite have the same page-turning appeal as previous Dinah Jefferies novels. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the advance review copy.

This is obviously a well researched novel which provides a very real sense of the experience of the latter years of the second world war in Italy. The factual timeline at the beginning is particularly helpful for readers like me who are unfamiliar with this period. Overall this is a good narrative, but I found the plot development a bit ' clunky' in places and turned back a couple of pages to see if I'd missed something. The title character and the Italian members of the cast of characters were well drawn, but I didn't really believe in Maxine. So, a bit of a curate's egg this one.