This might be a weird introduction, but I’m trying to do this post as fast as possible, and I will try to explain what is going on tomorrow. I’m feeling the same way as my audiobook; I’m not sure how to manage my posts content with everything I want to do, but I have faith and a bit of trust in myself that comes from years of blogging. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl, who has a new weekly topic.
September 1: Books With Nationalities In The Title (e.g. The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Mexican Gothic, An American Mariage, etc.) (submitted by Cathy @WhatCathyReadNext)
Goodreads Blurb:
Italy, 1946. “Estee, I bought this ring years ago and have kept it safe ever since. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.” She reached for Felix’s hand and gently closed it over the box. “No,” she whispered. “I want you to propose only when you’re truly free.”
Estee always believed that she would spend her life with her childhood sweetheart Felix. But when her incredible gift for dance gave her the opportunity to move to a big city and provide for her mother, she knew she had to sacrifice her happiness for her family’s future and a chance at a better life.
But years later, in a city of over a million people, Felix finds Estee. Due to marry the daughter of a prominent family, he is prepared to sacrifice everything to be with the love of his life. But Estee knows what is at his family’s love and his livelihood could be lost forever if she says yes. Can she really follow her heart if it means him losing everything?
London, present Lily clutches a faded piece of paper in her hands, knowing that her life will never be the same again. Whilst grieving for her late father, she is told that her grandmother was born in a home for unmarried mothers, the only clues to her past contained on a handwritten Italian recipe and an old theatre programme.
Desperate for answers, Lily accepts a job on an Italian vineyard – a dream her father once shared. Lily receives a warm welcome from the owner’s charming son Antonio and as they chat long into the night, Antonio offers to help her discover her family’s heritage.
But arriving in Estee and Felix’s village, Lily unearths a tragic love story which has the power to change her future. As she unravels the truth of her own legacy, she begins to fall for Italy and for Antonio. Can Lily give up everything she has ever known to rebuild her life or will the risk of heartbreak force her home?
Goodreads Blurb:
When Carrie Stowe unexpectedly inherits her eccentric grandmother’s Italian villa, she sets her heart on going to Tuscany. It could be her only escape from the mundane and suffocating routine of life with Arthur, her repressive husband.
Arriving late at night and in the midst of a violent storm, she discovers that she is not alone. A young man is there before her, an enigmatic figure from the past: her cousin Leo, who had been missing for years, believed dead.
As Carrie reads the secrets of her grandmother’s diaries and the enchantment of the house exerts itself, Carrie finds herself irresistibly drawn to him. But what of her husband? And is Leo really who he appears to be?
Goodreads Blurb:
Rome, 1943: Marina Tozzi adores her father Vittorio and working together in his art gallery is her only escape from the reality of the Nazi occupation of her beloved city. Not only has she inherited her father’s passion for art but Marina is gaining a reputation as an expert in her own right.
However, Vittorio is keeping a deadly secret from her. He has been hiding a Jewish artist in their basement and one day she returns home to find her father has been brutally murdered by a German officer. Devastated, Marina flees to Florence to seek help from the man who owes Vittorio his life.
Renowned American art expert Bernard Berenson offers Marina sanctuary in his beautiful villa outside Florence and puts her in charge of cataloguing his vast art library. As Marina gradually begins to heal, she becomes obsessed with finding a way to avenge her father. As the Germans and partisans fight for control of Florence, Marina discovers that Bernard is helping to save precious art from the Nazis. When handsome young artist Carlos approaches Marina to help the partisans by using her expertise to value artworks for the cause, she has at last found her purpose.
In one daring act, Marina risks her life to save a priceless painting from falling into Nazi hands and proves herself to the partisans. But falling in love with Carlos was not part of her plan. When Carlos suddenly disappears, Marina’s dreams about life after the war with him turn to ash – and she’ll have to travel halfway around the world to unravel the truth.
Goodreads Blurb:
Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.
But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role.
Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.
But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first kiss, first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?
Goodreads Blurb:
A desperate criminal. An amateur sleuth. Can she uncover the truth before her new career is washed out to sea?Adelle is brimming with excitement. Recently retired from retirement, the intuitive senior is delighted with her new role in her friend’s fraud investigation agency. But when her tech-savvy boss is robbed of evidence at gunpoint, Adelle will have to paddle hard to keep their investigation from crashing on the rocks.
With escalating threats and unexpected twists and turns at every port, Adelle races against time to navigate treacherous waters. Will she solve the puzzle before it’s too late? Or will more innocent souls get caught in the undertow?
Goodreads Blurb:
Frederic Penhaligon-Warren isn’t your typical romantic hero. He’s messy, introspective, and navigating the complicated terrain between desire and devotion. In this intimate companion to the Silverbourne series, readers get an exclusive look into Freddy’s world through candid interviews, personal confessions, and behind-the-scenes moments that reveal the man beneath the bravado.
From his Cornish roots to his chaotic London mornings with a rescue corgi named Braveheart, from champagne-fueled nights along the Thames to quiet moments of vulnerability with his partner Andy and their captivating new friend Matt—this is Freddy as you’ve never seen him before.
Part character study, part erotic confession, part love letter to messy, authentic queer life—this companion piece offers readers an unvarnished glimpse into Freddy’s heart, mind, and desires.
Goodreads Blurb:
“Granny was full-blooded Creek, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs insisted she was fifteen-sixteenths. She showed her card to me. I’d sit at the kitchen table and stare at her when she was eating, wondering how you can be a sixteenth of anything.”
Growing up impoverished and shuttled between different households, it seemed life was bound to take a certain path for Eddie Chuculate. Despite the challenges he faced, his upbringing was rich with love and bountiful lessons from his Creek and Cherokee heritage, deep-rooted traditions he embraced even as he learned to live within the culture of white, small-town America that dominated his migratory childhood.
Goodreads Blurb:
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn’t commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy’s time in prison passes, she is unable to hold on to the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy’s conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together. This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control.
Goodreads Blurb:
It’s funny to think about identity. I wonder how much of us we inherit, and how much we create.
Connor’s grandmother leaves his dad a letter when she dies, and the letter’s confession shakes their tight-knit Italian American family: The man who raised Dad is not his birth father.
But the only clues to this birth father’s identity are a class ring and a pair of pilot’s wings. And so Connor takes it upon himself to investigate—a pursuit that becomes even more pressing when Dad is hospitalized after a stroke. What Connor discovers will lead him and his father to a new, richer understanding of race, identity, and each other.
Goodreads Blurb:
Chronicling the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, African Town is a powerful and stunning novel-in-verse.
In 1860, long after the United States outlawed the importation of enslaved laborers, 110 men, women and children from Benin and Nigeria were captured and brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard a ship called Clotilda. Their journey includes the savage Middle Passage and being hidden in the swamplands along the Alabama River before being secretly parceled out to various plantations, where they made desperate attempts to maintain both their culture and also fit into the place of captivity to which they’d been delivered. At the end of the Civil War, the survivors created a community for themselves they called African Town, which still exists to this day. Told in 14 distinct voices, including that of the ship that brought them to the American shores and the founder of African Town, this powerfully affecting historical novel-in-verse recreates a pivotal moment in US and world history, the impacts of which we still feel today.
Which one was your favourite?