TUSCAN ROSE

TUSCAN ROSE                                           BELINDA ALEXANDRA
Posted: Jan. 7, 2014

 A magical, richly woven World War II– era saga filled with passion, secrets, beauty, and horror from internationally acclaimed bestselling author Belinda Alexandra.

FLORENCE, 1914. A mysterious stranger known as The Wolf leaves an infant with the sisters of Santo Spirito. A tiny silver key hidden in her wrappings is the one clue to the child’s identity. . . . FIFTEEN YEARS LATER, young Rosa must leave the nuns, her only family, and become governess to the daughter of an aristocrat and his strange, frightening wife. Their house is elegant but cursed, and Rosa—blessed with gifts beyond her considerable musical talents—is torn between her desire to know the truth and her fear of its repercussions. All the while, the hand of Fascism curls around beautiful Italy, and no citizen is safe. Rosa faces unimaginable hardship: her only weapons her intelligence, intuition, and determination . . . and her extraordinary capacity for love.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This is a story that takes place in Italy, starts in the year of 1914 with the birth of a baby girl. She is taken to a convent and left there with the nuns with only a blanket and a key. Nothing else is said of the child or were she came from. She grows with the sisters and by the age of fifteen it is time for her to leave. They have found her a job at a home of a wealthy land owner who needs a tutor for his young daughter. When she firsts arrives there the first lady she meets is not very pleasant, she does not say anything for it is not her place she feels. The second day she meets a house keeper who much more open and nice and is also taken into Florence. Once in town she forgets about time for there are many things that she has never seen before. She now knows why the sisters never went out of the convent to much temptation of things. She goes into a store and meets a man by the name Antonio and helps him makes a sell to a customer. When she is back at the villa her next few days become life changing, for in that short time she is thrown into prison. By now the beginnings of Mussolini and his reign of power has started to take over. When a priest from the convent comes to talk to her she knows that if she tells him the truth the convent along with the church will be prosecuted by Mussolini and his men. So she tells him nothing and stays in prison. She becomes friends with an older lady there who really helps her with all that she is going through. After about 6 months she is raped by the man who runs the prison and by the time she has her baby she is released. Another hardship follows by not being married and having a child. She is in and around Florence she finally meets some gypsies who help her out with food and a place to stay. After a while she finds Antonio again and he takes her in with baby and all. They marry and have twin boys. The story does not end it continues for the war is now reaching Italy and there are resistance groups forming to help the allies. They send their children to Switzerland and join the resistance groups. During this time Antonio is taken away to a camp and Rose meets up with Luciano who was part of the gypsies and helps fight against the retreating German soldiers. Luciano ends up dying and as the last of the German soldiers are leaving they the resistance group starts rounding up people who were helping Mussolini. One person that is the lady who put Rose in prison but who also gave her life. When she found out that she was her mother their words spoken were powerful especially for Rose for she took the power back. Then she went to go find her children. She found them and her husband. This was a story that had many layers to it. Also had many old stories inside of it and wise tails that you don’t hear any more. For the wolf can be bad but it can be good. There is a man in the story who is the good wolf. A very good story. I got this from net galley.